Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - January

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January 31

Step by Step

Today, live just for today. I cannot nor do I want to forget yesterday for it has lessons to carry into tomorrow. Nor do I want to be so preoccupied with tomorrow that I neglect today for I may miss some unintended good that someone or something has to offer. I can plan for tomorrow, but I cannot fret over it and dread what demons or challenges my yesterdays programmed me to expect. But that programming from my yesterdays was dictated by a whiskey bottle and, God granting, there is no whiskey bottle in my today. I therefore cannot fear that what I do today will poison my tomorrow. My life, my sobriety, my hopes, my dreams, my fears, my recovery – all are today. Today is all I have, and I must not be lax in strengthening it to make tomorrow’s today the promise of something good. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M.

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~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~

HAPPINESS

If it is happiness you want, change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with shoes than to carpet the whole earth.

~ Anonymous ~

“Happiness” is one of the three spiritual characteristics that the Program tells us God wants for us. The other two are “joyous” and “free.” In our study of what comes to us during our recovery, we read often about the treasured state of being happy. Someone wrote that we “have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.”

We in the Program are not selfish with the happiness we gain through our own efforts and through the sharing of our fellow members. We hope that all around us can be as happy as our Program has made us. A happy state of mind is contagious. Happiness breeds satisfaction—with ourselves, our fellow travelers, and life as a whole. It is difficult to be successful without finding happiness.

I accept happiness as a gift and thank my Higher Power for it.

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~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~

Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.

~ Doris Mortman ~

Marketers call us consumers. Television commercials suggest that a new car will make us happy or that when we buy our special loved one a beautiful diamond, we will really be somebody. But our awakening into a healthy, new life has nothing to do with what we own. Sure, it’s fun to buy something new, but it doesn’t make us happy for long. We don’t define ourselves as mere consumers; rather, we are men with meaning in our lives.

When we haven’t got ourselves on track, when we don’t have a focus for our lives, we are easily seduced by distractions and dead-end promises. Peace of mind hasn’t come easily for most of us. We had to accept some things about ourselves that we didn’t want to accept. We had to learn some lessons that we couldn’t easily learn at first. Now we feel like real men. We have something much better than anything we could buy with money, and no one else can take it away.

Today and every day I restore my peace of mind by making peace with myself.

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~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~

Establishing goals and following through on them help women build self-confidence.

~ Sharon Walters ~

Alcohol and other drugs created the illusion of confidence for many of us before our recovery. Some of us held prominent positions in corporations. Others of us raised children and held jobs too. All of us took on responsibilities that might have overwhelmed us had we lacked the false security that drugs could offer. But their time ran out. Luckily for us, their time ran out.

Since giving up our drugs, we have had to develop new ways to build confidence. Fortunately, having this program and the Steps as guides, we have been able to make progress. The confidence we are building now through reliance on our Higher Power is substantive and real, not illusionary and temporary. We are learning who we are through our inventories, and that has made it possible to determine what we want to do with our lives. Our goals and our ability to follow through on plans are manifestations of our hard work. Self-confidence is the lasting reward.

My confidence will not waver today if I remember to let God help me handle each responsibility.

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~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~

I need to monitor my symptoms

I get less and less interested in work and what I eat. I feel run down, almost ill, and can’t seem to get going. Sometimes I can’t think straight, sometimes I can’t stop thinking, and sometimes all my thoughts are gloomy.

For me, the clue to giving in to depression is gloomy thoughts. Odd as it is, I want to keep thinking them. They’re comforting somehow (because they’re familiar?) and yet very painful. But in dual recovery, I can see that this symptom, among the others, is a warning sign and that I need to give it prompt attention.

When my thoughts are too dark or when dark thoughts persist, I will stay in touch with a trusted friend or my counselor.

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~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~

Nature is the Art of God.

~ Sir Thomas Browne ~

The most relaxing activities may be the ones in which we do absolutely nothing. And if we can do nothing amid the sounds of nature — birds chirping, water bubbling in a brook, the wind rustling in the trees — so much the better. During these moments, away from the noise and chaos of our fast-paced, stress-filled lives, we commune most directly with nature and our Higher Power. Without distraction, our bodies can totally relax; there is no danger, no need to be ready to respond to anything. All we have to do is be.

If we live in the city, we can take refuge in its parks; a quiet room or the library. We can listen to the sounds of nature on records or cassette tapes. The point is to slow down, to smell and taste the rain, to hear the chirping of crickets and the rustling of leaves and our own thoughts. When we remember nature, we remember — our bodies remember — that we are a part of nature, part of something greater than ourselves.

Today help me hear the sounds of nature and let them comfort and heal me.

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~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~

Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

~ James Baldwin ~

Addiction places you into a form of slavery that keeps you from being free to live up to your fullest potential. That is why the First Step in recovery (We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable) is so important.

The First Step places a mirror in front of you and asks that you open your eyes to the dangers and ravages of addiction. You need to see what alcoholism has done to your body, your mind, and your spirit. By opening your eyes, you can clearly see what you have destroyed in yourself and in others. You can see when you escaped from responsibilities, love, and purpose.

But just as this mirror reflects the negative effects of your addiction, so too does it show your positive aspects. It reveals that you are brave and courageous; not everyone can admit powerlessness nor strive toward making positive change. The mirror reflects a person, like any other— someone who has strengths and weaknesses, passions and hopes, dreams and desires.

Looking in the mirror is something I need to do every day. Today I remember to always be honest with myself and with others.

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~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~

Hitch your wagon to a star.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

How often have we struggled to do something alone, refusing to have another help us? Maybe we single-handedly cooked a meal for a family get-together or moved a piece of furniture or plodded slowly through some confusing work without assistance. Instead of asking for help to make our job go smoother, we chose to take care of it all ourselves. While we probably accomplished what was needed, where did that get us?

Our ancestors settled this land by helping one another. Lands were discovered by bands of exploration parties; barns were raised by communities; crops were harvested by many hands. That same pioneer spirit extends today to the program, where each member pulls another through good times and bad.

Succeeding alone means we have survived; succeeding with others means we have truly lived. We were not put into this life to survive without others, but to live with them. By joining ourselves with the humanity around us, we have joined that spirit which connects us all.

I can be a pioneer and share my humanity with others. How are my brothers and sisters tonight?

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~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~

Living new lives

If we thank our Higher Power each day for the problems in our lives, we will find that we can live and cope with them. And if it is our Higher Power’s will, our problems will be transformed in ways we cannot comprehend. We don’t fully understand our fives.

If we become willing to let our Higher Power handle each situation in its way, we will see that we are living ourselves into new ways of being. We will experience a freedom and joy that we could not have understood in our old ways of thinking and being.

We cannot think ourselves into a better fife; we must live ourselves each day into better thinking.

Am I living myself into a new life?

Higher Power, I am grateful for the problems in my life; they help me change myself into a new being.

Today I will live myself into a new way of thinking about

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~

I like to think that at birth, everyone is allotted a quantity of alcohol to last for her whole life, and that by the time I was in my twenties, I’d already consumed my entire quota!

~ WOMAN IN RECOVERY ~

Newcomer

I can’t get my mind off what I’m missing. I think that at this point I could control myself and just use moderately. Ordinary people have a glass of wine when they eat dinner at a restaurant, or have a beer on a hot summer day. Why do I have to deprive myself?

Sponsor

Frankly, I can’t imagine a better way to torture myself than making the decision to have just a little. I’d be preoccupied with that little bit all day long: waiting beforehand for the right time to have it, then resenting its being over, afterward. For me, how could just a little ever be enough? And how could I keep from rationalizing, after a while, having just a little bit more? My biochemistry and my mental obsession make me crave certain substances whenever I have them. Other people may not react this way—but I’m not other people. My susceptibility turns something that may be safe for others into poison for me. There is one simple way for me to keep from craving more of this poison, and that is to avoid it altogether. Over time, deprivation takes on a new meaning—we no longer have the desire to deprive ourselves of this experience of recovery.

For today, I stop my craving by not feeding it. I make room for a new, better life.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

Nothing great was ever achieved without overcoming great obstacles and no hero of history deserves more acclaim than those who were triumphant over self.

But do not let us swell up too much with pride. If we are honest, we know that with our character-weakened souls, with our “fogbound” brains, we could accomplish nothing of ourselves. It was only when we, in our desperate surrender, threw our lives and our wills into His keeping that He, in His mercy, removed the obstacle.

Unknown, even to ourselves, there must have slept in us that Faith of a mustard seed, that can remove mountains.

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~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~

1) FINE: ****ed up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional

2) Be Kind to Yourself

3) The most natural state of an alcoholic is irritable, restless, and discontented.

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~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~

Humility Prayer

Lord, I am far too much influenced by what people think of me;

Which means that I am always pretending to be either richer or smarter than I really am. Please prevail me from trying to attract attention.

Don’t let me gloat over praise on the one hand and be discouraged by criticism on the other, nor let me waste time weaving the most imaginary situations in which the heroic, charming, witty person present is myself.

Show me how to be humble of heart.

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~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~

THE LORD’S PRAYER

The Lord’s Prayer is the most important of all the Christian documents. Everyone who is seeking to follow along the Way that Jesus led, should pray the Lord’s prayer intelligently every day.

The Great Prayer is a compact formula for the development of the soul. It is designed with the utmost care for the specific purpose; so that those who use it regularly, with understanding, will experience a real change of soul. It is the change of soul that matters. The mere acquisition of fresh knowledge received intellectually makes no change in the soul.

The first thing that we notice is that the Prayer naturally falls into seven clauses. This is very characteristic of the Oriental tradition. Seven symbolizes individual completeness, the perfection of the soul, just as the number twelve in the same convention stands for corporate completeness. The seven clauses are put together with the utmost care, in perfect order and sequence, and they contain everything that is necessary for the nourishment of the soul. The more one analyzes the Lord’s Prayer, the more wonderful its construction is seen to be.

After that manner therefore pray ye . . . (Matthew 6:9)

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~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~

In-Your-Face Productions

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are headed.

~ Oriental proverb ~

“That’s loud!” I remarked to the massage therapist as a tight muscle on my back popped audibly while she worked it.

“Yes,” she answered, “resistance is loud.”

When we fight the flow of life, the universe lets us know in a big way. Drama, emergencies, hefty surprises, health or relationship crises, changes beyond our control, and physical and emotional pain all serve to get our attention. When we are asleep to what is happening in or around us, In-Your-Face Productions will arrange a wake-up call to get us out of a rut and back on track. Usually, such attention-getters are not gentle or pleasant, and they bring a fair amount of discomfort. The good news is that a temporary period of pain or inconvenience is a small price to pay com–pared to a lifetime of unconscious self-defeating behavior.

We can minimize or avoid the angst of In-Your-Face Productions in two ways. First, we can develop our intuition so that we become aware of our lessons in their early stages rather than waiting until they mount to a huge crisis. If you pay attention to the little red “brakes” warning light on your car dashboard, you can avoid full-out brake failure. Spirit usually whispers to us before a potential crash. Through prayer and meditation, you can sensitize yourself to hear important messages before they are played out in the physical world.

The second way to lighten the brunt of wake-up calls is to bless them when they happen. Rather than fight life or adopt a victim position, look for the gift in the experience. Imagine that the universe is conspiring not to hurt you, but to free you. An attitude of appreciation, rather than resentment, will soften and transform otherwise difficult lessons.

We do not have to live by emergency; as we become more attuned to the voice of love, we can glide, not stumble, through life.

Help me hear Your voice at the subtlest level and act on my inner wisdom.

I hear the guidance of love and proceed from the truth that keeps me whole.