Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - August

[bluidkiti]

August 5

Step by Step

"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." - Step 11

Today, Step 11 with the understanding that this is the extension of the Third - "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him" - and it, like all the steps, are daily maintenance tasks and never a one-time shot. We live in the Program on a day-by-day reprieve from the gutter and are not guaranteed anything more regardless of the number of sober 24 Hours we have. While one person's recovery program differs from that of another person, all have at least one common thread: the surrender of self-will to a higher power of our individual understanding, and Step 11 is the one that suggests we hand over our self-will and ask for the will of our higher power over our own. By seeking a power greater than ourselves each day, we are improving our conscious contact with that power. Today, I remind myself that I have to hand over my self-will because to take it back and run life my way is the formula for a slip or relapse. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

RECOVERY TOOLS

Man is a tool-using animal. . . . Without tools he is nothing with tools he is all.

~ Thomas Carlyle ~

When we hear, "you alone can make it happen, but you can't do it alone," we are being told, among other bits of advice, that we need tools in addition to the people who share our problems and solutions. The tools for recovery are many, and they are simple in form and made for simple usage. Basically, the primary tools are the Twelve Steps of our Program.

Among our most dependable tools is the freedom to accept our problems. This tool is the one that starts us on our journey through the Steps. It helps us turn our will over to God after we have decided that a Higher Power can restore us to sanity. Each Step is a tool, helping us go through inventories, make amends, improve our conscious contact with God, and understand our Higher Power's will for us.

I have learned which recovery tool to use at a particular time. And I continue to increase my desire and my ability to use each tool properly.

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

Only your compassion and your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~

We pray for the wisdom to distinguish between what we can change and what we cannot. This wisdom resides within our spiritual experience. This spiritual base is present even when our heart aches at the bedside of a loved one whose pain we cannot fix. We can be at peace in the wisdom of our hearts, knowing that the best we have to offer is our love and caring. We cannot do anything that will make a difference in taking away the pain, but just being there will make an immense difference.

We know that the spiritual truths that guide our lives are not based on the concrete world. Yet they light our paths. We see fear and terror in the world, yet we can find peace in knowing that our Higher Power will show us where to walk today. We cannot change the world today, but we can follow the light provided by the Twelve Steps. By doing our own small part, we offer a positive influence.

Today, as I live in the real world, I will also live in the spiritual world.

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

If one lives, one experiences betrayal.

~ Ruth Casey ~

Betrayal is a hateful action. We have all experienced betrayal, sometimes even from those we love. The pain is seldom forgotten. Unfortunately, betraying others is a human failing we all share, each of us wants to be counted on, and we intend to live up to the expectations we have of ourselves. We sometimes falter, however, and hurt others by our actions. Pain is the result, every time, whether we betray another or are betrayed.

Perhaps our best hope for avoiding betrayal is relying on the Third Step for guidance before taking action. Stopping a moment to reflect before taking any action can change the tenor of every situation.

I have experienced betrayal. Even worse, I have betrayed others. Today will be different. I will listen to my Higher Power.

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

I am slowly embracing the truth

When I was having psychiatric symptoms, they scared me. I wouldn't talk about them with anyone. I didn't think I'd be accepted or understood. And when I was getting high all the time, I'd deny it. Again, my experience scared me. I felt guilty, ashamed, afraid of punishment, and afraid of losing my source of relief.

In recovery, I have a different idea about being honest and open. I am learning that when I speak the truth, people understand me better. When I say what I'm thinking or feeling, they have a connection to me. When they know what's troubling me, chances are, they can help.

I will write down two ways in which getting honest has helped me begin to recover.

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

Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.

~ Elsa Maxwell ~

When was the last time we had a good laugh, really laughed, until tears rolled down our face and we had to catch our breath? Remember how good we felt afterward?

There is more and more evidence that laughter actually makes us feel good physically as well as emotionally. Laughter reduces muscle tension, exercises the lungs, and stimulates the circulatory system. It rejuvenates our minds and uplifts our spirits. After a good laugh we feel calmer, rejuvenated, even younger sometimes.

A burst of clean, refreshing humor helps us to stop taking ourselves so seriously. Someone once said the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it!

People who can laugh on a regular basis usually have fewer physical and emotional problems than those who find it difficult to see humor in anything. Luckily, humor is all around us if we just look for it. We can watch funny movies, read the funnies in the paper, join the laughter and giggling of small children, and choose to be with people who have a sense of humor.

Humor is spiritual, and it heals.

Today help me laugh today, and to nurture my sense of humor that I may bring a healing spirit into my life and to those around me.

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

Resentment is an extremely bitter diet, and eventually poisonous. I have no desire to make my own toxins.

~ Neil Kinnock ~

A Cherokee chief was quite proud of his young grandson, but many members complained that the young man was filled with anger and treated others with disrespect. So the chief called to his grandson. “What do you want?” his grandson snapped.

“Two wolves live inside of us all,” the chief said. “One wolf is good. He helps you feel joy and love. He shows you the beauty of the world. And he creates in you compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. But there is also another wolf. He teaches you to see only evil. He causes you to feel anger and scorn. He is full of himself, and his powerful ego makes him feel superior. It is a fight to the death with these two, because one must be the winner.”

The young man thought for a moment, then asked his grandfather, “So, which wolf will win?”

“The one that you feed,” he replied.

When you hold onto anger, turn it upon yourself, or treat others with disrespect and scorn, your anger erects walls so high that you cannot see over them. But when you let go of your anger, you treat yourself and others with respect, kindness, and compassion. You build bridges to yourself and to others.

I will not let the wolf of anger win.

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

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.

~ John Burroughs ~

We may look upon richness as an abundance of wealth. Some of us may believe if we only made more money our problems would be solved. Yet we've also heard the phrase, "Money doesn't buy everything." And, because we know that’s true, we may question just how we get the riches in our lives.

If we put aside all the insignificant things, we may find we have more time and attention to pay to important people and things. By focusing on the things most important to us, we would find ourselves with more time to do what we want.

Worrying over minor details, fretting over some misplaced item, or whining about some unobtainable desire only serves to distract us. We can increase the richness in our lives by eliminating whatever robs us of our peace of mind.

Tonight I can choose between wealth and poverty. What can I give up in order to enrich my life?

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

Accepting change

In recovery, we have much work to do and many lessons to learn as we mend our ways and relationships. Each time we change we grow stronger and freer.

But often we are so attached to our defects and dependencies we are afraid of change, even good change. As suggested in Step Six, our job is to become willing to let change happen when the time is right.

Am I becoming willing to change?

Higher Power, help me to accept the need for change and to fear it less.

I am willing to change today by

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

My memories are anything but a dispassionate chronicle.

~ ILYA EHRENBURG ~

Newcomer

I'm nervous about taking Step Eight. I can't help thinking ahead to Step Nine, actually talking to the people I owe amends to.

Sponsor

Remembering to stay in the present is one of the greatest challenges of living in recovery. If we're focusing on a future Step, letting the fear of it take over, we can't engage fully and wholeheartedly in the Step we're doing today.

When taking the first part of Step Eight, we make as complete a list of those we've harmed as memory allows. If we dimly remember an event but can't remember a name, we briefly describe the person. If we think that there's no hope of ever locating someone again, we still add him or her to the list. We may think that we've done less harm to some people than they've done to us. Still, we add their names to the list: this Step is about what we did, not about what others deserve.

By making this list we begin to see the extent of the harm we've done as the result of our addictive behavior, and to see how deeply interconnected our lives are with the lives of others. We realize that we're not alone in the world, and never have been.

Today, I look at my past without fear. I have faith that my human relationships are being healed.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

In our drinking days, when we were called upon to face a problem, we would side-step it, tunnel under it, jump over it or run away from it. It never occurred to us to face it and to walk through it.

It is remarkable how cowardly a trouble is when face to face with a person who is ready and willing to take him on. Try it.

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

Support Me With Your Power

Lord, may everything I do start well and finish well.
Support me with Your power.
And in Your power let me drive away all falsehood so truth may always triumph.

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

POLARITY

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

Honour thy father and thy mother: that their days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee (Exodus 20:12).

We should respect our parents just because they are our parents, but that teaching is just the very outer layer of this commandment. Underneath it is instruction in divine metaphysics because your real father and mother is God. When this commandment says, "Honour thy father and thy mother," it brings in the two poles, the male and the female, and, of course, polarity is the motive power of the universe. In the Bible, mother means the feeling nature, and the father is the knowledge nature. Most people have one side or the other more developed. When our prayers fail and we do not demonstrate, we fail because we are not honoring our father and our mother.
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~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~

This Too Shall Pass

All things must change to something new.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~

A king in an ancient land sought the counsel of a sage. "I am not a happy man," admitted the monarch. "My emotions are driving me crazy. When I win a battle, I am elated. When I lose, I am depressed. My happiness seems to come and go like a feather dancing on the wind. Can you help me?"

The advisor thought for a moment, and answered, "I will return with help in three days."

After that time, the sage came back with a ring he had forged for the king. When the king read the inscription, he found the peace that he sought. The ring reminded the king, "This too shall pass."

No matter what is happening, it will eventually give way to something else. Try to hold on to an experience, and you will lose it. Try to make it go, and it will cling to you. Allow it to be with you for its right time, and you will enjoy it or learn from it. Trust that you will have everything you need for the right amount of time. When it leaves, assume it is departing to make way for something better.

My friend Scott made a successful living as a car salesman. "The best piece of advice I ever received was from my boss at the dealership," Scott told me. "One day after I took a significant loss on a deal, I complained to him about it. 'Don't let it get you down,' he told me. 'It's all in the averages.' He was right. In the long run, the good deals offset the bad ones. You have to remember the big picture.

The next time you face a problem, remember'. "This too shall pass." When you feel giddy, affirm: "This too shall pass." Only Spirit remains constant. With the right vision, we find comfort in the peace that remains behind all of life's changing forms.

Let me remember that Spirit is present, that I may enjoy my life as a colorful dance.

I trust the changes in my life, knowing that God alone is real.