April 3, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
 
Today, I will not let selfishness, preoccupation with myself and what problems I have and lack of empathy to blind me to the needs and problems of someone else. Human nature, and especially so with the recovering alcoholic, is to retreat into self and worry with our own problems sometimes out of a misplaced intention not to unload on others. But by withdrawing we may lose someone's helpful advice or, if nothing more, giving voice to what we fear to say. But, sometimes unintentionally, I risk alienation of others who interpret my lack of interaction as apathy to them and their own problems. Today, I break down my self-erected boundaries enough to understand that, with others, there can be sharing without dumping and there can be something I might be able to offer them in their own recoveries. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 3, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 

AA Thought for the Day

When I was drinking, I was absolutely selfish. I thought of myself first, last and always. The universe revolved around me at the center. When I woke up in the morning with a hangover, my only thought was how terrible I felt and about what I could do to make myself feel better. And the only thing I could think of was more liquor. To quit was impossible. I couldn't see beyond myself and my own need for another drink. 

Can I now look out and beyond my own selfishness? 

Meditation for the Day

Remember that the first quality of greatness is service. In a way, God is the greatest servant of all because He is always waiting for us to call on Him to help us in all good endeavor. His strength is always available to us, but we must ask it of Him through our own free will. It is a free gift, but we must sincerely seek for it. A life of service is the finest life we can live. We are here on earth to serve others. That is the beginning and the end of our real worth. 

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may cooperate with God in all good things. I pray that I may serve God and others and so lead a useful and happy life. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 3, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 

Reflection for the Day

In almost every instance, the returned slipper says, "I stopped going to meetings," or, "I got fed up with the same old faces," or, "My outside commitments were such that I had to cut down on meetings," or, "I felt I'd received the optimum benefits from meetings, so I sought further help from more meaningful activities." In short, they simply stopped going to meetings. A saying I've heard in The Program hits the nail on the head: "Them which stops going to meetings are not present at meetings to hear about what happens to them what stops going to meetings." 

Am I going to enough meetings for me? 

Today I Pray

God keep me on the track of The Program. May I never be too tired, too busy, too complacent, too bored to go to meetings. Almost always those complaints are reversed at a meeting if I will just get myself there. My weariness dissipates in serenity. My busyness is reduced to its rightful proportion. My complacency gives way to vigilance again. And how can I be bored in a place where there is so much fellowship and joy? 

Today I Will Remember

Attend the meetings. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 3, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and all things therein contained. There is nothing on earth that God didn't put here. 

True, we have manufactured things by changing sizes, shapes or chemical combinations, but all things made by man can be reduced to those elements that God originally put here on earth. All things, therefore, are God's, and He put them here for our use. He did not intend that we should hoard up surpluses and thus deprive others of their use. 

Our responsibility begins in our use of these surpluses. It's God's, not ours, remember? And some of God's loved ones are in want. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 3, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden 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.

From the book:

The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

The Language of Letting Go © 1990 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

April 2, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
 
Today, I will not carry the pattern of compulsive and habitual behavior I perfected in my drinking days to other areas of my life. As a drinking alcoholic, I established the pattern of feeling and taking everything to an unhealthy and inappropriate extreme - all or nothing. That pattern is not necessarily in remission simply because my active alcoholism is. To shift the habitual and compulsive nature of my drinking to work, play, service or any other activity can be almost as self-defeating. And it is through the Steps of character rehabilitation that I need to tame the behavioral patterns of my character. Today, I will seek a balance between giving everything, taking all and retaining what I need for myself by seeking the guidance of my Higher Power and reciting a potpourri of the Program's mottoes, including "A Day at a Time," "First Things First," "Keep It Simple" and "Easy Does It." And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 2, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 

AA Thought for the Day

Since I've been in AA, have I made a start towards becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I feel that the friends I've found in AA are real friends? Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and do I want to help them if I can? 

Do I really care now about other people? 

Meditation for the Day

Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle-working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God's grace, you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time, you throw that one aside for yet a finer one. And so from character to character, you are gradually transformed. 

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better person. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 

Reflection for the Day

What causes slips? What happens to a person who apparently seems to understand and live the way of The Program, yet decides to go out again? What can I do to keep this from happening to me? Is there any consistency among those who slip, any common denominators that seem to apply? We can each draw our own conclusions, but we learn in The Program that certain inactions will all but guarantee an eventual slip. 

When a person who has slipped is fortunate enough to return to The Program, do I listen carefully to what he or she says about the slip? 

Today I Pray

May my Higher Power - if I listen to Him - show me if I am setting myself up to get high again. May I glean from the experiences of others that the reasons for such a lapse of resolve or such an accident of will most often stem from what I have not done rather than from what I have done. May I "keep coming back" to meetings. 

Today I Will Remember

Keep coming back. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 

Reduced to its simplest form, the only true worship is to love God, and the only way to demonstrate this love is to serve your fellow man. 

We in AA show the extent of our moral growth in the extent of our service to others. It is the only true spiritual experience. The flash of light that some of us experience could be only the first ray of intelligence that finally penetrated the alcoholic fog and dazzled our minds. 

The true spiritual experience is evidenced by a passion to do those things which delight the spirit. By their works shall ye know them. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Friendship with oneself is very important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world. -- Eleanor Roosevelt

What do we need from a friend? Let's think about that for a moment and see if it applies to how we treat ourselves.

Let's start with the basics: A friend is for us, not against us. That means a friend won't do anything to harm us if he or she can possibly help it. A friend is there for us when we need understanding, tells us the truth, and does the things he or she promises to do. A friend likes to be around us, thinks we are a good person, and believes we are honest. A friend shares what is going on in his or her life and cares about what is going on in ours. A friend does things to help us feel happy. A friend forgives us when we ask for forgiveness.

We do these things for our friends. And we do a much better job of them now that we are sober. But do we do them for ourselves? It's a question worth thinking about: Am I a good friend to myself?

Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me pay attention to myself the way I pay attention to my friends.

Today's Action
I will have a little friend-to-friend visit with myself right now. How am I doing? What's going on with me? Want to go for a walk and talk, catch up on things? How about going to the new exhibit at the art museum this weekend?

From the book:

God Grant Me... by Anonymous

God Grant Me. . . © 2005 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

April 1, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step

Monday, April 1, 2013 

Today, I will put my faith in the Program and my Higher Power to work by offering to someone else what I think I need or want for myself. Today, I will hand over to my Higher Power all that is selfish and which impedes or blocks my progress, my growth, and extend a hand of service to someone in need. Borrowing from Mother Teresa, if I grieve, I will find someone who needs consoling; if I am hungry, I will find someone to; if I am thirsty, I will quench another's thirst; and, if I am cold, I will give warmth to someone else. If someone seeking release from active alcoholism calls on me, I will not turn him away because I am too busy or for any other reason and instead offer what I have to offer - hope, promise and rebirth in a Program that has been passed on to me through grace. Today, I will accept that I can keep what I have been gifted with in this Program only by giving it away. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 1, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, April 1, 2013 

AA Thought for the Day

Since I've been in AA, have I made a start towards becoming more honest? Do I no longer have to lie to my husband or wife? Do I try to have meals on time, and do I try to earn what I make at work? Am I trying to be honest? Have I faced myself as I really am and have I admitted to myself that I'm no good by myself, but have to rely on God to help me do the right thing? 

Am I beginning to find out what it means to be alive and to face the world honestly and without fear? 

Meditation for the Day

God is all around us. His spirit pervades the universe. And yet we often do not let His spirit in. We try to get along without His help and we make a mess of our lives. We can do nothing of any value without God's help. All our human relationships depend on this. When we let God's spirit rule our lives, we learn how to get along with others and how to help them. 

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may let God run my life. I pray that I will never again make a mess of my life through trying to run it myself. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 1, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Monday, April 1, 2013 

Reflection for the Day

If we don't want to slip, we'll avoid slippery places. For the alcoholic, that means avoiding old drinking haunts; for the overeater, that means by-passing a once-favorite pastry shop; for the gambler, that means shunning poker parties and race tracks. For me, certain emotional situations can also be slippery places; so can indulgence of old ideas such as a well-nourished resentment that is allowed to build to explosive proportions. 

Do I carry the principles of The Program with me wherever I go? 

Today I Pray

May I learn not to test myself too harshly by "asking for it," by stopping in at the bar or the bakery or the track. Such "testing" can be dangerous, especially if I am egged on, not only by a thirst or an appetite or a craving for the old addiction, but by others still caught in it whose moral responsibility has been reduced to zero. 

Today I Will Remember

Avoid slippery places. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 1, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Monday, April 1, 2013 

What exists in the life to come, we can leave to the theologians. But the actual existence of Heaven and Hell here on earth is indisputable to us who have lived in both. 

If most of the Bible thumpers that continually rave about the threats of Hell could know the Hell the poor practicing alcoholic is going through, it would scare them to death. 

Hazelden Foundation

April 1, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Monday, April 1, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. -- Step Four of Alcoholic Anonymous
We avoid the Fourth Step. We put it off. We're scared of what we will find inside of us. We may find out we're mean, angry, selfish, and afraid. We might see how badly we've acted to others, to ourselves. We have power to hurt, and we've used it. We all have these things inside of us.

We also have love, trust, faith, and hope. We love art, music, nature, or sports. We have power to heal, and we have used it too.

The Fourth Step helps us to know our inner power. As we learn about our own power, we can use it carefully, on purpose, to do good.
Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me use my power to do Your will. Let Your power work through me too.
Action for the Day
Today I'll watch my own actions and words. I'll see how my power affects others. I'll talk about this with my sponsor.

From the book:

Keep It Simple by Anonymous

Keep It Simple © 1989 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.