Essentials Of Recovery

Created to carry the message of recovery to all addicts. Whether the addiction is alcohol, drugs, food or any other addiction the program of recovery is the same. I am a recovering alcoholic of over twenty-seven years, a day at a time of course and I believe my primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve recovery. Remember seven days without a meeting makes one weak. Sign up to get emails.This Blog is NOT IN ANY WAY affiliated to either A.A. or N.A. Help to stop drinking.

Thursday 2 May 2024

Daily Reflections #essentailsofrec #Happiness #Past

LIGHTING THE DARK PAST

Cling to the thought that, in God’s hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have – the key to life and happiness for others. With it you can avert death and misery for them.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p 124

No longer is my past an autobiography; it is a reference book to be taken down, opened and shared. Today as I report for duty, the most wonderful picture comes through. For, though this day be dark – as some days must be – the stars will shine even brighter later. My witness that they do shine will be called for in the very near future. All my past will this day be a part of me, because it is the key, not the lock.

Just For Today #essentialsofrec #NA #Recovery #Addiction

“Just Maybe….”

“There is one thing more than anything else that will defeat us in our recovery; this is an attitude of indifference or intolerance toward spiritual principles.”

Basic Text, p. 18

When we first came to NA, many of us had great difficulty accepting the spiritual principles underlying this program—and for good reason. No matter how we’d tried to control our addiction, we’d found ourselves powerless. We grew angry and frustrated with anyone who suggested there was hope for us, because we knew better. Spiritual ideas may have had some bearing on other peoples’ lives, but not on ours.

Despite our indifference or intolerance toward spiritual principles, we were drawn to Narcotics Anonymous. There, we met other addicts. They’d been where we’d been, powerless and hopeless, yet they’d found a way not only to stop using but to live and enjoy life clean. They spoke of the spiritual principles that had pointed the way for them to this new life of recovery. For them, these principles were not just theories but a part of their practical experience. Yes, we had good reason to be skeptical, but these spiritual principles spoken of by other NA members really seemed to work.

Once we admitted this, we didn’t necessarily accept every single spiritual idea we heard. But we did start to think that, if these principles had worked for others, just maybe they’d work for us, too. For a beginning, that willingness was enough.

Just for today: Just maybe the spiritual principles I hear spoken of in NA might work for me. I am willing, at least, to open my mind to the possibility.

As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec #Imagination #BillW

Imagination Can Be Constructive, p. 157

We recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by imagination as it tried to create reality out of bottles. Yes, we reveled in that sort of thinking, didn’t we? And, though sober nowadays, don’t we often try to do much the same thing?

Perhaps our trouble was not that we used our imagination. Perhaps the real trouble was our almost total inability to point imagination toward the right objectives. There’s nothing the matter with truly constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After all, no man can build a house until he first visions a plan for it.

12 & 12, p. 100

Walk in Dry Places #essentialsofrec #Motives #Understading

Look out for the power trips
Understanding hidden motives

We can often use a lofty reason to disguise a hidden motive behind our actions. We might be seeking power over people’s lives, for example, while claiming that “we’re only out to help them.” We may argue for a point of view only to establish a position of power. Such power trips are destructive, and others usually see them for what they really are.

If we’ve really accepted the principles of the Twelve Steps, we have no need for power trips. The logic of Step Eleven, for example, is that we’ll always have the power needed to carry out what’s in line with God’s will for us. We do not have to jostle and manipulate others to establish our importance or our authority.

When we really come to terms with our own tendencies to take power trips, we’ll be able to deal with others who come on strong with their power trips. We’ll soon perceive that such threats usually fade when we refuse to resist them or be upset by them.

I’ll undoubtedly meet people today who are maneuvering for power in different situations. I will neither criticize nor oppose them. My responsibility today is to avoid any of my own tendencies to take such power trips.

Keep It Simple #essentialsofrec #Happiness #Goals

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.

—Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us want to be happy. We just don’t know how. We aren’t sure what happiness is. We’ve learned the hard way that some things we wanted didn’t make us happy. We’re learning that happiness comes when we live the way our Higher Power wants us to live. That’s when we’re honest. When we do our best work. When we are a true friend. We make happiness; we don’t find it. Sometimes we don’t even know we’re happy. We’re too busy with our work, our recovery program, our friends and family. We need to slow down and know that when we do what we need to, happiness comes.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know that I’m most happy when I listen to You and do Your will. You know better than I do what makes me happy.

Action for the Day: What parts of my program am I most happy about? Today I’ll think of these and enjoy myself.

Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrec ~Fact #FrLeo

FACTS

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

–Aldous Huxley

Reality is not dependent upon our acceptance. Addiction does not have to be accepted to be real. Alcoholism was killing people long before it had a name!

I need to remember this in the recovery program for my life. A big part of my life was spent denying that I had a problem. My manipulative art was exercised in discovering more acceptable excuses for my drunkenness, rather than looking at the problem. I danced toward death with God and denial on my lips. Belief in the God of Truth did not stop my dishonesty.

The process of self-love and acceptance began in my cry for help. Surrender brought me sanity. God was working His purpose out in my life because I was getting out of my way; I was facing the facts. Spirituality is making the words fit the feelings, and the feelings make the action.

A Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Grandiosity #Intelligence

Reflection For The Day

When I was drinking, I was certain that my intelligence, backed by will power, could properly control my inner life and guarantee me success in the world around me. This brave and grandiose philosophy, by which I played God, sounded good in the saying, but it still had to meet the acid test: How well did it actually work? One good look in the mirror was answer enough. Have I begun to ask God each day for strength?

Today I Pray
May I stop counting on my old standbys, my “superior intelligence” and my “willpower,” to control my life. I used to think, with those two fabulous attributes, that I was all-powerful. May I not forget, as my self-image is restored, that onl through surrender to a Higher Power will I be given the power that can make me whole.

Today I Will Remember

Check for “head-tripping.”

One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #OA #others #overeaters

HELPING OTHERS

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain If I can ease one life the aching or cool one pain or help one fainting Robin unto his nest again I shall not live in vain

–Emily Dickinson

Somewhere along the way I found myself to be a caretaker. Injustices, pain, discrimination, bullying; all these things affected me deeply. I carried it too far. It reached a point where I truly believe I began taking better care of others than I did myself. Was this ego? Codependency? Altruism? Or was this a guiltless way I found to deflect my own problems, pain, injustices and needs?

When I was doing my first 4th Step inventory, I learned something very important. As my sponsor read over one “bad thing” I had done after another she cautioned me to take a broader look at myself. Finally, she made me do my entire inventory over and for every 5th character defect or offense to someone, I was required to write something good about myself. She explained that an inventory is never meant to be focused on just the bad … but the good also. After all, when a store takes inventory on its products, it counts bent cans of beans as well as the perfect cans of beans and crushed boxes of cereal as well as the perfect ones.

This helped me to see that my life’s purpose was not just to help others but also to nurture me when my heart was breaking, to make my own life good and to have a nest for myself that was safe and serene. After working the Steps, I know that I’m not living my life in vain and I still want to help others as much as I possibly can, but not to the detriment of myself … and certainly not to keep me from looking at my own life and my own problems realistically.

One day at a time…

May I help others who are less fortunate than I find their way. And let me also make my own nest as comfortable as it can be.

~ Mari

Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialosfrec #Lakota #Holy #Native

“Think only about what is holy. Empty your mind.”

–Archie Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

If we let our minds wander, we will come up with a lot of junk; maybe bad thoughts about a brother or sister, maybe angry thoughts, maybe self-pity thoughts. Our minds are not the boss. We can instruct our mind to think about whatever we want to think about. We cannot stop thinking, but we can choose what to think about. The Elders say we move towards what we think about. That’s why they say, “Think about what is holy, think about the Grandfathers, think about culture, think about values, think about ceremonies, and think about good.”

Great Spirit, today, empty my mind and let me experience what it would be like to think about what is holy.

Today's Gift #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Thinking

We can act ourselves into right thinking easier than we can think ourselves into right acting.
— Anonymous

The best thing for us to do in our 12 Step Program is to be honest in how we act and think. We must be true to that belief.

We can’t think for others, and they can’t think for us. Friends can tell us the lessons they have learned from their experiences. If those lessons fit us, we can use them to help guide us and our thinking. We often hear, “Take what you need and leave the rest.”

As good for us as our ideas are, we must not force them on others. We can only offer them. And we won’t be true to ourselves if we are jealous of other people’s ideas. We never know what we can do until we try, and we can’t be sure what ideas are best for us until we test them.

Am I dedicated to the beliefs that are best for me in my recovery?

From the book:

Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Amends #Recovery

Today, if I have made sincere and absolute amends to those I wronged “except when to do so would hurt” anyone, I must progress beyond regret, shame and anger to what may be my single strongest and most meaningful gesture of amend: committing myself to sobriety and recovery. For all I might have said or done as an alcoholic, now, as a soberholic, I cannot become the proverbial doormat and empower anyone or anything to continue hammering me for the mistakes I have tried to correct, especially by those who cannot or will not accept my apologies. I can allow a margin of regret that I may not be forgiven by all I have hurt, but I cannot afford to be kicked down repeatedly. Today, if I have been rebuffed or cannot make amends because doing so might lead to more damage, I take the salvation of embracing my “new” addiction: sober-holism. And our common journey continues.

Step by step. – Chris M.

The Eye Opener #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Success

The United Nations and the old League of Nations both recognized the fact that man’s conquest of time and space has brought the nations of the earth into such close and intimate relationship that national problems are now world problems and must be dealt with accordingly.

Their lack of success, up to the present time, stems from their inability to recognize the common Fatherhood of God and the inherent brotherhood of man. They attempt to settle world affairs without consulting the Power that made both the world and the men in it.

God put no problems in the world; they are all man-made and far too often, we fear, they bear the stamp “Made in the USA.”

Hazelden Foundation

Daily Tao / 122 – Validity #essentialsofrec #Tao #Taoism #Zen

A river new —
Ancient words unneeded.
See, touch, rushing beauty,
Drink crystal flow.

When we stand on the banks of a river, we must realize that it is constantly new. Although we might say that it was running long before we were born, its exact configuration — the particular currents, the way it flows around rocks, the shape of its banks, the paths of fish in its depths — is subtly unique at any given moment. To know the river, we only need to experience it directly : to touch it, to swim it, to contemplate it, to drink it. The same is true of Tao.

Tao is ever flowing. Although it was present since the beginning of time and though many have experienced it, it is here for us to explore today. Touch it. Swim it. Contemplate it. Drink it. If you have touched Tao, you should harbor no doubt about it, nor should you wonder that you need scripture to confirm it.

Daily Zen #essentialsofrec #Zen #Buddhism

The voice of success and profit
May stir the vault of heaven,
But not this place.
In the rounds of the day,
You wear threadbare clothing
And eat simple fare.
When the mountain snow deepens,
Your thoughts
Are far from those of men.
Occasionally,
Immortals pass your door
And knock.

– Kuan-hsiu (832-912)

Walk In Dry Places

Thursday 2 May 2024