“We are all in charge of our own side of the street and our own programs,” says one OA member, who remarks how gratifying it is that service body decisions are all based on following our primary purpose: to carry the message of recovery.
Liz B. shares her journey sponsoring and being sponsored and the lesson that comes when sponsors or sponsees lose their abstinence. “I found my way back,” she describes, “thanks to someon who was ‘God with skin on.’”
“International Day Experiencing Abstinence (IDEA), observed the third Saturday of November, reminds us that abstinence is not only freedom from compulsive eating but also a profound connection to a Higher Power and spiritual balance.”
Sander did not work Step Nine fully the first time around. But the second time, he learned how Step Nine can remove the guilt and other feelings that had been triggering him to eat.
How do you know if Tradition Nine is being practiced in your group? One OA member offers a number of ways to tell.
“I took on service tasks to learn them,” Cindy says, ”not because I was already an expert, and taking on those risks taught me faith, trust, and new skills.”
Once Donna understood that writing to Lifeline helps others, she was able to overcome fear of not being good enough, a fear that was keeping her in her disease of compulsive eating.
“Me, a sponsor?” says Karen from Australia, ”That’s something I thought would never happen.” But it did. And as long as Karen works all aspects of the program, life is getting easier and OA is truly delivering on the promises of the program.
In “Something Like Physics,” Mercy F. shares her journey in Overeaters Anonymous as an atheist who finds strength in spiritual practices without a traditional Higher Power, embracing instead the principles of Good Orderly Direction and “doing the next right thing.”
“As an atheist with a spiritual life, I’ve learned to embrace acceptance and the diverse spiritual paths within Overeaters Anonymous, choosing practices from various traditions that help me live in harmony without imposing one ‘right’ way to believe.”