ESSAY August 2022 - Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude - Lilian T., Warsaw, Poland

My sponsor and members from my English-speaking home group suggested to me to list the things I am grateful for in my SA sobriety. They probably couldn't bear my complaining any longer, which might be why they suggested it—in an intention to shut me up a bit. My sponsor asked me to cultivate gratitude because by nature, I am so sarcastic, fault-finding, sticking in the victim-role etc. People who are grateful don't have to cultivate gratitude. It's exactly those who don't have it by nature, like me, who have to cultivate and train themselves by hard work.

Thank you for almost four years of SA sobriety (and six years of SA recovery, in particular for:

- contacts with people, a sense of belonging, so dear to me.

- patience with my strong emotions, with my resentments, with my very strong victim attitude-unfortunately long-present in recovery, and probably very tiring for other people (believe me, you can switch the telephone off, and disconnect,  I have to be with myself 24/7, it can be hard…)