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

 

Friday, Dec. 2, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Accepting Our Best

We don’t have to do it any better than we can — ever. Do our best for the moment, then let it go. If we have to redo it, we can do our best in another moment, later. We can never do more or better than we are able to do at the moment. We punish ourselves and make ourselves feel crazy by expecting more than our reasonable best for now.

Striving for excellence is a positive quality. Striving for perfection is self-defeating. Did someone tell us or expect us to do or give or be more? Did someone always withhold approval?

There comes a time when we feel we have done our best. When that time comes, let it go. There are days when our best is less than we hoped for. Let those times go too. Start over tomorrow. Work things through, until our best becomes better.

There is a time for constructive criticism, but if that’s all we give ourselves, we’ll give up. Empowering and complimenting ourselves will not make us lazy. It will nurture us and enable us to give, do, and be our best.

Today, I will do my best, then let it go. God, help me stop criticizing myself so I can start appreciating how far I’ve come.

Hazelden Foundation

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

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, Dec. 2, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
The thoughts that come before having a slip seem to be partly subconscious. And yet it is likely that at least part of these thoughts get into our consciousness. An idle thought connected with drinking casually pops into our mind. That is the crucial moment. Will I harbor that thought even for one minute or will I banish it from my mind at once? If I let it stay, it may develop into a daydream. I may begin to see a cool glass of beer or a Manhattan cocktail in my mind’s eye. If I allow the daydream to stay in my mind, it may lead to a decision, however unconscious, to take a drink. Then I am headed for a slip.

Do I let myself daydream?

Meditation for the Day
Many of us have a sort of vision of the kind of person God wants us to be. We must be true to that vision, whatever it is, and we must try to live up to it, by living the way we believe we should live. We can all believe that God has a vision of what he wants us to be like. In all people there is the good person which God sees in us, the person we could be and that God would like us to be. But many a person fails to fulfill that promise and God’s disappointments must be many.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may strive to be the kind of a person that God would have me be. I pray that I may try to fulfill God’s vision of what I could be.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 2, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Friday, Dec. 2, 2022

” …Step Ten …suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear …We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 6 (“Into Action”), p 84.

Today, if a slip or relapse are preceded by thoughts that are mostly subconscious, a more diligent practice of Step 10 might be a refuge from a return to drinking. The 10th Step, the logical extension of the Fourth Step, could alert us to problems in our physical, emotional and spiritual conditions, and those conditions may well have led us to drinking in the first place. The importance of the 10th cannot be underestimated. It encourages us to continue the Fourth Step on a daily basis, and do it honestly and diligently. With that honesty and diligence, we may find in the 10th that some of the defects we acknowledged in our Fourth Step have resurfaced. By recognizing them before they reach the surface, we might be able to fight off the potential slip or relapse. At the same time, if we make conscious those thoughts that are otherwise subconscious and cave in to temptation or craving, we most likely have not fully embraced the First Step – “Admitted we were powerless …” Today, I choose not to neglect my 10th Step. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2022

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

 

A Day at a Time

Friday, Dec. 2, 2022

Reflection for the Day
Once at a meeting held in a church, I saw a stained glass window on which was written, “God Is Love.” For some reason, my mind transposed the words into, “Love Is God.” Either way is correct and true, I realized, looking about me and becoming even more conscious of the spirit of love and Power in the small meeting room. I’ll continue to seek out that love and Power, following The Program as if my life depended upon it – as indeed it does.

Does life to me today mean living – in the active sense – joyously and comfortably?

Today I Pray
May I feel the spirit of love that gives our prayers their energy. May I feel the oneness in this room, the concentration of love that gives the group its power. May I feel the exemplary love of a Higher Power, which our love echoes.

Today I Will Remember
Love is God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 2, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Friday, Dec. 2, 2022

Fires, floods and epidemics are nobody’s business – they are everybody’s business. Alcoholism is equally devastating and just as much a community catastrophe.

We in AA are unique in that we are trained veterans in the art of combating this disease. Its prevalence demands the complete cooperation of every qualified man or woman, and we are guilty of dereliction of duty and lacking in gratitude to the Grace of God that saved us, if we do anything less than our utmost.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 2, 2022 – Good morning and exhale that the Happy Dance Friday is finally here

 

Good morning and take some time this beautiful Friday to exhale and to simply appreciate the good instead of worrying about the bad

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

 

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

As far as my life is concerned, poetry has saved me again and again. — Muriel Rukeyser

Reading and writing are among the tools many of us find most powerful in our process of personal transformation. For those who struggle with issues of identity or who are recovering from the isolation and denial of addiction, both reading and writing offer inspiration and validation.

It is rare that we turn to such media as newspapers, television, or the products of popular culture for reflections of our real selves, our struggles, and our celebrations. But we do find lives like our own represented in a wealth of literature, whether of liberation or recovery, whose purpose is to tell the truth and to tell it in memorable language.

It’s not surprising that so many of us — whether or not we are professional writers — find healing expression in creating poems, stories, and plays, keeping journals, or making written inventories as part of the Twelve Step recovery process. We can write truthfully from our deep places. Whether or not we wish to share our writing with others, we can use it as part of our process of healing and growth.

Today, I use reading and writing as ways to connect to the truth within me.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 1, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

“Pity me the heart that is slow to learn
What the quick mind sees at every turn.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay

“For a while …we can endure the intellect’s being ahead of the emotions, which is the import of Millay’s couplet. But as the years go by, the stretch becomes unbearable; and the man with the grown-up brain and the childish emotions – vanity, self-interest, false pride, jealousy, longing for social approval – becomes a prime candidate for alcohol. …(T)hat is a definition of alcoholism: a state of being in which the emotions have failed to grow to the stature of the intellect.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 11 (“He Who Loses His Life”), pp 534-35.

Today, alcoholism cannot be arrested by intellectual strategies and I must measure – honestly – my emotional state. Without healthy emotions, the quality of my sobriety will likely be little more than being on a dry drunk. Accepting that alcohol is “but a symptom” of our underlying condition, we are compelled to seek recovery by doing more than abstaining. If today the number of 24 Hours since my last drink is days, months or years, a measure of the quality of my sobriety may be if I still harbor the emotions that I felt when I was drinking. If so, I probably need to review and refine my Program. Sobriety is more than not drinking and comes with physical, spiritual and emotional renewal. The 12 Steps give us a road map to recovery. Today, I need to look honestly at my emotional affairs. I’ve already tried the intellectual route. It got me nowhere. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2022

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

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

AA Thought for the Day

The thoughts that come before having a slip are often largely subconscious. It is a question whether or not our subconscious minds ever become entirely free from alcoholic thoughts as long as we live. For instance, some of us dream about being drunk when we are asleep, even after several years of sobriety in AA. During the period of our drinking days, our subconscious minds have been thoroughly conditioned by our alcoholic way of thinking and it is doubtful if they ever become entirely free of such thoughts during our lifetime. But when our conscious minds are fully conditioned against drinking, we can stay sober and our subconscious minds do not often bother us.

Am I still conditioning my conscious mind?

Meditation for the Day

Having sympathy and compassion for all who are in temptation, a condition which we are sometimes in, we have a responsibility towards them. Sympathy always includes responsibility. Pity is useless because it does not have a remedy for the need. But wherever our sympathy goes, our responsibility goes, too. When we are moved with compassion, we should go to the one in need and bind up his wounds as best we can.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have sympathy for those in temptation. I pray that I may have compassion for others’ trials.

Hazelden Foundation

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

 

A Day at a Time

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

Reflection for the Day
It has truly been said that, “We become what we do.” It’s emphasized to us over and over in The Program that our thoughts and actions toward others color and shape our spiritual lives. Words and acts of kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness and forgiveness serve to strengthen those qualities within us that heighten our consciousness of God’s love.

In asking God to direct and guide my life, am I also asking love to take over and lead me where it will?

Today I Pray
May I make a resolute attempt at acting out the way I want to be – loving, forgiving, kind, thoughtful. May I be aware that each small, attentive act carries with it an echo of God’s all-caring. For God so loved the world; may we make His love our example.

Today I Will Remember
We become what we do.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 1, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

There will always be a difference of opinion as long as people have different interests, different prejudices and different mental capacities.

To expect people to disagree with you is only sensible and reasonable. If everybody agreed with you, everybody would be as smart as you and you wouldn’t like that for a minute. The chances are you are both wrong anyhow, or you would not be required to defend your opinions. The right can defend itself without your help.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 1, 2022 – Rise ‘n shine for a great Thursday and brand new month

 

Good morning with hopes for a great Thursday and brand new month for everyone

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

 

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Each day we get the gift of hope

Those of us sharing this program are so fortunate. First, we have a set of suggestions for living with whatever comes our way. This means that no experience will be too much to handle and no person can intimidate us unless we let it happen. Second, we can look to our Higher Power for strength and comfort. We’ll find both. Third, the Twelve Step principles will be internalized in time if we give them steady attention.

But to keep growing, we need to continue our commitment to meetings and newcomers. From them, we’ll get concrete reminders of how we have changed. Our willingness to help newcomers begin their journey of growth will benefit us tenfold. Seeing hope in the eyes of others will remind us of our own blessings.

Today I will offer to someone else a lesson I have learned from experience.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022

Many who are active in AA work come to feel that they just can’t carry on any longer. There is so much to do; so little time can be spared to do it; so few to do the work. There is a limit to their endurance. After all, a guy has just so much health, strength and patience.

When the burdens get too heavy and too numerous, take it up with the Big Boss, tell Him you like to do His work but that it is more than you can handle – ask Him for more help – and you’ll get it.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022

Today, understand that a substitute chemical to replace alcohol that alters my perception of reality is not working toward recovery. May I also understand that “mind- and mood-altering chemicals” may not necessarily include prescribed medications. If depression continues to be a condition even in recovery, for example, let me listen to reasons why anti-depressants may not compromise my sobriety but may even improve its quality. The debate in 12-Step programs that any substance which alters mood costs us our sobriety is as old as the Program itself. But the Program admits it is not a medical one, and that tells me it is my responsibility to seek knowledge from qualified sources to determine if my sobriety is at risk. Today, understanding that the substances I ingested are not the same as prescribed medications, let me also consider the possibility that acting as my own physician may be writing my own relapse. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2022