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-five 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.

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

Daily Reflections #essentialsofrecovery

NOTHING GROWS IN THE DARK

We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 10

With the self-discipline and insight gained from practicing Step Ten, I begin to know the gratifications of sobriety — not as mere abstinence from alcohol, but as recovery in every department of my life.

I renew hope, regenerate faith, and regain the dignity of self-respect. I discover the word “and” in the phrase “and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.”Reassured that I am no longer always wrong, I learn to accept myself as I am, with a new sense of the miracles of sobriety and serenity.

Just For Today #essentialsofrecovery

God’s Will Today

“This decision demands continued acceptance, ever – increasing faith, and a daily commitment to recovery.”

IP No.14, “One Addict’s Experience…”

Sometimes, we really live the Third Step – and it’s great! We don’t regret the past, we aren’t afraid of the future, and we’re generally pleased with the present. Sometimes, though, we lose our vision of God’s will in our life.

Many of us dream of erasing the mistakes of our past, but the past cannot be erased. Many of us are grateful this is so, for our past experiences have brought us to the recovery we enjoy today. By working the program, we can learn to accept the past and reconcile ourselves with it by amending our wrongs. Those same Twelve Steps can help eliminate our worries over the future. When we practice NA principles on a daily basis in all our affairs, we can leave the results up to our Higher Power.

It seems as though our members with the strongest faith are the ones who are best able to live in the present moment. Enjoyment, appreciation, and gratitude for the quality of our lives – these are the results of faith in life itself. When we practice the principles of our program, today is the only day we need.

Just for today: I will make the most of today, and trust that yesterday and tomorrow are in God’s care.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrecovery

A.A. Thought For The Day

Now that we have considered the obligations of real, working members of A.A., let us examine what the rewards are that have come to us as a result of our new way of living. First, I understand myself more than I ever did before. I have learned what was the matter with me and I know now a lot of what makes me tick. I will never be alone again. I am just one of many who have the illness of alcoholism and one of many who have learned what to do about it. I am not an odd fish or a square peg in a round hole. I seem to have found my right place in the world. Am I beginning to understand myself?

Meditation For The Day

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will remain with him and him with me.” The knocking of God’s spirit, asking to come into your life, is due to no merit of yours, though it is in response to the longing of your heart. Keep a listening ear, an ear bent to catch the sound of the gentle knocking at the door of your heart by the spirit of God. Then open the door of your heart and let God’s spirit come in.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may let God’s spirit come into my heart. I pray that it may fill me with an abiding peace.

As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrecovery

Toward Partnership, p. 292

When the distortion of family life through alcohol has been great, a long period of patient striving may be necessary. After the husband joins A.A., the wife may become discontented, even highly resentful that A.A. has done the very thing that all her years of devotion had failed to do. Her husband may become so wrapped up in A.A. and his new friends that he is inconsiderately away from home more than when he drank. Each then blames the other.

But eventually the alcoholic, now fully understanding how much he did to hurt his wife and children, nearly always takes up his marriage responsibilities with a willingness to repair what he can and accept what he can’t. He persistently tries all of A.A.’s Twelve Steps in his home, often with fine results. He firmly but lovingly commences to behave like a partner instead of like a bad boy.

12 & 12, pp. 118-119

WALK IN DRY PLACES #essentialsofrecovery

HOW DO WE HELP OTHERS?

Carrying the Message

We may be disillusioned by the selfish behavior we see around us, but many people and groups do dedicate themselves to helping others. Sometimes, however, even their efforts fail, or are misunderstood and even resented.

In AA, we don’t have solutions for every human problem—though some believe our program is widely applicable. But we can help people in a surprising and simple way by showing how well the program works in our own lives.

This provides role models of recovery for others who struggle in the bondage of alcoholism. We are giving them convincing evidence that the program does work.

We also help by sharing how our recoveries came about and how we maintained our sobriety. This is a form of helping that benefit everyone. Furthermore, we can be assured that we will be helped, even when our efforts to help others don’t seem to be succeeding.

I’ll expect to help somebody today, preferably by carrying the message of recovery. One person is certain to benefit from this.

© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation

Keep It Simple #essentialsofrecovery

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

—Anonymous

Nobody’s always wrong. Nobody’s all bad. And that includes us.

Sometimes, we really get down on ourselves. When we do Step Four, we sometimes see only our faults. When we make our Step Ten checkup, we see only our mistakes. We can’t afford to do this. We need to see our strengths too. But even our faults have a good side. Are you stubborn? Good—be stubborn, you know how to hang on to feelings. So, hang on to the good feelings instead of the bad ones.

Each of us is good and wise. What’s good about us got twisted by our disease. But now we can get the kinks out. We are sober, and we have a program to help us.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to see the good in myself and others.

Action for the Day: I’ll take another look at my faults today. How can I use them in good ways?

Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrecovery

CONSCIENCE

“In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.”

— Mohandas Gandhi

How I used to hate myself. So many times I caught myself pleasing the crowd, agreeing with people I did not understand or respect, laughing at jokes and opinions I loathed. How I used to hate myself!

Today I have a healthy respect for what the majority may feel but I also trust and follow my conscience. I know that to be in the minority is not necessarily to be in the wrong. My recovery insists that I listen to my conscience, that inner self that is based on a program of honesty, that spiritual cornerstone of my life that I have come to trust.

Now I can say to people, “I do not agree.” Today I give myself permission to disagree with family, friends and colleagues.

May I never follow the crowd because of the numbers: God is one.

A Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

Reflection For The Day

There’s a world of difference between the idea of self-love and love of self. Self-love is a reflection of an inflated ego, around which — in our distorted view of our own self-importance– everything must revolve, Self-love is the breeding around for hostility, arrogance, and a host of other character defects which blind us to any points of view but our own. Love of self, in contrast, is an appreciation of our dignity and value as human beings. Love of self is an expression of self-realization, from which springs humility. Do I believe that I can love others best when I have gained love of self?

Today I Pray

May God, who loves me, teach me to love myself. May I notice that the most arrogant of officious humans are not so completely sure of themselves, after all. Instead, they are apt to have a painfully low self-image, and insecurity which they clock in pomp and princely trappings. May God show me that when I can like myself, I am duly crediting Him, since every living thing is a work of God.

Today I Will Remember

I will try to like myself.

One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

Ready

“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.”

–Ivan Turgenev

This was one of my biggest obstacles in recovery: I wanted everything to be perfect. This type of thinking kept me stuck for many years in the disease. Instead of my program being One Day At A Time, it was always “one day later and I will do your will God.”

Now I know that today is all I have. I have no guarantees for tomorrow. So I let go and let God, and do the best I can. I have discovered that I do not have to work a perfect program. Not everything has to be just “right.”

One day at a time…
One day at a time I do the footwork that is required of me and leave the results to God.

~ Terri

Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialsofrecovery

“There is one God looking down on us all. We are children of the one God. God is listening to me. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we now say.”

–Geronimo, APACHE

The Old Ones before us knew things. Many of them were so spiritual that the Creator told them things through visions, ceremonies, and prayer. The Creator taught them about interconnectedness, balance and respect. The Old Ones experienced these things and told us we are all children of the same God. We all live under the same natural laws. Every human being, every animal, every plant, every insect, every bird, we are all the same in the eyes of God.

Great Mystery, teach me to respect all the things You have created.

Today’s Gift #essentialsofrecovery

I wish my parents would trust me and understand that I am trying my hardest.

— Anonymous

Parents are hard to understand at times. Sometimes they give double messages. They tell us what is really important is that we try our hardest. Then they seem crushed when we do try our hardest but don’t do as well as they expected. We sometimes wish they would stop getting themselves mixed up in us. We don’t always want the things they want for us.

We hope our parents know that we’re really trying. It’s true that we’ll make mistakes, but isn’t that normal? It might help if we knew more about what it was like for them growing up. Maybe it’s time to risk asking them.

Today let me get to know my parents a little better.

From the book:

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast

The Eye Opener #essentialsofrecovery

One day, not too long ago, you lost everything in the world you held dear, then a man sat down with you and he gave you friendship, understanding, faith, hope, courage and opportunity. Have you ever realized the great value of what this man gave you? These were the tools with which you made a new and better life.

Someone did this for you, so “go and do thou likewise.”

Copyright Hazelden Foundation

Daily Tao / 294 – Sitting #essentialsorecovery

Cat sits in the sun.
Dog sits in the grass.
Turtle sits on the rock.
Frog sits on the lily pad.
Why aren't people so smart?

Those who follow Tao are fond of pointing out the wisdom of animals. When they see a cat sitting motionless in the sun or a turtle who stretches her head upward in a still pose, they say that these animals are meditating. They know how to be still and conserve their internal energy. They do not dissipate themselves in useless activity but instead withdraw into themselves to recharge.

It is only people who label meditation as some sort of odd religious activity. This is not the actual case. Something like meditation happens when we sleep, or when we are absorbed in reading a book, or when we “daydream” and become so lost in a thought or an image that we do not notice what is going on around us.

There is no reason to think of meditation as something out of the ordinary. Quite the opposite. Meditation is the purest and most natural expression we can have. When you next look at a cat or a dog sitting still, and admire the naturalness of their actions, think then of your own life. Don’t meditate because it is a part of your schedule or is demanded by your particular philosophy. Meditate because this is natural.

Daily Zen #essentialsofrecovery

Listen to the sound of water. Listen to the water running through chasms and rocks. It is the minor streams that make a loud noise; the great waters flow silently.

The hollow resounds and the full is still. Foolishness is like a half-filled pot; the wise man is a lake full of water.

-Sutta Nipata

Grapevine Quote ...

[update headline="Update"] October 20, 2020 “At the beginning we sacrificed alcohol. We had to, or it would have killed us. But we couldn’t get rid of alcohol unless we made other sacrifices. Big shot-ism and phony thinking had to go. We had to toss self-justification, self-pity, and anger right out the window. We had to quit the crazy contest for personal prestige and big bank balances. We had to take personal responsibility for our sorry state and quit blaming others for it.” AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1955, “Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous”, The Language of the Heart [/update]

Walk In Dry Places

Wednesday, 21 October 2020