Our International Day Experiencing Abstinence event was well attended by many in our recovering community in Milwaukee. We opened with a speaker, then did a writing activity. Perhaps you could write about this topic too: “What is the difference between dieting and abstinence?”
Then we read a Lifeline article (“Outside and In”) about the difference between trying to be abstinent versus being willing to be abstinent. We played a stand-up, sit-down game to indicate whether we’d tried anything described in the article. (That was our daily exercise! Ha!) Many comments arose from reading and discussing “Outside and In”:
- “If I am trying to be abstinent, it is my way or no way.”
- “If I am willing, I can learn.”
- “If I am struggling, I’m thinking I can do this myself.”
- “I can lean on God and surrender.”
We closed our IDEA event with a “morning abstinence prayer”:
“Higher Power, today is a new day for me and with your help it can be a day of abstinence. I ask for your protection, in case sometime during the day my desire to overeat is greater than my desire to abstain. I also ask for your protection from anyone or anything that may interfere with my abstinence. I know that I am powerless over food. I believe you will restore me to sanity. Please help me to know your will for me today and give me the willingness to carry that out. I turn my life over to you.”
When I say this prayer, I also turn over my will and my food.
—Anonymous
