June 29, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, June 29, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present.

--Thomas Merton

We can take a few moments, right now, to really quiet ourselves, and not think of anything. We can give our mind an unexpected rest, and let the peace of God's care envelop us like a soft blanket.

In these moments of quiet, we discover solitude. We realize that solitude is available to us in a moment's decision. Within solitude we find God's promise of serenity, and we're renewed once again. And we can find this renewal again and again in the serenity that awaits us each moment we choose solitude.

The pace at which most of us live is so tiring, and our busyness depletes our physical, emotional, and spiritual energy hour by hour, day by day. The renewal we long for is ours; we just need to make the decision.

I'll be quiet, now, and feel renewed and in touch with God.

Hazelden Foundation

June 29, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Saturday, June 29, 2024

“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” — Step Two

” …(W)e believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help. This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 2 (“There Is a Solution”), pp 25-6.

Today, accept that the one entity I trusted to run my life — myself — didn’t work. If I am in “the region from which there is no return,” may I want and be willing to accept the possibility that a Power stronger than myself exists to redeem me. If I am still caught up in the myth that the spiritual entity is religious, maybe I have already set myself as being unwilling to find a Higher Power. In holding onto unwillingness and not opening myself to the possibility, the recovery I seek probably is not in the cards, especially if I continue to do it my way although it has shown me time after time after time and time and time again that I simply cannot do it on my own. Today, enough is enough, and I take the step to at least consider the possibility that something better, stronger and wiser than myself can help me get it right. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

June 29, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, June 29, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
The program of Alcoholics Anonymous involves a continuous striving for improvement. There can be no long resting period. We must try to work at it all the time. We must continually keep in mind that it is a program not to be measured in years because we never fully reach our goals nor are we ever cured. Our alcoholism is only kept in abeyance by daily living of the program. It is a timeless program in every sense. We live it day by day or, more precisely, moment by moment — now.

Am I always striving for improvement?

Meditation for the Day
Life is all a preparation for something better to come. God has a plan for your life, and it will work out if you try to do His will. God has things planned for you far beyond what you can imagine now. But you must prepare yourself so that you will be ready for the better things to come. Now is the time for discipline and prayer. The time of expression will come later. Life can be flooded through and through with joy and gladness. So prepare yourself for those better things to come.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may prepare myself for better things which God has in store for me. I pray that I may trust God for the future.

Hazelden Foundation

June 29, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Saturday, June 29, 2024

Reflection for the Da4
Once we surrendered and came to The Program, many of us wondered what we would do with all that time on our hands. All the hours we’d previously spent planning, hiding, alibiing, getting loaded, coming down, getting “well,” juggling our accounts — and all the rest — threatened to turn into empty chunks of time that somehow had to be filled. We needed new energy previously absorbed by our addictions. We soon realized that substituting a new and different activity is far easier than just stopping the old activity and putting nothing in its place.

Am I redirecting my mind and energy?

Today I Pray
I pray that, once free of the encumbrance of my addiction, I may turn to my Higher Power to discover for me how to fill my time constructively and creatively. May that same Power that makes human paths cross and links certain people to specific situations, lead me along good new roads into good new places.

Today I Will Remember
Happenstance may be more than chance.

Hazelden Foundation

June 29, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Saturday, June 29, 2024

To pity distress is a natural human characteristic, except in the case of the poor drunk. The hospitals want no part of him. He brought it on himself and, besides, they need their beds for really sick people. Many doctors won’t make a house call if they suspect the patient has been drinking and, when they do, their medication consists for the most part of something to knock him out and keep him quiet. People who spend hours raising funds for the tubercular and the cancerous call a cop when they see a drunk.

God knows the drunk and He also knows human nature, and so He invented AA.

Hazelden Foundation

June 29, 2024 - Rise 'n shine for a knock-out Saturday and weekend

 

Good morning and let's commit to having a terrific and worry-, drama-free Saturday and not get derailed by people and things that don't warrant our attention

June 28, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, June 28, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The Third Promise

We will comprehend the word serenity and know peace.

-- Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

When we read this promise, we nod our heads eagerly. When we first decided to shake the bondage of addiction through the love, encouragement, deep concern and help from newfound friends, we knew what serenity felt like. A life of serenity and security comes naturally when we realize that all those who preceded us in our fellowship have not only had the same problems, but have found solutions that they willingly pass on to us.

Peace of mind is new to us. Serenity becomes refreshing and comfortable as we realize we are free men and women, and come to admit to ourselves that we have experienced a miracle.

With that awareness, we find true belief. With abstinence comes mental clarity. Serenity gives us a perfect climate in which spiritual progress can grow.

Alcoholics Anonymous

June 28, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Friday, June 28, 2024

Today …”having had a spiritual awakening.”

Today, ask seriously and honestly what “spiritual awakening” means. If I talk the Program’s talk but don’t walk the walk, I am little more than a dry drunk and have missed one of recovery’s most elusive and cherished accomplishments — a fundamental change emotionally and spiritually. If I talk of adherence to service to the Program and other alcoholics who still suffer but beg off because I am too busy, my talk is little more than self-righteous, self-serving, sanctimonious ego-blowing. Today, I need to ask if I have truly undergone the basic requirement of a spiritual awakening — a fundamental change in attitude, perspective and spirituality. And if I conclude that I have not, it’s back to the basics. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

June 28, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, June 28, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
You can prove to yourself that life is basically and fundamentally an inner attitude. Just try to remember what troubled you most a week ago. You probably will find it difficult to remember. Why then, should you unduly worry or fret over the problems that arise today? Your attitude toward them can be changed by putting yourself and your problems in God’s hands and trusting Him to see that everything will turn out all right, provided you are trying to do the right thing. Your changed mental attitude toward your problems relieves you of their burden and you can face them without fear.

Has my mental attitude changed?

Meditation for the Day
You cannot see the future. It’s a blessing that you cannot. You could not bear to know all the future. That is why God only reveals it to you day by day. The first step each day is to lay your will before God as an offering, ready for God to do what is best for you. Be sure that, if you trust God, what He does for you will be for the best. The second step is to be confident that God is powerful enough to do anything He wills, and that no miracle in human lives is impossible with Him. Then leave the future to God.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may gladly leave my future in God’s hands. I pray that I may be confident that good things will happen, as long as I am on the right path.

Hazelden Foundation

June 28, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Friday, June 28, 2025

Reflection for the Day
Almost daily, I hear of seemingly mysterious coincidences in the lives of my friends in The Program. From time to time, I’ve experienced such “coincidences” myself: showing up at the right place at exactly the right time; phoning a friend who, unbeknownst to me, desperately needed that particular phone call at that precise moment; hearing “my story” at an unfamiliar meeting in a strange town. These days, I choose to believe that many of life’s so-called “coincidences” are actually small miracles of God, who prefers to remain anonymous.

Am I continuingly grateful for the miracle of my recovery?

Today I Pray
May my awareness of a Higher Power working in our lives grow in sensitivity as I learn, each day, of “coincidences” that defy statistics, illnesses that reverse their prognoses, hair-breadth escapes that defy death, chance meetings that change the course of a life. When the un-understandable happens, may I perceive it as just another of God’s frequent miracles. My own death-defying miracle is witness enough for me.

Today I Will Remember
My life is a miracle.

Hazelden Foundation

June 28, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Friday, June 28, 2024

Exactly what is AA worth to you? Have you ever figured that out? Make a written list sometime of the benefits you have derived from your sobriety. Try hard to make an honest evaluation of what it would be worth to you in dollars and cents. How much have you benefited mentally, spiritually, physically, financially, socially?

Then make another list — how much has AA benefited by your membership? Are you trying to give as much as you have received? If not, you are getting something for nothing and that isn’t honest. You can never square the debt, but you can probably give it a little better try than you have been doing.

Hazelden Foundation

June 28, 2024 - Good morning and let's have a productive and fulfilling Friday

 

Good morning with hopes of a satisfying, productive, and drama- and trauma-free Friday for everyone and without the garbage of people and things that don't deserve our time

June 27, 2024 - Readnigs in Recovery: Today';s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Never f orget what a man says to you when he is angry.

-- Henry Ward Beecher

Do we speak the truth when we are angry? We are always quick to say, "I really didn't mean it," and we may even try to make amends for our thoughtlessness. But people, especially children, rarely forget what was said to them in anger.

Angry words hurt and mark people. Even if our parents didn't really mean it, those angry voices and words are still with us. We often come to believe that our parents didn't love us or respect us; otherwise, how could they have said those angry things that still hurt?

We will always have moments of anger. But we can think twice before letting anger dictate our speech. Words can hurt and people remember.

I know I will sometimes feel angry. But if I speak in anger, I want to be sure that what I say is honest, because people may take me at my word.

Hazelden Foundation

June 27, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Thursday, June 27, 2024

“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” — Step Four

“If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies …We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 5 (“How It Works”), p 70.

Today, if the Fourth I took yesterday is not “a lot,” chances are I have not been honest and thorough. More likely, I have been dishonest by not wanting to accept responsibility for damage I inflicted or by seeing myself as I hope instead of how I am. But putting to paper our misdeeds and injury to others is not sufficient. We are asked to perceive our defects as futile and fatal and begin to understand their damage. Further, we are compelled to begin learning “tolerance, patience and good will toward all men …” and become willing to clear the wreckage. If I do not understand all this, the Fourth I took yesterday may have been premature and dishonest. Today, I seek the understanding and gut honesty to do Step Four as it is intended. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

June 27, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, June 27, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
If you can take your troubles as they come, if you can maintain your calm and composure amid pressing duties and unending engagements, if you can rise above the distressing and disturbing circumstances in which you are set down, you have discovered a priceless secret of daily living. Even if you are forced to go through life weighed down by some inescapable misfortune or handicap and yet live each day as it comes with poise and peace of mind, you have succeeded where most people have failed. You have wrought a greater achievement than a person who rules a nation.

Have I achieved poise and peace of mind?

Meditation for the Day
Take a blessing with you wherever you go. You have been blessed, so bless others. Such stores of blessings are awaiting you in the months and years that lie ahead. Pass on your blessings. Blessing can and does go around the world, passed on from one person to another. Shed a little blessing in the heart of one person. That person is cheered to pass it on, and so, God’s vitalizing, joy-giving message travels on. Be a transmitter of God’s blessings.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may pass on my blessings. I pray that they may flow into the lives of others.

Hazelden Foundation

June 27, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Thursday, June 27, 2024

Reflection for the Day
Little by little, I’m getting over my tendency to procrastinate. I always used to put things off till tomorrow and, of course, they never got done. Instead of, “Do it now,” my motto was, “Tomorrow’s another day.” When I was loaded, I had grandiose plans; when I came down, I was too busy getting “well” to start anything. I’ve learned in The Program that it’s far better to make a mistake once in a while than to never do anything at all.

Am I learning to do it now?

Today I Pray
May God help me cure my habitual tardiness and “get me to the church on time.” May I free myself of the self-imposed chaos of life-long procrastination; library books overdue, appointments half-missed, assignments turned in late, schedules unmet, meals half-cooked. May I be sure if I, as an addict, led a disordered life, I, as a recovering addict, need order. May God give me the serenity to restore order and organization to my daily living.

Today I Will Remember
I will not be put off by my tendency to put off.

Hazelden Foundation

June 27, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Thursday, June 27, 2024

AA is not fundamentally a philosophy, but it is rather a program of active living. To commit the Big Book to memory, to listen attentively to all the group speakers will not guarantee continued sobriety.

The knowledge gained thereby, put into your everyday living, will make drinking practically impossible and certainly unenjoyable. If we fail to make the Program an integral part of our everyday living, we are almost sure to have some rough times ahead.

Hazelden Foundation

June 27, 2024 - Good morning with hopes of a far-out Thursday for everyone

 

Time to rise 'n shine and get this fabulous Thursday 

under way with determination to tackle whatever comes up and to have a productive and worthwhile day

June 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

I am grateful for this minute.

My eternity may be in it.

-- AA Grapevine, March 1947

The present moment is our link to the divine. How we conduct ourselves in the present moment is how we come to know what we believe in. We must never forget that moments are tied together, one moment leading into the next. Thus, by acting from our values in this moment, we increase our chances of acting from our values in the next moment. If we stay tied to the divine in this moment, we increase our chances of being tied to the divine in the next moment.

Recovery allows us to choose what we do with our moments and what we choose to be tied to. Dependence, on the other hand, is the loss of choice.

Are we grateful for having choices again? Are we grateful to be able to connect with the divine this very moment?

Prayer for the Day

I am grateful to have this moment. Higher Power, help me to use it to help others and to do what you want me to do. In reality, it is your moment. Thank you.

Today's Action

I will work to live today in the moment. I will work to see and find my Higher Power in the moment. If I can do this, I will stay connected to eternity.

Hazelden Foundation

June 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

“More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation, but knows in his heart he doesn’t deserve it.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 6 (“Into Action”), p 73.

Today, if I take the Fifth Step and confess to another person “the exact nature of (my) wrongs,” may I muster the courage to be honest with my toughest prospect — myself. Like Jekyll and Hyde, I displayed two personalities in my drinking days — the party animal or the isolated, depressed lonely drinker as I drank toward oblivion and, the morning after, the physically and emotionally broken person for everyone to see. I must meld both characters into one to find the actual self on which to build recovery, and that effort will likely be nil if I am not honest with myself first before taking Step Five. Honesty begins with myself; without it, my Fifth — and my Fourth, for that matter — is based on illusion. In the end, so will my recovery be based on illusion. Today, let me understand the wisdom that honesty has to begin with me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

June 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
We must know the nature of our weakness before we can determine how to deal with it. When we are honest about its presence, we may discover that it is imaginary and can be overcome by a change of thinking. We admit that we are alcoholics and we would be foolish if we refused to accept our handicap and do something about it. So by honestly facing our weakness and keeping ever present the knowledge that for us alcoholism is a disease with which we are afflicted, we can take the necessary steps to arrest it.

Have I fully accepted my handicap?

Meditation for the Day
There is a proper time for everything. I must learn not to do things at the wrong time, that is, before I am ready or before conditions are right. It is always a temptation to do something at once, instead of waiting until the proper time. Timing is important. I must learn, in the little daily situations of life, to delay action until I am sure that I am doing the right thing at the right time. So many lives lack balance and timing. In the momentous decisions and crises of life, they may ask God’s guidance, but into the small situations of life, they rush alone.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may delay action until I feel that I am doing the right thing. I pray that I may not rush in alone.

Hazelden Foundation

June 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Reflection for the Day
How many of us would presume to announce, “Well, I’m sober and I’m happy. What more can I want, or do? I’m fine just the way I am.” Experience has taught us that the price of such smug complacency – or, more politely, self-satisfaction — is an inevitable backslide, punctuated sooner or later by a very rude awakening. We have to grow, or else we deteriorate. For us, the status quo can only be for today, never for tomorrow. Change we must; we can’t stand still.

Am I sometimes tempted to rest on my laurels?

Today I Pray
May I look around me and see that all living things are either growing or deteriorating; nothing that is alive is static, life flows on. May I be carried along on that life-flow, unafraid of change, disengaging myself from the snags along the way which hold me back and interrupt my progress.

Today I Will Remember
Living is changing.

Hazelden Foundation

June 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Our sobriety is dead-serious. It has to be, to work at all. With it we can retain all we now have, and the limits to which we can add to it are circumscribed only by our initiative and our ability. Without sobriety we are in danger of losing that which we already have.

Sobriety is life itself to us and without it life would again become a living death. To unnecessarily subject ourselves to temptations is another variation of playing “Russian Roulette.”

Hazelden Foundation

June 26, 2024 - Rise 'n shine and head out for a magnificent Wednesday

 

Good morning with confidence that it's going to be a fabulous 
Wednesday, 
that we can handle whatever comes up and that nothing and no one has the control to ruin the day ahead

June 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back.

-- George Herbert

A loving invitation is far more powerful than a sales pitch. When we welcome newcomers to the program, it is always appropriate to assure them that things can get better, that they can make them better. We must never give the impression that the task of recovering is easy if you just do it.

The demons behind some of our locked doors have been there for many years. These demons may conceal the death of another, a life spent on drugs, a corner in which to hide because the alternative was just too ugly to face. It is true that we have to face our demons in order to heal. But it is equally true that insensitivity can scare newcomers into backing off. A heartfelt "We’re glad you’re here" is a powerful message of hope.

Today, I will remember how it feels to look, for the first time, at the long path winding over the mountain.

Hazelden Foundation

June 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Today, of all that I feel, gratitude is foremost — gratitude for grabbing the lifeline of recovery, for the common sense to hold onto it, for the support, experience, strength and hope of all the people I have found here and, perhaps above all, for the gift of recovery, to put all that pain, destruction, fear, self-pity and self-seeking behind me. And I will not reach into yesterday and bring its garbage into today but understand that my recovery is a day-to-day process regardless of how many 24 Hours of sobriety I have been blessed with. And I will understand that the gratitude I feel today is the birth of humility — and it is in humility that I feel all the good there is in being sober. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

June 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, June 25, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
One of the most encouraging facts of life is that your weakness can become your greatest asset. Kites and airplanes rise against the wind. In climbing up a high mountain, we need the stony crags and rough places to aid us in our climb. So your weakness can become an asset if you will face it, examine it and trace it to its origin. Set it in the very center of your minds. No weakness, such as drinking, ever turned into an asset until it was first fairly faced.

Am I making my weakness my greatest asset?

Meditation for the Day
Whenever we seek to worship God, we think of the great universe that God rules over, of creation, of mighty law and order throughout the universe. Then we feel the awe that precedes worship. I, too, must feel awe, feel the desire to worship God in wondering amazement. My mind is in a box of space and time and it is so made that I cannot conceive of what is beyond space or time, the limitless and the eternal. But I know that there must be something beyond space and time, and that something must be the limitless and eternal Power behind the universe. I also know that I can experience that Power in my life.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may accept the limitless and eternal Spirit. I pray that it may express Itself in my life.

Hazelden Foundation

June 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Reflection for the Day

If ever I come to the complacent conclusion that I don’t need The Program any longer, let me quickly remind myself that it can do far more than carry me through the anguish of living in the bondage of addiction. Let me further remind myself that I can make even greater strides in fulfilling myself, for The Program and the Twelve Steps is a philosophy – a way of life.

Will I ever out-grow my need for the Program?

Today I Pray

May my Higher Power lead me through the Twelve Steps, not just once, but again and again, until they become the guiding principles of my existence. This is no quickie seminar on improving the quality of my life; this is my life, restored to me through Divine Power and the friendship of my fellow addicts who, like me, are recovering in the best known way.

Today I Will Remember

Step by Step, from bondage to abundant life.

Hazelden Foundation

June 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, June 25, 2024

The fortunes amassed by the Carnegies, the Mellons, the Fords and the Rockefellers have been largely diverted to the welfare of man generally, yet their pooled resources multiplied thousands of times would not accomplish the good that resulted from the heritage left us by the Poorest Man that ever lived.

The power of wealth as compared with the power of Love is puny to the point of being unworthy of comparison.

If your pockets are not lined with gold but your heart is, you can still be a power, not only for this generation but for those yet unborn.

Hazelden Foundation

June 25, 2024 - Good morning and let's shoot for a terrific Tuesday

 

Good morning and let's get psyched for a Tuesday 

that's guaranteed to be great because Monday is out of the way ...and don't let anything and anyone not worth our time screw up the day

June 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, June 24, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Bettty Ford Foundation is:

Honesty

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

--Step Five of Al-Anon

Talking openly and honestly to another person about ourselves, in an attitude that reflects self-responsibility, is critical to recovery.

It's important to admit what we have done wrong to others and to ourselves. Verbalize our beliefs and our behaviors. Get our resentments and fears out in the open.

That's how we release our pain. That's how we release old beliefs and feelings. That's how we are set free. The more clear and specific we can be with our Higher Power, ourselves, and another person, the more quickly we will experience that freedom.

Step Five is an important part of the recovery process. For those of us who have learned to keep secrets from ourselves and others, it is not just a step - it is a leap toward becoming healthy.

Today I will remember that it's okay to talk about the issues that bother me. It is by sharing my issues that I will grow beyond them.

Hazelden Foundation

June 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, June 24, 2024

“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” — Step 5

“This (Step) is perhaps difficult — especially discussing our defects with another person. We think we have done well enough in admitting these things to ourselves. There is doubt about that. In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient. …We will be more reconciled to discussing ourselves with another person when we see good reasons why we should do so. The best reason first: If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. …Trying to avoid this humbling experience, (members) have turned to easier methods. Almost invariably they got drunk.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, Ch 6 (“Into Action”), pp 72-3.

Today, understand that the purpose of Step Five is to unburden myself of the emotional baggage of guilt, fear, resentment and anger that will likely impair my recovery if I do not let go of that weight. I cannot expect to reap the Program’s full benefits if I cannot be unconditionally honest with myself and others by keeping bottled inside those events or feelings that might have contributed to my drinking — and hurt to others. Along with humility, Step Five requires courage. Failing to muster both honesty and courage to release what now hurts me will predictably impede my recovery. And, in letting go by confiding in another person, I may find fresh perspectives, useful direction and an unbiased opinion that what I think is so bad may not be as bad as I think. Today, I look for the honesty and courage to take Step Five and, hopefully, find reconciliation. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024