June 10, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Saturday, June 10, 2023

Reflection for the Day
When I least expect it, my keen addictive mind will try to divert me back toward my old ideas and old ways. My mind is expert, in fact, at planting and nourishing negative feelings within me — feelings such as envy, fear, anxiety, or guilt. The minute I spot any of these poisonous feelings rising up, I have to deal with them. If not, the more I think about them, the stronger they’ll get; the stronger they get, the more I’ll think about them — to the point of obsession.

When negative feelings arise, do I “name them, claim them, and dump them …?”

Today I Pray
I should know — and may I please never forget — that a sure way to let my feelings get the best of me is to pretend they aren’t there. Like spoiled offspring, they act up when they are ignored. But also like offspring, they are here, they are mine and I am responsible for them. May I learn to pay attention to my feelings, even if sometimes I would rather make believe they didn’t belong to me.

Today I Will Remember
Name them, claim them, dump them.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2022 – Readings in Recovery: Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, July 25, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Reflection for the Day

“It is the privilege of wisdom to listen,” Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote. If I try as hard as I can to cultivate the art of listening — uncritically and without making premature judgments — chances are great that I’ll progress more rapidly in my recovery. If I try as hard as I can to listen to the feelings and thoughts expressed — rather than to the “speaker” — I may be blessed with an unexpectedly helpful idea. The essential quality of good listening is humility, which reflects the fact that my Higher Power’s voice speaks to us even through the least and most inarticulate of people.

Does a holier-than-thou attitude sometimes close my mind to the shared suggestions of others?

Today I Pray

May my Higher Power keep me from being “holier-than-thou” with anyone whose manner or language or opposite point of view or apparent lack of knowledge turns me off to what they are saying. May I be listening always for my Higher Power’s voice, which can be heard through the speech of any and all of us.

Today I Will Remember

Hear the speech, not the speaker.

Hazelden Foundation

June 16, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Wednesday, June 16, 2021

We alcoholics are, in all things, extremists. We either over-indulge or we must abstain entirely. Drinking is not the only field, however, where this characteristic is noticeable; it exists even in the way we practice our AA.

Many of us who thought nothing of paying $10 or even $20 a quart for liquor in Prohibition days, feel that we are more than generous when we drop a quarter in the basket on meeting nights.

Probably if we all loosened up a little more, our Committees would be able to do those things that we now criticize them for not doing.

A cheap brand of AA is no bargain.

Hazelden Foundation

June 2, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Reflection for the Day

In the process of learning to love myself and, in turn, to love others freely with no strings attached, I've begun to understand these words of St. Augustine: "Love slays what we have been, that we may be what we were not." More and more, I feel this enormous power of such love in The Program; for me, the words, "we care," also mean, "we love."

Just for today, will I try to be loving in every thought and action?

Today I Pray

I pray that I may feel the enormity and the power of the love I find in The Program. May my own caring be added to that great energy of love which belongs to all of us. May I care with my whole heart that my fellow members maintain their sobriety and are learning to live with it comfortably and creatively. May I never doubt that they care the same way about me.

Today I Will Remember

Caring makes it happen.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 19, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Friday, Feb. 19, 2021

The AA way of living holds out, for all that will grasp it, everything that is advantageous to life. A healthy mind, a healthy body, a healthy soul. Complete harmony with God, your fellow man and yourself. Truly the peace that passeth all understanding.

Hazelden Foundation