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March 9

Step by Step

Today – and every day that follows if any – I accept reality as it is and not as I want it to be through my character defects or as I think my reality should be. Failure or refusal to recognize and accept the reality of my being makes my recovery one that is not based in fact, honesty and integrity and, predictably, I may be setting myself up for relapse. Being abstinent is not the end of recovery: it is the beginning because I have to confront the emotional and spiritual defects of a sick character that take significantly longer than just being dry to repair. Today, in my Fourth and 10th steps, may I have the objectivity – not to mention guts – to be honest about my reality so that my recovery is based in truth instead of denial of my actual emotional and spiritual sickness. A recovery of anything less than absolute self-awareness and honesty makes me little more than a dry drunk. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M.

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~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~

PROCRASTINATION

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

~ Don Marquis ~

We were constant procrastinators before we began our 12 Step Program. Addiction created the habit of delay because, as long as we had our substance, everything else could wait.

Now we know that action truly is the magic word. The slogan “Easy Does It” doesn’t mean to put things off. It means to do it, but do it in God’s good time. Slow growth doesn’t mean postponement.

We can’t put off airing problems to other people for fear of being ridiculed. We need answers early during our progress. When we attempt to ask for solutions, we can be clear and direct in our questions. We know our friends will always give us the right to be wrong and quickly correct faulty thinking.

I can solve problems just by “pressing on.” Procrastination is not living one day at a time. I will do today what I am meant to do today.

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~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is that little voice at the end of the day that says: “I’ll try again tomorrow.’1

~ Anne Hunninghake ~

A key quality that distinguishes a successful athlete, or a top-notch performer in any field, is the way he responds to his bad days. Everyone has good days and bad days, and the good ones are certainly easier to handle. But do we allow the bad ones to throw us off our course? Are we so shaken by our mistakes or troubles that we lose our focus on our goals?

Adult development is a process; it’s never an end goal that we reach and hold. Our healing and recovery includes preparing ourselves to respond well to the bad days. We can do that by keeping our eye on the big picture, knowing that however bad things may seem at the moment, they will change. We learn to reach deep into our spiritual center for the courage to stay focused in the midst of our hardest days. We don’t have to do it alone. We have the spiritual support of our Higher Power and the companionship of our friends to keep us on the path.

Today I will stay in touch with my spiritual center to find the courage for another day.

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~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~

Believe the best in yourself. Then it is easier to believe the best in others.

~ Mardy Kopischke ~

Most of us have struggled—perhaps for years— trying to see the best in ourselves. But our less- than-stellar behavior has muddied our attempts to focus on our positive qualities. We have always had them; however, it may require a careful inventory and our sponsor’s feedback to bring our positive qualities into focus. Why is it so much easier to remember the actions over which we feel shame?

Many of us can’t see the good in ourselves until we can recognize what it looks like. It helps to start by identifying the good in other people; then we can learn to identify it in ourselves. This effort will ensure us many rewards.

It’s really not important how we go about identifying our best attributes. That we come to appreciate them is the goal. And the beauty of this is that by openly expressing our appreciation we strengthen the good in ourselves and in others.

The contribution I can make today is really so easy. All I need to do is focus on a positive quality not only in someone else but also in myself.


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~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~

I have one goal today: stay clean and sober

I want to do it. I know I can do it. I’ve done it before. I will do it again. Now that my psychiatric symptoms are getting better, I want to stop using more than anything else. I want my life back again – all of it.

Today I know what to do and I know who can help me. I have no excuses anymore. I’ll be OK without my drug. The most important thing in my life today is staying straight. Today, it’s the only thing I have to do.

I will write out the most important thing I can do to remain abstinent on this clean-and-sober day.


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~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~

Look inside. See the wonderful and the painful.
Be open to the process of taking an inventory.

~ Margaret M. ~

Inventory? We thought we only had to do that when the tax man came around. Now we’re supposed to look closely at ourselves and write it all down— a pretty scary proposition.

But if we feel the fear and move through it, we’ll see and find a lot. To know who we’re working with on this journey through recovery, we’d better interview ourselves pretty well. We have a long way to go together; it will be an easier trip if we start out with an honest look.

But an honest look means giving ourselves credit for all the good in us, too. An inventory isn’t just of negatives, but of everything in us. We need to be aware of the major roadblock we call “perfection.” This has stopped many efforts and is a way of avoiding this self-search.

This is all new behavior for us. It’ll feel scary, maybe confusing at first. But we can learn to let go of fear and take our time. Now we have support systems and trust in our Higher Power to help us. With the new strength we’ve found, we can face an inventory with courage and get to know and love our true selves for the first time.

Today help me trust my Higher Power to guide me through the maze. The reward at the other end is worth it.


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~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~

It’s this simple—if I never try anything, I never learn anything—if I never take a risk, I stay where I am.

~ Hugh Prather ~

In the movie Cast Away, Tom Hanks plays a man who is marooned on an island after a plane crash. As the days turn into weeks, then into months, and finally into years, he loses hope that he will ever be rescued. But then the tide brings him a piece of metal and he forms an idea. If he could build a raft, using the metal as a sail, he could perhaps escape the island and return to civilization.

His plan works. He yearns to resume life where he left off, but everything has changed. Filled with despair, he visits a friend who asks how he was able to survive on the island. He thinks for a moment and then answers, “I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive… I had to keep breathing… so that’s what I did.”

Recovery requires you to trust even when you feel there is no reason to hope. To embark on a new path requires you to try new ways of acting, behaving, and living. Unless you try, you will never know if you can succeed.

Today the risks I take will give me wings. With these wings, I can experience a new way of living.


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~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.

~ Charles de Secondat Montesquieu ~

How many times have we gone out to dinner with friends and ordered what they ordered? Or bought a pair of shoes or some clothing because we liked the item on someone else? Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery, but it can also be a way of trying to capture the same things we admire in another person.

How often do we compare our emotions? “If only I were as happy as she is,” we might say. It may be easier to look at how others feel instead of looking at our-selves. We may not even know how we feel unless we look at someone else for comparison.

Yet appearances are not always the true story. Some-one can seem like the happiest person, yet be miserable inside. Happiness has to come from within us. It’s okay if our expressions of happiness don’t reflect the expressions of others. The only reflections we need to see are our own. 

I can look in the mirror and see happiness the way it really is. If I want to be happier, that’s up to me.

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~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~

Having a sponsor

Why do people in this program always suggest we get a sponsor? Doubtful people ask, “If I have the whole fellowship to turn to, why do I need a sponsor?” Considering the fact that we have tricky minds, the whole fellowship would give us too many answers.

If we didn’t like one answer, we could go to another and then another until we got the answer we wanted. But this would be self- will run riot and contrary to turning our will over to the care of God. A sponsor can put a check on our self-will.

Do I have a sponsor?

Higher Power, may I learn not to operate on self-will and may my mind stay clear so that I don’t play games with my life.

Today I will talk with my sponsor about

God help me to stay clean and sober today!


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~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~

Anything done with focus, awareness, or mindfulness is a meditation.

~ DAVID HARP ~

Newcomer

I hear people talk about meditating, but I don’t seem to know how. When I try sitting still, my mind wanders, or I fall asleep. I just don’t get it.

Sponsor

Even in recovery, we have an endless capacity for being con-fused. There are literally dozens of different approaches to meditation and many books and classes that teach them. Some forms of meditation come out of ancient traditions, some are religious, and some are just methods of relaxation. You can practice meditation alone or with others, in silence or chanting, sitting or walking. Even cleaning house can be a form of meditation!

Over time, I’ve found a simple approach to meditation that feels natural and right for me. If you’d like to try it, here’s how: Take three to five minutes for time out to sit quietly, without distractions. Scan your body and mind, and let go of any tensions you notice. Breathe naturally, and pay attention to what that feels like. Whatever thoughts or sensations arise, don’t make yourself wrong for having them. Afterward, you may notice that you feel calm and refreshed.

Whatever I choose to do today, I practice doing it with ease and pleasure. I keep it simple. I don’t judge my progress.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

When we become fully conscious that we, as men, are spirit primarily, that our bodies are but necessary instruments through which the spirit works; that the mind is not a collection of brain cells but is actually a series of thought waves as free of actual substance as the winds or the rays of light or heat, we appreciate the fact that chains are powerless to restrain the thoughts which are actually the mind.

We can and do select the thoughts we store up in those brain cells. We keep what we want and we discard what we please. The kind of thoughts we think become habit and so become us.

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~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~

1) GOD: Good Orderly Direction

2) Refuse to star in their psychodrama.

3) Repression causes depression.

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~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~

My Prayer for You

I thought of you so much today
I went to God in prayer,
To ask Him to watch over you
And show you that we care.

My prayer for you was not for rewards
That you could touch or feel,
But true rewards for happiness
That are so very real.

Like love and understanding
In all the things you do,
And guidance when you need it most
To see your troubles through.

I asked Him for good health for you
So your future could be bright,
And faith to accept life’s challenges
And the courage to do what’s right.

I gave thanks to Him
For granting my prayer
To bring you peace and love.
May you feel the warmth in your life
With God’s blessings from above.

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~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~

HOW TO KEEP FROM GROWING

Never be original. Find out what is usually done and copy that. Realize that you have nothing more to learn. This will destroy all danger of success.

Sneer at those who are more successful than yourself.

Tell yourself that it is now too late, and that you really did not have the proper equipment; and it will be especially helpful to keep saying that people are against you.

Never learn from experience. Keep on doing the same fool things time after time.

Never wait to hear the other side of the story. Knowing both sides will only unsettle your mind.

Use your wit destructively. Be smart at the expense of absent people.

Stand on your dignity. Never forget that you have a position to keep up.

Try to get everything cheap. Study and practice to become the perfect “chiseler.” This will build an invincible poverty complex.

…the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness (Proverbs 12:23).

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~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~

Hold Your Ground

If you don’t run your own life, someone else will.

~ John Atkinson ~

After the filming of Field of Dreams was completed on location in Iowa, one of the farmers who owned the plot of land where the movie was shot, plowed a section of the baseball field. Soon he was faced with such an outcry from neighbors and visitors that he yielded and restored the field. Later he acknowledged, “Well, I guess if it makes people happy to come, that’s fine with me.”

Don’t let anyone plow under your field of dreams. While it may mean little to them, it is precious to you. If you love your project or vision, stand behind it. It needs your energy and caring. If your venture is worthwhile, the world will come around. And even if the world does not stand in acclaim, you cannot afford to abandon the child of your heart.

Give me the strength to uphold what You would have me do.
I believe in me, and I believe in You.

I bring my visions to life with faith and action.