Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sponsorship in Recovery



Sponsorship can mean so many things.  To me it means a mentor, someone who can show you the ropes, so to speak.  Someone who has been in similar situations and knows how you feel and has found a way of life that brings them peace and joy, and is willing to share how they found this way of life with you.

What a sponsor should not do, in my opinion, is demand anything!

A sponsor is someone who suggests, leads, and directs one on their spiritual path, in a general way.  The exact path cannot be orchestrated by a sponsor...influenced, yes, but not planned out in detail.

"Don't make goals out of the spiritual path. A goal implies time, working toward something in the future. But the spiritual path is about discovering what you already are. You are the goal. Now come to understand what that means and live it."  ~ Unknown author

What does sponsorship mean to you?  Have you experienced sponsors who have dictated your daily decisions?  How has this worked or not worked for you? 

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you and that is how I sponsor--not by demands but by suggestion. Al-Anon has a good statement about sponsorship that I find good.
    I look on sponsorship as guiding someone through the steps, not teaching or being didactic but by helping them to move forward and doing my own work right along with them. I don't do well with people trying to control me so I am not a controlling type of sponsor.

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  2. Your article is very helpful thank you very much for sharing

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  3. awww.some, girl. HooRayGun! I couldn't be more joyfull you've experienced the SecondBirth in the Spirit; now, you and I will go Upstairs with all the saints (there's only One God, dear, not several - it doesn't matter what denominations you happen to be, there's STILL only One). So lemme expose for you my 24 blogs. I believe you'll find great solace in them, girl, and soon this world will be through (thank God!!!!!), to live like no other for the length and breadth of eternity. How bloody cool is that?????

    Precisely why I had our ‘philanthropic + epiphany’ (= so much to give + vision): wanna see a perfectly cognizant, fully-spectacular, Son-ripened-Heaven?? … yet, I’m not sure if we're on the same page if you saw what I saw. Greetings, earthling. Because I was an actual NDE on the outskirts of the Great Beyond at 15 yet wasn’t allowed in, lemme share with you what I actually know Seventh-Heaven’s Big-Bang’s gonna be like: meet this advanced, bombastic, ex-mortal Upstairs for the most extra-groovy-paradox, pleasure-beyond-measure, Ultra-Yummy-Reality-Addiction in the Great Beyond for a BIG-ol, party-hardy, kick-assfault, robust-N-risqué, eternal-wild-adventure you DO NOT wanna miss the sink-your-teeth-in-the-smmmokin’-hot-deal. Cya soon, girl…

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  4. Thanks for the post, I will never forget my mentor and companions in Sober Living Community - Transcend Recovery Community in Los Angeles, California. They helped me get sober and also made me a better person.

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Thank you for sharing!