More Recovery Thoughts and Quotes - December

[yukonm]

December 16

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Although loving and being loved is an important aspect of balance in our lives--it is never the solution to drinking and other drug taking. We sometimes focus on the strong emotion of love rather than face taking each step at a time, one hour at a time.

Creator, as I understand You, let me feel the love of others but not confuse it as the means of recovery in place of loving myself.

Divine Manifesting

I can imagine a better life. I can visualize what I would like to bring into my life. I can align my will with the source energy and quietly trust that what I see will come forth in its own time. I can bring my highest good towards me.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Divine Manifesting comes as you make contact with your Divine Self, and open to Its guidance, energy, power, love, and wisdom. Your Divine Self has all the answers, and can assist you in every area of your life. If you would like a blessing, insight, energy, or any other gifts from your Divine Self, ask for this right now. Contact your Divine Self by getting very quiet, letting go of all thoughts, and enter into a peaceful, silent state. Although your Divine Self is present through all states of consciousness, it is often in the silence of no-thought that you can most easily receive the energy of your Divine Self. Know that your Divine Self always responds to any request. Answers, energy, and blessings are given to you as you ask for them.

Sanaya and Duane

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Some of us change when we see the light, most of us change when we feel the heat. Are you waiting to get burned before you do what you need to?

If I don't change... my clean and sober date will.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Every recovery from alcoholism began with the first sober hour.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Whatever I am thinking right now is creating how I am feeling. I turn to positive and loving thoughts because I choose to feel good.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

It's not what you drink, or where you drink, or how much you drink; It's what it's doing for you.

[yukonm]

December 17

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

You know that people are going to feel sorry for you. However, there is a fine line between compassion and pity. Compassion is laced with understanding while pity reflects a diminished picture of yourself. By honestly sharing and explaining what you are going through as you travel away from your addiction, you will evoke compassion; by denying, hiding, and blaming, you are likely to evoke pity from others.

If I am genuine in my recovery with others, they will be genuine in their compassion with me.

Inner Belief

I believe in this world; it is the place that I have been born into. I love the breeze and the grass, the sky and the water. I have an intimate exchange with nature - like a lover. I feel held and nourished. Caressed and soothed. I believe in people - they are the species to which I belong. I recognize that, underneath our superficial differences, we all want and need the same things. I believe that truth and goodness will prevail. I feel good with small gains. I see deep meaning in quiet things, and I am moved by a power that I cannot explain but that I sense inside and out. Today, I feel good, I am aware of the gifts of nature, of being alive. I am open to what lies around me.

I believe in life

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

The law of physics says there is only one way to coast: down hill.

If I am not moving forward, I am moving backward. There is no coasting in recovery.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

What a different world this would be if people would magnify their blessings the way they do their troubles.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

When I have done all the footwork I know to do and things are still not working out, I know today that it is time to meditate. I have faith that my answer is still to come.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

If carrots would do what alcohol did for me, I'd be a carrotolic. - Al A.

[yukonm]

December 18

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

The diversity and complexity of people seeking recovery is extraordinary. Whether a 40 year old pimp, an young gang member, a woman with grandchildren, or a teen with attitude, we must remember: as cancer is no respecter of victims, neither is addiction. Same disease, same recovery.

God, as I understand You, let societal prejudges not enter into my sharing and 12 step work.

Seeing Me from the Inside Out

Today, I will become aware of that part of me that is separate and observes all that I say, do, think and feel. I have a witness within me that can become a very useful part of my life. Watching my thoughts, feelings and behavior with a little bit of objectivity will help me to see myself as I really am. Fear, for example, is only fear. When I experience small fears throughout my day I will simply see myself feeling them, I will watch them, experience them and allow them to dissipate. I will breathe in and out as they move through me. By allowing my mind to watch itself with no thought of controlling or participating, I can learn a great deal about the way I work. I can allow myself to change on the inside.

I am an uncritical observer of my own inner workings.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Which 'isms' affect you? Alcoholism: Incredibly Short Memory. Egoism: I, Self, and Me. Recidivism: I Sponsor Myself. Narcissism: InSide Me. Pessimism: I Sabotage Myself. Optimism: Incredibly Spiritual Moments.

Which 'ism' do I adopt for my life?

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Learn from other's mistakes. You will never live long enough to make them all yourself.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I welcome all my feelings. Today I deserve to feel joy and love and gratitude and warmth and affection, just to name a few.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

The reality of AA is like an invisible boat that you only see when you start rowing. - Clancy I.

[yukonm]

December 19

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Our incessant analyzing could very well lead us back to drugs. Is your mind yapping at you constantly? Should I stay, should I not? Put your mind to rest by saying to yourself: No matter what my mind says, I won't take a fix, pill, drink, or snort and I will stay in this program.

With a firm decision on my part, it doesn't matter what my mind says, I know what my behavior will be -- clean and sober.

Spirit at Work

I am waiting in pleasant anticipation for spirit to work its quiet magic in my day. There is nothing that I can think, feel or do, that cannot be made lighter and truer by inviting spirit into it. I rest in the joyous awareness that spirit is with me. That spirit has never left me. If I feel an absence of spirit today I will remember that it is not spirit that moves away from me, but I that move away from spirit. I am uplifted by the thought that I am not alone, nor ever was I. Today I need no proof that I am on a spiritual journey because the miracle of life surrounds me everywhere and this is proof enough. I am living the gift.

Life is the remedy.

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Pure and simple: Fear is the absence of Faith. Whether your fears are the Frantic Efforts to Appear Recovered or the F*ck Everything And Run type, one thing is guaranteed to alleviate them, the Fear Ain't In This House type of faith.

My fear no longer owns me.

- Tian Dayton PhD

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

It works better if you get into the program instead of just getting around the program.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

In quiet meditation I find emotional balance. I feel myself growing closer and closer to my Higher Power and I find love.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

If you don't believe that the AA Big Book was written with the assistance of a divine editor, ask yourself; 'Could my home group have written it?' In my group it takes us twenty minutes to elect a G.S.O - And that's when we have a volunteer. - Doug D.

[yukonm]

December 20

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Any of us who feel insecure, inferior, or unattractive may think we drink and take other drugs to counteract this. We do drugs compulsively BECAUSE we are addicted and not for other reasons; other reasons are only rationales.

May I understand that fixing the 'rationales' in my life will not stop my disease. Not picking up will stop alcoholism and other addictions.

The Power is in the Now

There is magic in this moment. All of the creative power in this radiant universe is in the present, in the here and now. The present is alive and vibrant. If I align myself with the present, if I allow myself to fully experience this moment, I will find all that I need in it. And I will be templating what I experience next. Quantum physics tells me that all is alive and issues from the same source. What I experience now, creates my future. I am part of God's plan, part of the one, creative mind.

There is nothing like the present

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

How long does it take to clear away the wreckage of our past? In the Northwest region of the U.S., Native Americans have a special saying, 'How long does it take to clear a landslide? One rock at a time.'

I remove the landslide of my past, one rock at a time.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Try to improve the wreckage of the present.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I know I am powerless over all the addictions, obsessions, compulsions and dependencies in my life. Today I am willing to let them go to a power greater than myself.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Look to the sun and the shadows fall behind. - Anon.

[yukonm]

December 21

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Lying is a hallmark of our disease. We may think we don't lie to others, but what did we tell ourselves about our amoral over consumption of mind-affecting chemicals? It couldn't have been the truth!

God, as I understand You, reveal to me the lies of my addiction that I may remain on the road of recovery.

Living with Ambiguity

When I know peace is at the center of my being and I can tap into it whenever I want to, I can tolerate living with the mystery, the unknown. Understanding that knowing fully is probably never truly possible. When I experience the soothing body chemicals that love or meditation induce in me, I have the ability to sink into the moment, knowing that the moment is all I really have and that it is sufficient onto itself. Knowing that if I allow it just to be there, it will fill me up. When I reach out and touch, literally touch someone I want to participate in the world because I am naturally drawn to what is joyful or meaningful or what allows me to live with a sense of connection. When I have peace within, I trust my intuition. I rely on a part of me that doesn't need everything to be pinned down and predictable in order to feel safe, I can tolerate the vicissitudes of life because I have an emotional center that is steady and secure. I gain my security from within

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

In working with others, remember that no one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

I love the unloveables.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

The program does not work in principle; it only works in practice.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I seek spiritual understanding beyond everything else. I choose peace and love and joy as my goals.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

They didn't make a glass big enough for me to have one drink.- Anon.

[yukonm]

December 22

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

HALT. Don't get too Hungry, too Angry, too Lonely, too Tired. Why? Because any of these conditions weaken our mind and emotions and in a weakened state our disease of addiction can easily trick us into using some mind-affecting chemical.

Higher Power, as I understand You, help me understand the dangers of HALT.

Staying in the Game

Each and every day is a rebirth into an entirely new set of possibilities. It carries with it a sense of renewal. Each and every day I will play the hand I'm dealt as well as I can play it. Each and every day I will wake up, place my hand in the hand of God and move into my day with the confidence and comfort of knowing that I am not alone, that I have access to the greatest source of compassion and power in the universe. Each and every day I will put one foot in front of the other and try to make sense of the life I have been given. I will have faith - I will stay connected and alive while I'm living.

I am an active member of my life

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Some program members get stuck on rules of what one can and can't say and what dependency qualifies one to be in what recovery group. They demand that newcomers follow traditions as interpreted by them. This can drive newcomers away before they even find out what recovery means.

I carry the message, not the mess.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

The trouble with many of us is that in trying times we stop trying.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

I can handle anything that comes up today even if it is only a moment at a time.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

There are no chemical solutions to spiritual problems. - Ron K.

[yukonm]

December 23

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

The first few 24 hours are the hardest task we will ever have to complete. The cravings are intensive, the Babbler put-downs are overwhelming, our bodies feel like a dirty sneaker. Sometimes we simply have to hold on.

God, as I understand You, be with me now.

Always Here

Today I recover the spirit that has always been there, vibrating just beneath the surface of my being, the membrane of my life. I am whole and in tact. I call to that part of me that has been waiting patiently for me to come to my senses and claim it. That part of me that is eternal, that never dies. Spirit has been with me even in my darkest hours. I turn and look, I quiet my mind and see, I rest in awareness and experience. Spirit has never been far, but I have been asleep. Today I wake up to spirit.

I am alive to life

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

There is nothing about you that was not intended to be. You have an incredibly sacred purpose.

I am on purpose.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

If you don't remember what God did for you yesterday, you'll have trouble trusting Him for today.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

As I start this day with quiet meditation, I feel myself becoming still and at peace. At anytime during the day I can bring my mind back to this moment. I can bring my attention and awareness back to the peace that I have when I am with my breath and I know that my breath is with me at all times, whether I remember it or not.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

If I point the finger at anyone, I have three pointing right back at me. - Unknown origin.

[yukonm]

December 24

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

In our recovery it is easy to forget to listen. We get two weeks of clean time and suddenly 'got it made.' Listening is actually our second greatest teacher, the horrors of addiction being our first. If we forget to listen to those who have gone before us, our first great teacher will take over again.

May I please keep my ears open, more then my mouth during these initial learning months.

Inner Hearing, Inner Sight

Today, I will trust my own heart. The clear message that whispers within me has more to tell me than a thousand voices. I have a guide within me who knows what is best for me. There is a part of me that sees the whole picture and knows how it all fits together. My inner voice may come in the form of a strong sense, a pull from within, a gut feeling or a quiet knowing. However my inner voice comes to me, I will learn to pay attention. In my heart I know what is going on. Though I am conditioned by the world to look constantly outside myself for meaning, today I recognize that it is deeply important for me to hear what I am saying from within. I give myself the gift of listening.

I will trust my inner voice.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

When we feel that fate has dealt us a bad hand with chemical dependency, we simply remember that many people have MS, cancer, diabetes, lupus, or a myriad of maladies that are not so easily put into remission.

Because I count my blessings, my blessings count.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Be kind to unkind people. It gets to them.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I am willing to be increasingly aware of my spiritual life.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

This guy had been dragged out of his car drunk by the police. He was handcuffed and chained to a bench at the police station, he'd just urinated on himself, and he looked up at the cop and said; 'I have got to stop driving.' - Scott R.

[yukonm]

December 25

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

It often happens that you won't know the role addiction played in your life until you stop using. You have replace roles now. Learning new skills, and this is done at meetings and with your sponsor, is a necessary step in adjusting to your new circumstances.

Rather than see additional burdens in new tasks, I choose to see them as a breath of new life.

The Treasures Within

Within me is the perfect life waiting to awaken. The gifts I seek are already within me. A deep pool of awareness and aliveness is present all of the time but I am too distracted to know it. I get so lost in the superficial details and tasks of my life that I forget to live it, to drop down and contact the spirit that God has planted within me. It is the best kept secret that spirit lives within me, that the way in which I come in touch with my inner light is through letting the constant preoccupations of my mind float by, not taking them so seriously, not trying to control them. Today I realize that the gold is not in my ability to control my mind, the gold is in what lies beneath. What emerges when my mind, for a precious moment, is stilled.

Spirit is with me always

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

As you sponsor others, remember this: If you are trying to recreate someone in your own image, then one of you will be redundant.

My job as a sponsor is to model, not mold, recovery for my sponsees.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Love fills me and heals me as I open to connect with the people that God has placed in my life.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

One drink's too many and a thousand is not enough.- Unknown origin.

[yukonm]

December 26

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

To insist stubbornly on clinging to old relationships, when they are basically drug oriented relationships is sabotaging our recovery process. Is it not our disease finding a 'good' excuse to keep us close to drugs?

May I be able to hear the suggestions of those who work with me. May I listen in this next hour and follow the suggestions.

Being with Life

Today, I allow myself just to be with life. Somehow it doesn't have to prove anything to me or give me any more than I already have to be okay. The lessons I have learned through sincere dedication to my own inner growth, have taught me that I can face my most difficult feelings and still come home to a place of love and acceptance. Life is always renewing itself; nothing lasts, good or bad, and that is just the way it is. It is enough today to enjoy my coffee, to take a walk, to appreciate the people in my life. I can rest in a quiet sort of understanding that this is what it's all about; all the searching turned up such an ordinary but beautiful thing.

I am enraptured with the ordinary

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Everyone has problems. Your problem though, is not the real problem. The real problem is how you deal with the original problem.

I work the program, not the problem.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Are you going to let bad times make you bitter or make you better?

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

I live today as I want to remember my life.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

The Twelve Steps when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into two words: 'Love' and 'Service'. - Dr. Bob.

[yukonm]

December 27

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Sometimes it is tough to stay away from our drug of choice for a whole day. The call and craving are so strong! When we can't manage a whole day, we manage this hour. When the hour is up, we manage one more until we are clean.

Help me to stay clean and sober, from one hour to the next.

Appreciating What I Have

Today I won't let my desire for more, blind me to what's already here. My life is full of blessings that I look right past when all I see is what's missing rather than what is there. Desire is natural and good, I need to feel it to grow and reach beyond myself. But today, I will appreciate what I already have before I ask for more. Appreciation is like water on a plant, it causes good to grow in my life. What I appreciate expands. It grows before my eyes, it deepens and widens. The mere act of appreciation somehow creates more of what I am already giving thanks for. It opens doors to the coffers of this generous world and invites the its bounty to come in. Appreciation lets the creative universe know that I am grateful for what is being so freely given to me.

Today I will appreciate what I have knowing that it opens a doorway to increase

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

It is remarkable how often we run across this feeling of 'uniqueness' as we recover. We may brag that we used more, had worse contacts, spent more in bars, treated our family worse, were younger, older, blacker, gayer, more sensitive--whatever.

I am the only 'me' there is ever going to be. I do not try to convince others that I am a better me than they.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

If you have one hand in the fellowship and one hand in God's, you can't pick up today.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I am unveiling my layers and layers of self-doubt and letting them go. Today I am taking back all the power I have given to others by discovering the courage that comes from my own wisdom.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Alcoholism is the only prison where the locks are on the inside. - Peggy M.

[yukonm]

December 28

AA 'Big Book' - Quote

However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane. It's strong language - but isn't it true? - Pg. 38 - More About Alcoholism

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

You will probably misjudge and misunderstand many people and their motives for a time. The muddled thinking of early recovery has a way of making us take things the wrong way. Remember your vulnerability and that withdrawal distorts thinking. Don't be hard on yourself or those around you. Do nothing permanent for eight months to a year. This way your regrets will be minimized.

God, as I understand You, hold my tongue from uttering words and restrain my steps from moving in directions that I may one day regret.

Body Memories

Understanding and thought are distributed throughout all the cells in my body. Who I am is stored in my physical self. My body carries memory and knowledge about how I have responded to the circumstances of my life, about what I brought into this world to begin with.. Today when I think positively, I will allow and invite my entire body to carry a positive thought. I will instruct each cell within me to be active, healthy and vibrant. Each time that I feel I am getting low on reserves, I will open all of my body to receiving uplifting light and energy from the universe. I am not a talking head. I am a body, mind and spirit, alive in all of me.

I ask my body to wake up and live.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

If you are clean and sober, the miracle has already happened. Stick around, the impossibilities take a little longer.

Nothing is impossible in God's world.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Prevent truth decay-read your Big Book..

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Through prayer and meditation God guides me to the appropriate people for guidance in the important decisions I must make in my life. I trust my answers to be there when the time is right.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Give me your hand o brother mine and even I may help you up. - Henry Lawson.

[yukonm]

December 29

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

You will probably misjudge and misunderstand many people and their motives for a time. The muddled thinking of early recovery has a way of making us take things the wrong way. Remember your vulnerability and that withdrawal distorts thinking. Don't be hard on yourself or those around you. Do nothing permanent for eight months to a year. This way your regrets will be minimized.

God, as I understand You, hold my tongue from uttering words and restrain my steps from moving in directions that I may one day regret.

Body Memories

Understanding and thought are distributed throughout all the cells in my body. Who I am is stored in my physical self. My body carries memory and knowledge about how I have responded to the circumstances of my life, about what I brought into this world to begin with.. Today when I think positively, I will allow and invite my entire body to carry a positive thought. I will instruct each cell within me to be active, healthy and vibrant. Each time that I feel I am getting low on reserves, I will open all of my body to receiving uplifting light and energy from the universe. I am not a talking head. I am a body, mind and spirit, alive in all of me.

I ask my body to wake up and live.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

If you are clean and sober, the miracle has already happened. Stick around, the impossibilities take a little longer.

Nothing is impossible in God's world.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Prevent truth decay-read your Big Book..

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Through prayer and meditation God guides me to the appropriate people for guidance in the important decisions I must make in my life. I trust my answers to be there when the time is right.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Give me your hand o brother mine and even I may help you up. - Henry Lawson.

[yukonm]

December 30

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Life is not fair. You see it in the headlines; you see it in people racked with chronic pain; you see it in senseless street violence and children starving in third world countries. It will be a challenge for you in the coming weeks to understand it is not an unfair thing that has just happened, addiction and then recovery, but the greatest fight you shall ever receive.

I do not know why good people suffer addiction. It is the very act of not understanding and still trusting in the good of the universe that comprises the very essence of faith.

Life is a Spiritual Journey

No one can learn the alphabet for me. And no one can develop wisdom, appreciation or inner strength for me. These are things I have to do for myself. What is life but growth and expansion, increasing my understanding so that I can deepen my experience of feeling alive? There are gifts in healing if I am willing to see them, lessons I can learn, awareness's that I need in order to appreciate what I already have. Sickness can be my teacher if I let it. Even as I wait for strength to return to my body, still my spirit and my character can grow stronger and better and more refined. I am not doing nothing as I lie here, I am growing on the inside. Today I will use this moment that puts me into a deeper part of myself to come in contact with an openness to grow. I am in touch with a part of life that I normally don't get in touch with.

I am understanding and expanding my inner world.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

When you can't find the solution to a problem, look for the solution to the problem.

I keep whispering my heart's desires because I never know when my angel is listening.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

The program is for participants, not spectators.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

It feels so good to help other people and to know that I have something to give them. It feels so good to have turned my own life around so that it can benefit others.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

We must think of all those sick ones still to come to AA. As they try to make their return to faith and to life, we want them to find everything in AA that we have found, and yet more, if that be possible. No care, no vigilance, no effort to preserve AA's constant effectiveness will ever be too great to hold us in full readiness for the day of their homecoming. Bill W. 1959.