Great to hear from you Dods!  Nice to see your still sober.  Early sobriety is difficult.  It's not our nature to be sober.  If it were easy, the success rate would be much greater.  Tell us a little about your Program of action?  The Promises do materialize upon completion/maintenance of The Steps.  Take a look at the Grapevine post for today.  It suggest WE need to ACT our way into right thinking.  The Steps/Process is the Action.  You also mention fear and faith.  They are opposites.  Can't have them both at the same time.  It easier to have faith when things are going the way we think they should.  When they're not, WE must turn it over even more and trust the process.  Courage= fear + action.  What worked for me was keeping it simple.  My Sponsor told me, stay sober and work The Program to the best of your ability and your life will change for the better.  That I couldn't screw this up.  He was right!  In spite of myself.  Keep post my friend and help us all stay sober. 

G'Day Dodsworth . I got told when I first got here (to AA) , that alcohokism , was a

thinking , feeling disease. We tend not to feel & we think differently from normies .

I dropped into a drug & alcohol brain damage ward at a psych hospital about 18mths

sober , I was chatting away to the patients , when one of them mentioned to me

about the way is thinking was , keeping it simple as I was about to reply . I looked at

the banner of cliche's on the wall & said , see that one Think Think Think , I overthink

most of the time myself . The Psych nurse on duty heard me & came out with this gem

for me "How many times does it say it Rick". My head went instantly to anger & resentment.

It took me over an hour to start to settle my head down . That night at home , I had an idea

to write Think Think Think on a piece of paper . And just look at it .  OK  ,  I only   wrote Think

3 times  , simple , I only need to think , think 3 times , because I only wrote it 3 times .

Very  SIMPLE , simple yes , not allways easy . But , over time , WITH further practice it became

easier . Sometimes in early sobriety , we don't see how far we have come , it is only when

somebody points something out to us that We see how much we have changed , we see it in

hindsight . Dodsworth , at 8mths sober you certainly Have come a long way , give yourself a

pat on the back . At about th same time , a psychologist friend told me a great affirmation -

"I am worthy of my own Love"

That helped immensly.

Dodsworth , Keep up th Great work . Keep coming back.