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  • #5774
    seabeard9
    Keymaster

    Topic for Discussion: Easy Does It
    Chair: It’s so easy to get totally caught up in our stinking thinking and with what we think is going on around us. Particularly in the beginning of our recovery, we tend to be intense and to see people, places, and things in a black and white manner. Remembering to take a breath or two, remembering easy does it helps us put things in proper perspective.
    • Big Book-Ch. 9: The Family Afterward P135 We have three little mottoes which are apropos. Here they are: First Things First, Live and Let Live, Easy Does It.

    #5775
    aamakesmesmile
    Participant

    I love the slogans. Grapevine articles from July 1948 says “One of the most useful of the sayings that have been adopted in A.A. is that which advises, “Easy Does It.” So universally workable is this good advice that it qualifies as the expression of one of the fundamental steps in personal rehabilitation. If this particular saying is applied sincerely and intelligently, it will greatly ease the path of the newcomer in A.A., avert “slips” and further the development of a mature life both inside and outside A.A.
    Axioms are only words in themselves, of course, and the phraseology has become trite in many cases. Pseudointellectuals are especially scornful of old sayings, and even less snobbish observers may overlook the worth to be found in the meaning behind the words. It Means Relax! For example, “Easy Does It,” means — relax! Don’t fret and worry and stew and struggle! Take it easy! Relax!” Hard to do but the tools of AA help me to “relax”. I am not a newcomer and it still helps me to this day. And when I do relax, I can “Let go, and let God.”

    #5776
    SteveN
    Participant

    Big Book Page 86 – “In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. we relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.” That is the key to relaxation for me. You are absolutely right we must let go and let God.

    #5777
    Bwinsor
    Participant

    Through this whole weirdness of social distancing and 24 hour news and the temptation to get out over my skis and worry about things I have Zero control over, I have found myself leaning on the ol’ words Easy Does It. As a newcomer I hated hated hated what I perceived as the cliches of the program. I was a ego-inflated person who considered himself a proper intellectual– a man who could not possibly sink to the level of uttering banal platitudes. Yet somehow (I kept coming back), these seemingly simple repeated words, Easy Does It, first things first, first drink gets ya drunk, they conjure up comforting images of coffee in styrofoam cups, friendly faces, and a program that told me I was exactly where I was supposed to be. In times like this I need these simple mantras.

    #5778
    deanb
    Participant

    when I came into AA I thought I was pretty intelligent, yet I couldn’t read the Big Book, it was frustrating trying to understand what they were saying, so I put it away. forget the 12 and 12, that was worse. I tried Big Book meetings but just either didn’t listen or it all went over my head. I went to alot of meetings, open, closed, discussion, step, speaker, just was too cocky and arrogant to catch on. that and I didn’t want to be an alcoholic, didn’t want to come to those meetings (I was trying to find the loophole), and didn’t want to be one of you people. I read “It Happened to Alice” and “What Happened to Joe”. I began reading through the literature rack while making coffee for my first Home Group. the I found the Living Sober book! now that I could understand. when I got to Chapter 18 – Easy Does It, Have you just this minute finished reading the previous section, and are you now rushing right into this one? Why? It may be that you need to put into practice the slogan “Easy Does It.” that slapped me in the face. I never did anything EASY. today my pace is slower, I still struggle with knowing my limits but I shortly come to my senses and ask God to direct my motives. sometimes getting older, having health problems, and life in general has a way of teaching me to live in the moment and do the best I can with what I have. Easy Does It ….. But Do It.

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