Thoughts To Help You On Your Recovery Path

[MajestyJo]

AA slogans, sayings, and assorted inspirations

The steps keep us from suicide; the traditions keep us from homicide.

The only thing alcoholics do in moderation is the 12 steps!

The elevator is broken - take the steps!

Step 13: My life is unmanageable, and I want to share it with you.

It's alcohol-ism, not -wasm.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Gossip hurts - and sometimes kills.

Pain is necessary, suffering is optional!

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got.

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

Feelings aren't facts!!!

In AA, first we remove the anesthesia, then we operate.

Fellowship is the meeting after the meeting.

Let us love you until you learn to love yourself.

Isolation is the dark room where we develop our 'negatives'.

Compare and despair.

Don't compare you insides to other people's outsides.

Let go or get dragged.

If your spinning your wheels, try getting out of the driver's seat.

If your a$$ falls off, pick it up, put it in a paper bag, and carry it to a meeting.

Remember the cost of your last drink or drug when observing the 7th tradition.

Take an action, then let go of the results.

Carry the message, not the mess.

Don't tease your disease.

It's the first car of a train that kills you, not the caboose.

Relapse is NOT a requirement.

Relapse begins long before you pick up the drink/drug.

If you hang around a barbershop long enough, eventually you'll get a haircut.

Those who matter, don't mind; those who mind, don't matter.

Expectations are preconceived resentments.

Serenity isn't freedom from the storm; it is peace within the storm.

Don't speak unless you can improve on silence.

You don't need to "find God"; He isn't lost.

Tell it to your sponsor, or you will be telling it to a bartender.

Surrendering means you don't have to fight any more.

Surrender Dorothy!

I didn't use drugs, drugs used me.

You can be just a crazy sober as you were drunk, you'll just remember it the next day.

AA Sayings - The Complete? List - "Easy Does It", "Keep it Simple Stupid", and many more.

SPONSOR: Sober Person Offering Newcomers Suggestions On Recovery

Original Source Unknown

[MajestyJo]

These may be posted in other sections of the site. Putting them all together and posting them as they are good things to remember during the holidays.

The Twelve Steps and Traditions, which originated with AA, is applicable to all areas of our life.

I do have a disease, an allergy. I don't metabolize alcohol and drugs the way normal people do. I have a obsessive/compulsive disorder.

www.anxietybc.com/resources/ocd.php

http://www.addictionsandrecovery.org...-a-disease.htm

blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2...brain-disease/

All of my life, I looked out side of myself for some person, place or thing to make me feel better. I had to find that happiness and love from within myself.

Many people can't see addiction as a disease. It is a mental obsession and a physical allergy, and we don't metabolize things as others do. We can't do it ourselves, people can't figure out why you just can't stop and say "No!"

I was at dis-ease within myself, and I looked out of myself for many years. What I had to do was go within and find my true self and connect with the God of my understanding.
Step Three asks us to listen for the quiet and in the stillness hear the direction our Higher Power has for us today. When we pray, we need to find that quiet to hear the answers. When my mind is busy, all I can hear is my own chatter and endless obsessing about what I want and what I think I need. I need to get out of my own way so the voice of reason can shine through.

Conscious contact can be as simple as doing the do things you need to do in today.

Meditating with God and Creation is a sure way for me to be balanced, grounded and connected to the God of my understanding.

[MajestyJo]

In God's Care

Do not be unnaturally humble. The thought of your mind, perchance, is the thought of God. To refuse to follow that may be to disown God. -Frederick William Robertson

How often has a thought that was strangely appealing entered our mind, but we dismissed it? It might have been an impulse to compliment someone. Or, spotting a glum - looking friend, we may have wanted to ask if we could help. How often have we stifled such thoughts for fear our words might be taken amiss? After all, we remind ourselves, we aren't God.

But we don't have to be God to have Godly thoughts. When we won't believe that we are in tune with our Higher Power, aren't we saying that God can't communicate with us? Aren't we putting a limit on God's power? Whenever we ask for God's help, our mind is at one with God. And whenever we feel out of sync with God, we need only change our mind. We know when we are not thinking Godly thoughts. And we know when we are.

My mind can be at one with God. Today I will give my thoughts to God.

In have this book, but have misplaced it. I think it is packed somewhere in a box, I must dig it out.

[MajestyJo]

You are reading from the book
Each Day a New Beginning.

Many of us achieve only the semblance of communication with others; what we say is often not contingent on what the other has just said, and neither of us is aware that we are not communicating.
--Desy Safn-Gerard

When we don't listen fully to each other, when we don't revere the Spirit within others that's trying to talk to us, we destroy the connection that wants to be made between our Spirits. Our inner selves have messages to give and messages to receive for the good of all. Our ego selves often keep us from hearing the very words that would unravel a problem in our lives.

How hard it is, how often, to be still and to fully listen to the words, rather than the person. How much more familiar it is to filter the message with our own ongoing inner dialogue--our own ongoing continual assessment of another's personhood at the very time our higher power is trying to reach us through them.

There really are no wasted words. Messages are everywhere. We can learn to listen.

I will hear just what I need to hear today. I will open myself fully to the words.

So many people get caught up and just because they are use to slogans or sayings, I think they turn them out as being old news, not realizing that in today, they can take on all new meaning in the context shared.

I use to get so annoyed when this one fellow shared because he always repeated the same thing. "Take the cotton batten out of your ears and put it in your mouth!" It was this same man who made the statement, "If you have to control it, it is out of control." This was the phrase that gave me a big spiritual awareness, and if I had tuned him out, I would not have stayed sick in my blindness.

We keep thinking we have heard it all, but in reality, how much have we actually 'heard' and more importantly how much did we take to heart and apply to our lives. Words mean nothing if they aren't taken from the pages and transferred to our thoughts in today.

As the reading says, our ego gets in the way and we 'think' we have heard it all before, yet all we do is go through the motions, shut down, shut off, and wonder why we stay sick and don't grow in the Fellowship of the Spirit.

As I like to say, take the words off the pages of your book and your screen, what ever source it might be, and apply them to your life. To know them is one thing, to live them is another.

[MajestyJo]

The paradox of life's journey

"It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning."

-- P.D. Ouspensky

"All major mystical traditions have recognized that there is a paradox at the heart of the journey of return to Origin. ...Put simply, this is that we are already what we seek, and that what we are looking for on the Path with such an intensity of striving and passion and discipline is already within and around us at all moments. The journey and all its different ordeals are all emanations of the One Spirit that is manifesting everything in all dimensions; every rung of the ladder we climb toward final awareness is made of the divine stuff of awareness itself; Divine Consciousness is at once creating and manifesting all things and acting in and as all things in various states of self-disguise throughout all the different levels and dimensions of the universe."

-- Andrew Harvey

"Look at you, you madman, Screaming you are thirsty And are dying in a desert When all around you there is nothing but water!"

-- Kabir

"After changes upon changes, we are more or less the same."

--Paul Simon

Higher Awareness - used with permission

Many times, I think we fight this program. As the saying goes, "It is a simple program for people who like to complicate the heck out of it.

For me it is this, "Quit looking outward, take the journey inward."

We make changes in our life. Yet in truth those changes bring us back to our true essence.

For so many years, I was focused on others and I took on their 'stuff' and in recovery, it is about letting it go and finding me. As Melody Beattie puts it in one of her books, "Finding My Way Home."

We can't see the forest for the trees as they say. How can we know what we haven't been taught. How can we learn to press the delete button instead of replay on those old tapes. How can we learn to make new tapes to replace the old ones. I had to learn that it was my finger on the 'play' button, so it was up to me to change.

[MajestyJo]

LOVE YOURSELF

If you don't believe that you are wonderful in every way, you are living a lie. If you have let people talk you into thinking you're inadequate, less than perfect, unworthy, stupid, weak or ugly, or if you have talked yourself into this then you are living a lie. When we find ourselves thinking in terms of lack, limitation or disease, lets look and see where that came from and reject the lies about us. The ability to love someone else starts with ourselves. We must have a high enough level of self esteem so that we automatically love others. When we get mental and emotional barriers out of the way, we see that love is already inside of us.

Negativity like fear, guilt, shame, criticism, sarcasm and judgment may be blocking us from loving completely. Rumi said, "You were born with potential, you were born with goodness and truth, you were born with ideals and dreams."

- author unknown to me

It was a process. The people in the rooms of recovery loved me back to good health. It took a lot of work and the application of the program to learn to like myself, let alone love myself.

I went to a lot of meetings and in Al-Anon they said, "Love yourself as we already love you." I went to AA, NA, Al-Anon, CA, and ACoA meetings in recovery. I never did Cocaine and Crack, but my son has. My "C" words were Computer, Caffeine, Control, and Calories.

[MajestyJo]

Learn the Power of Respect

I watched as my journey unfolded this spring. Each place I visited gave me a lesson. People would show up at the right time and place with exactly the words I needed to hear. Sometimes the lesson would be announced loudly, clearly. Sometimes an awareness would surface softly when I least expected it, when I was beginning to wonder if any lesson or purpose was there at all. Everything I saw and experienced ultimately reinforced my trust in God, the universe, and the power of my heart to lead me on. After all, I had taken this trip on just a moment's notice with no itinerary, and a magical adventure had unfolded. By the time the journey ended and I pulled into the driveway at home, I had learned more than just to trust the process, I had learned to respect it.

Do more than trust the process, the journey you're on. Become so awestruck by it that you respect it,too. Respect your feelings and the timely manner in which they surface, heal, and lead you into new discoveries. Respect your experiences, the places you've been, the scenarios you've been through. Respect the way you've gained gold and jewels, the treasures of the soul, from each one.

Respect the darker moments, the more difficult times when you're uncertain and don't know what to do next. Respect the timing as your life and journey unfolds. Don't murmur about why such and such has to be the way it is. Don't limit how your growth can happen.

Learn to respect the path of others. Learn to respect your own.

- Journey to the Heart

Posted on another site in June 2011

One thing I have learned on my recovery journey, is that it has to begin with me. If I want respect, I have to respect myself. It is important also to respect myself for who I am. I am not my disease.

The selfish, self-centeredness of my disease tells me it is all about me. Yet this program say, I have to give it away in order to keep it. I had to change the old ways of thinking and attitude to in order to give to someone else, I had to find it within myself in order to give it away.

Respect things as they are not as I would have them be. There is positive and negative in all situations. Focusing on one and ignoring the other, doesn't allow for the healing process to begin.

Respect yourself. Know that you are worthy of recovery.

[MajestyJo]

I have to respect others for where they are in their recovery. This isn't a race ro run. It is not something that has to be done in order, although it is best to work the Steps in order, there is no order to our defects and the process of putting our life back in order.

I got really angry when I found out that two sisters from my group read Codependent No More and didn't tell me about it. I didn't find the book until I was 5 years sober. I came to realize that I was probably not ready then and if it was meant to be, it would have happened. When I finally did find it, I ran to the nearest Al-Anon meeting. I hadn't been for a while.

I also have to respect the word of those who went before me. I may not always agree with it. I sure am grateful for it though.

Posted by me on another site in 2011

So grateful for the lessons learned along the way and for the people who shared their recovery with me.

How can I expect others to respect me, if I don't respect myself.

[MajestyJo]

Taken from the "Hazelden Collection" of the Author of "Each Day a New Begining"

November 3rd:

I honor every woman who has strength enough to step out of the beaten path when she feels that her walk lies in another, strength enough to stand up and be laughed at, if necessary.

It’s never been easy for women to dare to be different . The messages that surround us seldom encourage us to pursue unconventional passions. Fortunately, we who are on this recovery journey get personal guidance from our Higher Power and our sponsors as we pursue the opportunities that beckon to us along new paths. We know, perhaps better than most, that we’ll be protected and directed each step of the way.

We gathered to make this journey together. We have needed each other all along; now we have each other every step of the way. We will find the strength we need from one another. We will joyfully follow our passions and find the happiness we deserve.

I am on my way to fulfillment. Even when my path veers away from others, I’m in the company of my Higher Power and my friends.

We can do what I can't do alone. For so many years, thought I was that all powerful woman who could do it all. I suffered burnout, fatigue and wore myself out trying to be the be all and end all of everyone's life and missing out on my own.

I didn't know that I had to surrender to win. When I surrendered, I was empowered to do what I needed to do each day.

The following came from one of my sites Star Choices.

www.cryofthespirit.com/Purpose.swf

[MajestyJo]

So often I had this emptyness and didn`t know what was wrong. I didn`t know that I had to fill up on spiritual things. I had a fear of quitting smoking and gaining weight. Instead of eating food and sweets, I used crystals and went to NA, because there was no Nicotine Anonymous. I ended up losing 3 lbs. instead of gaining 30. If I had eaten every time I had an emotion when I quit smoking, I would have been as big as a house. I wouldn`t have liked myself and would have started smoking again.

I could quit smoking for health reasons, I did it because I wanted to be a clean, clear channel to carry the message of recovery.

[MajestyJo]

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May 29, 2005 at 1:52pm QuotelikePost Options Post by on May 29, 2005 at 1:52pm
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.


Powerlessness and Unmanageability

Willpower is not the key to the way of life we are seeking. Surrender is.

I have spent much of my life trying to make people be, do, or feel something they arent, dont want to do, and choose not to feel. I have made them, and myself, crazy in that process, said one recovering woman.

I spent my childhood trying to make an alcoholic father who didnt love himself be a normal person who loved me. I then married an alcoholic and spent a decade trying to make him stop drinking.

I have spent years trying to make emotionally unavailable people be emotionally present for me.

I have spent even more years trying to make family members, who are content feeling miserable, happy. What Im saying is this: Ive spent much of my life desperately and vainly trying to do the impossible and feeling like a failure when I couldnt. Its been like planting corn and trying to make the seeds grow peas. Wont work!

By surrendering to powerlessness, I gain the presence of mind to stop wasting my time and energy trying to change and control that which I cannot change and control. It gives me permission to stop trying to do the impossible and focus on what is possible: being who I am, loving myself, feeling what I feel, and doing what I want to do with my life.

In recovery, we learn to stop fighting lions, simply because we cannot win. We also learn that the more we are focused on controlling and changing others, the more unmanageable our life becomes. The more we focus on living our own life, the more we have a life to live, and the more manageable our life will become.

Today, I will accept powerlessness where I have no power to change things, and Ill allow my life to become manageable.

From 2005 on another site.

I had to substitute the word control for power. Control is an illusion. I don't have the power to change unless I surrender to a Higher Power, who empowers me.

When I try to manage my life, it becomes unmanageable. All the bargaining I did, robbing Peter to pay Paul, moving from one place to another, and the list goes on and on.

[MajestyJo]

"First Things First"

This slogan, “First Things First” helps us to set reasonable
priorities and to keep a realistic perspective. This slogan
helps us to make choices we are comfortable with, and to
act with balance rather than react to crises.

Many of our confusions and frustrations are due to our
failure to deal with tasks and problems in the order of
their importance. It does take discipline to put aside the
things we'd rather do, and attend to those of first
importance FIRST. But the rewards are great: we get
things done, we enjoy a sense of accomplishment, and
we learn to face issues with a real sense of value and
purpose.

One Day At A Time

The slogan, “One Day At A Time” provides a practical approach
to challenges and fears. We focus our energies on dealing
productively with today, and we give up worrying about a future
we can not predict or control and about a past we cannot change.
It helps us break overwhelming tasks into manageable steps.

I will keep always in mind that today is my sole concern, and that
I will make it as good a day as I can. This one small span of time
is mine, and I will use it to do the things that need doing, and
have a little time over for enjoyment and reflection.

Keep An Open Mind

The slogan, “Keep An Open Mind” helps us to be open to ideas from
sources that we might not have imagined could be helpful. It helps us
to take advantage of all opportunities. As I grow, I continue to learn
and to unlearn, replacing old ideas with new ones and reclaiming
others that had been cast aside. If I don't get too attached to any
one way to approach life, I adjust to change with a lot less stress
and strain.

Keep An Open Mind

The slogan, “Keep An Open Mind” helps us to be open to ideas from
sources that we might not have imagined could be helpful. It helps us
to take advantage of all opportunities. As I grow, I continue to learn
and to unlearn, replacing old ideas with new ones and reclaiming
others that had been cast aside. If I don't get too attached to any
one way to approach life, I adjust to change with a lot less stress
and strain.

Slogans, I look at as "Mini-Steps" words that lead me on the path to recovery. Words that stick in my mind and when I come to a rough patch, they carry me through.

For me lately, "First things first." Without my sobriety, I have nothing.

Remember when, not only the time before recovery, but the time in early recovery.

One day at a time. One day's feelings, thoughts, actions, ideas, trauma, etc., just for today, I choose not to use. A day can start any tim

[MajestyJo]

"This Too Shall Pass"

Have you ever felt like things just aren’t going your way?
Sometimes just moments. Other times, maybe days……
And you have to somehow deal with these moments before
your life can move on. Whatever the crisis is at the moment,
eventually it will go away, time heals all things. This saying
reminds me of another, “God Never Gives Us More Than
We Can Handle.”…..

Easy Does It But Do It

We can't rush recovery. Insights and serenity come in their
own due time. The Steps make sense when we work them
carefully and methodically. Easy does it, reminds us to be gentle
with ourselves and not take on more than we can handle. We
need to try to approach life in a relaxed manner while taking
responsibility for living in the solution. Things if life have a way
of unfolding slowly when we are willing and patient.

But For The Grace Of God

“But For The Grace Of God” is one of my favorite slogans.
It helps to remind me to be more compassionate with my
addicted loved ones. This slogan can help all of us avoid
getting so impatient, criticizing, resentful and vindictive,
which would hurt us as well as to others.

But for the Grace of God, we might have been
afflicted by this sickness. But for the Grace of God
is a slogan about gratitude and being thankful.

God cares, but cannot move through a hardened heart. ...

Keep It Simple

The slogan, “Keep It Simple” helps to remind us that simple
solutions are often the most effective ones. This slogan can
help us look at what really is happening rather than what we
imagine may happen, and to take a reasonable, step by step
approach rather than act out of fear or panic.

LIVE AND LET LIVE

The slogan "Live And Let Live", speaks of our relationships
not only with our addicted loved one's but others as well.
This is a reminder that most of us need--often. Our only
concern should be our own conduct, our own improvement,
our own lives. We are entitled to our own view of things,
but we have no right to inflict it on anyone else. Tolerance
can add to the quality of our daily lives, resentments and
self-pity diminishes our capacity to live a happy life.

Let Go And Let God

The slogan, “Let Go And Let God” helps us to let go of trying to
control things we can not control. When our attempts at control
are not working, when we feel we have run out of options, when
we don’t know what we can do, this slogan helps us trust that a
Power greater than ourselves will help us when the time is right.

I can't, God can! Always something I need to remember.

Just For Today

The slogan, “Just For Today” tells us that things are more
manageable when we deal with and live in the present.
Things that seem way too difficult to manage long term
may seem more manageable if we deal with them just for
today. We can move forward in small steps rather than be
overwhelmed by trying to change everything at one time.

"Just for today I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be
afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe that as I
give to the world, so the world will give to me." __Al-Anon

HESITATE AND MEDITATE! A long time ago I was told this was a Canadian thing and a friend had never heard it in the states.

This was a slogan that helped me to take my foot out of my mouth and prevented me from putting the other one in!

All my life it seemed like I was on defensive mode and when I was angry or felt threatened, I hit out and pushed everyone away. Before I acted on those old feelings and acted out those old behaviours, the program gave me the tools to stop and think about what I was doing and ask myself whether I wanted to change or continue doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

This went along with STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN!

[MajestyJo]

"Step One is the base of the pyramid of the rest of the alcoholic's life" - unknown

Surrender doesn't mean giving up and failure. It is giving over to our Higher Power and working and applying the spiritual principles of the Steps, Traditions, and Concept into our lives. A good reminder that this is a spiritual program, not a religious one. The program makes room for ALL religions to recover.

Principles of the Twelve Steps
1. Honesty2. Hope3. Faith4. Courage5. Integrity6. Willingness7. Humility8. Brotherly Love9. Self Discipline10. Perseverance11. Ever Presence of God12. Service to Fellowman,
Principles of the Twelve Traditions
1. Unity2. Direction3. Recovery4. Understanding5. Sharing6. Simplicity7. Independence8. Selflessness9. Service10. Survival11. Self Reliance12. Humility
Principles of the Twelve Concepts
1. Responsibility2. Reliance3. Trust4. Participation5. Democracy6. Accountability7. Balance8. Consistency9. Vision10. Clarity11. Respect12. Spirituality

[MajestyJo]

"Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

- Veronica A. Shoffstall

For so many years, I lived my life through others. I always put my son first, even in recovery, most times I did things with him in mind.

I remember being asked "What makes you happy?" the first week of treatment in November 1991. I didn't have a clue? I later achieved things that I thought I wanted or needed, only to find that they were not me, but projections from others that I had taken on.

That has been part of my recovery journey, what makes me happy? What do I need for my health and well being in today. In order to give, I had to learn to receive. I had never been open, to accepting and it was difficult to take out the "I" and turn it into a "We" and remember to always be grateful for what I had.

I didn't like myself let alone love myself. It has been an up and down path over the last 20+ years.

When we put our life on hold waiting for others, nothing changes for myself or the other person. I believe in miracles, I am one.