A.A. Thought For The Day
You can prove to yourself that life is basically and fundamentally an inner attitude. Just try to remember what troubled you most a week ago. You probably will find it difficult to remember. Why then should you unduly worry or fret over the problems that arise today? Your attitude toward them can be changed by putting yourself and your problems in God’s hands and trusting Him to see that everything will turn out all right, provided you are trying to do the right thing. Your changed mental attitude toward your problems relieves you of their burden and you can face them without fear. Has my mental attitude changed?
Meditation For The Day
You cannot see the future. It’s a blessing that you cannot. You could not bear to know all the future. That is why God only reveals it to you day by day. The first step is to lay your will before God as an offering, ready for God to do what is best for you. Be sure that, if you trust God, what He does for you will be for the best. The second step is to be confident that God is powerful enough to do anything He wills, and that no miracle in human lives is impossible with Him. Then leave the future to God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may gladly leave my future in God’s hands. I pray that I may be confident that good things will happen, as long as I am on the right path.
“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. 18When 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.
Even on a rainy day, I can feel the sunshine.
Even when the clouds are gray, I can feel a glow.
There’s a little light inside me, just keeps burning.
I take it with me, everywhere I go.
~ Jill Clark ~
We carry within ourselves the single necessary Ingredient for our happiness: a positive attitude. Nothing can ruin our day, unless we let it. No remark can devastate us, unless we let it. No person can have a harmful, lasting impact on us, unless we let him or her. No unhealthy, negative attitude controls our thoughts without our assent.
Feeling good about the experiences we’re having, regardless of their nature, is a decision. Trusting that some good will come out of every one of them is a habit we can form. We can acquire un attitude of hope for growth and positive change.
I will see the sunshine even through the clouds if that’s my choice. Today I have twenty-four hours to practice this.
© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery
Jobs are as good or as bad as the mental attitude we have toward them. No man holds a job but what some other man is envious of him on its account and every job has its good and bad points.
Too often we hear the excuse that the job was the cause of the drinking, when most frequently it was the drinking that made the job obnoxious.
One man swinging a pick is digging a hole in the ground and his fellow workman beside him is doing his part in the erection of a Temple.
Maybe it’s not the job at fault, maybe it’s your attitude toward it.
Published by Hazelden
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery
There is a difference between watching the mind and controlling the mind. Watching the mind with a gentle, open attitude allows the mind to settle down and come to rest. Trying to control the mind, or trying to control the way one's spiritual practice will unfold, just stirs up more agitation and suffering.
-Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness"
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery
Reflection for the Day
It’s time for me to realize that my attitude—toward the life I’m living and the people in it—can have a tangible, measurable, and profound effect on what happens to me day by day. If I expect good, then good will surely come to me. And if I try each day to base my attitude and point of view on a sound spiritual foundation, I know it will change all the circumstances of my life for the better, too. Do I accept the fact that I have been given only a daily reprieve that is contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual condition?
Today I Pray
Since my illness was spiritual—as well as physical and emotional—may I mend spiritually through daily communion with God. May I find a corner of quiet within me where I can spend a few moments with God. May God’s will be known to me. May I worship God from that inner temple that is in myself.
Today I Will Remember
To spend a quiet moment with God.
© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery
A VISION FOR YOU
A Positive Attitude
One of the methods that helps in recovery is to see yourself as a sober person living a clean life. This is the “vision for you” that the society’s founders offered in AA’s early days, and it’s still powerful today.
While being careful to avoid self-will, we can use this method with great success in living each day. Along with seeing ourselves sober, we can see ourselves living and working according to the best principles we know. We can see a business relationship improving. We can see some longstanding problems being solved. We can see a brighter side to negative situations that have persisted in spite of our best efforts to change them.
One author also talked about “seeing God on both sides of the table in any business negotiation.” We desire success, of course, but it’s also important to know that any negotiation ought to be successful for both parties. If we’re really practicing spiritual principles in all of our affairs, there should be no desire to outmaneuver another per-son in any negotiation. There is always a price that is fair and satisfactory for both parties, and there are always terms suitable for both sides.
I will go through this day visualizing it as I think it should be according to the highest and best principles I know. I will put aside self-will and see everybody benefiting from any negotiation in which I am involved.
© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery
Reflection for the Day
We may not know any specifics about the activities of today; we may not know whether we’ll be alone or with others. We may feel the day contains too much time—or not enough. We may be facing tasks we’re eager to complete, or tasks we’ve been resisting. Though the details of each person’s day differ, each person’s day does hold one similarity: each of us has the opportunity to choose to think positive thoughts. The choice depends less on our outside activities than on our inner commitment. Can I accept that I alone have the power to control my attitude?
Today I Pray
May I keep the fire of inner commitment alive through this whole, glorious day, whether my activities are a succession of workaday tasks or free-form and creative. May I choose to make this a good day for me, and for those around me.
Today I Will Remember
Keep the commitment.
© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery
ATTITUDE
The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude.
~ Viktor Frankl ~
I have always found someone like Viktor Frankl to be an inspiration. His attitude to life totally amazes me, especially after suffering and losing all his family in the Nazi concentration camps. How could anyone come away from an experience like that and still find meaning in life, much less meaning in suffering? I certainly could never find any meaning in all the years of suffering through compulsive eating which caused me so much pain. Life didn’t seem meaningful at the time, and I wondered if it ever could. But one of the things I have learned in the program is that I can allow myself to wallow in self-pity, which I did many times, or I can take the lessons from my life’s experiences and use them as opportunities for growth. That has not been an easy one for me in my journey, and there have been many times when life just seemed to be too hard. I wondered whether I had the same strength and positive attitude that Viktor Frankl did. Intellectually I know that attitude is a choice I make. There have been times when I’ve been depressed and full of self-pity and I allowed myself to sink into that abyss of despair. But now, knowing that I have a choice, that I can pick myself up and “act as if,” I can have a positive attitude. When I make the positive choice, miraculous things happen, and life somehow seems a lot easier.
One Day at a Time . . .
I will make a choice to think positive thoughts, and try to emulate people like Viktor Frankl and others who have battled enormous difficulties and yet kept a positive attitude. When I do that, I know my life will become infinitely better.
~ Sharon
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery
A VISION FOR YOU
A Positive AttitudeOne of the methods that helps in recovery is to see yourself as a sober person living a clean life. This is the “vision for you” that the society’s founders offered in AA’s early days, and it’s still powerful today.While being careful to avoid self-will, we can use this method with great success in living each day. Along with seeing ourselves sober, we can see ourselves living and working according to the best principles we know. We can see a business relationship improving. We can see some longstanding problems being solved. We can see a brighter side to negative situations that have persisted in spite of our best efforts to change them.One author also talked about “seeing God on both sides of the table in any business negotiation.” We desire success, of course, but it’s also important to know that any negotiation ought to be successful for both parties. If we’re really practicing spiritual principles in all of our affairs, there should be no desire to outmaneuver another per-son in any negotiation. There is always a price that is fair and satisfactory for both parties, and there are always terms suitable for both sides.I will go through this day visualizing it as I think it should be according to the highest and best principles I know. I will put aside self-will and see everybody benefiting from any negotiation in which I am involved.© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
GRATEFUL FOR WHAT I HAVE, p.208
During this process of learning more about humility, the most profound result of all was the change in our attitude toward God.
12 & 12, p. 75
Today my prayers consist mostly of saying thank you to my Higher Power for my sobriety and for the wonder of God’s abundance, but I need also to ask for help and the power to carry out His will for me. I no longer need God each minute to rescue me from the situations I get myself into by not doing His will. Now my gratitude seems to be directly linked to humility. As long as I have the humility to be grateful for what I have, God continues to provide for me.
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
A Positive Attitude
“That old nest of negativism followed me everywhere I went.”
Basic Text, p.135
A negative attitude is the trademark of active addiction. Everything that occurred in our lives was someone or something else’s fault. We had blaming others for our shortcomings down to a fine science. In recovery, one of the first things we strive to develop is a new attitude. We find that life goes a lot easier when we replace our negative thinking with positive principles.
While a negative attitude dogged us in our active addiction, all too often it can follow us into the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous. How can we begin to adjust our attitudes? By altering our actions. It isn’t easy, but it can be done.
We can start by listening to the way we talk. Before we open our mouths, we ask ourselves some simple questions: Does what I’m going to say speak to the problem, or the solution? Is what I’m going to say framed in a kind manner? Is what I have to say important, or would everyone be just as well off if I kept my mouth shut? Am I talking just to hear myself talk, or is there some purpose to my “words of wisdom?”
Our attitudes are expressed in our actions. Often, it’s not what we say, but the way we say it, that really matters. As we learn to speak in a more positive manner, we will notice our attitudes improving as well.
Just for today: I want to be free of negativity. Today, I will speak and act positively.
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
Even on a rainy day, I can feel the sunshine.
Even when the clouds are gray, I can feel a glow.
There’s a little light inside me, just keeps burning.
I take it with me, everywhere I go.~ Jill Clark ~We carry within ourselves the single necessary Ingredient for our happiness: a positive attitude. Nothing can ruin our day, unless we let it. No remark can devastate us, unless we let it. No person can have a harmful, lasting impact on us, unless we let him or her. No unhealthy, negative attitude controls our thoughts without our assent.Feeling good about the experiences we’re having, regardless of their nature, is a decision. Trusting that some good will come out of every one of them is a habit we can form. We can acquire un attitude of hope for growth and positive change.I will see the sunshine even through the clouds if that’s my choice. Today I have twenty-four hours to practice this.© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
POSITIVE THINKING“It takes but one positive when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower and entire army of negative thoughts.”~ Robert H. Schuller A positive attitude is crucial for a successful recovery. This summer, I wasn’t laid up with two torn tendons in my left ankle. This happened right at the start of my summer vacation. When it first happened, I was VERY dejected. This had to happen NOW!!! Just when my holidays are starting? (not that ANY time is a good time to receive an injury!). However, upon reflection it WAS good timing. I didn’t have get myself to and from work. My daughter was finished school for the summer and was able to be home to assist me with day to day stuff. Plus I had just taken on some new OA service responsibilities and being home allowed me the time to really focus and internalize my new roles. Instead of looking at this as a negative – I think HP gave me an opportunity here to rest up and do some service at the same time. My daughter and I did some wonderful bonding as well. It would have been very easy just to turn negative and feel sorry for myself. But I simply would have made myself (and everyone around me) miserable during my six weeks of recovery. Instead, it’s turned out to be a wonderful learning experience (not to mention it provided a good idea for this meditation topic!). Life’s too short for cheap whine, n’est past?One Day at a Time . . .
I will look at life from a positive point of view.~ Rob R. ~
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
Jobs are as good or as bad as the mental attitude we have toward them. No man holds a job but what some other man is envious of him on its account and every job has its good and bad points.Too often we hear the excuse that the job was the cause of the drinking, when most frequently it was the drinking that made the job obnoxious.One man swinging a pick is digging a hole in the ground and his fellow workman beside him is doing his part in the erection of a Temple.Maybe it’s not the job at fault, maybe it’s your attitude toward it.Published by Hazelden
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
Reflection for the DayIt’s time for me to realize that my attitude—toward the life I’m living and the people in it—can have a tangible, measurable, and profound effect on what happens to me day by day. If I expect good, then good will surely come to me. And if I try each day to base my attitude and point of view on a sound spiritual foundation, I know it will change all the circumstances of my life for the better, too. Do I accept the fact that I have been given only a daily reprieve that is contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual condition?Today I PraySince my illness was spiritual—as well as physical and emotional—may I mend spiritually through daily communion with God. May I find a corner of quiet within me where I can spend a few moments with God. May God’s will be known to me. May I worship God from that inner temple that is in myself.Today I Will RememberTo spend a quiet moment with God.© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
A VISION FOR YOU
A Positive AttitudeOne of the methods that helps in recovery is to see yourself as a sober person living a clean life. This is the “vision for you” that the society’s founders offered in AA’s early days, and it’s still powerful today.While being careful to avoid self-will, we can use this method with great success in living each day. Along with seeing ourselves sober, we can see ourselves living and working according to the best principles we know. We can see a business relationship improving. We can see some longstanding problems being solved. We can see a brighter side to negative situations that have persisted in spite of our best efforts to change them.One author also talked about “seeing God on both sides of the table in any business negotiation.” We desire success, of course, but it’s also important to know that any negotiation ought to be successful for both parties. If we’re really practicing spiritual principles in all of our affairs, there should be no desire to outmaneuver another per-son in any negotiation. There is always a price that is fair and satisfactory for both parties, and there are always terms suitable for both sides.I will go through this day visualizing it as I think it should be according to the highest and best principles I know. I will put aside self-will and see everybody benefiting from any negotiation in which I am involved.© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
SELF-ESTEEMWe can help one another find out the meaning of life. But in the last analysis, each is responsible for finding himself.~ Thomas Merton ~“Because of my changed attitude, I am today he best me I’ve ever been.” The ability to say those words at any moment is one of the many rewarding experiences of recovery. Those words are not boastful. They describe a newly found self-esteem.Those words go beyond satisfaction for our ability to correct character defects and make amends. They are more than an appreciation of character growth. They are a daily personal challenge to make every tomorrow a day on which we can repeat the words, “I am the best me ever.”Whatever progress I make will not come to me as a gift. I need to work for every inch of growth. Others can show me the way to be the “best me ever,” but I have to do the work.©1990 by Anonymous, Published by Hazelden
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
Failure is impossible.~ Susan B. Anthony ~Failure is an attitude. Having an attitude of failure can’t help us. It can only hurt us. If we’re not careful, it can grow into a way of life. So, when we feel like failures, we’d better look at our attitudes.An attitude of failure often comes from making mistakes. But we can learn to see our mistakes as lessons. This turns mistakes into gains, not failures. Sometimes, we try to do things that just can’t be done. When we act like we can control others, we’re going to fail. When we act like we know everything, we’re going to fail. If we try to act like God, we’re going to fail.We can’t control others. We can’t know everything. We’re not God. We’re human. If we act human, we’ve already won.Prayer for the DayHigher Power, help me to learn from my attitudes. Whatever the outcome, help me learn.Action for the DayFacing our past “failures” is the first step to learning from them. I’ll talk to my sponsor about a past “failure” and the good that came from it.
Copyright © 1988 by Hazelden Foundation
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
THE EIGHTH PROMISEOur whole attitude and outlook on life will change.~Big Book ~Before the Program, the only changes in our lives were in the substances we were using, our companions, or the place we went to use. We only changed the way we obeyed the commands of our compulsion. What didn’t change was the fact that our lives always became worse.We never admitted that our addiction was our enemy. We always considered it to be a friend in times of need. We believed it was the only way to enjoy life—unti it began to destroy that life. Then we realized it must be put entirely out of our lives if we were to survive.Our attitudes and outlook on life changed for the better in every way when we began to practice abstinence and work the Steps.Today I see exciting changes occurring physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I am no longer a slave to the limited changes dictated by my addiction.©1990 by Anonymous, Published by Hazelden
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec
