Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - August

[bluidkiti]

August 8

Step by Step

Today, I will like myself and, in the process, maybe allow someone else to like me. I will not let the shame, regret, selfishness and self-pity of my drinking days weigh me down in guilt and self-loathing that erect walls to keep the good out. I will realize that being sober in this 24 Hours can be the starting point of self-acceptance and amends which, in turn, might let others see I have begun the journey of recovery and all it entails. And in liking myself, I hope to gain the self-respect not to drink or use because, today, I have no reason to fear or be ashamed of the man in the mirror. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

**************************************************

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

13TH STEP

The 13th Step is taken by members who suffer from the delusion that sex can cure their addiction.

~ Anonymous ~

Both women and men practice the selfish 13th Step. They're not always easy to spot. Some go to meetings and appear to work the Program while others just sit around clubhouses, eyeballing members of the opposite sex (always newcomers), waiting for their chance to pounce. Newcomers, being somewhat bewildered, sometimes confuse lust with love and fall victim to this dangerous game.

Many newcomers have run from the Program when they realize the "help" being offered was a mask for sexual favors. Many of these unsuspecting newcomers never come back. Sex has never cured anyone's obsessions or addictions.

I am responsible for not using my experience in the Program to take advantage of a fellow member, especially a newcomer. If I see anyone 13th Stepping, I will do what I can to tell the person how unlucky the 13th Step is.

**************************************************

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

The important thing in life is not to have a good hand but to play it well.

~ Louis N. Fortin ~

We all admire a man who gets dealt a difficult hand and plays it well. Most of us have been dealt a mixed hand in life. We had some bad breaks and some advantages. Many of those things we have no choice about; our starting point is the situation we find ourselves in. But we have a lot of choices about how we handle our situation. We cannot choose to have a lot of wealth today; we cannot choose to be free of family problems today; and if we have a health problem, that is what we must deal with. But we can choose how we will respond to our circumstances, and we can choose what kind of person we will be.

No one can take away the quality of our character or the attitude we have toward our situation. We find real meaning for life when we focus on the choices we can make. We set our sights on being the best kind of man we know how to be, even when we have to deal with tough circumstances.

Today the meaning I get from life comes from growing in my strength of character.

**************************************************

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

Most of us spend our energy seeking the highs in an effort to avoid the lows. Unfortunately, these false highs are not really nourishing.

~ Niro Asistent ~

Emotional highs energize us. All of us experience them. Most of us crave them, but unfortunately they are short-lived. When external circumstances elevate our mood, their absence brings us back down. Highs like these set us up for disappointment.

Recovery can change this aspect of our lives. Using the Twelve Steps, we are able to experience highs as a natural response to our interior activity. Feeling as good as we want to feel, every day, is possible when we decide to use the Steps: to look to our Higher Power for knowledge of what to do on a daily basis, to seek comfort when we are filled with fear, to receive courage when amends are in order. Our emotions will reflect how consistently we use the Steps. We can be energized by highs every day if we so desire.

I can feel a nourishing high today if I use the tools of the program to guide me.

**************************************************

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

I need to let go of temporary losses

I make my favorite meal and it doesn’t satisfy me. I go out to eat and nothing on the menu interests me. I feel hungry but can't eat. There are times these days when I feel angry with my dual disorder; I can't enjoy something that has given me pleasure in the past. Sometimes it feels like there is little left in my day ro look forward to. (And then I feel more like using.)

But to avoid a slip, I need to keep in mind that recovery involves upset and change—letting go of old ways, slowly learning new ones. And letting go includes losses—even temporary ones, like my favorite foods. In the meantime, I might discover some delicious new food.

I will come up with two foods and two activities that I still enjoy these days, despite my illnesses.

*************************************************

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

let all go dear so comes love

~ e. e. Cummings ~

The concept of “letting go,” surrendering so change will occur in our lives, is not new to us. Our addicted life required complete surrender to our drug of choice. Physical, emotional, and spiritual sacrifices were demanded of us on a daily basis. These sacrifices gained us nothing but pain and isolation and self- hate. Yet we clung to them, afraid to let go.

We still have a daily duty now, a duty to our recovery. Our most important task is to understand and accept what we cannot control — our addiction, other people, the past, the weather — and turn them over to our Higher Power.

How satisfying surrender in sobriety is today! What relief we feel when we turn our cares over to God, knowing He will help us find a new way to live. In surrender, we discover and claim serenity, fellowship, integrity, accountability, peace, focus, and the love of our Higher Power.

Today help me let go of at least one thing I cannot change.

**************************************************

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

A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future.

~ Author unknown ~

When you were using, you most likely knew that you had a problem with drugs or alcohol but you were afraid to acknowledge this truth to yourself. So you may have lied to yourself and told yourself that things were not that bad. You convinced yourself of one big lie: that you could, in fact, stop anytime you wanted to. You just did not want to.

You also lied because you were afraid of what others would think of you. Perhaps they suspected you had a problem with drugs and alcohol. But you created lies to convince them they were wrong and told more lies to cover up your addictive behaviors.

Yet here you are in recovery. Your lies may have bought you a little time and postponed the inevitable, but they never changed the fact that you were an addict. And now, in recovery, you have learned that you can experience greater freedom and peace when you no longer lie, cover up, or act in secrecy. Today you can acknowledge, with total honesty, that you are an addict. Recovery helps you to see the value in honesty. Your truthfulness sets you free from your former life.

The program teaches me honesty and releases me from fear so I will speak truthfully.

**************************************************

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

The man who goes alone can start today, but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

~ Henry David Thoreau ~

Do we ever change our minds or our plans, depending on what another person says? Maybe we'd like some time alone, but because another wants us to do something else we bow to those wishes. We may even feel lost unless someone provides us with suggestions of things to do.

It's up to us to undertake our own journeys in life. If we're always waiting to see what someone else will do, we'll be waiting forever. We need to make independent choices and decisions without feeling linked to the wishes or desires of others.

Tonight we can begin our journeys by making our choices. Our desires are important, and it's equally important to stick to them no matter what the wishes of another.

It's okay to change my mind and my plans if I wish, choose to be alone , or ask to be with another. The decision is mine to make.

**************************************************

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

Recovering love

Our Higher Power has always loved us and always will. Our problem is learning to accept and believe that. While using mood- altering chemicals, we were unable to accept this love. Later, we could not even believe in this love. And for many of us, the same problems are true in our other relationships.

By getting free of mood-altering chemicals, by getting into recovery and going to Twelve Step meetings, we will see love in action. We will see that it is real and can be trusted. We will feel its power to heal and make whole.

Am I experiencing love again?

Higher Power, help me to absorb the love that flows in the fellowship.

Today I will be especially loving toward

God help me to stay clean and sober to day!

**************************************************

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

The same heart beats in every human breast.

~ MATTHEW ARNOLD ~

Newcomer

Why do I hear some people say that they've put themselves on their own Eighth Step list? I thought that this Step was about the harm we did to other people.

Sponsor

The harm we did to other people also harmed us. All harm is also self-harm, just as all deception is also self-deception.

Take lying, for example. When I told a lie, I damaged my own relationship to the truth, to my Higher Power, and to others. One consequence of telling a lie was to feel guilty; unable to tolerate the feeling of guilt, I turned to my addiction to numb myself, The people to whom I lied may have been misled, but my lies affected me by damaging my self-esteem and blocking my connection with my spirit. After we've made an Eighth Step list of people we've harmed, we may also want to add a note in each case, of the ways we harmed ourselves in the process. It will then be clear whether or not we should add our own names to the list of people to whom we owe amends.

Today, I become willing to make amends to myself.

**************************************************

~ THE EYE OPENER ~

Some of us wear our AA like we wear our clothes, entirely as external adornment and protection, and to hide what is underneath.

There are many, however, who wear their AA in such a way that the AA way of living is so predominant in their appearance that all other apparel is unnoticed. To see such a person, the reaction is not to observe a gray suit or a blue dress, but a personality that radiates a character made beautiful by the simple code of living as found in our Twelve Steps.

**************************************************

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

Thank You God

Thank You, God, for hearing my prayers and granting my requests.
Thank You for the kindness You have shown me, and the good people who surround me.
Thank You for giving me this new life in recovery, and your great patience in helping me with my shortcomings.
Thank You for protecting me from the things that tempt me, and may my thoughts and actions demonstrate my gratitude to You.

*************************************************

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

BY RIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15).

Many people will say, “We always knew that we must not steal. If we do we shall have trouble and probably wind up in prison.” All through the ages it is only the smallest percentage of human beings who have stolen. Respect for other people's property was learned early in the history of civilization. However, this most fundamental law of life means that actually we cannot steal. You may say you know someone who broke into your house and took your silver. The burglar who took your silver actually transferred some silver from your house to someone else’s house, but did he get away with it? If that silver belonged to you by right of consciousness, all the burglars in the world could not have taken it away. In fact, if you had this understanding, you could take a ten dollar bill, put it on the sidewalk in Times Square, and return the next day and it would still be there. Your consciousness of the presence of God in other people would have been so strong that no one could have taken from you what belonged to you by right of that consciousness.

These ten laws of life are things that cannot be done, and so, says the great prophet in effect, do not waste yourself or your life trying to do these things. They cannot be done. They conflict with the fundamental Law of Being.

When we give up trying to steal, then we shall begin to have our own. We shall come into our own rights, and when we get that, liberation will not be very far off.

**************************************************

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

I’m Enough

The truth about you is so lofty that nothing unworthy of God is unworthy of you.

~ A Course in Miracles ~

While shopping one day, I met a woman whom I found very attractive. Before I left her store, I told her, "I think you're very pretty." Her response took me by surprise. Quickly, she answered, "I'm a twin."

As I walked away, I tried to understand why she would say that. I believe she was unable to receive the compliment fully. By pointing out that she had a twin, she was, in effect, saying, “Yes, but there are actually two of me, so l do not have to own the full responsibility of being pretty."

Many of us have difficulty accepting compliments because we subconsciously believe that we are not worthy of them. A compliment triggers our discomfort of believing that if the complimenters knew the truth about us, they would find the contrary. We do not recognize that the person who compliments us is closer to the truth than we are.

There are many ways in which we deflect love when it's offered. We say no to money when it's available, and we sabotage jobs. We deal similarly with relationships, running from quality people, acting in ways that we know will make them leave, or settling for less than we want and deserve. In sexuality, we may stop ourselves from receiving real pleasure or experiencing orgasm because we fear feeling vulnerable or being overwhelmed by the energy of love Then we go on living at half-steam and wonder why we are not happy.

We can cultivate our capacity to receive and enjoy love. Practice letting compliments in. Instead of firing off a polite “Thank you,” take a breath and a moment to let the gift seep in; this will energize you and bless the giver. When offered money or support, gratefully accept. In relationships and sexuality, don't settle for half-fulfillment; cultivate being filled with the gifts your partner brings Then we can all be wholly beautiful and lovable, no matter how many of us there are.

I pray to be able to fully receive the love that is offered me.

I honor God and myself by letting the love in.