April, 2022
Volume 2, Issue 12

50 Tips for 50 Years:
Celebrating 50 Yearsof EAI*

Strength & Hope
A message in support of emotional well-being.

Success is standing up
just one time more thanlife knocks you down.
*Item #102

Peace — Paul N.
The many recent events the world has been subjected to remind us just how
fragile a state of peace really is.

Before the EA program, I personally did not value peace nearly as muchas I should have. Things were happening in my life and I couldn’t figureout how to get to the outcome(s) I wanted. In those days (pre-EA), all I
could see was that things were happening to me. I genuinely wantedpeace, but I was living my life in a way that did not lend itself to everfinding peace. I thought that if, on the whole, I was living my life in an
honest and good way, I would eventually find the peace that I thought
I deserved. But despite my best intentions, I had many defects and errorsof judgement that prevented me from finding peace.
I have heard it said in meetings that working the 12 Steps is a form of reparenting ourselves. This was one of the best analogies that I had heard. If
I am unhappy with certain aspects of my life and much of it originatedfrom ‘bad programming’, this is the chance to do it my way and there is
no excuse as to why I can not. Instead of being frustrated by what theworld is dishing out to me and blaming everyone and everything outside
myself, I am working the program and focusing on what I can control andgiving the rest up to HP. Many times, this means focused breathing forme. For others,, it means taking 5 or 10 minutes aside each day for prayer
and/or meditation. More recently, I have been attempting to bask in theperiods of peace that I find in the day or week, knowing that life has its
ups and downs and is sure to continually challenge my peace. In these
uncertain times, appreciating peace when I have it is as important as ever.
Please remember to share this month through service and support. Qualified Trustee candidates may apply for board openings by June 1. Please
see the website for more details. Your donations are not only appreciated,but required for the organization to continue operating. So far this year,
our donations are down $20,000, which comes directly out of the organization’s reserves. Please consider giving when you are able. Thank you toeveryone who supports one another by attending meetings.

Your Trustees
Paul N.— TX
929-399-6515
aibtikarfoundation@gmail.com
President
Steve B.— CA
909-438-4938
stevebell_28@yahoo.com
Vice President
Colleen C.— MN
651-245-5461
coyne2003@hotmail.com
Secretary
John W.— MN
612-760-0313
johnwerner52@gmail.com
Kelsey W.— IL
618-334-6658knlweez@gmail.com
Behzad Arabpour Dahouei —Iran0098 913 341 4015
Behzad_7761@yahoo.com

April Tools forRecovery
Step 4
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Promise 4
No matter how far down thescale we have gone, we see
how our experience can benefit others.

The Best I Could— Janet F.
In looking back at some
portions of my life, I
have decided to forgive
myself. I made mistakes along the way,trusted some untrustworthy people, and got
hurt. But I learned. I
did the best I could,
many times with noJust for Today 4

What I found in EA

I will take care of my physical health; I will exercise
my mind; I will read something spiritual.

— Delores G.

Slogan 4

Live and let live
Helpful Concept 4
We do not judge; we do not
criticize; we do not argue.
We do not give advice regarding personal or family
affairs.
Tradition 4
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or EA
as a whole.
Principle 4
Courageguidance. My experience has made me abetter person. I intend
to think these days,“what lesson did I learn
from that mistake?”
I’m learning to love andforgive myself.

Initially, I came to EA to "rid myself" of thesepesky problems, but I am indeed gaining much
more than I bargained for.

I found a family of others like me, from all over theworld thanks to virtual platforms and even the telephone, who listen and understand. I found tools
to help me in my daily program, one day at atime. I have the Steps to lead me down the road ofrecovery, and the Traditions to teach me how tointeract with others and to have a set of principles
in which to live my life.
My EA family is open, listening, supportive, andnon-judgemental, modeling just how to treat myself. It is not easy to look at difficult or painfultimes in my life. However, with the EA program,
there is so much to gain in the process.

You can find the Trustee Reflections on the website,www.emotionsanonymous.org.
This month we focus on JFT #4
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Contribution Gratitude

God is Winking at Me

EAI could not operate without donations
and we deeply appreciate your support!
Recent gifts have been received fromthese groups:— Dan T-R

Schererville, INBrevard, NC
Midwest City, OK
Sylvania, OH
Grand Rapids, MI Tues
2:30 PM, EDT Sun (Zoom)
Bend, OR (3 Zoom groups)
Bend, OR (Mon Zoom group)
Mississauga, ON Canada“Reaching Out” Winnipeg, MB Canada
Auckland, New Zealand“Concordia” Valencia, Spain (Skype)

From the Executive Director
I want to take a moment to share my appreciation for my staff with the EA fellowship. Sandy, Claire, Karen and Sharon keep things running here in so manyways. Without each of them, meeting
information on the website wouldn’t stay
current, materials wouldn’t get produced,
shipped or ordered, questions wouldn’t
get answered...they are really what keeps
the ‘behind the scenes’ work of the program functioning. Besides their workload, these are such good women simply
to be around. I am grateful to know themevery day.
If you have a chance to say thank you tothem in some way, I encourage you to doso. Sometimes all we hear about are
when things go wrong—maybe a focus
on when things go right would do us all
some good.
Office Information
EAI P.O. Box 4245 St. Paul MN 55104-0245
Office Hours: TU-TH 12p.m. (noon)— 5 p.m. CT
Phone: 651-647-9712
www.emotionsanonymous.org

My name is Dan and I am a grateful, 34 year grateful member,living in Madrid, Spain. I have been coming to the program, longenough to know I want to continue to seek prolonged recovery
from the effects of the family illnesses of addiction andalcoholism. Since my journey in recovery, I have had plenty ofopportunities to work on resentments with both my sponsors.
I came into the program, burdened with many resentmentstowards my mother. I blamed her for all my trials and tribulations.
Talking to my sponsor, it was becoming apparent that I needed to
do fresh work in this area, with resentments resurfacing,sometimes subconsciously but regardless, affecting my present
day interactions.
He suggested I list my grudges towards my mother fromchildhood and that we discuss them together. Namely, toacknowledge what happened in the past, but to move on, and not
to be dragged down by my past grievances and occurrences. To
gently reflect on the past without staring, recognize that she wasdoing the best she could at the time, with the tools she had andthen to move on.
It was late at night and I was due to talk to my sponsor the nextday. I finished writing the email containing the grudges towards
her and hit send. I went to bed and got some good rest.
I phoned my sponsor the next day and he asked if I had emailed
over the list of resentments. We have experienced some techhiccups in the past, so we thought the message could have gotten
lost. My sponsor double-checked but no email was to be found.
So I checked my sent folder. To my shock and horror, I saw that I
had sent the resentments to my mother! I was in a state of panicand did not know how to react. We had about ten minutes to go
before our Zoom meeting. I cannot be more thankful that thetiming could not have been better, as I was on a call with a loving,supporting fellow member. Little did I know then, but I was aboutto jump online to the meeting and be overwhelmed with messagesof support, during and after the meeting.
My sponsor helped me see this as an opportunity; he couldn’t
have been more right. I decided to phone my mother the next day,explain that it was an honest mistake and she was never destined
to see that email. I said lots of prayers before I called her. I
apologized sincerely for what happened, made it clear that thesewere old feelings and expressed how much I love her.
She was very hurt but heard me out. I can’t begin to imagine attempting to work through such a challenging crisis, without thewonderful help of the program. This was not a mistake in myeyes, but a Higher Power gifted opportunity. A coincidence isGod’s way of winking at me. A friend from across the pond useda boxing euphemism to remind me that they ‘will always be in mycorner.’
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