Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - June

[bluidkiti]

June 9

Step by Step

"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable." - Step One

Today, Steps 2 through 12 become mountains if the one step that requires absolute and unconditional surrender and humility - Step One - isn't taken so thoroughly that it becomes so indelible in subconscious awareness. We don't have any prayer for a quality recovery if we do not or will not accept the simple fact that our use of alcohol makes everything in our lives unmanageable. And if my ego is such that I will not admit I have no control over alcohol, maybe I can adopt a different perspective until I can check my ego in subsequent steps. Instead of thinking that alcohol controls me, I will control alcohol by not allowing it to control me. And the strongest weapon is abstinence. Today, if I find myself struggling with any of the steps, maybe I need ask if I've even left the starting block - Step One. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

We are only as sick as our secrets.

~ Anonymous ~

The shadowy world of our addiction kept us always in search of new places to hide. Each time we told a lie, we had to develop an elaborate cover for the lie. Every time we broke a promise, cheated on our loved ones, stole from our job, we would make up new stories to cover our tracks. When we got caught in a lie, we would create even more complicated lies to cover up the truth. When anyone threatened our addiction we would go further underground to make sure its needs were met.
Our recovery has allowed us an opportunity to be shown the way out of the maze of lies and secrets. They cannot co-exist with an honest life. If we are to be entirely honest in all our affairs, the cat must come out of the bag. The truth will set us free.

I'm not going to be sick any more. There can be no lies or secrets in my life of recovery. I must always be ready to be entirely honest.

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

The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings.

~ Gita Beilin ~

Many of us were taught in boyhood that feelings should be avoided. Some men think that any kind of vulnerability should be hidden, and most feelings can make us feel vulnerable. For some of us, the only acceptable feeling is the one that makes us feel stronger: anger. Many men don’t even know what their feelings are; many others recognize their feelings but have never learned how to express them to others. When we found our addictions and codependencies, they quickly became handy ways to hide from feelings. But that only served our false sense of masculinity.

As we seek a life free from compulsions and addictions, moving from the foolish ways to the wise ways of true manhood, we honestly admit our feelings. We are strong enough to stop hiding. We honestly feel our feelings because they allow us to live more fully.

Today I will be conscious of my feeling and give them a place in my life.

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

When you least expect it is when you are over-whelmed with the generosity of others.

~ Iris Timberlake ~

Expectations can be both good and bad. At times positive expectations are appropriate and healthy. For instance, when we prepare for a job interview, it is far better to visualize in great detail a positive experience. This can lessen the anxiety we might feel in the actual interview.

In other situations, however, our expectations set us up for major disappointment. Maybe we hope a friend will acknowledge our birthday in a special way, but she forgets it entirely. In this case expectations have done us an unnecessary injury.

Sometimes having no expectations is best. Then whatever happens can gratify us. At those times we can simply thank our Higher Power for blessing us as the divine plan has called for. It’s these unexpected gifts that help us realize the power of God in our lives. We are being taken care of every moment, even when we are least aware of it.

I will be very conscious of my expectations today. I won’t set myself up for disappointment if I’m aware of my thoughts.

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

I am learning about making mistakes

I used to feel awful about myself when I made a mistake (and for some time afterward). For example, a mistake in recovery might be forgetting to go to a meeting or take my meds; it might be getting upset out of proportion to a problem. Simply having symptoms felt like a mistake to me. (At times, I felt that I was the mistake.) I felt less than other people for having a psychiatric illness.

Now I treat myself more gently. Dual recovery is teaching me to do that. I work on forgiving myself as soon as I can after making a mistake. I'm learning that everyone, even people I look up to, makes mistakes (including my therapist and sponsor). In fact, making a mistake may be the most common way to learn‒it tells me I need to do something different.

I will recall my last mistake and write down two lessons I can learn, or have learned, from it.

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

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.

~ Wilson Mizner ~

A good salesperson is usually a good listener. Being a good listener also helps in being a good parent or spouse, neighbor or friend. When we are truly able to hear what others are trying to say, we are better able to enter their world, and let them into ours.

Listening to the collective wisdom of others helps us gain understanding and perspective on the world around us. When it comes to recovery from a life-threatening illness like addiction, listening to others who are in recovery is like receiving a gift of ideas.

It is not always easy to listen, because it’s often our nature to want to be the center of attention. But listening is an art worth developing. It enriches our lives, improves our relationships, and helps us feel better about ourselves.

Today may I enrich my spiritual life by listening to others.

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

We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it as not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~

How do you define courage? When you think of the word, your mind might conjure up images of soldiers in battle saving comrades, of doctors serving the needs of populations in third-world countries, or of someone who has lost the use of a leg learning how to walk again.

But perhaps courage is less about heroics and more about having the commitment to make things right. Making the decision to follow a path of recovery is courageous. As rock singer Bono once said, “My heroes are the ones who survived it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.” That is what you are doing today. Admitting you have a problem takes incredible courage. Making a commitment to be clean and sober reflects courage. Taking stock of the things you have done wrong and striving to make amends takes courage.

Courage is based on doing more than you think you are capable of doing, and going farther than you thought you could go.

Today my actions will reflect courage. I will go above and beyond all the challenges that face me.

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

When you worry, you go over the same ground endlessly and come out the same place you started. Thinking makes progress from one place to another. . . . The problem of life is to change worry into thinking and anxiety into creative action.

~ Harold B. Walker ~

The prisoner in a narrow jail cell has one path to pace-walking the same path with the same amount of paces at the same rate. It never changes until that prisoner is released.

When we worry, we are like that prisoner. Worry keeps our minds confined to one set of thoughts and keeps our physical bodies in a state of anxiety. We may believe that by thinking of the problem, we are working on a resolution. But we are really only dwelling on the futility of the problem.

It is only when we are released from worry that we can see solutions clearly. Tonight, let us free ourselves from worry's constraints, change our minds from tunnel vision to clear thoughts. These thoughts are the key to our release from worry and anxiety.

I don't have to stay prisoner to worrisome thoughts. Tonight can allow clear thinking to give me freedom from worry.

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

Living miracles

When people abuse alcohol and other drugs month after month, it seems that only a miracle can take them out of their depths of despair. But the miracle is not having a great vision or experience. Rather we need only do our daily task.

If we practice patience, faith, and love amidst the turmoil of the day, we will have great opportunity for a clean, joyful life. If we practice the needs of the spirit, we will become our own living miracles.

Am I living spiritually?

Higher Power, may I act more in your spirit in my daily activities.

I will practice living spiritually today by

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.

~ ERICA JONG ~

Newcomer

Someone I know in this fellowship announced to me that she’s not a gossip, then proceeded to ask my advice about a personal situation involving another member of the fellowship. I jumped right into it; I know gossip is wrong, but I was flattered to be taken into her confidence. Now, whenever I see the person who was gossiped about, I think about what I heard.

Sponsor

Gossip and criticism of others is often described as harm-less, but it is not. It harms everyone concerned: the gossiper, those who hear him or her, and the person gossiped about. It divides us from one another, fostering an “us against them” mentality that threatens the basis of recovery— threatens our acknowledgment of a common problem, our need for sharing and identification with others, our commitment to group unity and welfare. When we take other people’s inventories, we lose sight of our own; it’s not healthy for our recovery.

If we’re not sure how to handle a people problem we’re facing, we may need to reason things out with someone we trust. Crossing the boundary into gossip or character assassination, however, is something we can learn to live without.

Today, I respect the power of words. I use them for healing, rather than harm.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

One reason is the creator of all our conditions of life, whether they be legitimate or illegitimate. We think ourselves into stormy and turbulent living just as surely as we think ourselves into peace and serenity.

Our stinking drinking was as much a product of our stinking thinking as was our stinking thinking the result of our stinking drinking.

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

IN FELLOWSHIP

Whatever is true, whatever is noble,
Whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
Whatever is unselfish‒if anything is useful or praiseworthy‒
I will think about such things.
The things I have learned and received and heard and seen in
Our Fellowship and Program, I will practice, and the God of
My understanding will be with me.

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

THAT ILLOGICAL FELLOW

People sometimes say, "l believe firmly in the spiritual teaching, and I have done so for years, but I have never been able to make it work−isn't that strange?" And sometimes they say this with quite an air of triumph.

Such people remind me of a man who used to boast that he had an ailment that no one could heal. He had successfully defied every school of healing and had emerged triumphantly still in possession of his affliction. As it happens, his wife did heal him later on by prayer alone, but she was a patient and persevering woman. That man's wife probably points the way to the overcoming of such illogicality. The key to success lies in just the qualities that she obviously had; patience combined with a gentle and unhurried expectation of success.

The patient whom she healed is not a rare specimen, nor is he unknown to any one of us. We are all likely to encounter him under our own hat at any moment!

I know thy works, and. charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works . . . (Revelation 2:19).

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

Good News

Your defenses will not work, but you are not in danger.

~ A Course in Miracles ~

At a cavalry outpost in the Old West, two soldiers vigilantly fended off an Indian attack, determined to fight to the death if necessary. One of the soldiers tapped the other on the shoulder and informed him, "l have good news, and I have bad news. The bad news is that we are out of ammunition, and there are no reinforcements."

"Then what's the good news?" asked the other soldier.

"There are no Indians."

We may spend much of our life trying to protect ourselves against the calamities that threaten to destroy us. We may invest vast amounts of time, energy, and effort to armor ourselves against people, institutions, and ideas that we believe have the power to take away our good. Yet if we would step back for even a moment and call to question the power we have ascribed to evil, we would find that our entire defense strategy was based on a faulty premise. "Logic" has been defined as " a system of reasoning by which you arrive at the wrong conclusion with confidence." lf we build our world on fear, every action that follows on its heels will result in self-diminution because we erected our world on a misunderstanding.

What actions do you undertake in the name of self-defense? Do they truly bring you more peace, or do they edify your sense of powerlessness and abandonment? I chuckle as I read magazine ads for radar detectors. Every year the companies come out with a new method to outwit current state-of-the-art police technology, and the next year the police invent new methods for overriding the latest radar detectors. Like the Mad magazine cartoon, "Spy Versus Spy," everyone is trying to trick everyone else, and no one ever wins.

We are most powerful when we give up trying to defend ourselves and allow Spirit to take care of us.

Help me to let go of my human defenses and rely on You for my safety and support.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.