Nobody is Thinking About You!

From the Big Book: "As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.  We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day 'Thy will be done.' "

From the 12&12:  " Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen."

When I keep my mouth shut I have a lot of trouble putting my foot in there.  I can't remember the last time I got into hot water for not talking.  I can remember thousands of times I got into trouble after I did some talking.  I've gotten in trouble three or four times already today and it's 8 in the morning.

Stress:  Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.

There you have it.  I'm merely an animal.  A big, fancy animal but an animal nonetheless.  Sex, food and water, status in my community - shit, gerbils have those characteristics.

Feelings aren't facts. This dovetails nicely with the idea that No One Is Thinking About You.  The leader shared an anecdote today where he felt he was treated rudely by a fellow A.A.  It was quite an amusing story - he had clearly blown something minor into something major.  He was still steamed about it two days later.  It was pointed out that the person who had given offense had not thought of him once in that two days.  Nobody is thinking about you!  They're not doing anything to you!  They're thinking about themselves.

I had a much beloved T-shirt once that said "Whatever . . . ."  I should have paid more attention to that T-shirt.  The writing should have been backwards so every time I looked in a mirror it clearly told me what to do.

When I was working I had a home office.  Every now and then I'd get frosted about something at which point I'd type a cleverly worded, justifiably outraged email to someone.  I'd walk next door and get SuperK so she could put her stamp of approval on it. We're a team, after all.  This was inevitably her response: "You're not saying that . . . or that.  You can say half of that.  And you're taking that out.  You can keep these two lines (the greeting and my signature)."  It was all very deflating.  It also keep me out of a lot of scalding hot water.