Writing Our Stories Unites Us As We Recover Together!
Writing is a powerful tool for recovery that can help us process experiences, better understand our feelings, and experience growth in all areas of our lives. it is through our shared experiences as recovering addicts that we support ourselves and the newcomer.
Join A New Leaf Publications for monthly Creative Writing Workshops.
10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 5 pm UTC.
These workshops occur the 1st Saturday each month
Zoom Link with embedded password: MA12.org/ANLP/Workshop
Meeting ID: 995 4076 2470 Password: sober
Meet with us monthly to discuss our recovery and creativity, engage in writing exercises and share our work. We will share tips about the writing process, have a brief guided meditation, provide prompts, with time for writing and sharing! All that is needed is a desire to write.
For these workshops, we will work our way through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way Workbook. Which features 12 chapters of activities for reigniting creativity, notably the practice of writing “Morning Pages” by beginning each day with a period for free-writing 3 pages, and “Artist’s Dates” a way to spend time reconnecting with yourself, your creativity and what makes you feel inspired. We’ll read some from The Artist’s Way for inspiration, and if you choose to, share with one another how the suggested activities, affirmations and more from it have benefited us in not only our writing and creativity, but also our recovery journey.
Purchasing the book is not necessary; we will screen share relevant portions and here are links to PDF versions:
https://anlp12.org/artists-way-book
https://anlp12.org/artists-way-WB
https://anlp12.org/artist-way-exercises
Keeping in mind Tradition 6, MA and ANLP do not endorse Julia Cameron or “The Artist’s Way.” These workshops are simply using the tools written within her books. The use of the name “Julie Cameron” and “The Artist’s Way” does not imply endorsement, but rather are a requirement to acknowledge and protect copyrighted materials.
If you’re interested in writing for the purpose of submitting content to MA, check our list of writing prompt suggestions- MA12.org/Prompts keep checking back, we will consistently be adding to this list of prompts!
Submit content to A New Leaf: ANLP12.org/Content
Submit content for the MA Member Stories Book Project: MA12.org/Stories
Excerpt from Life with Hope, second edition, page 111, Our Stories “Started Off With A Bang Life”
“…My “moment of clarity.”
I knew this lady. I was a bit in awe of her. She represented everything in life that I wasn’t. She was happy with herself and the world, most of the time. She answered her phone. She had a day planner and did stuff. She did her laundry, cooked meals and cleaned the dishes. She smiled a lot. She had friends. The kicker was she claimed that a year before I met her, her life had been in shambles. Divorce, death in the family, out of work, and hopelessly alcoholic. She said she had found a twelve-step recovery program for alcoholics and her life had turned around. I asked her if they had anything similar for potheads. She didn’t know but she said she’d find out. A few days later she gave me the MA 800 number.
I sat on that for awhile. I finally called and got the location of a Monday night meeting. For some reason I always found myself feeling the worst on Monday nights (probably because my stash would be low from the weekend and I hadn’t figured out yet where I would get the money for more). Eventually a Monday night came where I got up the guts to check it out. I smoked a joint on the way to the meeting. Little did I know that would be my last joint for a year and a half.
I met people like myself. I heard them telling my story. I heard feelings expressed that I could relate to. The people at that meeting managed to share their Experience, their Strength, and most importantly, their Hope with me.
Every sober addict has a miracle in their story. Because IF you are a REAL addict (if you have become truly powerless over the drug), AND you have chosen to live without dope and are clean, there HAS to be a miracle in there somewhere. For me it was after that Monday night meeting. I was driving home. I was about to turn onto the freeway onramp. I was reaching for the glove compartment to get a joint. I stopped. I thought about the meeting and the people I had met there. THAT’S IT. THAT’S THE MIRACLE we all talk about! It was the first time in over 20 years that I had weed, and a perfectly good opportunity to smoke it, and DIDN’T!
The power of our fellowship is awesome…”