Find a meeting

Shifting Perspective The AA Way

Big Book Third Edition, p. 451, Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict and Fourth Edition: p. 419, Acceptance Was the Answer

“When I focus on what’s good today, I have a good day, and when I focus on what’s bad, I have a bad day. If I focus on a problem, the problem increases; if I focus on the answer, the answer increases.”

The other day we had a meeting on perspective. The quote above was read and then powerful, inspiring sharing commenced. Someone said they thought their entire Programme was one big shift in perspective. After this meeting, I tend to agree. Wherever I put my focus, that’s what gets magnified. If I focus on all the bad things I did while in active drinking, that’s all I see about myself. I become paralysed with shame and remorse, and eventually, I drink to escape these feelings.

The Twelve Steps can be seen as a giant shift in perspective, one aspect at a time. First, I change my perspective from, I drink because I am a bad person and have no willpower to, I drink the way I do because I am an alcoholic. Then, I shift from hopelessness to reliance on a Higher Power that can return me to sanity. Then I shift from I’m alone and have to do this myself to letting someone/something greater than myself guide me. Eventually, I come to Step Twelve where I find out it’s not all about me; it’s about helping the alcoholic who is still suffering come to experience a shift in perspective that brings them to emotional and physical sobriety.

Today, I want to shift my perspective. I will focus on what is good in me, in my life and in the world. Even if I can only do this for small time periods, it will be a step in the right direction. With practice and the support of the Twelve Steps, my sponsor, the Fellowship, meetings and service work, I see myself growing along spiritual lines and becoming, not the person I used to think I wanted to be but the person I want to be now.

Steffi P, online