Choices

[MajestyJo]

Today's reading in Easy Does It was about choices.

Now that we are in recovery we have choices, whereas prior to recovery there was no option for choices. We were stuck in our old ways. Our choices can be either good or bad. But even the bad ones can be fixed by accepting our errors and trying again.

Several anograms were mentioned in the reading which I would like to share with you:-

C.H.O.I.C.E.

C is for COURAGE
H is for HUMILITY
O is for OPTIMISM
I is for INDUSTRY
C is for CAUTION
E is for ENERGY

When we use all of these thing it leads to happiness.


H is for HUMILITY
A is for AWAKENING
P is for PLENTY
P is for PROGRAM
I is for INSIGHT
N is for NEW LIFE
E is for EXCITEMENT
S is for SPIRITUALITY
S is for SERENITY


Listening to our Higher Power will guide us to the correct choices. Have you listened to your Higher Power for you choices today?

posted June 2004

For me, a choice is simply that, a choice. It's neither good nor bad--each choice comes with it's own set of pay-offs, some good, some not so good. But I've come to understand that nothing is all bad. It's all about the lesson. For me, it's all about my HP whittling away at my character defects to help me hone my choices to purer motives instead of selfish ones.

As long as I'm centered on right motives the payoff seems to be less painful---most times! LOL
Good acronyms!

~~~True ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of G-d.~~~

Graced

Love this, it reminds me that I need to check my motives and intent.

[MajestyJo]

As an addict, it was always all or nothing at all. I didn't have time for other things, because my addiction came in front of everything. I had to learn to how to bring balance back into my life.

[MajestyJo]

Choice

from: "A Day's Plan"

"Every day I ask God to kindle within me the fire of His love, so that love, burning bright and clear, will illuminate my thinking and permit me to better do His will. Throughout the day, as I allow outside circumstances to dampen my spirits, I ask God to sear my consciousness with the awareness that I can start my day over any time I choose; a hundred times, if necessary."

© 1990, Daily Reflections, page 80

This is a solution that has worked many times for me over the years. A day can start any time, each day is a new beginning, so have a great one.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can make the decision to stay stuck, to continue acting out in old patterns, and allow themselves to slip into depression and self-pity and not take action before it gets to the wallowing stage. This program is one of freedom. I don't have to live that way anymore.

So many people don't know they have choices.

I know I didn't know how to have fun. I didn't know how to "lighten' up" and not take life so seriously as it says in Tradition Four. I didn't know how to let my inner child come out and play, let alone anything about giving her permission to do so.

I didn't know I could choose the reactions, the actions and the moods, etc. that I had to people, places and things.

[MajestyJo]

“Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find a spiritual experience, we ask that we be given strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, pg. 79.

Over the years I have heard several people say, what is a spiritual experience and awakening. For me, it was me being able to do something that I was unable to do by and for myself before recovery.

Things like setting boundaries, being able to say no, not right now, when I have the times, not in the moment. The ability to allow someone to be themselves, and me not having to tell them the errors of their way and to allow the person to just be. To respect myself and know that I deserve recovery and that I did not have to be subject to abuse, to play the roles of martyr, victim, rescuer or any other “lie” that someone wanted me to live for ‘their’ sake.

The realization that I was the problem, not the substance. That I just used the substance to escape my reality and to escape me. That is wasn’t just alcohol and drugs, I had used sex, relationships, food, work, TV, books, etc. all to not have to look at me and the world around me.

The realization that when I took away that substance, their was a void within me and it would continue to be if I did not fill it up with spiritual concepts and living. The getting out of self and helping another still suffering addict. T

To care and share with another the unconditional love and the Fellowship of the Spirit which can be found in the rooms of Recovery. The awareness that although I am sick, that through the God of my understanding, I can heal and become the type of person He would have me be and live in faith instead of fear today.

There never seem to be an end to a day, I used to fill up my day. Today there are not enough hours. I must always be grateful for “busy” but I must never be too busy to share with others how I got ‘busy’ today. Please share with me your spiritual experiences and awareness so that those who are new can have hope, and have a desire to continue on this journey of freedom we call recovery.

We cannot choose happiness for ourselves or for another; we can’t tell where that will lie. We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in that precious moment, or whether we will renounce ourselves in the present moment, for the sake of obeying the Divine voice within us, for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives. I know this belief is hard; it has slipped from me again and again; but I have felt that if I let it go forever, I should have no light through the darkness of this life. I pray that I will one day come completely out of the dark and into the light. I should start by getting out of my own way. I can’t. He can. Think I’ll let Him. Just for today, Lord, protect me from myself. Thanks for letting me share.

Originally posted in 2004

So good to still find that was good then is still good in today 10 years later. The program works when I work it. I have to take the words off the pages of the literature and apply it to my life. Through the program of recovery, I am given freedom of choice. Just for today, I choose not to use.

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/symbo...r-meaning.html