I always feel emotionally drained (from all the intense listening, I guess), but mentally stimulated & at ease after a meeting. I like to follow a meeting with a quiet meditation to reflect on the gems of the meeting (A.K.A. 30-minut nap).
Peace, Rob
-- Edited by Aquaman on Tuesday 9th of February 2010 07:14:00 PM
I always feel great! There's times when I feel like not going but those always seem to be the best ones.. I have been to 12 in 8 days and going to #13 tonight... I dont know what it is exactly but the feeling I get after is one of the main reasons I keep going back! I try and really listen and take in everything thats being shared and it makes the meetings zip by... most here are 1 hr long but feel like 20 minutes..
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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.
Good question? Actually I continue to feel very sober after a meeting and I hang around to encourage new comers and the youngsters a couple years and under. I also hang around so that I can pick up any enjoyable scraps which were not openly shared. Very sober...a good feeling.
I always feel better leaving a meeting. It's a time to relax, listen, learn and share E, S & H. I feel needed, wanted and loved in meetings. Something I chased for many years but never found until I reached the halls of AA. What a gift. Blessed with the diesase and blessed with the recovery. Thank you god.
Amped up. This is a good thing, usually occurs when I'm really engaging with the shares and opening up inside. However, afterwards, this feeling reminds me of similar situations where I would have drank to enhance or decrease this feeling. It scared me at first.
Sometimes I want to hold onto the experience, so I find myself hanging around till the last few have left the meeting. Sometimes this reminds me of how I hated to miss anything and prided myself for being the last person standing at a drinking gathering.
When I calm down from the immediate energy of a meeting, I almost always feel a deep calm and sense of well-being.
Even if I was uncomfortable at a meeting because of something there, I can say honestly I've never yet been sorry to have gone. Always it feels like the right thing to have done. I try to relate something in the meeting to my personal step work.
There is meeting I make that often takes me out of my comfort zone. I've stuck with it at my sponsor's encouragement, and in the end I can say I've gotten a lot out of the effort.
Much more relaxed. I actually close my eyes in meetings a lot and they are very spiritual to me. I unwind in them when I need to, I share when I need to, I listen when I need to...
If you couldn't guess already, I am a big proponent of meetings...but I am still new and building a more personal relationship with my HP to take with me outside of meetings. Either way, I'm sober and meetings are a HUGE part of that for me.
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
RECHARGED!!! Nothing like a good meeting to charge the old sobriety batteries. If I ever leave a meeting feeling anything less than lifted, it's time to call my sponsor.
-- Edited by Avril G on Friday 12th of February 2010 05:28:15 PM
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Serenity is Wanting what you have, not having what you want
Always remember non-alcoholic beers are for NON-ALCOHOLICS
I guess it depends on my spiritual condition. Or on the meeting itself. To say I always feel good afterward would be untrue. if my spiritual condition was lacking, chances are someone would say something that might wake me up to what's really going on, i.e. that maybe I'm taking myself too seriously and should concentrate more on the needs of the newcomers there, but that's hard sometimes because even long timers have bad days. If my spiritual condition is already at a high peak then it stands to reason I'm going to feel even better afterward in which case I might be taking myself too seriously and should probably concentrate more on the needs of the newcomers there, but that's hard sometimes because even long timers have defects too. If its one of those meetings that reminds me of a session at a psychiatrists office where people are talking all sorts of psychological mumbo jumbo that doesn't have anything to do with AA or one of those weed eater meetings we been hearing about lately, you know, where the guy keeps cutting me off in traffic, but if that's bothering me then there's something the matter with my spiritual condition (see first answer) and maybe I should (see first solution).
I very rarely feel poorly "after" a meeting. Even if I didn't like the meeting there is something to be learned from that. The mind is like a parachute; it works better when its open.
