Step 2

Step 2 of the recovery program ETA is:

"We come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity."

I view Step 2 as the only non-risk step in all of the 12.  When we ask to be restored to sanity the worst that can happen is that we stay exactly as we are at the moment.  Therefore, the only way to go is up! For this step we have to have an inkling of what sanity means to us, otherwise, how will we know if we have been restored?

Most people don't know what sanity is.  I'm not joking.  Bring up this topic in a meeting.  People seem to tell what sanity is NOT.  Ask around. You'll get a bunch of irrelevant answers.  For example: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results." is a frequent response.  While this makes me all warm and fuzzy, it doesn't speak to sanity.  Another goodie is: "Soundness of mind."  Well, doesn't that just clear everything up?

What we are looking for here is what sanity means to you. This is something that goes into your spiritual toolbox.  While we will all have some of the same things, no two toolboxes are exactly the same.  Here are a few examples of sanity from my kit of spiritual tools as well as some of those I have gleaned from those with who I have worked step 2:

Sanity is putting the appropriate amount of emotion on any given situation.
This means that I don't make a mountain out of a mistake I made.  If I snapped at someone, the end of the world will not be brought about by my harsh words.  Everyone is not going to hate me and ETA isn't going to throw me out.  This also means that if someone says something that hurts my feelings I don't tell myself, and/or others, " It doesn't matter" because it DOES. (This violates 'To Thine Own Self Be True.)

I don't have to attend every argument that I'm invited to.
And doesn't that suck!  If some big poopy wants to start a fight with me I can walk away or just stand there refusing to give them control over my emotions.  No amends are required for staring at someone while they make an ass out of themselves.

There are more choices than the extreme.
What???!  Surely this can't be right!  We live for extremes!  However, believe it or not, most situations have middle ground and that is usually where sanity is found.  We might have to search for it and ask our sponsor what middle ground there could possibly be in this instance, but we will find it.

Sanity is knowing that I can't please everyone all of the time.
Even knowing this is true doesn't prevent us from attempting to achieve it.  Our egos kick in and we feel that we are one of the very few talented enough to bring about this Utopian state.  Wrong.  The harder we try, the crazier we become.

There are only 24 hours in each day and I have to sleep for some of those hours. 
No day will have more than 24 hours no matter how well we handle things.  Only so much fits into our waking hours and thinking we can get by on 3-4 hours of sleep forever is lunacy.  (Hint: Lunacy and sanity are not the same thing.)

What does sanity mean to you?

Have a good and sober day.