Sept. 16, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, Sept. 16, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Lying is done with words, and also with silence.

-- Adrienne Rich

Most of us are fundamentally honest people who would not deliberately tell an untruth. But there are circumstances when we may fear to say all that we need to. In relationships, for example, we may allow confusion, discomfort or resentment to build in ourselves or in a partner because of something we have left unsaid. We may assume that our feelings and wishes are known -- or think that they somehow ought to be -- when we haven’t spoken them aloud.

Whatever the context of a particular relationship -- romance, friendship, sponsorship, work -- we must never assume that others can read our minds. They cannot, any more than we know what they want, need, or believe if they have not said so. We needn't assume that we will look bad if we reveal our ignorance; in fact, we sometimes must be willing to keep asking questions until we understand a situation.

Today, I have the courage to communicate my needs and wants and to ask questions of others.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 16, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Monday, Sept. 16, 2024

“In two ways I may be a little different from other alcoholics. First, we all hear at AA meetings about those who have lost everything, those who have been in jail, those who have been in prison, those who have lost their families, those who have lost their income. I never lost any of it. I never was on skid row. I made more money the last year of my drinking than I ever made before in my whole life. My wife never hinted that she would leave me. Everything that I touched from grammar school on was successful. I was president of my grammar school student body. I was president of all of my classes in high school and in my last year I was president of that student body. I was president of each class in the University, and president of that student body. I was voted the man most likely to succeed. The same thing occurred in medical school. I belong to more medical societies and honor societies than men 10 to 20 years my senior.
‘Mine was the skid row of success. The physical skid row in any city is miserable. The skid row of success is just as miserable.’” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch 6 (“Physician, Heal Thyself!”), p 345.

Today, no pride in successes or acquisitions of things in my life — for they are no refuge from alcoholism. Skid row is just as miserable in my own home as it is under a bridge or in a homeless shelter. Responsibility comes with success and material gain as it does with irresponsible choices, and alcoholic drinking is not the responsible response to life when it is good any more than when it is bad. If I choose to “reward” my successes and material gains with irresponsible drinking, I risk turning my living room into skid row. Today, I accept responsibility to my sobriety just as I am responsible to the consequences of my drinking. What I have today is not promised me tomorrow. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 16, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, Sept. 16, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

Today, let us begin a short study of The Twelve Suggested Steps of AA. These Twelve Suggested Steps seem to embody five principles. The first step is the membership requirement step. The second, third and eleventh steps are the spiritual steps of the program. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and tenth steps are the personal inventory steps. The eighth and ninth steps are the restitution steps. The twelfth step is the passing on of the program, or helping others, step. So the five principles are membership requirement, spiritual basis, personal inventory, restitution and helping others.

Have I made all these steps a part of me?

Meditation for the Day
We seem to live not only in time but also in eternity. If we abide with God and He abides with us, we may bring forth spiritual fruit which will last for eternity. If we live with God, our lives can flow as some calm river through the dry land of earth. It can cause the trees and flowers of the spiritual life – love and service – to spring forth and yield abundantly. Spiritual work may be done for eternity, not just for now. Even here on earth we can live as though our real lives were eternal.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may try to make my life a cool river in a thirsty land. I pray that I may give freely to all who ask my help.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 16, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Monday, Sept. 16, 2024

Reflection for the Day
We learn from others in The Program that the best way to deal with painful situations is to meet them head-on, to deal with them honestly and realistically and to try to learn from them and use them as springboards for growth. Through The Program and our contact with a Higher Power, we can find the courage to use pain for triumphant growth.

Will I believe that whatever pain I experience is a small price to pay for the joy of becoming the person I was always meant to be?

Today I Pray
May my Higher Power give me the courage I need to stop running away from painful situations. The chemical was my escape hatch, the trap door I counted on to swallow me when life became too monstrous or villainous to bear. Now that I have locked that door, may I face pain and learn from it.

Today I Will Remember
My compulsion: a trap-door — and a trap.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 16, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Monday, Sept. 16, 2024

The main objective in talking is to say something, not just anything. Words give a truer picture of a man than does a photograph, for words are reflections of the inner man, beyond the range of the finest camera.

Most of us alcoholics have been hurt more by our own words than we have by the words of others. Let us screen our words through our minds and give expression only to those words that are products of a sober and thinking intellect.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 16, 2224 - Good morning and it's time to get out there for another Monday and new week

 

Good morning and here's hoping for a stupendous Monday and new week for everyone with a reminder that we decide what kind of day we're going to have, not something and someone else

Sept. 15, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

"We admitted we were powerless ..."

Accepting that we cannot control other people's drinking is a huge step. We want what is best for them, don't we? Can't they see that? What we didn't understand before finding this program was that each individual is on a unique journey. What appears to us the best course to follow may not provide the lessons another person is here to learn.

And it may be dawning on us that one of our key lessons is how to give up trying to control someone else. Sometimes we believe we can control others because our goading or shaming gets them to give in and go along with our demands. However, we're really not in control. We are still powerless over them, and any time they want to make that clear, they will.

Accepting our powerlessness isn't a hopeless feeling at all, once we understand it. It offers us profound relief from the burden of responsibility for another person's life. In time this freedom will make us joyful.

Being in charge of only me today makes my day seem so much easier.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 15, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024

” …I can only say that whatever growth or understanding has come to me, I have no wish to graduate. Very rarely do I miss the meetings of my neighborhood AA group, and my average has never been less than two meetings a week. I have served on only one committee in the past nine years,  for I feel that I had my chance the first few years and that newer members should fill the jobs. They are far more alert and progressive than we floundering fathers were, and the future of our fellowship is in their hands.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three,” Ch 6 (“The Vicious Cycle”), pp 249-50.

Today, words that establish the Program as a lifelong commitment and call to service. If I remain reluctant for whatever reason to propel myself into visible service, my own continued sobriety and emotional and spiritual growth can serve the newcomer by witnessing my own example that the Program works. And, hopefully, with continued growth and nurturing, I may someday be able — even eager — to serve in a visible capacity such as a speaker, moderator at a meeting or giving a ride to a meeting to someone who needs it. Today, I strengthen my sobriety with more than gratitude by respecting it because, in the end, my own recovery and that of everyone else may well determine “the future of our fellowship.” And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 15, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
“We all realize that we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to all of us. Ask Him in your morning meditations what you can do today for the person who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. See to it that your relationship with God is right and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. Give freely of what you find in AA. But, obviously, you cannot transmit something which you haven’t got. Some make a life-study of AA.”

Am I always looking for ways of presenting the AA program?

Meditation for the Day
“In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Confidence means to have faith in something. We could not live without confidence in others. When you have confidence in God’s grace, you can face whatever comes. When you have confidence in God’s love, you can be serene and at peace. You can rest in the faith that God will take care of you. Try to rest in God’s presence until His life-power flows through you. Be still and in that stillness the still, small Voice will come. It speaks in quietness to the human mind that is attuned to its influence.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may find strength today in quietness. I pray that I may be content today that God will take care of me.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 15, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024

Reflection for the Day
No one welcomes pain with open arms, but it does have its uses. Just as physical pain serves as a warning that we may be suffering a bodily illness, so can emotional pain be a useful sign that something is wrong – as well as a warning that we need to make a change. When we can meet pain without panic, we can learn to deal with the cause of the hurt, rather than running away as we did when we were actively addicted.

Can I bear some emotional discomfort? Am I less fragile than I once had believed?

Today I Pray
I pray I may be better able to face hurt or pain, now that I am getting to know reality — good and bad. I sincerely pray that the super-sensitivity of my addictive days will disappear, that people will not feel they must treat me like blown glass, which could shatter at a puff of criticism.

Today I Will Remember
Throw away my stamp: “Fragile Handle With Care.”

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 15, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024

The greatest battles of life are won or lost without the sound of a single shot. Suppose Christ had lost His battle with Satan at the time of His temptation? Its repercussions would have been greater than all the battles of history.

Your greatest victory, your greatest display of courage in your fight against Alcohol was not accomplished amid flying banners and the flourish of trumpets but in the quiet of your own heart.

The most courageous thing a man can do when he has fought a good fight and realizes that he is up against unconquerable odds, is to admit that he is whipped. General Robert E. Lee’s reputation for courage suffered not one bit by his surrender at Appomattox.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 15, 2024 - Good morning, and rise 'n shine for a beautiful, serene and gratifying Sunday

 

Good morning and here's hoping for a drama- and trauma-free Sunday 

for everyone ...and a day without the people and things that don't deserve our attention

Sept. 14, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Reflection for the Day

I can attain real dignity, importance and individuality only by a dependence on a Power that is great and good, beyond anything I can imagine or understand. I will try my utmost to use this power in making all my decisions. Even though my human mind cannot forecast what the outcome will be, I will try to be confident that whatever comes will be for my ultimate good.

Just for today, will I try to live this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once?

Today I Pray

May I make no decision, engineer no change in the course of my lifestream, without calling upon my Higher Power. May I have faith that there is a plan for me that is better than any scheme I could devise for myself.

Today I Will Remember

My Higher Power is the architect. I am the builder.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 14, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024

“Why sit with a long face in places where there is drinking, sighing about the good old days? If it is a happy occasion, try to increase the pleasure of those there; if a business occasion, go and attend to your business enthusiastically. If you are with a person who wants to eat in a bar, by all means go along. Let your friends know they are not to change their habits on your account. …While you were drinking, you were withdrawing from life little by little. Now you are getting back into the social life of this world. Don’t start to withdraw again just because your friends drink liquor.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 7 (“Working With Others”), p 102.

Today, what “good old days” of my drinking? If they were so good, why am I in recovery? And because I am in recovery, do I skirt responsibility for my alcoholism by expecting or asking others to accommodate me by not having alcohol in their houses or serve it when I’m there? Do I expect a friend to take me to a new restaurant if the one we frequented serves liquor? And if others don’t alter their habits to accommodate me, do I repeat what I did as my drinking progressed by steadily withdrawing? Today, I begin taking responsibility for my alcoholism and recovery by making changes from within and not expecting them from outside. By failing to do that, I am doing little else than living in the problem of struggling not to drink instead of the answer of sobriety. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 14, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
“How does AA grow? Some of us sell AA as we go about. Little clusters of twos and threes and fives keep springing up in different communities, through contact with the larger centers. Those of us who travel drop in at other groups as often as we can. This practice enables us to lend a hand to new groups which are springing up all over the land. New groups are being started each month. AA is even spreading outside the United States and is slowly becoming world-wide. Thus, we grow.”

Am I doing all I can to spread AA wherever I go?

Meditation for the Day
“Lord, we believe. Help Thou our unbelief.” This cry of the human heart is an expression of human frailty. It signifies the soul’s sincere desire for progress. As a person feels the existence of God and His power, that person believes in Him more and more. At the same time, a person is more conscious of his falling short of absolute trust in God. The soul’s progress is an increasing belief, then a cry for more faith, a plea to conquer all unbelief, all lack of trust. We can believe that that cry is heard by God and that prayer is answered in due time. And so our faith grows, little by little, day by day.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that with more power in my life will come more faith. I pray that I may come to trust God more each day.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 14, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024

Reflection for the Day
Until we came to The Program, our lives had been spent running away from pain and problems. Escape by way of alcohol or other chemicals was always our temporary solution. Then we started going to meetings. We looked and listened, often with amazement. Everywhere around us, we saw failure and misery transformed by humility into priceless assets. To those who’ve made progress in The Program, humility is simply a clear recognition of what and who we really are — followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be.

Is The Program showing me what I could be?

Today I Pray
I pray for humility, which is another word for perspective, a level look at the real me and where I stand in relation to God and other people. May I be grateful to humility; it is the processing plant through which my raw hurts and ragged delusions are refined into new courage and sensitivities.

Today I Will Remember
Humility restores my “sight.”

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 14, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024

Beauty that only appeals to the eye is shallow and is of short duration. A thought is only beautiful if it inspires beautiful action. A masterpiece of painting is a masterpiece only if it inspires people to beautiful thinking. Mechanical perfection is only good craftsmanship unless it provides a need for humanity.

A thing of beauty is one that serves a beautiful purpose. If your actions are not motivated by lofty ideals and purposes, you are denying yourself much that is beautiful in life.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 14, 2024 - Good morning and here's hoping everyone has a super Saturday and weekend

 

Good morning and what's not to smile about? It's Saturday 

...have a terrific and productive and worthwhile day

Sept. 13, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, Sept. 13, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Crystal Ball

I make suggestions to my sponsees on a regular basis. If somebody's struggling, I ask them if they've made it to a meeting yet. If they haven't, I recommend they find a meeting. There's no excuse not to get to a meeting. As I understand it, there are Zoom meetings twenty-four hours a day. There’s no excuse. I mean, we can make excuses, but that don't make them so.

Whenever sponsees start viewing the future negatively, I ask them to give me back their crystal ball, because it's obviously broken. Then I give them a new one that tells them good things. If your ball is just showing you negative stuff, you've got to give it back, because life gets beautiful.

I find that when my crystal ball gets a little out of alignment, it's because I may have said or done something I feel guilty about. I try to figure out what I've said and done and correct it. I also try to take it easy on myself. You can't kick me any harder than I can kick me.

As I travel the road of recovery, I will take the necessary steps to ensure I am walking a path of positivity.

-- Stephanie C., U.S. Navy, 1978–1983

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 13, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Friday, Sept. 13, 2024

“Above all, I was suffering inner pain because my performance and my accomplishments in life failed to live up to my own expectations of myself. I had to anesthetize that pain with alcohol. Of course, the more I drank, the more unrealistic my expectations became and the poorer my performance, and the gap widened. So the need to drink grew still greater.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 13 (“AA Taught Him to Handle Sobriety”), p 557.

Today, understand the reasons that I concocted to drink were and are little more than excuses and, more, that maybe I should work a Program that keeps me sober instead of keeping me from drinking. It’s a fine line between struggling to keep from drinking and working to stay sober: by working only for the purpose not to drink, I probably am not applying the Program’s Steps and Principles to get sober. If so, I am not coming to terms with the “reasons” that I “had” to drink. And, by neglecting my psychological and spiritual sickness, I run the risk of losing or simply giving up the battle to keep from drinking. In the end, recovery is intended to help us handle our living problems and not our drinking problem. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 13, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, Sept. 13, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
“No one is too discredited, nor has sunk too low, to be welcomed cordially into AA, if he or she means business. Social distinctions, petty rivalries and jealousies are laughed out of countenance. Being wrecked in the same vessel, being restored and united under one God, with hearts and minds attuned to the welfare of others, the things which matter so much to some people no longer signify much to us. In AA, we have true democracy and true brotherhood.”

Has AA taught me to be truly democratic?

Meditation for the Day
When you call on God in prayer to help you overcome weakness, sorrow, pain, discord and conflict, God never fails in some way to answer the appeal. When you are in need of strength for yourself or for the help of some other person, call on God in prayer. The power you need will come simply, naturally and forcefully. Pray to God not only when you need help, but also just to commune with Him. The spirit of prayer can alter an atmosphere from one of discord to one of reconciliation. It will raise the quality of thought and word and bring order out of chaos.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may bring peace where there is discord. I pray that I may bring conciliation where there is conflict.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 13, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Friday, Sept. 13, 2024

Reflection for the Day

We hear often in The Program that pain is the touchstone of spiritual progress. We eventually realize that just as the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, emotional turmoil comes before serenity. We no longer commiserate with all people who suffer, but only with those who suffer in ignorance — those who don’t understand the purpose and ultimate utility of pain. In Proust’s words, “To goodness and wisdom we make only promises; pain we obey.”

Do I believe that pain is God’s way of trying to get my attention?

Today I Pray

May I understand the value of pain in my life, especially if I am headed breakneck down a track of self-destruction. May I know that pain is God’s way of flagging down the train I’m on before it gets to a bridge wash-out. May I be thankful that pain forced me to throw the switch in time.

Today I Will Remember

Pain saves lives.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 13, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Friday, Sept. 13, 2024

In spite of evidence to the contrary, we still persist in wondering what would happen, after our several months of sobriety, if we again took a drink.

We definitely know that we don’t want “a” drink. We never did in our drinkingest days. We know that we have graduated from the ranks of happy drinkers. We know of no one in all our experience who has made the experiment to his or anyone else’s satisfaction — yet we might be the exception.

It is this type of curiosity that has killed many a cat. Don’t try it. Even if you are right — you’re wrong.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 13, 2024 - Good morning and let's all have a fabulous Friday and do the day as best we can

 

Good morning and never mind all that Friday 

the 13th superstition and just get out that and make it a great and worthwhile day

Sept. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Holding on and letting go

We had a great deal of tenacity, except that we were holding on to destructive behaviors and attitudes: resentments and self-pity, drugs and other bad habits.

We must reassign this tenacity to what is realistic and what sustains us in life, then hold on carefully (like holding a newborn kitten).

Am I holding on to more of the good things?

Higher Power, help me let go of the fear that keeps me from letting go of my defects.

The good things I will hold on to today are...

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024

Today, I will not feed anger to poison my actions and words for which, inevitably, I will have to answer. If I forget I have only today and reach back into yesterday and resurrect some anger or resentment, justified or not, I will Let Go and Let God because I don’t WANT to add any excess baggage and I DON’T want to empower an emotion that might derail me if I don’t control IT. If I get angry today, I will walk away from the source until I can think with reason and logic, without emotion. And if I get the chance to talk to a person who has made me angry, I will confine my words to how I feel instead of, “YOU made me feel …,” “YOU shouldn’t have …” and “YOU had no right …” In that context, I am risking taking another person’s Fourth, and the job as moral gatekeeper has been taken by a Power greater and stronger than myself. As a drinking alcoholic, I had no control and let my anger gain the upper hand. Today, as a recovering alcoholic, I have the choice to NOT allow anger to guide my words and thought. Today, I choose to weaken any potentially lethal emotion by NOT feeding it. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
“What draws newcomers to AA and gives them hope? They hear the stories of men and women whose experiences tally with their own. The expressions on the faces of the women, that undefinable something in the eyes of the men, the stimulating atmosphere of the AA clubroom, conspire to let them know that there is haven at last. The very practical approach to their problems, the absence of intolerance of any kind, the informality, the genuine democracy, the uncanny understanding which these people in AA have is irresistible.”

Have I found a real haven in AA?

Meditation for the Day
“If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” The eye of the soul is the will. If your will is to do the will of God, to serve Him with your life, to serve Him by helping others, then truly shall your whole body be full of light. The important thing is to strive that your will be attuned to the will of God, a single eye to God’s purpose, desiring nothing less than that His purposes be fulfilled. Try to seek in all things the advance of His kingdom, seek the spiritual values of honesty and purity, unselfishness and love, and earnestly desire spiritual growth. Then your life will emerge from the darkness of futility into the light of victory.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that my eye may be single. I pray that my life may be lived in the light of the best that I know.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024

Reflection for the Day
“At certain moments,” wrote Coleridge, “a single almost insignificant sorrow may, by association, bring together all the little relics of pain and discomfort, bodily and mental, that we have endured even from infancy.” The Program doesn’t teach us to pretend that hardships and sorrow are meaningless. Grief really hurts, and so do other kinds of pain. But now that we’re free of our addictions, we have much greater control over our thinking. And the thoughts we choose to spend time on during any given day can strongly influence the complexion of our feelings for that day.

Am I finding different and better ways of using my mind?

Today I Pray
May I thank God for the pain — however insignificant — that magnetizes my succession of old hurts into one large one that I can take out and look at, and then discard to make room for new and present concerns. May I thank God for restoring my sensitivity to pain after the numbness of addiction.

Today I Will Remember
I can thank God for restoring my feelings.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024

If the price we paid when we took a drink was the only price we had to pay, it would not be too expensive. It was the terrible price we had to pay after the drinks that really put the screws on us. For $3.50, most any bartender will contract to deliver you ten drinks of whiskey, but the busted-up car that results can run the costs up to a first-class funeral.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 12, 2024 - Good morning and rise 'n shine for a terrific Thursday

 

Good morning and rest assured that it's going to be a great Thursday when 

Snoopy and Woodstock kick the day off ...make it a productive and gratifying day, and don't give anything and anyone the control to screw it up

Sept. 11, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Owning Your Recovery Patchwork

It's essential, as individuals, that we truly believe that our chosen recovery pathway and patchwork is the very best one for us. If we don't, we’ll find it hard to stay engaged with and invest in our recovery approach.

We should be able to speak confidently about the modalities that we follow on our healing journey, which is easier to do when we have to put together our own recovery road map. We shouldn't allow anybody to dissuade us or make us think less of our choices, and we shouldn't try to convince anyone else that our way should be theirs.

Our patchwork, as different as it might be, can never threaten anyone else's recovery. As Charlotte Kasl, author of Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the 12 Steps, wrote, "Neither I nor anyone else can take away someone's program by speaking of other ways. When someone thinks I can, it is because they have not internalized their own belief system and are giving their power to another person." I hope that you have internalized your belief in your own recovery.

May your confidence in how you do recovery sustain and empower you.

Hazelden Foundation