Friday 22 February 2019

Big Book - Alcoholics Anonymous - 4th Edition - Bill's Story, Page 12

"For a brief moment, I had needed and wanted God. There had been a humble willingness to have Him with me -- and He came.

 ~ Big Book - Alcoholics Anonymous - 4th Edition - Bill's Story, Page 12~

Daily Dose of Emmet Fox

CHANGE FROM WITHIN



Man is a mental being, and to know this is the first step on the road to freedom and prosperity, for as long as you believe yourself to be primarily physical, a superior kind of animal, you well remain in bondage - in bondage, that is to say, to your own habit of thought, for there is no other bondage.

Since you are a mental being, you will see how foolish it is for you to endeavor to improve you conditions by altering you environment while leaving your mind unchanged. To attempt this is to foredoom yourself to disappointment. Mind is cause, and experience is effect. If you do not like the experience or effect that you are getting, the obvious remedy is to alter the cause and then the effect will naturally alter too.





Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also (Matthew 23:26)
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Daily Zen #essentialsofrecovery


Trust has nothing to do with moral courage. It occurs when we have nowhere else to turn, when we reach the end of our need to control.

-Rodney Smith, "Lessons from the Dying"
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Thursday 21 February 2019

DAILY DOSE OF EMMET FOX



QUARANTINE YOUR TROUBLES



When you are praying or "treating" about a particular thing, you should handle it, mentally, very carefully indeed. The ideal way is no to think about it at all except when you are actually praying about it. Moreover, to talk to other people about it is exceedingly likely to invite failure.

When a new problem presents itself to you, decline to consider it except in the light of Truth. I call this "Putting a subject in quarantine." Even an old long-standing problem can be "put in quarantine" today, if you mean business and will resolutely break the habit of constantly thinking over that problem. Whenever you think about any subject, you are treating it with your thought - either for good or for evil.

The lip of truth shall be established for ever... (Proverbs 12:19).
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Daily Reflections #essentialsofrecovery

I'M PART OF THE WHOLE

At once, I became a part–if only a tiny part–of a cosmos…. 

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 225

When I first came to A.A., I decided that “they” were very nice people–perhaps a little naive, a little too friendly, but basically decent, earnest people (with whom I had nothing in common). I saw “them” at meetings–after all, that was where “they” existed. I shook hands with “them” and, when I went out the door, I forgot about “them.” Then one day my Higher Power, whom I did not then believe in, arranged to create a community project outside of A.A., but one which happened to involve many A.A. members. We worked together, I got to know “them” as people. I came to admire “them,” even to like “them” and, in spite of myself, to enjoy “them.” “Their” practice of the program in their daily lives–not just talk at meetings –attracted me and I wanted what they had. Suddenly the “they” became “we.” I have not had a drink since.
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Just For Today #essentialsofrecovery

Self-Pity Or Recovery – It’s Our Choice

“Self-pity is one of the most destructive of defects; it will drain us of all positive energy.” 

Basic Text, p. 77

In active addiction, many of us used self-pity as a survival mechanism. We didn’t believe there was an alternative to living in our disease&151or perhaps we didn’t want to believe. As long as we could feel sorry for ourselves and blame someone else for our troubles, we didn’t have to accept the consequences of our actions; believing ourselves powerless to change, we didn’t have to accept the need for change. Using this “survival mechanism” kept us from entering recovery and led us closer, day by day, to self-destruction. Self-pity is a tool of our disease; we need to stop using it and learn instead to use the new tools we find in the NA program.

We have come to believe that effective help is available for us; when we seek that help, finding it in the NA program, self-pity is displaced by gratitude. Many tools are at our disposal: the Twelve Steps, the support of our sponsor, the fellowship of other recovering addicts, and the care of our Higher Power. The availability of all these tools is more than enough reason to be grateful. We no longer live in isolation, without hope; we have certain help at hand for anything we may face. The surest way to become grateful is to take advantage of the help available to us in the NA program and to experience the improvement the program will bring in our lives.

Just for today: I will be grateful for the hope NA has given me. I will cultivate my recovery and stop cultivating self-pity.
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TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY #essentialsofrecovery


A.A. Thought for the Day

I go to the A.A. meetings because it helps me in my business of keeping sober. And I try to help other alcoholics when I can, because that’s part of my business of keeping sober. I also have a partner in this business and that’s God. I pray to Him every day to help me to keep sober. As long as I keep in mind that liquor can never be my friend again, but is now my deadly enemy, and as long as I remember that my main business is keeping sober and that it’s the most important thing in my life, I believe I’ll be prepared for that crucial moment when the idea of having a drink pops into my mind. When that idea comes, will I be able to resist it and not take that drink?

Meditation for the Day

I will be more afraid of spirit-unrest, of soul- disturbance, of any ruffling of the mind, than of earthquake or fire. When I feel the calm of my spirit has been broken by emotional upset, then I must steal away alone with God, until my heart sings and all is strong and calm again. Uncalm times are the only times when evil can find an entrance. I will beware of unguarded spots of unrest. I will try to keep calm, no matter what turmoil surrounds me.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that no emotional upsets will hinder God’s power in my life. I pray that I may keep a calm spirit and a steady heart.

© 1954, 1975, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation 
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As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrecovery

To Guard Against A Slip, p. 52

Suppose we fall short of our chosen ideals and stumble? Does this mean we are going to get drunk? Some people tell us so. But this is only a half-truth.

It depends on us and on our motives. If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson. If we are not sorry, and our conduct continues to harm others, we are quite sure to drink. These are facts out of our experience.

Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 70 
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Walk In Dry Places #essentialsofrecovery


Unexpected Disappointments
Acceptance.


As life unfolds, we sometimes get unexpected disappointments that seem undeserved — the car breaks down, a business deal goes sour, or a close friend betrays us. As alcoholics, most of us don’t handle such things too well. “Why me, Lord?” we often respond.

Our best approach is simply to view life as a mixture of bitter and sweet, knowing that we’ve been given real mastery over conditions. We cannot always be sure that a disappointment really is as bad as it seems to be, and sometimes it can become a step toward our good. As one alcoholic phrased it, “some of the worst things that have happened turned out to be the best.”

It’s good to face the day with optimism, with confidence, and even with some excitement about the opportunities ahead. If we’re maintaining sober thinking, everything that happens today will be transformed into gains for tomorrow — all our tomorrows. We’re on a spiritual journey that goes far beyond anything we’re doing here and now.

I won’t expect to be disappointed today, but I’ll know that nothing can really upset or disturb me without my permission.
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Keep It Simple #essentialsofrecovery

It easier to speak of love, than to practice it.
–Anonymous

Do we help our neighbor who is in need? We must help when we see the need, not just when it fits our schedule. In the program, this becomes our goal. We work at helping out. For example, when someone is needed to run the meeting, we offer. We see that the needs of the group are also our needs. We are the group. Over time, the idea of service spreads to the rest of our lives. Maybe we help a family down the street. We start to see that we have something to offer the world; ourselves. We start to see that the needs of the world are also our needs. We are an important part of the world.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, make me quick to act when I see a need. Please don’t let my fear stop me.

Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list what I have to offer the world. I will think of two ways I can use these gifts my Higher Power has given me.
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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

Reflection For The Day

When I came to The Program, I found people who knew exactly what I meant when I spoke finally of my fears. They had been where I had been; they understood. I’ve since learned that many of my fears have to do with projection. It’s normal, for example, to have a tiny “back-burner” fear that the person I love will leave me. But when the fear takes precedence over my present and very real relationship with the person I’m afraid of losing, then I’m in trouble. My responsibility to myself includes this: I must not fear things which do not exist. Am I changing from a fearful person into a fearless person?

Today I Pray


I ask God’s help in waving away my fears — those figments, fantasies, monstrous thoughts, projections of disaster which have no bearing on the present. May I narrow the focus of my imagination and concentrate on the here-and-now, for I tend to see the future through a magnifying glass.

Today I Will Remember

Projected fears, like shadows, are larger than life.
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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

~ CHILDLIKE ~


Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.
–Tyron Edwards

Like so many of us in OA, I grew up as a little adult. My parents didn’t know better – treating me like an adult seemed a good way to them of both showing love to me and making their difficult post-war life easier. Providence was something that intervened once in a while, and in ways that were weighty and important. God was there – but God had to attend to serious matters.

There was little room in God’s and my parents’ life for the seemingly unimportant details of a child’s world. I had no trouble internalizing that message. I learned very soon that no-one was going to take care of my “little” problems and anxieties, that I had to shove them out of the way, and that I could do that very well by daydreaming, by making sure I was the little adult my parents were so proud of – and by eating.

The trouble was that there were times when these coping mechanisms didn’t work seamlessly and those anxieties would break through. Panic attacks were the result, and dogged attempts to do more of the insanity: more retreating from the world, more “adult” behaviour, more eating.

One of the things I’m learning in recovery is that paradoxically, in order to really grow up, I need to risk the vulnerability of being more childlike. I need to learn that my Higher Power is not too busy worrying about world peace to listen and deeply care about my little booboos. I need to, I WANT to develop an abiding trust that I am safe with and cared for by my Higher Power, like a baby in a mother’s arms.
One day at a time … I let go of the rust of anxiety so that like a child, I may marvel at and participate in the brightness and wonder of God’s world.

~ Isabella ~ 
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialsofrecovery

“In the Indian way, we are connected to that flower if we understand its spirit, the essence of its life.”

–Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

Everything on our Earth is alive. Every rock, every plant, every animal, every tree, every bird, every thought is alive. This is true because everything is made by the Great Spirit and the Great Spirit is alive. We need to slow our lives down each day and realize, consciously, that this is true. First we need to realize it, second, we need to acknowledge it, third, we need to appreciate it and, finally, we need to go on.

Great Spirit, let me see life through Your eyes. Today let me be alive.
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The Eye Opener #essentialsofrecovery

You cannot know and appreciate wisdom unless you are also acquainted with a liberal amount of pure folly. Folly provides the lessons that really stick in our memories and provide danger signals to govern our decisions in our future conduct.

For that reason, the lessons learned overnight in a jail cell outlast those acquired after long periods of study. Believe you me, those lessons are seldom forgotten.


Copyright Hazelden Foundation 
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DAILY TAO / 52 - NONCONFORMITY #essentialsofrecovery

The world is dazzling,
I alone am dull.
Others strive for achievement,
I follow a lonely path.


Followers of Tao are nonconformists. The conventional label our behavior erratic, antisocial, irresponsible, inexplicable, outrageous, and sometimes scandalous. We hear other voices, respond to inner urgings. We have no interest in the social norm; we only care about following Tao. It does not matter if no one can understand us, for we are nurtured by something most people do not sense. Awakening to this inner urge, and distinguishing spiritual impulses from the merely instinctual, is one of the crucial goals of self-cultivation.

We all have many voices, personalities, ambitions, and tendencies within ourselves. The ability to distinguish between them, and the ability to silence all the voices save for Tao’s, is imperative if one is to reach this state of being. Once one is in touch with the true Tao, there are no doubts, and the murmuring of others cannot have any effect. One is as comforted as a child at its mother’s breast.

The more one walks in Tao, the more one is interested in self-perfection. All that matters is constant cultivation to be with Tao. This is a lonely path. There are others who follow Tao, but it is not always possible to meet them. That is why is takes someone both sensitive enough to hear the call and strong enough to walk the solitary path.
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Daily Tao / 053 - IMBALANCE



Sleepless nights.

Diet, mind, conditions

Hold the possibility of correction.


Whenever you feel out of sorts, or cannot sleep, or find it hard to work and think, you are separated from Tao. If you want to get back in touch with it, ask yourself three questions : Am I eating right? Is my mind tamed? Is my world safe?

It is not facetious to look at the way you eat whenever you feel out of step with life. Many problems can be alleviated by feeling better physically, and even if this doesn't remedy things, it will give you a good basis for coping. Eat a balanced diet rich in nutrients. Take the time to understand proper nutrition and eat a large variety of foods according to the seasons. The skillful use of foods is far superior to medicine.

Next is the difficult mind that seems to have its own interests, habits, and excesses. The only way to counter this is to guard against worry, stress, intellectualism, scheming, and desires. This can only happen through a strong philosophical grounding and by methodical meditation.

Finally, environmental factors such as weather, natural and man-made disasters, and socioeconomic problems can break our unity with Tao. To cope with this, gain as much control over your environment as possible. Keep your home a haven, have control over your work place, and be independent enough to face emergencies. It is inevitable that one will fall in and out of Tao. The wise arrange their lives so that they can always return to balance.
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Daily zen


Trust has nothing to do with moral courage. It occurs when we have nowhere else to turn, when we reach the end of our need to control.

-Rodney Smith, "Lessons from the Dying"
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Wednesday 20 February 2019

Daily Dose OF Emmet Fox



WITH ALL SAILS SET

God intended us to have dominion over our lives, to be the captains of our souls. 


Of course, in the ship of life, you cannot make port unless all sails are set. You must pursue the spiritual life wholeheartedly. You cannot expect to reach port if you are faithful in your prayers and meditations for a time, and then for a time you forget God. 

You are the captain of your soul when you can say with Jesus, I and my father are one (John 10:30).

...the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10).
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Daily Reflections #essentialsofrecovery

THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER


At this juncture, his A.A. sponsor usually laughs.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 26

Before my recovery from alcoholism began, laughter was one of the most painful sounds I knew. I never laughed and I felt that anyone else’s laughter was directed at me! My self-pity and anger denied me the simplest of pleasures or lightness of heart. By the end of my drinking not even alcohol could provoke a drunken giggle in me. When my A.A. sponsor began to laugh and point out my self-pity and ego-feeding deceptions, I was annoyed and hurt, but it taught me to lighten up and focus on my recovery. I soon learned to laugh at myself and eventually I taught those I sponsor to laugh also. Every day I ask God to help me stop taking myself too seriously.
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Just For Today #essentialsofrecovery

Powerlessness, Personal Responsibility


“Through our inability to accept personal responsibilities, we were actually creating our own problems.”

Basic Text, p. 13

When we refuse to take responsibility for our lives, we give away all of our personal power. We need to remember that we are powerless over our addiction, not our personal behavior.

Many of us have misused the concept of powerlessness to avoid making decisions or to hold onto things we had outgrown. We have claimed powerlessness over our own actions. We have blamed others for our circumstances rather than taking positive action to change those circumstances. If we continue to avoid responsibility by claiming that we are “powerless;” we set ourselves up for the same despair and misery we experienced in our active addiction. The potential for spending our recovery years feeling like victims is very real.

Instead of living our lives by default, we can learn how to make responsible choices and take risks. We may make mistakes, but we can learn from these mistakes. A heightened awareness of ourselves and an increased willingness to accept personal responsibility gives us the freedom to change, to make choices, and to grow.

Just for today: My feelings, actions, and choices are mine. I will accept responsibility for them.
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AS BILL SEES IT #essentialsofrecovery

~ Page 51 ~

The Coming of Faith

In my own case, the foundation stone of freedom from fear is that of faith: a faith that, despite all worldly appearances to the contrary, causes me to believe that I live in a universe that makes sense.

To me, this means a belief in a Creator who is all power, justice, and love; a God who intends for me a purpose, a meaning, and a destiny to grow, however little and haltingly, toward His own likeness and image. Before the coming of faith I had lived as an alien in a cosmos that too often seemed both hostile and cruel. In it there could be no inner security for me.

<< << << >> >> >>

“When I was driven to my knees by alcohol, I was made ready to ask for the gift of faith. And all was changed. Never again, my pains and problems notwithstanding, would I experience my former desolation. I saw the universe to be lighted by God’s love; I was alone no more.”

~ 1. GRAPEVINE, JANUARY 1962 ~
~ 2. LETTER, 1966 ~

© 1967 by Alcoholics Anonymous ® World Services, Inc 
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WALK IN DRY PLACES #essentialsofrecovery

A DAY OF ACCEPTANCE

Releasing the Past

“We will not regret the past nor fear the future,” goes one of the promises in Twelve Step programs. Neither the past nor the future should control what we’re thinking and doing today. After all, if our Higher Power is everything, no person or action can be outside of this supreme control.

Today, I will rise above anything that was said or done in the past. I will also hold the idea that the future is bright with promise, and that this promise will be fulfilled. Nobody’s opinion or criticism can be unsettling to me if my beliefs and self- worth are anchored in my Higher Power.

It’s true that there might have been lots of wreckage in the past—even more recently when we have been living sober. It doesn’t matter. In amazing ways, our Higher Power sometimes turns negative conditions into future benefits. This was actually what happened when our compulsive condition led directly to a new way of life.

I will accept life today and will look for un-expected blessings. No person or group can keep me from good as I accept God’s direction in my life.

“In all your ways acknowledge [God, who] shall direct your paths.” I’ll remember this frequently as I go about the day.

© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation  
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KEEP IT SIMPLE #essentialsofrecovery


Let Go and Let God.

~ Twelve Step slogan ~

Some days we might ask ourselves, Is it worth it? We feel alone. No one seems to care. Life seems hard. Recovery seems hard.

This is when we need to slow down and take a look at what’s going on. We’re feeling this way because we’re off our recovery path. We may be back into wanting people to see things our way, or do things our way. We want control.

Remember, all problems are not our problems. All work is not our work. We can’t have everything the way we want it. But we can do our part and let go of the rest. Then we can feel better.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me remember my only work today is to do Your will for me. It is not my job to be You.

Action for the Day

I’ll talk with my sponsor or a program friend today. I’ll talk about how to deal with things that seem to pull me down.

Copyright © 1988 by Hazelden Foundation 
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A DAY AT A TIME #essentialsofrecovery



Reflection for the Day

We are often told in the Program that “more will be revealed.” As we are restored to health and become increasingly able to live comfortably in the real world without using chemicals, we begin to see many things in a new light. Many of us have come to realize, for example, that our arch-enemy, anger, comes disguised in many shapes and colors: intolerance, contempt, snobbishness, rigidity, tension, sarcasm, distrust, anxiety, envy, hatred, cynicism, discontent, self-pity, malice, suspicion, jealousy. Do I let my feelings get the best of me?

Today I Pray

May I recognize that my anger, like a dancer at a masquerade, wears many forms and many faces. May I strip off its several masks and know it for what it is.

Today I Will Remember

Anger wears a thousand masks.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation
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THE EYE OPENER #essentialsofrecovery


So many times we hear people say, “Don’t preach to me about God. He has no time for the likes of me.” It is hard for us alcoholics to conceive of a God, whom we have gone out of our way to alienate, who has time for the likes of us—yet we know that he does have time for us and has demonstrated this fact in hundreds of cases, just as though He had nothing else in the world to do.

Published by Hazelden 
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Tuesday 19 February 2019

Daily Reflections #essentialsofrecovery

I'M NOT DIFFERENT


In the beginning, it was four whole years before A.A. brought permanent sobriety to even one alcoholic woman. Like the “high bottoms, ” the women said they were different; . . . The Skid-Rower said he was different . . . so did the artists and the professional people, the rich, the poor, the religious, the agnostic, the Indians and the Eskimos, the veterans, and the prisoners. . . . nowadays all of these, and legions more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are when we admit that the chips are finally down.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 24

I cannot consider myself “different” in A.A.; if I do I isolate myself from others and from contact with my Higher Power. If I feel isolated in A.A., it is not something for which others are responsible. It is something I’ve created by feeling I’m “different” in some way. Today I practice being just another alcoholic in the worldwide Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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Just For Today


Reservations

“Relapse is never an accident. Relapse is a sign that we have a reservation in our program.”

Basic Text, p. 76


A reservation is something we set aside for future use. In our case, a reservation is the expectation that, if such-and-such happens, we will surely relapse. What event do we expect will be too painful to bear? Maybe we think that if a spouse or lover leaves us, we will have to get high. If we lose our job, surely, we think, we will use. Or maybe it’s the death of a loved one that we expect to be unbearable. In any case, the reservations we harbor give us permission to use when they come true-as they often do.


We can prepare ourselves for success instead of relapse by examining our expectations and altering them where we can. Most of us carry within us a catalog of anticipated misery closely related to our fears. We can learn how to survive pain by watching other members live through similar pain. We can apply their lessons to our own expectations. Instead of telling ourselves we will have to get high if this happens, we can quietly reassure ourselves that we, too, can stay clean through whatever life brings us today.


Just for today: I will check for any reservations that may endanger my recovery and share them with another addict.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrecovery

A.A. Thought For The Day

Many things we do in A.A. are in preparation for that crucial moment when, walking down the street on a nice sunshiny day, we see a nice cool cocktail lounge and the idea of having a drink pops into our minds. If we’ve trained our minds so that we’re well prepared for that crucial moment, we won’t take that first drink. In other words, if we’ve done our A.A. homework well, we won’t slip when temptation comes. In preparation for that crucial moment when I’ll be tempted, will I keep in mind the fact that liquor is my enemy?

Meditation For The Day

How many of the world’s prayers have gone unanswered because those who prayed did not endure to the end? They thought it was too late, that they must act for themselves, that God was not going to guide them. “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” Can I endure to the very end? If so, I shall be saved. I will try to endure with courage. If I endure, God will unlock those secret spiritual treasures that are hidden from those who do not endure to the end.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may follow God’s guidance, so that spiritual success shall be mine. I pray that I may never doubt the power of God and so take things into my own hands.
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As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrecovery

A.A.: Benign Anarchy and Democracy, p. 50

When we come into A.A. we find a greater personal freedom than any other society knows. We cannot be compelled to do anything. In that sense our Society is a benign anarchy. The word “anarchy” has a bad meaning to most of us. But I think that the idealist who first advocated the concept felt that if only men were granted absolute liberty, and were compelled to obey no one, they would then voluntarily associate themselves in the common interest. A.A. is an association of the benign sort he envisioned.

But when we had to go into action–to function as groups–we discovered that we also had to become a democracy. As our oldtimers retired, we therefore began to elect our trusted servants by majority vote. Each group in this sense became a town meeting. All plans for group action had to be approved by the majority. This meant that no single individual could appoint himself to act for his group or for A.A. as a whole. Neither dictatorship nor paternalism was for us.


A.A. Comes Of Age, pp. 224-225
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Walk In Dry Places #essentialsofrecovery

Sticking with the winners
Prudence


“Stick with the winners,” newcomers are told at Twelve Step meetings. The real message of this statement is to share the attitudes and actions of people who are successful in living sober.

No recovering person can have a successful day while dwelling on ideas that can be harmful. We’ll meet people in the course of the day whose attitudes may appall us. We may work with people who are critical, gossipy, or resentful. It’s not our duty to correct them or argue with them. We’re wise, however, not to accept what we recognize as wrong thinking.

Winners, in AA terms, are people who seek sobriety first and live up to the principles of the program. Seem them out for help in doing likewise.

I’ll try to associate with people who exemplify the highest and best in good attitudes.
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Keep It Simple #essentialsofrecovery


Changing brings questions, and questions bring change.

—Anonymous

What am I becoming? How do I know if what I’m doing is right? Is it best for me? We are full of questions. Often, times of question are times of change. We are becoming something new, and there is always a little fear of change. Luckily, we don’t need to know what we are becoming to find peace. What we need to know is what we believe in. And we’ll become what we believe in. If we believe in sobriety, we’ll be sober. If we believe in honestly, we’ll struggle to be more honest. We must give ourselves the freedom of becoming. Becoming means we’re on a trip, a journey. Over time, becoming takes on a comfort of its own.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, what am I becoming? I give up having to know the answer. All I need to believe is that You love me and will do what is best for me.

Action for the Day: I’ll ask lots of questions. Often, the question is more important than the answer.
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Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrecovery


PREJUDICE

“The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices
picked up in childhood.”


— Rene Descartes



During the past few years I have begun to recognize how many of my

prejudices were planted in childhood. Family, teachers, priests and

“the neighborhood” passed on to me prejudices: ” The Jews are bad

because they killed Jesus.” “Blacks are inferior to white people —

but you should be kind to them.” “Women should obey the man of the

house.” “Gays are child molesters.” “People who do not accept Jesus will not

go to Heaven.” “Sex is for having babies and you should not enjoy

it.”


Today I live with the problem of knowing that these statements are

untrue but a part of me is still affected by them.


Today my spiritual program demands that I expose prejudice for the

“hate-mail” that it is, and try to pass on to the next generation the

joy that comes from love, acceptance and freedom.


Let the children grow in freedom.
Copyright Father Leo. Booth
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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery


Reflection For The Day


When a person says something rash or ugly, we sometimes say they are “forgetting themselves,” meaning they’re forgetting their best selves in a sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury. If I remember the kind of person I want to be,m hopefully I won’t “forget myself” and yield to a fit of temper. I’ll believe that the positive always defeats the negative: courage over comes fear; patience overcomes anger and irritability; love overcomes hatred. Am I always striving for improvement?

Today I Pray

Today I ask that God, to Whom all things are possible, help me turn negatives into positives — anger into super-energy, fear into a chance to be courageous, hatred into love. May I take time out of remember examples of such positive-groom-negative transformations from the whole of my lifetime. Uppermost is God’s miracle; my freedom from the slavery of addiction.

Today I Will Remember
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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery


Reflection For The Day

When a person says something rash or ugly, we sometimes say they are “forgetting themselves,” meaning they’re

forgetting heir best selves in a sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury. If I remember the kind of person I want to be,m

hopefully I won’t “forget myself” and yield to a fit of temper. I’ll believe that the positive always defeats the negative:

courage over comes fear; patience overcomes anger and irritability; love overcomes hatred. Am I always striving for improvement?

Today I Pray

Today I ask that God, to Whom all things are possible, help me turn negatives into positives — anger into super-

energy, fear into a chance to be courageous, hatred into love. May I take time out of remember examples of such positive-groom-negative transformations from the whole of my lifetime. Uppermost is God’s miracle; my freedom from the slavery of addiction.

Today I Will Remember


Turn negatives into positives.
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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

~ SELF KNOWLEDGE ~

We’re our own dragons as well as our own heroes and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
–Tom Robbins

I always tried to do my best in everything I did. Studies, school, and managing my own family are some good examples. Being in control made it seem as though I always did as I was told, but I had a very difficult time Being on my own and thinking for myself. The talent I was born with gave me a good start at being an artist, but I couldn’t seem to make a successful career out of it. I was scared and shy and didn’t dare be on the forefront of making this talent into what I wanted it to be.

When I started on my path to Recovery, I found that I was being too much of a perfectionist. I was always told to do things perfectly and I tried and tried but never seemed to satisfy my parents or the god of my childhood. So when I grew up I was so hard on myself that I lost the creativity I was born with. Creativity can’t thrive in a hostile environment.

One day while reading an author I liked, I read that I had to “get out of my own way”. I was a dragon trying to do something creative and it didn’t work. I have to learn to “rescue myself from myself” so I can do my art with the talents that are God-given.

One day at a time …


I realize that if I want to see myself as I really am,I cannot stand in my own shadow.

~ Myrlene ~
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day


The Old Man said,`you are both ugly and handsome and you must accept your ugliness as well as your handsomeness in order to really accept yourself.”

–Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

My Grandfather told me one time that any person who is judgmental to another is also judgmental to themselves. If we want to be free of being judgmental, we need to first work on how judgmental we are to ourselves. If we quit judging ourselves and start accepting ourselves as we are, we will start accepting others as they are. Then we will experience a level of new freedom.

Great Spirit, let me accept myself as I am – honoring both my strengths and my weaknesses.
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The Eye Opener #essentialsofrecovery

The AA way of living holds out, for all that will grasp it, everything that is advantageous to life. A healthy mind, a healthy body, a healthy soul. Complete harmony with God, your fellow man and yourself. Truly the peace that passeth all understanding.

Hazelden Foundation
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Daily Tao / 049 - INTERACTION #essentialsofrecovery



We make life real
By the thoughts we project.


The panorama of the objective world is meaningless until we interact with it. For example, if there is a rock that we pass day after day but we do not notice, then that rock has no significance for us. If we decide to make that rock a votive object and pray to it for decades, then that rock becomes quite important. To an outsider who does not subscribe to the rock’s assigned meaning, it will continue to be just a rock. In all cases, the rock was just a rock. It was only human interaction that created its meaning.

It is a mistake to assume that the meaning we give to something is as concrete and tangible as the object itself. We should not confuse the two. For example, our house may be precious to us, but our sense of preciousness has nothing to do with the building — it comes from the values and memories we associate with it. If we lose our house, we must remember that it is the feeling we have for it, not just the building itself, that determines our loss.

If all perception of reality is subjective, some schools of thought suggest that we should therefore see everything as unreal. By contrast, followers of Tao maintain that we must still interact with the world. If we do not take initiative and work with this phenomena of projecting meaning and receiving its echoes, we fall into a state of dormancy, and the world will not exist for us at all. As long as we remember that meanings we attribute to objects are subjective, we will avoid mistakes.
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Daily Zen

Half the spiritual life consists in remembering what we are up against and where we are going.

-Ayya Khema, "When the Iron Eagle Flies"
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