971 Commonwealth Ave #3
Sundays 8PM
(Meeting moderator)
Welcome to the Sunday 8PM closed mix meeting of Sex Addicts Anonymous. My name is ____ and I will be your facilitator this evening.
This meeting has a hybrid format, meaning that it is both in-person and virtual on zoom. If you are on zoom, please change your name to your first name and last initial. If you are able, please keep your video on at all times, keep your microphone muted when not speaking, and ensure that you are in a private environment to maintain anonymity.
This meeting is open only to those who are seeking to stop addictive sexual behavior. There is no other requirement. For the sake of those attending, please feel free to leave at this time if this does not apply to you.
Now let's take a moment of silence to meditate and invite God to our meeting. We'll follow that with the Serenity Prayer.
(Meeting moderator)
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
(Volunteer)
Sex Addicts Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other so they may overcome their sexual addiction and help others recover from sexual addiction and dependency. Membership is open to all who share a desire to stop addictive sexual behavior. There is no other requirement. Our common goals are to become sexually healthy and to help other sex addicts achieve freedom from compulsive sexual behavior. SAA is supported through voluntary contributions from members. We are not affiliated with any other twelve-step programs, nor are we a part of any other organization. We do not support, endorse, or oppose outside causes or issues. Sex Addicts Anonymous is a spiritual program based on the principles and traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. We are grateful to A.A. for this gift which makes our recovery possible.
(Meeting moderator)
To communicate any changes or disruptions to the meeting schedule, we have created a google calendar. If you would like to be invited to receive updates or changes to our meetings, please send an email to symphonychurchsaa@gmail.com so we can add you to our e-mail list.
(Meeting moderator)
To facilitate program fellowship and support outside of the meetings, we have begun a program call list that will be available to any meeting attendees. If you would like to be added, please put your phone number in the chat with your first name, last initial, your phone number, and if you would like to be contacted via text first and our secretary will add it into the database. If you would like a copy of this list, please e-mail symphonychurchsaa@gmail.com or visit https://bit.ly/symphony-saa-call-list.
(Meeting moderator)
Our Seventh Tradition holds that SAA ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. We have a wide variety of literature for you to borrow or read - please feel free to take a pamphlet or borrow a copy of the green book. If you do decide to borrow something from our literature collection, please consider donating so we can replenish our inventory of literature and chips. We take Cash or Venmo (@david-lu-21). We currently have $153.49 in the account. If you would like to see our income and expenses, please e-mail us or visit https://bit.ly/symphony-saa-income-expenses-tracker
Our next business meeting will be on Sunday, April 2nd. Please stay on after the meeting to give your thoughts on any suggestions to the meeting.
Currently, we are looking for assistance in the following positions for 6 month terms. If interested, please talk to David or e-mail symphonychurchsaa@gmail.com. The only requirement is that you have attended at least 3 Symphony Church SAA meetings and are committed to stopping addictive sexual behaviors.
Meeting moderator
Responsibilities include logging onto zoom link 15 minutes prior to meeting, setting up hybrid meeting in person, moderating meeting, and facilitating fellowhip. 1x a month minimum.
(Meeting moderator)
____________________, you are about to share your First Step with us. We acknowledge and affirm your courage in taking this step and want to clarify some things about this experience for each of us.
The primary purpose for you giving this presentation is to aid you in your program of recovery. It need not be done to please the group or to gain status. There is no right or wrong way to give a First Step. Any effort you make is legitimate.
Here are some suggestions that have been helpful to others who have gone before you:
1. We encourage you to be specific about your behaviors and to speak from your heart in order for you to be in touch with the pain and reality of your addiction.
2. Don’t bury yourself in shame.
3. Let us hear from you, not your addict.
4. To the audience - if you are triggered, please say a prayer, step out, and come back in when you are ready.
The group has a responsibility to be loving, caring, and accepting of you. The members will avoid judging you, giving advice or “taking care of you.”
If you wish, you may request that no one interrupt you during your presentation. However, several members have affirmed that, upon reflection, such interruptions have helped to guide them and to make their First Steps more meaningful.
(ask the member "which do you prefer?)
I will let you know when 15 minutes of our meeting time remain. This will allow you a few minutes to complete your presentation and allow time for members to give you feedback about what it was like sharing this First Step meeting with you.
If you do not finish, you may continue at a subsequent meeting. The floor is open...
(turn over the meeting to the member giving his/her formal first step)
(Meeting moderator, until 8:55PM)
During a First Step presentation, you are encouraged to share your experience and feelings. Afterward, if you requested it, you are encouraged to listen without interruption to the feedback offered by others.
Feedback is to be offered, without interruption, by each person. Feedback is sharing our experience, strength and hope as it pertains to the member’s shared experience or feelings, with encouragement and support.
It is in no way intended to be advice, recommendation, or therapy.
(optional) Please keep your shares to about 3 minutes. If you did not get a chance to share, you may share at the end during fellowship.
I will help moderate. Who would like to begin?
(Meeting moderator)
As a gentle reminder for all of us, anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions. What you heard was spoken in confidence and should be treated as confidential. Please keep the things you heard here in the confines of your mind. Carry no gossip and always remember to place principles before personalities.
(Volunteer)
This is how recovery has been for us. Each of us has taken steps of courage and leaps of faith. Each of us has contributed, not only to our own recovery, but to the recovery of other suffering sex addicts as well. We have contributed by showing up at meetings and by sharing our experience, strength, and hope. We have listened to our fellow addicts and supported them in their recovery journey. Like the first members of our fellowship, we continue to remain sexually sober by helping our fellow addict stay sober. Our prayer is that every sex addict who seeks recovery will have the opportunity to find it. And keep coming back.
(Volunteer)
Some of us started out as a "tourist" at SAA meetings-the member who shows up every week or every other week, who shares at meetings, who may even buy and read the literature, but who doesn't get a sponsor, doesn't work the steps, certainly never stays for a business meeting-and who doesn't stop acting out on his or her inner-circle behaviors for more than a few weeks at a time before the next relapse. This resistance to surrendering to the SAA program is rooted in pride and a stubborn unwillingness to admit defeat, despite the pain and consequences already experienced. As an SAA "tourist," we cling to the belief that we are not really powerless and that just going to meetings (maybe combined with just going to church, or just seeing a therapist, or just getting a slip signed, or just reading a book) will be enough to turn things around without too much inconvenience. Many tourists drop in and out for months or even years before one final crisis brings us to our bottom and makes us willing, at last, to get serious.
The steps are the spiritual solution to our addiction - leading not only to a life of abstinence from our addictive sexual behaviors, but to a fulfilling life of service to our brothers and sisters in recovery and beyond. The spiritual awakening described in Step Twelve puts us on the path of service and connects us with our Higher Power, our fellow addicts, and our world in ways we had never dreamed possible. This awakening is the foundation of a responsible and joyful existence as we seek and find our Higher Power's will for us-both in our individual lives and in the life of our fellowship. And for this priceless gift of recovery, so astonishingly simple, so freely available, we are humbly grateful. We invite all suffering sex addicts, inside and outside the rooms of SAA, to join with us in accepting this gift.
(Volunteer)
Through a renewed Relationship with God, the healing force of recovery will take hold in our hearts. By giving ourselves over to God and working our program, our lives will become manageable and we will be restored to sanity. We will receive the inner strength and support needed to face our anxieties and fears, and to deal with the painful feelings that feed our addiction.
Relations with Others will improve as we learn to respect our boundaries and allow others freedom to be themselves. Reaching out in trust and connecting with others will come easier, dispelling our sense of isolation and loneliness. Degrading fantasies and obsessive sexual thinking will diminish.
Relating to Ourselves, self absorption will give way to self-discovery; secrecy to honesty; feelings of unworthiness to dignity; and shame to grace. A restored integrity will guide our behavior. We will feel more alive and regain a sense of happiness. We will hear ourselves laugh again and rediscover play. We will embrace change and will grow.
A Spiritual Awakening will free us from the tyranny of our addiction. An awareness of being guided by a Higher Power and supported by caring friends will sustain us. Regret for the past and worry for the future will give way to living for today. We will open ourselves to the amazing possibilities of a life worth living. Our life.
Are these extravagant promises?
WE THINK NOT!
We have seen them fulfilled.
They are ours, if we want them and work for them.
(Meeting moderator)
I put my hand in yours and together we can do what we could never do alone. No longer is there a sense of hopelessness. No longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for a power and strength greater than ours; and as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams.
(Meeting moderator)
Thank you for attending our meeting today! Now it is time for fellowship.
(optional) Did anyone who did not get a chance to share yet today like to share?
Feel free to stick around to chat, ask questions, pass around phone numbers, or get a sponsor.