Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - June

[bluidkiti]

June 20

Step by Step

"It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw ..." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 1 ("Bill's Story"), p 12.

Today, a leap of blind faith searching for a power greater than myself, if I am still struggling with the concept of a higher power. Just as I was warned repeatedly in my drinking days that my spouse or partner would leave me, that I would be fired if I showed up at work drunk again if I even showed up at all, or my next DUI would be elevated to a felony, AA's co-founders and early members warn that I absolutely must come to believe in something stronger and better than myself if I have a prayer for sobriety and recovery. In my drinking days, I didn't yield to many of the warnings, and the outcome that was promised because I didn't stop drinking became fact. Today, I yield to the warnings of the voices of experience and become at least willing to believe. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

FEAR

Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.

~ Anonymous ~

Fear haunts so many of us. Fear is behind all our resentments. It attacks us when we are alone and isolated. It can wreak havoc on us when we are by ourselves. We see only dark clouds over our heads; all appears hopeless and negative.

We have meetings because we do not face our fears alone. The Program is not a program of us talking to ourselves. We need the Fellowship and our fellow travelers.

When we overcome the fear of asking for help, the program will give us all the support we need. But the Fellowship is not composed of mind readers. We have to open our mouths and share our struggles. Remember, when we share experience, we, can also be sharing our troubles. We share problems as well as solutions.

My fears have a way of dissolving when I share them with my sponsor and fellow members.

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

A great teacher never strives to explain his vision— he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself.

~ Reverend R. Inman ~

In the spirit of our recovering fellowship, we are very cautious about advising anyone. Advice is only given when requested and even then with great care. Words of advice are so easily spoken but so often off target. We all find it easy to see what someone else should do, but the much harder task is to find insight into our own actions. So we focus on the harder and more helpful part, striving to live our lives as well as possible. We can grow by standing beside other successful recovering people and learning how they do it, and we can allow others to stand beside us to learn what they can.

A good example is always the best teacher. The wisest men are not sure their advice is useful to anyone. They just live their lives in ways that suit them, and others can take from it whatever is useful and leave the rest.

Today I will work on the harder task of deepening my insight into my own thoughts and actions.

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

Things that happen aren’t necessarily good or had; they just fit into my plans, or they don’t.

~ Anne Arthur ~

Because we are certain we know what is best for us, we seldom let our Higher Power take responsibility for the circumstances that capture our attention. More often, we map out what we think should happen, then spend hours worrying when the unexpected occurs.

It is normal for us to want our lives to unfold according to our dreams. Maturity, however, means planning for today and tomorrow and remembering not to force control over situations that involve other people. And most of our experiences include other people.

Our growth in recovery can be measured by how quickly we let God take charge of our experiences and outcomes. By turning our plans over to God and acknowledging that greater plan, we signal our readiness for the serenity this program promises.

I am guaranteed a secure partnership with a Higher Power. If I rely on that partnership today, I will feel serene, and I will instinctively know that my plan and God’s are one and the same.

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

I am worried about quitting my meds

Since I've been on medication a while now, I am feeling much better. I'm stable, back at work, and feeling pretty relaxed. I attend meetings and therapy each week. So, these days, I sometimes wonder, Why take the meds anymore? They're expensive, inconvenient, and worst of all, they still cause me some side effects.

On the other hand, maybe I'd relapse if I stopped taking them. If I suddenly quit, perhaps I'd have a strong physiological reaction. Perhaps I'd even risk losing some of my progress. I know that recovery is my choice, but I can tell now that I'm too uncertain to make a rational decision on my own. I need professional guidance.

I will call my psychiatrist for advice and ask my higher power for wisdom and strength.

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

Recovery is a journey, not a destination.

~ Program Saying ~

There is no single point we reach when we are “recovered,” when everything is all done and “in order.” It’s not that easy, nor should it be. Recovery is a process, a way of living that supports and revitalizes us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Recovery becomes the sum total of all our efforts and experiences. It signifies our efforts to change. It is driven by spirituality.

We’re not ill one day and recovered the next. No one book or concept will do it. It’s not an intellectual place or level of understanding. And it’s not affected by our age or depth of experience.

Recovery is something that is a part of us every day. We live it. Even during hard times, we know the process of change is happening. It gets better and easier, but it’s never really over. It’s a new life, and one we’re thankful for.

Today help me remember that recovery is a journey, not a destination.

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

You have put me in here a cub, but I will come out roaring like a lion, and I will make all hell howl!

~ Carry Nation ~

Prisons take away freedom; so do cages in a zoo. Such enclosures are designed to decrease individuality and increase dependency and obedience. Your addiction can be viewed similarly; it is a jail that has kept you captive. It has prevented you from thinking about anything or anyone else. It has numbed your feelings. It has severed your ties to a spiritual presence. It has taken away your ability to make choices. And it has deprived you of all of life’s beauty and experiences.

Addiction enslaves you, but recovery liberates you. It opens up all of your senses so you can experience a wide range of sensations. It clears your mind so you can think both rationally and creatively. It opens your world to possibilities. It encourages you to dream. It increases your knowledge.

Addiction requires your obedience, but recovery releases you. With such freedom comes the ability to discover what is within you. It gives you the power to choose and to take action. And it expands your horizons in ways that will enable you to see that the only limitations you have today are those you create for yourself.

Today I will celebrate my freedom from addiction.

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

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.

~ Robert Ingersoll ~

Hope is the invisible part of ourselves that can be the difference between getting somewhere and going nowhere. Hope is the extra set of muscles that allow us to carry on even though our legs can't support us any longer. Hope is the extra heartbeat that gives us positive energy when our senses can't feel, hear, or see beyond negativity. Hope is the nectar that restores health when our bodies feel old and broken-down.

The one thing everyone in the program has is hope. Hope keeps us sane and keeps us trying. For as long as we have hope, we'll always feel a candle burning within us that’s ready to light the world.

We increase our supply of hope every time we do something good, even when we don't want to. Hope is the extra push we give ourselves to quench rage, to bolster our reserves of patience, and to feel love when we find it difficult to feel. With hope in our lives, all else is possible.

Do I have hope tonight? Help me remain filled with hope about my life and the lives of those around me.

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

Looking for beauty

It is important that we look for beauty. There are beautiful things in the world each and every day, if we only know how to see.

In recovery, in serenity, beauty is every-where—even in pain and suffering—if we only know how to see.

How good am I at seeing all the beauty there is to see?

Higher Power, help me to use my recovery, my new vision, to see beauty.

Today I will practice looking for beauty in

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

~ HIPPOCRATES ~

Newcomer

Hospital visits, funerals, and things like that have never been my favorites. They’re even harder for me now that I don’t have my addiction to help me through.

Sponsor

When I’m confronting a personal loss, whether it’s my own or someone else’s, I become aware of my feelings of grief. I still have a lot of grieving to go through.

When I felt loss and sadness in the past, I was over-whelmed. Inside, I was afraid my feelings would destroy me, and I turned to addictive substances and behaviors for protection. When I entered recovery, I gave up what had been, in effect, an anesthetic. At first, recovery itself made me feel almost euphoric—high. But when the excitement of early recovery wore off, I had to face losses I’d been denying for years. A deep sense of sadness from my past welled up in me. And now I had another loss to mourn, the loss of the addiction that I’d taken refuge in.

Whenever I experience a new loss, feelings about old ones rise to the surface. What helps, more than finding ways to avoid difficult feelings, is sitting with them and letting myself feel them. They won’t destroy me. They pass and make room for other feelings—when I’m not trying to ward off difficult feelings, happiness, too, seems to flow more freely into my life.

Today, I go through my feelings by letting them go through me.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

Centuries ago a man learned to ignite wood artificially. No one in the world today knows his name, but all modern inventions are directly or indirectly traceable to his act. What his name is doesn’t matter but every skyscraper in the world is his monument. His name perished as all names are apt to do, bust his almost juvenile act of starting fire by friction will live as long as civilization does.

A single word you utter might kindle a fire that would burn through the ages.

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

NO STANDING STILL

Spirit of the Universe, never let me think that I have knowledge enough to need no teaching, wisdom enough to need no correction, talent enough to need no grace, goodness enough to need no progress, humility enough to need no repentance, devotion enough to need no inspiration, strength sufficient without Your Spirit; fearing, if I stand still, I will fall back for evermore.

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

THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE

Into the hand that made the rose,
shall I with trembling fall?

~ George Meredith ~

There is absolutely no reason to fear death. The same God is on the other side of the grave as on this side. However, most people do fear death, partly as fear of the unknown, and partly as the result of false teaching. Actually there is no death in the sense of extinction.

To understand death, you have to realize that you really possess not one body but two. You have not only the physical body, but also a second body made of a form of energy too fine to be seen. This etheric body interpenetrates the physical body as air fills a sponge. There are people who can see the etheric body because they have the power of contacting much finer vibrations than can be perceived by the ordinary physical senses.

It is this etheric body that is the repository of all your thoughts and feelings. It is the "psyche" of the psychologist. That is why personality survives death; because it resides in the etheric that passes over intact, and not in the physical that breaks up into decomposition.

During sleep, trance, and under anaesthesia, when the etheric may leave the physical body, it remains attached to it by an etheric ligament called in the Bible the Silver Cord. The cord is so elastic that the etheric body can go very long distances and still remain attached to the physical corpus.

Death is the severing of the Silver Cord. When the Silver Cord is severed, an individual falls into a state of unconsciousness that may last for minutes, days, or even weeks. Then he wakens as from sleep, and his new life has begun.

The next world is actually all around us here. The so-called dead are carrying on their lives here where we are now, but in their own world and in their own way. The reason we do not see them around us or collide with them is the same reason that one radio program does not interfere with another−they are on different wavelengths.

. . . though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: far thou art with me . . . (Psalm 23).

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

Perfect as Usual

Miracles are natural.

~ A Course in Miracles ~

As my 11-year-old friend Tasha sat down to eat some noodles she had cooked for lunch, I asked her, "How did your noodles turn out"

Tasha smiled and answered, "Perfect—as usual"

Tasha's answer reminded me that perfection is our natural state. Life was intended to work perfectly; it does and it will. Those who attune their vision to behold perfection will find it, create more good, and enjoy it. Those whose sight is set on loss, victimization, and death will continually manifest those experiences.

Some psychologists did an experiment on children's attitudes. They took a child who was considered negative and unappreciative and placed him in a room with a collection of new toys. He played with each toy for a few minutes and then complained that he was bored. Then the scientists took a child described as positive and optimistic and put him in a room with a huge pile of horse manure. Soon he smiled and exclaimed, "This is great!"

"Why is that?" one of the researchers asked him.

Quickly he answered, "There must be a pony somewhere!"

Miracles, perfection, healing, and happiness are not elusive and remote conditions. They represent our natural state, given as our birthright from God. We were not born to suffer; we were born to be happy. To find and live the truth, we must reverse the "laws" taught by the world. lf something can go right, it will. Death and taxes are not sure things. The purpose of relationships is love. To find the good is not Pollyanna; it is the only way that works.

Experiment for a day, week, month, year, or lifetime by claiming, "Perfect as usual," and refuse to settle for less. The life available to you is far greater than the one we have accepted.

Help me remember that I deserve love. Show me the world You intended for me to enjoy.

I live in a world of good. I claim perfection now.