Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - August

[bluidkiti]

August 11

Step by Step

Today, while I did not choose to be alcoholic, I have a choice to be a non-drinking one. Admitting in Step One that I am powerless over alcohol does not mean I am doomed to an alcoholic death from accident, illness or a lengthy prison sentence for a drunk-related felony. In my gift from God of choice, I have the power to overcome alcohol by rendering it powerless over me by choosing abstinence and recovery. While the 12 Steps impress that I and I alone am responsible for my alcoholism, I and I alone also am responsible for my recovery. Its success or failure rests with no one and nothing but me. Ironically, while the program also impresses the powerlessness I have over an array of things from alcohol to character defects, I am in control of not fueling that powerlessness by choosing not to be defeated by it. Today, I can assert my power over powerlessness, and my power is in the 12 Steps. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

KING OR QUEEN BABY

The first 30 years of my childhood nearly killed me.

~ Anonymous ~

King or Queen Baby attitudes and behavior are a block to recovery. Many of us have carried into our adult lives childish egos and immature attitudes. We won't give up our child-like needs of control or our desire that all our needs be met. An attitude of I want what I want when I want it, and motives of power, attention, and instant pleasure have no place in our Program.

Recovery teaches us ways to deal with our scared little child and at the same time allows us to nurture the child within us all. When we act like babies, we think we are the center of the world, and believe that status, fame, money, and beauty are the most important things in life. When we admitted defeat, we needed to put our childish behavior behind us. We changed from believing in Baby Power to believing in a Higher Power.

I will continue to put away my babyish behavior by working on self-discovery, self-acceptance, self-discipline, and self-forgiveness.

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

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

~ John F. Kennedy ~

Recovery from addiction and codependency goes beyond the removal of the substance or the object of our obsession. Stopping our use is the necessary start to recovery. But we can stop using and still continue the thoughts and behavior that set us up for the disease. The biggest downfall for us all is our ego. We have a powerful inner drive to get what we want. To justify our behavior, we may impulsively try to control our surroundings and others. We say that a little bit of the old behavior won’t hurt anyone, or we are smarter than others, or our behavior is only for the good of everyone.

We have to be fearless in our self-honesty. And, like dishonesty, honesty builds upon itself: one new self-admission leads to another as we follow this spiritual path. We learn that true humility actually arises from high self-esteem. We learn to rely on our Higher Power to take care of us and guide us. Our development as grown-up men continues for our lifetime.

Today I continue to be more honest with myself than I used to be and continue to behave in healthy ways.

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

It is as blessed to receive as it is to give and a lot harder.

~ Ruth Humlecker ~

We think we are unworthy. Compliments on our appearance, praise for our work, strokes for our efforts to help others often go unappreciated by us. Why can’t we hear them? Why don’t we take them in? No doubt it’s because of our shame for not being perfect. None of us are perfect, but all of us think that perfection is possible and we have lulled the test. How futile the thought. How harmful the result.

We are adept at many things; we are perfect at none. That’s a fact of human life. But we are good enough, providing we do our best and rely on God for direction. Coming to believe this is perhaps our most important lesson in life.

If someone blesses me with a compliment today, I will quietly listen and believe it is true.

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

I can read to help myself recover

When I got into my Twelve Step program, I was told that to recover from addiction, it was important to go to meetings regularly and read the Big Book—the textbook for AA. I got to the meetings, but with my psychiatric illness I couldn't concentrate enough to read, at least at first. But with the help of my psychiatrist, eventually I was able to start using the program literature as a recovery tool.

I never used to read a lot, but reading the literature these days is worth it. As suggested, reading helps me accept my addiction (and my emotional illness). It also teaches me ways to recover, ways to feel relief. I read a little each day and feel connected to others in recovery. In reading I am developing a good habit.

I will spend ten minutes today reading recovery materials.

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

A child is fed with milk and praise.

~ Mary Lamb ~

When we were children, we probably had needs that were not met. Maybe we needed more physical affection — maybe we got too much of the wrong kind. Maybe no one encouraged us the way we think they should have. That little boy or girl who needed something is still in us. Even though we’re grown, that history, that past, is still part of us and we need to nurture our child within.

We can do this by remembering we’re no longer helpless, and by taking action to make life good for ourselves. We’re at a perfect place to change our lives — our spirits, our minds, and our bodies are healthy, safe, and sound. We can rekindle the joys of childhood. Perhaps some childlike play, a hobby, or music will do it. Even if we think we’re no good at singing or drawing, the more we do it, the more we let ourselves enjoy it, and the closer we grow to that inner child. We can’t do anything about our childhood, but we can, at last, get the love we need — from ourselves and others.

Today let me take time to enjoy some play.

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

So many people in this world have come to believe that they are locked into their life pattern... yet, new perception choices can truly set us free.

~ Chelle Thompson ~

Sometimes the transition of letting go of the person you once were can be unsettling and highly emotional. You may even feel at times as if you have lost your identity. As you learn more about your addiction, develop greater awareness about the behaviors you exhibited when you were using, pray to a Higher Power—perhaps for the first time in years—or hear yourself admitting or saying things you might have never aired in the past, you may feel that you have no idea of who you are anymore, i Just as you may feel unsettled with the “new you,” so too may others feel off-balance in their interactions with you. Recovery is a bit like wearing a new pair of shoes for the first time. Before they are broken in, you will be conscious of something that feels quite different.

But being out of touch with who you once were is not necessarily a bad thing. You are still somebody. Recovery Is simply giving you an “upgrade” so that you can refine your self-image in ways that make you feel better about yourself.

Who I am becoming represents a magnificent work in progress.

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

Listen, or thy tongues will keep thee deaf.

~ Native American proverb ~

The Tower of Babel was so named because all the people who were working on it were speaking different languages all at the same time. Construction didn't succeed because no one listened to one another. With all the babbling, it was as if they were deaf.

Most of us have the ability to hear. Yet we don’t make full use of it when we choose to talk constantly, bending someone else's ear as we endlessly babble on. We don't use our ability to listen at meetings or to family members or our lover as well as we could. We can become so wrapped up in listening to ourselves that we can't hear anyone else.

It's our choice to remain deaf to other voices but our own. This self-imposed deafness can deprive us of valuable experience and knowledge from those working on the same issues as we are. To improve our hearing, we need to shut our mouths and open our ears. To hear other voices can be music to our ears!

I can stop being deal n other voices around me. There is a symphony of strength and serenity if I only stop to hear it!

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

Listening to the heart

What we truly want for ourselves comes from the heart, not from the head. Our head only thinks it knows what’s important.

Because it brought relief from some of our pain, we thought addiction was what we wanted. But eventually our heart told us that addiction is painful and that relief is in recovery, sobriety, and the fellowship.

Am I learning to think twice and see what my heart is saying?

Higher Power, help me to listen to my heart when matters are most important.

Today I will pay close attention to my feelings by

God help me to stay clean and sober to day!

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

"I can forgive, but I cannot forget" is only another way of saying, "I cannot forgive."

~ HENRY WARD BEECHER ~

Newcomer

Won't forgiving those who've done real harm make me a weaker person? I don't want to deny the real evils that exist.

Sponsor

The best of us are flawed; the worst of us have some redeeming features. Getting to know ourselves involves the willingness to face all aspects of our character-our generosity and selfishness, courage and fear, open and closed places.

If we can see ourselves with objectivity, then we're better equipped to see others, too, as they really are. We can imaginatively experience another person's pain or fear, and sense intuitively what he or she is trying to protect. We may be able to stop taking another's behavior toward us so personally, once we understand it as part of a defense system that was in place long before we entered the picture.

The word "compassion" means “feeling with”—sharing in another's suffering. Compassion doesn’t diminish us. Exactly the opposite: it expands our hearts. When we can feel compassion, both for ourselves and for others, we experience just how powerful the action of forgiveness is.

Today, I clean the house of my spirit. I no longer have to carry the weight of others' wrongs.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

None of us has ever personally known a person who died and surely went to Heaven. As all men are sinners, we are told, then it is assumed that even the saintliest of men have some hidden sins in their past, either of omission or commission.

We do know of many cases however, of people who have died the living death of Alcoholism and who have come back to make a little Heaven here on earth for themselves and all those around them.

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

Quiet Day

This is another day, O Lord.
I don't know what it will bring for I have not scheduled anything
lf I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.
If I am to rest, help me rest patiently.
And if I am to do nothing, help me do it serenely.
For it is Your will for me to be comfortably quiet.

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

I AM THAT I AM

And . . . there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud . . . (Exodus19:16).

These are dramatic expressions of the change of consciousness as we move away from the common things of life to the higher things.

In these days of the Exodus, the condition of the outer world answered very quickly to man's thoughts because people believed it was possible. Moses took his people across the Red Sea by the power of thought, and he was able to do that because in those days people believed in the power of thought. They believed that God could take them across the Red Sea dry shod, and He did.

Moses had the true knowledge of God from his father's people, the Hebrews. It was the historical mission of the Hebrews to teach that God is not a limited, corporeal being, but incorporeal, infinite, divine mind.

Moses saw clearly the unity of God and man, and the unity of man and man. He got more than a flash of what we call the cosmic consciousness. That was his illumination. Then he realized that he must give this to humanity.

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

God Meant It for Good

Keep your faith in beautiful things; in the sun when it is hidden, in the Spring when it is gone.

~ Roy R. Gibson ~

The Bible tells of Joseph who, because he was his father's favorite son, incurred the jealousy of his brothers. To get rid of Joseph, they threw him in a desert pit and left him to die. But a caravan came along and took Joseph to Egypt where, because of his spiritual insight, he was elevated to the position of advisor to the Pharaoh.

When famine fell upon Joseph's homeland, his brothers came to Egypt to ask for food, and they were sent to see none other than Joseph. Astounded to find him alive, and feeling guilty over their attempt to do away with him, they begged for forgiveness. "Not necessary," Joseph answered. "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."

Although Joseph's brothers did not recognize it, they were participating in his destiny for good. Similarly, when life hands us challenges or abuses, it may actually be moving us into a position where we gain greater good than if the incidents had not happened.

Instead of asking, "How could life be so cruel as to victimize me like this?" a more empowering question is, "How can I use this experience to grow in strength and become even more powerful to manifest what I truly want?"

In a Gallup Poll, 87 percent of those questioned stated that their most challenging experiences turned out to be among the most helpful. Consider the possibility that even though someone may seem to mean an act for evil, God means it for good.

I pray to use Your vision today. Remove any sense of smallness and victimization from my heart, and help me make my experiences work on my behalf.

I am the creator of my experience. I take what I have and make what I want.