June 27, 2016 - The quiet campaign to write LGBTs and their struggles in U.S. history
June 27, 2016 - Editorial: For gay rights, it's been a long march from Stonewall
June 27, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
Monday, June 27, 2016
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
Recognizing Choices
We have choices, more choices than we let ourselves see.
We may feel trapped in our relationships, our jobs, our life. We may feel locked into behaviors such as caretaking or controlling.
Feeling trapped is a symptom of codependency. When we hear ourselves say, I have to take care of this person . . . I have to say yes . . . I have to try to control that person . . . I have to behave this way, think this way, feel this way . . . we can know we are choosing not to see choices.
That sense of being trapped is an illusion. We are not controlled by circumstances, our past, the expectations of others, or our unhealthy expectations for ourselves. We can choose what feels right for us, without guilt. We have options.
Recovery is not about behaving perfectly or according to anyone else's rules. More than anything else, recovery is about knowing we have choices and giving ourselves the freedom to choose.
Today, I will open my thinking and myself to the choices available to me. I will make choices that are good for me.
Recognizing Choices
We have choices, more choices than we let ourselves see.
We may feel trapped in our relationships, our jobs, our life. We may feel locked into behaviors such as caretaking or controlling.
Feeling trapped is a symptom of codependency. When we hear ourselves say, I have to take care of this person . . . I have to say yes . . . I have to try to control that person . . . I have to behave this way, think this way, feel this way . . . we can know we are choosing not to see choices.
That sense of being trapped is an illusion. We are not controlled by circumstances, our past, the expectations of others, or our unhealthy expectations for ourselves. We can choose what feels right for us, without guilt. We have options.
Recovery is not about behaving perfectly or according to anyone else's rules. More than anything else, recovery is about knowing we have choices and giving ourselves the freedom to choose.
Today, I will open my thinking and myself to the choices available to me. I will make choices that are good for me.
You are reading from the book:
The Language of Letting Go © 1990 by Hazelden Foundation
June 27, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step
Monday, June 27, 2016
"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 thorough. More likely, I have been dishonest by not accepting 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 undo the damage. If I do not understand all this, the Fourth I took yesterday may have been premature or dishonest. Today, I seek the courage and understanding to do Step Four as it is intended. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016
June 27, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, June 27, 2016
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, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time
Monday, June 27, 2016
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, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener
Monday, June 27, 2016
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Oct. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step
Step by Step Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024 ” …(T)he best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my exp...
-
Good morning and let's make it a drama- and trauma-free and worthwhile Saturday and let nothing and no one make it less -
The Eye Opener Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 We are not in a position to give an opinion on leprosy, jungle fever, hoof-and-mouth disease or other... -
Step by Step Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024 ” …(T)he best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my exp...