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.

Monday, 21 September 2020

ON THIS DAY SEPTEMBER 21st

1348 - Jews in Zurich, Switzerland, are accused of poisoning wells.

1792 - French Revolution: The National Convention passes a proclamation announcing the formal abolition of the French monarchy

1903 - First cowboy film "Kit Carson" premieres in US.

1937- J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' is published by George Allen and Unwin in London

Fr. P. Watters - Recovery Speaker

Daily Dose OF Emmet Fox

THE LAW of polarity is of course a cosmic law. Everything is produced by two other

things. Anything that is ever produced anywhere in the universe is produced by

two other things. That is the law of polarity. In the organic world we see it as

parenthood. In the inorganic world, the world of physics and chemistry, we see it as

the protons and electrons. That is how the material universe is built up; it always takes

two things to produce a third. And that is the real ultimate meaning back of the Trinity.

There were Trinitarian doctrines before the time of Christ. They had trinities in ancient

Egypt and India and in Chaldea and Babylonia – always there is the trinity:

father, mother, child: activity, material, production. Go where you like, seek where

you will, you find the Trinity.

Daily Reflections #essentialsofrecovery

THE LAST PROMISE

We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84

The last Promise in the Big Book came true for me on the very first day of sobriety. God kept me sober that day, and on every other day I allowed Him to operate in my life. He gives me the strength, courage and guidance to meet my responsibilities in life so that I am then able to reach out and help others stay sober and grow. He manifests within me, making me a channel of His word, thought and deed. He works with my inner self, while I produce in the outer world, for He will not do for me what I can do for myself. I must be willing to do His work, so that He can function through me successfully.

Just For Today #essentialsofrecovery

Prayer

“Prayer takes practice, and we should remind ourselves that skilled people were not born with their skills.”

Basic Text, p.45

Many of us came into recovery with no experience in prayer and worried about not knowing the “right words!” Some of us remembered the words we’d learned in childhood but weren’t sure we believed in those words anymore. Whatever our background, in recovery we struggled to find words that spoke truly from our hearts.

Often the first prayer we attempt Is a simple request to our Higher Power asking for help in staying clean each day. We may ask for guidance and courage or simply pray for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out. If we find ourselves stumbling in our prayers, we may ask other members to share with us about how they learned to pray. No matter whether we pray in need or pray in joy, the important thing is to keep making the effort.

Our prayers will be shaped by our experience with the Twelve Steps and our personal understanding of a Higher Power. As our relationship with that Higher Power develops, we become more comfortable with prayer. In time, prayer becomes a source of strength and comfort. We seek that source often and willingly.

Just for today: I know that prayer can be simple. I will start where I am and practice.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrecovery

A.A. Thought For The Day

Let us continue with Steps Four, Five, Six, Seven and Ten. In taking personal inventory of ourselves, we have to face facts as they really are. We have to stop running away. We must face reality. We must see ourselves as we really are. We must admit our faults openly and try to correct them. We must try to see where we have been dishonest, impure, selfish, and unloving. We do not do this once and forget it. We do it every day of our lives, as long as we live. We are never done with checking up on ourselves. Am I taking a daily inventory of myself?

Meditation For The Day

In improving our personal lives, we have Unseen help. We were not made so that we could see God. That would be too easy for us and there would be no merit in obeying Him. It takes an act of faith, a venture of belief, to realize the Unseen Power. Yet, we have much evidence of God’s existence in the strength that many people have received from the act of faith, the venture of belief. We are in a box of space and time and we can see neither our souls nor God. God and the human spirit are both outside the limitations of space and time. Yet our Unseen help is effective here and now. That has been proved in thousands of changed lives.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may make the great venture of belief. I pray that my vision may not be blocked by intellectual pride.

Keep It Simple #essentialsofrecovery

Love doesn’t make the world go around. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

—Franklin Jones

Before recovery, anger, self-pity, and sadness often filled our hearts. The world went on. We came to hate the ride.

In recovery, love fills our hearts. We begin to love life. Love is really caring about what happens to other people. Love is what makes the ride worth it

We find much love in our program. People really mater to us. We really matter to others. For many of us, we learn how to love in our meetings. The program teaches love because the program is love.

Prayer for the Day: I pray that I’ll welcome love into my heart and others into my life. Love brings me closer to my Higher Power.

Action for the Day: I’ll list all the people I love and why they matter to me.

Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrecovery

ACTION

“I shall pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do, let me do it now; let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

– Etienne de Grellet

Today I know that God requires me to be involved in my recovery and sobriety. God has always wanted me to be sober but the miracle took place when I wanted it, too. His hands were always extended towards me, the miracle happened when I chose to embrace Him. My sobriety involves me.

Today I understand that sobriety is more than “not picking up the first drink”; it involves quiet acts of kindness to myself and others. God works through me — through my hands, my smile, my voice, my love and my acceptance. When an opportunity arises for me to be ordinarily kind, I intend to give it; God knows I have needed such kindnesses from others in the past.

May I never avoid an opportunity for shared healing.

A Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

Reflection For The Day

I’ve heard it said that when God closes a door, He opens a window. Since I started working the Twelve Steps, much of the fear and pain that haunted my life is gone. Some of my defects have been lifted from me, though I’m still wrestling with others. I believe that if I continue to work the Twelve Steps over and over again, my life will continue to improve — physically, mentally, and spiritually. Am I more willing and better able to help others by working the Steps myself?

Today I Pray

I give thanks to God for showing me that the Twelve Steps are a stairway to a saner life. As I re-work them conscientiously, my life does get better, healthier and nearer to my Higher Power. As I continue to live them, may I feel the same gratitude and exaltation of spirit as those who are just now discovering them.

Today I Will Remember

Step by Step, day by day.

A Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

~ New Worlds ~

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

–Anais Nin

Most of us are so compulsive at almost everything we do, that allowing people in to know our garbage of the past and present is unheard of.

You go to a meeting, find a new recovery friend and that friend opens a new door. You and that friend step through and WOW … the world in that room looks great! Later at another meeting, you meet another recovery friend and another door is opened. You and your two new friends step through and you find an even better world view. This continues to happen meeting after meeting, step after step, room after room and your personal lives begins to look much brighter and more beautiful, like there really is hope.

Funny how it’s still the same world but friends, recovery and Higher Power make it a much better worldly view.

One Day at a Time . . .
I will never end this beautiful cycle of finding new worlds as long as I never lose sight of my Higher Power, my recovery friends and my recovery program.

~ Jeanette ~

Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialsofrecovery

“everything is laid out for you. Your path is straight ahead of you. Sometimes it’s invisible but it’s there. You may not know where it’s going, but still you have to follow that path. It’s the path to the Creator. That’s the only path there is.”

–Leon Shenandoah, ONONDAGA

Everything on the earth has a purpose and a reason for its existence. Every human being is a warrior and every warrior has a song written in his/her heart and that song must be sung or the soul forever remains restless. This song is always about serving the Great Spirit and helping the people. This song is always sung for the people. Many times I need to learn much about the difficulties of life. I need to know this, so I must experience it. Then I can be of use to the people. Because I am experiencing difficulty does not mean I have left the path or that I have done something wrong. It means I’m doing the will of the Great Spirit during these times of testing. I need to pray constantly to keep a good attitude.

Great Spirit, this I know – You will never leave me, only my doubting makes it seem like You do. This I know – Your love is always dependable, only my doubting makes it seem like You do. Today remove the doubts from my belief system and allow me to stand straight and see You with straight eyes.

Today’s Gift #essentialsofrecovery

Becoming willing to act

The miracles in our program don’t simply rub off at meetings. The key to getting clean and sober – and staying clean and sober – is a willingness to act.

Once we feel scared enough or strong enough to do something – once the willingness appears – miracles can happen. Action is the magic word. We must not wait for something to “rub off.” Rather, we must act as soon as possible. An important phrase in the program describes this – “acting as if.”

Am I learning to “act as if”?

Higher Power, help me become willing to act so that I don’t fall into a spiritual sleep.

From the book:

Day by Day – Second Edition by Anonymous

Daily Tao / 264 – Non-interference #essentialsofrecovery

I love this lake,
Basin of heavenly tears,
Tilted from lunar pull
Jostling its shore.
I love these mountains,
Stark rock outcroppings,
Sculpted by the oceans,
Lifted at some unknown time,
Isolated in a field of vetch,
Cleaved by silver falls.
A sentinel owl regards me unblinkingly,
And beyond, alpine forests form a cadence
To a distant moon.

The earth is overrun by investigators and engineers. The wilderness is made vulgar with the noise of tourists. We don’t need their thermometers and saws. We don’t need bridges and monuments. In the context of Tao, this is to violate the earth with human ambition and to crawl over the landscape like flies over fresh fruit. Instead we should simply walk through this mysterious world without being a burden to it.

Daily Zen #essentialsofrecovery

This is work that is alive,
Effervescent, free, liberated,
Gloriously enlightened, true,
And great.
Do you think it can be attained
By people who shut the door
And sit quietly with blank minds?

– Liu I-Ming

Walk In Dry Places

Monday, 21 September 2020