"Fear is the mind killer"

I've been on a Dune kick lately, so why not start this out with a notable quote from the books and movies? The fear of putting anything down associated to this project outside of handwritten journals over years has seen me procrastinate hard on getting to this point. Fear in the 12-step world I've been taught can be acronyms that mean one of two things, either "Fuck Everything And Run", or "Face Everything And Recover". The fear that brought about my inaction for the pursuit of getting these words out was mostly rooted in deciding the best vessel to share information (CoDA literature, book, blog, etc).

In short, I've been talking about trying to move to print, publishing specifically, with some of these ideas for over a year. After running into several hurdles in that process, I landed on a blog as the most appropriate method to convey what I hope to convey here. And for this first entry, some further supplemental information would be helpful to set a baseline. Future blogs and knowledge sharing will be focused on specific subject matter that has been brought up from within our meetings and other resources. Since the predominance of this information has come about from our group, here are some insights taken directly from our group charter about the setting and format that helps produce such rich material:

The Bellingham Hybrid CoDA Accountability and Integration Group exists to serve as a supplemental resource for those interested in 12-step recovery from Codependency. Like CoDA, requirements for membership to this group are a desire for healthy and loving relationships, and the only prerequisite for attendance is having attended another 12-step group meeting 3x or more to understand meeting context better. This meeting is to be held in a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment that allows participants to engage each other in healthy forms of communication, putting into practice the theory of healthy relationship habits learned in other 12-step groups. 

The objectives of the group are to entertain an environment of respect, allowing for free flow of conversation between all people. Per CoDA 12-step recovery, all participation is voluntary, and no one will be called on. Also in alignment with 12-step recovery, all persons, places, and things spoken about in this meeting will remain strictly confidential. Unlike a standard CoDA meeting, participants are encouraged to bring in literature outside of the typical CoDA literature to spur on discussion. 

This group abides by the concept of ‘respectful crosstalk’ – which we have collectively defined as the ability to ask others to voluntarily elaborate after check-ins if subject matter was brought up that others are interested in hearing more about. Like 12-step, during these check-ins and any discourse after, there will be no crosstalk allowed in the forms of advice giving, controlling, dominating, talking over one another, or interrupting others while sharing.

I'm not interested in fame, fortune, or anything other than community. The ideas that will be included in future blog posts are the amalgamation of nearly a decade of therapy, encompassing individual counseling, group therapy settings covering different addictions in different states and at times in different countries, and self-help reading material. This meeting was started by an inspired group of truth seekers, trauma healers, and those actively working on themselves in 12-step. The ideas presented within this journal are not owned by anyone per se, and the context with which they were initially shared was done so anonymously, and so they shall remain.

And in the spirit of Step 12, so the journey begins! Cheers & thanks for reading