A Half Hour Without Alcohol

A Half Hour without Alcohol

Can an alcoholic remain clean without consuming the lethal spirit? Does the ether maniac have the mental strength and courage to maintain sobriety?

Alcoholism has a detrimental effect on the body and mind of an individual. An alcoholic is usually cocooned from the real world, in a state of perpetual self denial. 

Quotidian alcoholism leads to a situation where in the individual becomes friendless. Perhaps only a doughty or spirited spouse can put up with the tantrums.

           

The Serenity Prayer

The abridged version of the Serenity Prayer which has been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous is as follows:

God grant me

The Serenity to

Accept the things

I cannot change

Courage to change

The things I can

AND

Wisdom to know

The Difference

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous, a self help group established in 1932, have upended the pyramid of the lives of millions of addicts. They commence every single meeting by faithfully and unflinchingly reciting the Serenity Prayer; this is the starting point of their 12 step recovery programme.

The critical element in the recovery of any alcoholic lies in admitting the cardinal principle that first man drinks alcohol, then alcohol drinks man and eventually alcohol subsumes the human being by damaging the body, mind, soul and spirit.

The alcoholic has to emerge from the world of self denial, the belief that everything is hunky dory and he/ she is not affected by the perils of alcoholism.

There are several triggers which engineer addiction. However one can safely conclude that it is the recalcitrant mind and low prana levels which are the endemic to the craving, the compulsion and eventual enslavement.

In the swathes of the ether maniac’s cobweb filled mind the power of discrimination and discernment seem lost in darkness.

The Serenity Prayer provides immense succour to make a paradigm shift in an addict’s life; leading up to a complete turnaround and eventually to eschew dependency on alcohol.

The first and the only step they have to initiate are to singularly submit to a superior power and that he is powerless over Bacchus.

Once this first step is taken the process of recovery begins.

The Art of Living Way

 I too was an alcoholic for several years. The disease impacted me immensely. It was only my wife and parents who stood by me, offering support in my most trying moments. My wife enrolled me for the Part 1course of the Art of Living (AOL) while I was posted at Jaipur. There I learnt the unique rhythmic breathing technique of “Sudarshan Kriya”, cognated by the spiritual master H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Today, by the grace of the Master and through the breathing technique I am sober for over a decade. As a faculty of the AOL I have been able to conduct courses for alcoholics and drug addicts.

In the final analysis when a person hits rock bottom, it is the grace of almighty God which can extricate him from the cesspool of addiction.