Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - May

[bluidkiti]

May 20

Step by Step

"In spite of (a) great increase in the size and the span of this Fellowship, at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope." - Alcoholics Anonymous, Forward to the Third Edition, 1976.

Today, do not diminish the enormity of personal recovery by thinking that ours are insignificant among the millions of others who have found recovery in AA. The program empowers us and our recovery by telling us that our own and another person's hope begins one-to-one when two alcoholics talk to each other and share their experience, strength and hope. In turn, the alcoholic whose recovery began by talking to another alcoholic passes on his own experience, strength and hope. Today, we embrace with gratitude and humility the significance of our recovery along with those millions of others because, without our experience, strength and hope to pass on, our Fellowship will not increase in size, span or power in its message of reconciliation and redemption. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

SHORTCOMINGS

Search our shortcomings and convert them.

~ Anonymous ~

One of the hardest things to do is look at our own shortcomings when we are angry at someone. It seems impossible to believe at such times that something may be wrong with us. This is the reason we are so often instructed to count to ten. When we find ourselves so out of sorts, so internally disrupted, there is usually something wrong with us.

It is our first obligation to take care of ourselves. It is out of love for ourselves that we withdrawal and take a spot check inventory. The spot inventory does not demean or humiliate us. On the contrary, the purpose is to speak with God briefly, check our vital signs, and clean out our connections.

I always need my connection with God. Nothing works without a clear, clean, strong, conscious contact with my Higher Power.

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

When you lose, do not lose the lesson.

~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr. ~

The only mistakes we are doomed to repeat are the ones we fail to learn from. Life is a matter of approximating our goals, seldom a matter of hitting the bulls- eye. We take risks, sometimes we fail to understand what we are dealing with, and sometimes we just indulge ourselves in what we want regardless of what is good for us. So, in some ways, we are constantly re-measuring the difference between what we aimed for and what we actually achieved.

If we only mourn the loss or berate ourselves for missing the target and never use it to learn, we have truly lost something important. It is when we call on our inner resources and learn the lesson that we get better and stronger. Learning is the most important part of our life journey.

Today I will look for the lessons in my mistakes and let go of defeatist attitudes.

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

Ultimately, the only thing we have to share is our own vulnerability.

~ Kathy Kendall ~

Giving up our secrets is the only path to the health and wholeness we deserve. Paradoxically, we’re drawn closer to the women we admire when we talk about the parts of ourselves we abhor. We’re really not as awful as we suppose. We’re no different from every other woman walking this path. Mistakes, even the horrid ones, are human and repeated less frequently when the principles of this program guide us.

Each day, in order to strengthen the bond that heals each of us, we can let others know the person we are. By isolating ourselves with “our history” we deprive the women sharing our journey of the very information they need for insight into growth and healing. Conversely, by giving up our secrets we too can grow and heal.

I won’t hold back my truth today unless it would harm the listener. Healing is what I seek.

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

I am beginning to see improvements

I realize that recovery is a slow, subtle process with periods of growth and then plateaus. But over the past few weeks I am happy to see improvement in the three areas of my life affected by my dual disorder: I feel less irritable and more patient (emotional); I am sleeping better and my stomach trouble has cleared up (physical); I’ve settled on a home group and I now have a sponsor (spiritual).

I am grateful to claim another chip at my dual recovery meeting this month. It help me see that I can change, that my life is getting better, and that the program truly works.

I will tell my group (or sponsor) about the two most important things I did during the past month to help myself recover.

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

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

~ Hannah More ~

How many times have we read or heard stories of people who achieved greatness despite all sorts of obstacles? We may think there was something about their genetic makeup that enabled them to do more than the rest of us. That is not the case.

People who achieve their goals despite many obstacles are not superhuman. What they may possess, at times, is an intense, clear focus on the goal they wish to achieve. It’s like walking across a log 30 feet above the ground. If you focus on the goal — the platform at the end of the log — you are likely to walk across. But, if you take your eyes off the goal and look elsewhere, say, at the ground below, you will probably think about falling and not reach the goal.

Sobriety and abstinence are the goals for us. We may wonder if we can achieve these goals because of the obstacles we face. But we have help from our Higher Power and Twelve Step program. If we focus on our goals each morning and remember those goals throughout the day and in the evening, we can avoid the obstacles we face and find success and joy in our new lives.

Today help me to keep my goals of sobriety and abstinence in constant sight.

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

Prayer does not use any artificial energy, it doesn’t bum up any fossil fuel, it doesn’t pollute.

~ Margaret Mead ~

When you are hungry, you eat. When you are tired, you sleep. When you feel bored, you seek stimulation. When you injure yourself, you give your body time to heal. When you do not understand something, you seek knowledge. You can take care of such things without really thinking about them. But how well do you take care of your spiritual needs? More often than not, you may ignore them as they do not cry out for attention like your other needs do.

But without prayer, you may not be able to handle stress as effectively as you could. You may be able to cope with life and do well in remaining free from your habit, but you may not be able to develop a sense of inner peace.

Prayer is something as essential to you as eating. It provides you with nourishment that develops a feeling of being fulfilled. It restores your soul and provides healing energy. It offers answers that can help ease confusion. And it can lighten your outlook so that your burdens do not seem so heavy.

I will make time today for prayer and peaceful connection with a Higher Power. When I pray, I will be cultivating inner peace and adding enrichment to my life.

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

You just have to learn not to care about the dust-mice under the beds.

~ Margaret Mead ~

Perfection is something many of us strive for. We want the perfect marriage or relationship. We want the perfect house and perfect clothes. We want the perfect job and we yearn to be the perfect employee. We want perfection in our personalities and in all our actions.

Perfection means being perfect-no faults or blemishes. Sometimes we see perfection by a gymnast who scores a perfect ten. Yet every time that gymnast performs, she doesn't always score a ten. She is not perfect all the time, or even most of the time.

We can experience momentary perfection. Perhaps we earn an "A” or write a faultless business proposal or complete a knitting project without a dropped stitch. But these accomplishments don't mean we will always be perfect. We need to see ourselves as imperfect and allow the dropped stitches, the "Bs," and the 9.5 scores to exist. They let us see we are perfect in a special way−we are perfectly imperfect human being!

Nothing has to be perfect, as long as I give it my best effort.

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

Looking for a Higher Power

To stay clean of mood-altering chemicals, it is important to find a Higher Power—a personal Higher Power. Not one based on someone else’s ideas, not one based on someone else’s beliefs, but a Higher Power that speaks intimately to us alone.

Our histories are different; our recoveries are different. The kind of relationship we develop with our Higher Power may well be different too.

Am I finding my personal Higher Power?

I pray to develop a personal relationship with my Higher Power.

Today I will work in a personal relationship with my Higher Power by

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

Hell’s rather out of date.

~ ALFRED SUTRO ~

Newcomer

What can I do about depression, short of getting professional help?

Sponsor

In recovery, we can begin addressing depression physically, mentally, and spiritually. We can exercise (aerobic activity, half an hour a day, five days a week, is a powerful and healthy mood changer). We can eat nourishing food and avoid depressants like alcohol and other sedatives. We can begin to understand and feel compassion for ourselves as we share at meetings and work the Twelve Steps in a com-mitted and thorough way. We can let the program serve as a gateway to spiritual practice and connection.

Depression, if indeed that’s our problem, is an illness that must be taken seriously and addressed accordingly. If we’re suffering, there is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking professional help. Consulting a therapist doesn’t have to mean taking antidepressant drugs. Sometimes, though, medication is clearly indicated; many people in recovery have been helped by it without compromising their recovery in any way. We don’t get less sober by getting help.

Today, I take my mental, physical, and spiritual needs seriously; I reach out for help when I need it.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

Our lives today are a series of compromises. Legislators enact laws which are compromises to both contending factions. Juries bring in verdicts which they don’t even profess to be in accordance with the law and the evidence, and excuse their verdicts on the ground that it was a necessary compromise. Even the religions of the day are frequently adjusting their codes of do’s and don’ts in order to effect a compromise with their more liberal elements. Our national and international relations are based upon political expediency rather than sound political principles of justice.

When moral principles are involved there is no such thing as compromise−it must be either morally right or morally wrong.

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

THE GREAT REALITY

Let the Great Reality govern my every thought, and Truth be the heart of my life. For so it must be for all humanity. Please help me to do “my part.” And may the intensity of all our egos become the Joy of our One Soul.

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

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

Really there are only two feelings that a human being can have, namely love and fear. It is generally supposed that the kinds of feeling we may have are legion, but this is an illusion. All other feelings, so-called, will turn out upon analysis to be either love or fear.

What about anger? Well, anger is really but fear in disguise. In chemistry we occasionally find the same substance occurring under completely different appearances. For example, black lead is exactly the same substance chemically as a diamond, different as they look. They are said to be allotropic forms of carbon. In the same way, anger, hatred, jealousy, criticism, egotism, are all but allotropic forms of fear.

Joy, interest, the feeling of success and accomplishment, the appreciation of art, are allotropic forms of love. The great difference between the two feelings is that love is always creative, and fear is always destructive. It is for us to decide which of these two feelings shall hold sway in our lives.

God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him (1 John 4:16).

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

Stand by Your Plan

Believe that with your feeling and your work you are taking part in the greatest; the more strongly you cultivate in yourself this belief, the more will reality and the world go forth from it.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

The story behind the making of the blockbuster film Forrest Gump is as fascinating as the movie itself. After the script was pitched for nine years, Paramount finally took it on. When the movie went ten million dollars over budget (due largely to the special-effects scenes in which Forrest Gump visits well-known historical figures), the studio decided to finish the film without those scenes. Actor Tom Hanks and two producers urged the studio to invest more money in completing the special effects, but the studio refused and countered with the offer that if the principals wanted to invest two million dollars of their own funds, they could have a larger share of the box-office gross. The principals felt the movie was worth it, and took the risk. To everyone’s surprise, Forrest Gump became the third highest-grossing film of all time, earning over $300 million. The principals laughed all the way to the bank, and Tom Hanks received $30 million as his share.

If you believe in what you are doing, you will be asked to stand behind it fully. If you are true to yourself, you will act as if your goal is worth enormous support. Why would you be involved in any project that you could not put your whole heart and soul into? The Forrest Gump investors gave it 100 percent; they could not bear to stop with less.

Throw yourself wholeheartedly into the task at hand. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Live what you believe in, and the world will reward you many times over.

Inspire me to give all I have to what I believe in.

I support my visions with my whole heart.