May 2, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, May 2, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Living the Twelve Step way is a twenty‑four‑hour‑a‑day opportunity.

Twelve Step programs expose us to ideas that seem foreign. It takes time to embrace a new value system we can live by every day. Absorbing and using these principles for every decision and action removes the worry from our lives.

Changing how we’ve thought and acted doesn’t happen overnight. Changing one thing at a time is enough at first. Perhaps we’ll give up our feeling of hopelessness. The Second Step tells us that God can free us from our insanity, our hopelessness. All we need do is ask for help, and hope will come. Maybe we decide the urge to take over someone else’s life must end. Doing the First Step numerous times a day will help us remember that we are powerless over everyone else. If discomfort from an old relationship keeps haunting us, maybe it’s time to make amends and get on with life.

Our value system shapes every part of our lives. Twelve Step philosophy simplifies our lives, particularly when the baggage of the past has been cleared away.

This isn’t a part-time program for me. I want to live by these principles every minute. My life will reflect how successfully I do it.

Hazelden Foundation

May 2, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Monday, May 2, 2022

Today, if I have made sincere amends to those I wronged "except when to do so would hurt" them or others, I must progress beyond regret, shame and anger to what may be my single strongest and most meaningful amend: committing myself to sobriety and recovery. For all I said and did as an alcoholic and now sober, I cannot become the proverbial doormat and let anyone or anything hammer me for the mistakes I have tried to correct, especially by those who cannot or will not accept my apologies. I can allow a margin of regret that I may not be forgiven by all I have hurt, but I cannot afford to be kicked down repeatedly. Today, if I have been rebuffed or cannot make amends because doing so might lead to more damage, I can find reconciliation in being sober. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

May 2, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, May 2, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
In AA, we often hear the slogan, "Easy Does It." Alcoholics also do everything to excess. They drink too much. They worry too much. They have too many resentments. They hurt themselves physically and mentally by too much of everything. So when they come into AA, they have to learn to take it easy. None of us knows how much longer we have to live. It's probable that we wouldn't have lived very long if we had continued to drink the way we used to. By stopping drinking, we have increased our chances of living for a while longer.

Have I learned to take it easy?

Meditation for the Day
You must be, before you can do. To accomplish much, be much. In all cases, the doing must be the expression of the being. It is foolish to think that we can accomplish much in personal relationships without first preparing ourselves by being honest, pure, unselfish and loving. We must choose the good and keep choosing it before we are ready to be used by God to accomplish anything worthwhile. We will not be given the opportunities until we are ready for them. Quiet times of communion with the Higher Power are good preparation for creative action.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may constantly prepare myself for better things to come. I pray that I may only have opportunities when I am ready for them.

Hazelden Foundation

May 2, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Monday, May 2, 2022

Reflection for the Day
When I was drinking, I was certain that my intelligence, backed by willpower, could properly control my inner life and guarantee me success in the world around me. This brave and grandiose philosophy, by which I played God, sounded good in the saying, but it still had to meet the acid test: how well did it actually work? One good look in the mirror was answer enough.

Have I begun to ask God each day for strength?

Today I Pray
May I stop counting on my old standbys, my "superior intelligence" and my "willpower," to control my life. I used to think, with those two fabulous attributes, that I was all-powerful. May I not forget, as my self-image is restored, that only through surrender to a Higher Power will I be given the power that can make me whole.

Today I Will Remember
Check for "head-tripping."

Hazelden Foundation

May 2, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Monday, May 2, 2022

The United Nations and the old League of Nations both recognized the fact that man's conquest of time and space has brought the nations of the earth into such close and intimate relationship that national problems are now world problems and must be dealt with accordingly.

Their lack of success, up to the present time, stems from their inability to recognize the common Fatherhood of God and the inherent brotherhood of man. They attempt to settle world affairs without consulting the Power that made both the world and the men in it.

God put no problems in the world; they are all man-made and far too often, we fear, they bear the stamp "Made in the USA."

Hazelden Foundation

May 2, 2022 - Good morning and let's get psyched for Monday and a new week

 

Good morning with assurance that we don't have to dread Monday and a whole week facing us ...have a fantastic and productive but paced and safe day, and don't allow anything and anyone to mess it up

May 1, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Sometimes the things that frighten you the most can turn out to be the biggest sources of strength. — Iris Timberlake

Not many things would send fear through us if we remembered to rely on our Higher Power at all times. Yet we try to handle circumstances ourselves first. It’s often only when we finally feel hopeless that we turn to our Higher Power for the help that awaited us all along.

We make our lives much more difficult than they need to be. Let’s quit thinking through our problems alone, no matter how foolish they seem. Let’s quit trying to handle tough people alone. Let’s trust that every circumstance, no matter how small, is a lesson offered by God. And let’s know that the outcome will be the right one for our particular growth at that moment.

Things that frighten us do so only because we have failed to remember the presence of our Higher Power. Let’s pray for the willingness to remember God’s presence. When we do, we will know a new strength.

Today I will let God help me handle every moment of my day.

Hazelden Foundation

May 1, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Sunday, May 1, 2022

Today, not as an alcoholic working to avoid a relapse but as a sober alcoholic embracing the addictive habit of recovery. I can now find the tragic irony of all I have wasted and lost only to be led to this point when I no longer have to drink - because sobriety has replaced my addiction to alcohol. I can be grateful for the relief that I now think in terms of wanting sobriety more than drinking because, now, I don't need the drink or high. I can be grateful for realizing I have made my journey in sobriety so needlessly complicated because I overlooked a simple and basic truth: I want sobriety more than drinking. With that, I can work the Steps with less fear and hesitation, a higher self-esteem - and the hope and faith that my sobriety has progressed to where I want recovery. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

May 1, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, May 1, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
The AA program is one of charity because the real meaning of the word "charity" is to care enough about other people to really want to help them. To get the full benefit of the Program, we must try to help other alcoholics. We may try to help somebody and think we have failed, but the seed we have planted may bear fruit some time. We never know the results even a word of ours might have. But the main thing is to have charity for others, a real desire to help them, whether we succeed or not.

Do I have real charity?

Meditation for the Day
All material things, the universe, the world, even our bodies, may be Eternal Thought expressed in time and space. The more the physicists and astronomers reduce matter, the more it becomes a mathematical formula, which is thought. In the final analysis, matter is thought. When Eternal thought expresses itself within the framework of space and time, it becomes matter. Our thoughts, within the box of space and time, cannot know anything first hand except material things. But we can deduce that outside the box of space and time is Eternal Thought, which we can call God.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be a true expression of Eternal Thought. I pray that God's thoughts may work through my thoughts.

Hazelden Foundation

May 1, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Sunday, May 1, 2022

Reflection for the Day
For those of us who have lost our faith, or who have always had to struggle along without it, it's often helpful just to accept - blindly and with no reservations. It's not necessary for us to believe at first; we need not be convinced. If we can only accept, we find ourselves becoming gradually aware of a force for good that's always there to help us.

Have I taken the way of faith?

Today I Pray
May I abandon my need to know the why's and wherefore's of my trust in a Higher Power. May I not intellectualize about faith, since by its nature it precludes analysis. May I know that "head-tripping" was a symptom of my disease, as I strung together - cleverly, I thought - alibi upon excuse upon rationale. May I learn acceptance - and faith will follow.

Today I Will Remember
Faith follows acceptance.

Hazelden Foundation

May 1, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Sunday, May 1, 2022

The aim of AA is not Sobriety but Happy Sobriety. The most effective and, incidentally, the soberest group, is the happiest group. It is possible that you can't speak at meetings, maybe you are not in a position to "carry the message," but you can and should show your happy sobriety in the radiance of your smile. It is our only advertisement and it should outshine in brilliance the gaudiest of neon sign.

The poor guy still in the gutter isn't interested in your sobriety; he's interested in the price of another drink. He is, however, very much interested in happiness. It's what he has been looking for all his life and thought he could buy by the "fifth."

Hazelden Foundation

May 1, 2022 - Good morning to this magnificent Sunday and new month

 

Rise 'n shine and get ready for a terrific Sunday and new month ...have a really wonderful but productive and safe day, and permit nothing and no one the control to mess it up

April 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Love at first sight is easy to understand. It’s when two people have been looking at each other for years that it becomes a miracle. — Sam Levenson

True intimacy introduces us to ourselves. A loving relationship is the greatest therapy. When we first fall in love, we are filled with optimism. We cling to all the best qualities of the person we fall in love with, and we look past those things we don’t like. But an intimate partnership takes us further than we’ve been before.

Most of us fall in love and soon find ourselves in over our heads. We haven’t had experience in sustaining openness and vulnerability. We may gradually begin to feel too exposed. The relationship tests our ability to trust someone who has this much access to our inner self. We become cranky or overly sensitive. We may test our partner’s love by asking, “If you love me, will you do such and such?” We begin to try to control our partner so we don’t feel so vulnerable. All these temptations are holdover behaviors from our less mature selves. So we must reach for our more mature selves and trust that we can survive being so vulnerable.

Today, I will turn to my Higher Power for guidance in going forward in trust while being vulnerable.

Hazelden Foundation

April 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Saturday, April 30, 2022

Today, instead of an alcoholic, I'm a soberholic. If "alcoholic" calls attention to the fact that I am addicted to alcohol, can't "soberholic" stake my addiction to sobriety? Despite AA's progress in striking down the image of the alcoholic as the down-and-out'er sleeping in alleys or drying out in a flophouse, a jail's drunk tank or mental hospital, a stigma remains. Might I be able to erode that stigma by labeling my addiction to sobriety instead of to alcohol? If so, maybe I can renew my self-confidence and weaken any temptation or lingering doubt about drinking again. As someone addicted to sobriety, why do I need alcohol? Today, at the risk of angering those who warn against trading one addiction for another, I'll substitute dependence on alcohol for addiction to sobriety. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

April 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, April 30, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
The AA program is one of faith because we find that we must have faith in a Power greater than ourselves if we are going to get sober. We're helpless before alcohol, but when we turn our drink problem over to God and have faith that He can give us all the strength we need, then we have the drink problem licked. Faith in that Divine Principle in the universe which we call God is the essential part of the AA program.

Is faith still strong in me?

Meditation for the Day
Each one of us is a child of God, and as such, we are full of the promise of spiritual growth. A young person is like the springtime of the year. The full time of the fruit is not yet, but there is promise of the blossom. There is a spark of the Divine in every one of us. Each has some of God's spirit which can be developed by spiritual exercise. Know that your life is full of glad promise. Such blessings can be yours, such joys, such wonders, as long as you develop in the sunshine of God's love.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may develop the divine spark within me. I pray that by so doing I may fulfill the promise of a more abundant life.

Hazelden Foundation