April 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Ask, and ye shall receive.
 -- John 16:24

Somewhere in our past life, we may have picked up the idea that it's not all right to ask for help, that asking for help would be a sign of weakness. Recovery calls for some basic changes in our thinking, and when we feel vulnerable is the best time to reach out and ask for help from our Higher Power, from our program, and from our friends in recovery. It's hard for us, at first. We may be afraid of rejection, or of being laughed at for not knowing all the answers. But once we've taken the risk and openly asked for help, we realize our fears are a part of the past, and we can leave them behind us.

In asking for help, we acknowledge that we can't do it all by ourselves. We surrender once again to powerlessness. And we give others the joy and satisfaction of helping us.

Today if I'm feeling I'm on a "solo-fight," help me to reach out and find support just by asking.

You are reading from the book:

Body, Mind, and Spirit by Anonymous

Body, Mind, and Spirit © 1990 by Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Sunday, April 2, 2017
 
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 unhealthy behavioral patterns. 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 the program's mottoes: "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., 2017

April 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, April 2, 2017 

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, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Sunday, April 2, 2017 

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 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, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Sunday, April 2, 2017 

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, 2017 - Good morning to a relaxing and beautiful Sunday, folks

April 1, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

... all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
 -- Julian of Norwich

Why are we prone to exaggerating the seriousness of the circumstances in our lives? Perhaps it's because we lived for years barely on the fringe of sensible choices. We reacted hysterically to all manner of experiences, the mundane as well as the momentous. Our reactions could turn any situation sour. At long last we are learning a new behavior, but it takes practice.

As we learn to rely on a Higher Power to help us handle our experiences, we begin to grow in peace and the belief that all is well. Even when we are tormented by a decision, we can have faith that our Higher Power will lead us where we need to go. Our part of the bargain is to ask for help and to be open to guidance.

I will know peace today because I will trust my Higher Power's guidance in the situations I face. All will be well if I do my part.

You are reading from the book:

A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey

A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey. © 1994 by Hazelden Foundation

April 1, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step

Saturday, April 1, 2017 

Today: 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 relinquish all that is selfish and 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 feed; 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 and instead offer what I have - 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 only by sharing it with someone else. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2017

April 1, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, April 1, 2017 

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, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Saturday, April 1, 2017 

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 over-eater, 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, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Saturday, April 1, 2017 

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, 2017 - Good morning to a superb Saturday and great weekend, folks

March 31, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Friday, March 31, 2017

Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences.
 -- W.H. Auden

Many of us have said, "I can't help myself!" when we tried to stop our constant thinking about other people or their behavior. "I know it's not good for me, but what can I do when they keep acting that way?"

Let us think of ourselves as living in a house with many windows. At each window is a different view, and within each view are many things to catch our attention -- perhaps there are some people, some traffic, some buildings, a horizon, and some trees. If we always go to the same window and focus on the same object, we are not using all our choices. We may have overlooked some things in our lives that need attention. There are many things we are totally powerless over. Our power exists in changing the focus of our attention.

Today, I will notice where I am choosing to pay attention. I pray for guidance in being aware of my options.

You are reading from the book:

Touchstones by Anonymous

Touchstones ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation

March 31, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step

Friday, March 31, 2017 

Today, no self-pity to shake my recovery regardless if my recovery began 24 months or 24 hours ago. Self-pity may be the deadliest of poisons that can undo, in the blink of an eye, any progress I've made. Self-pity is giving up my belief and total surrender to my Higher Power and is the epitome of selfishness. If there is adversity this day, I will face it with the courage, strength, hope and dignity with which AA endows me, and I've already been endowed with courage, strength, hope and dignity merely by committing myself to recovery. Nor will I whine, "Why me?" And if I say no to self-pity today, I have no reason or excuse to drink, to use - and this day, then, will be good. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2017

March 31, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, March 31, 2017 

AA Thought for the Day

Since I've been in AA, have I made a start towards being more unselfish? Do I no longer want my own way in everything? When things go wrong and I can't have what I want, do I no longer sulk? Am I trying not to waste money on myself? And does it make me happy to see my family and my home have enough attention from me? 

Am I trying not to be all get and no give? 

Meditation for the Day

Each day is a day of progress, steady progress forward, if you make it so. You may not see it, but God does. God does not judge by outward appearance. He judges by the heart. Let Him see in your heart a simple desire always to do His will. Though you may feel that your work has been spoiled or tarnished, God sees it as an offering for Him. When climbing a steep hill, a person is often more conscious of the weakness of his stumbling feet than of the view, the grandeur or even of the upward progress. 

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may persevere in all good things. I pray that I may advance each day in spite of my stumbling feet. 

Hazelden Foundation