March 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundzation

 

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Let us work as if success depended upon ourselves alone; but with heartfelt conviction that we are doing nothing and God everything.

— St. Ignatius Loyola

It’s a spiritual paradox that the more successful we feel in this program, the more convinced we are that it is not our doing. Our success depends on our Higher Power. None of us can say, “I did it.” As the quality of our life improves, though — as we grow calmer and more self assured — it is only natural for us to feel we’ve done something right.

We most assuredly have done something right if we are working the Twelve Steps of this program, for it is a stairway to communion with God, a stairway to serenity. The more time we spend on the Steps, the more time we spend with God. It’s that simple. So it is true that we work for our own success, and it is just as true that it comes from God.

My success depends on the effort I make in putting myself in the hands of God.

Hazelden Foundation

March 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Today, recognize that much of my life has been expecting other people to meet my demands and expectations and fill my needs and wants. In selfishness and vanity, I rejected those who failed or would not give me what I wanted or needed when I wanted and needed it. In those times of looking to the outside for fulfillment, I had not a clue how to look inside myself and beyond something stronger than other people to attain what since have become different needs and expectations. In recovery, I understand that sobriety is first and foremost above everyone and everything. Once, my expectations of others were so unrealistic and selfish that I became needy to the point of being pathetic. Now I see the consequences, sometimes disastrous, of putting all my expectations on others. Now I am able to look inside myself and to a stronger Power to earn what I need. Today, I will take what my Program has given me to meet my needs and not weigh anyone with expectations so selfish and heavy that I ignore that they, too, have their own needs. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

March 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

Strength comes also from working with other alcoholics. When you are trying to help a new prospect with the program, you are building up your own strength at the same time. You see the other person in the condition you might be in yourself and it makes your resolve to stay sober stronger than ever. Often, you help yourself more than the other person, but if you do succeed in helping the prospect to get sober, you are stronger from the experience of having helped another person.

Am I receiving strength from working with others?

Meditation for the Day

Faith is the bridge between you and God. It is the bridge which God has ordained. If all were seen and known, there would be no merit in doing right. Therefore, God has ordained that we do not see or know directly. But we can experience the power of His spirit through our faith. It is the bridge between us and Him, which we can take or not, as we will. There could be no morality without free will. We must make the choice ourselves. We must make the venture of belief.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may choose and decide to cross the bridge of faith. I pray that by crossing this bridge I may receive the spiritual power I need.

Hazelden Foundation

March 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Reflection for the Day

I know today that getting active means trying to live the suggested Steps of The Program to the best of my ability. It means striving for some degree of honesty, first with myself, then with others. It means activity directed inward, to enable me to see myself and my relationship with my Higher Power more clearly. As I get active, outside and inside myself, so shall I grow in The Program.

Do I let others do all the work at meetings? Do I carry my share?

Today I Pray

May I realize that “letting go and letting God” does not mean that I do not have to put any effort into The Program. It is up to me to work the Twelve Steps, to learn what may be an entirely new thing with me — honesty. May I differentiate between activity for activity’s sake — busy-work to keep me from thinking — and the thoughtful activity which helps me to grow.

Today I Will Remember

“Letting God” means letting Him show us how.

Hazelden Foundation

March 26, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

We in AA have many religious affiliations, and there are some of us who contend that AA is all the religion they need. Yet this fact remains: the spiritual facts on which AA is based would not have survived the ages but for the tenacity of formal religions.

Without religions, our moral, political and social structure would collapse. There is a lot in all denominations that can be criticized but, without them, life would be chaos.

Hazelden Foundation

March 26, 2024 – Good morning and let’s try to make it a great Tuesday

 

Good morning and let’s try to make today a calm, drama- and trauma-free but productive and worthwhile 

Tuesday …and not be discouraged by people and things that aren’t worth our time

March 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, March 25, 2024

Today, focus on compulsiveness so as not to react to anyone or anything with the heightened emotions that nurtured the defects of my character. From a behavioral standpoint, we alcoholics drank with compulsion. As such, my alcoholism is both physical and behavioral in nature. To get the discipline to prevent compulsion from gaining an upper hand in all my affairs, I can work Step Three as I begin this day by handing over to my Higher Power my will and ask instead for His will. Today, as I set out, I surrender my will — or self-will run riot — to my Higher Power with faith that He will strengthen me to act accordingly and responsibly instead out of the compulsiveness that contributed to my spiritual and psychological defects. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

March 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, March 25, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

Strength comes from coming to believe in a Higher Power that can help you. You can’t define this Higher Power, but you can see how it helps other alcoholics. You hear them talk about it and you begin to get the idea yourself. You try praying in a quiet time each morning and you begin to feel stronger, as though your prayers were heard. So you gradually come to believe there must be a Power in the world outside yourself, which is stronger than you and to which you can turn for help.

Am I receiving strength from my faith in a Higher Power?

Meditation for the Day

Spiritual development is achieved by daily persistence in living the way you believe God wants you to live. Like the wearing away of a stone by steady drops of water, so will your daily persistence wear away all the difficulties and gain spiritual success for you. Never falter in this daily, steady persistence. Go forward boldly and unafraid. God will help and strengthen you, as long as you are trying to do His will.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may persist day by day in gaining spiritual experience. I pray that I may make this a lifetime work.

Hazelden Foundation

March 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Monday, March 25, 2024

Reflection for the Day

If a chemically-dependent person wants to live successfully in society, he or she must replace the power of chemicals over his/her life with the power of something else — preferably positive, at least neutral, but not negative. That is why we say to the agnostic newcomer: If you can’t believe in God, find a positive power that is as great as the power of your addiction, and give it the power and dependence you gave to your addiction. In The Program, the agnostic is left free to find his or her Higher Power, and can use the principles of The Program and the therapy of the meetings to aid in rebuilding his/her life.

Do I go out of my way to work with newcomers?

Today I Pray

May the Power of The Program work its miracles equally for those who believe in a personal God or in a Universal Spirit or in the strength of the group itself, or for those who define their Higher Power in their own terms, religious or not. If newcomers are disturbed by the religiosity of The Program, may I welcome them on their own spiritual terms. May I recognize that we are all spiritual beings.

Today I Will Remember

To each his own spirituality.

Hazelden Foundation

March 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Monday, March 25, 2024

No man with certainty can see beyond this instant. Yesterday we had a friend, hale, hearty and bubbling over with energy and ambition. Today we write a letter of condolence to his widow. No one knows the day or the hour, but this we do know — we are alive right now, people are suffering right now, we can help them right now.

Hazelden Foundation

March 25, 2024 – Good morning and let’s get revved for Monday and a new week

 

Good morning with hopes of a fantastic 

Monday and productive new week for everyone …and a break from the crap we all probably have in our lives

March 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Today, no looking beyond the current 24 Hours about the length of my sobriety, be it one day, one week, one month, one year, one decade or longer. Alcoholism is chronic and incurable but can be in arrested by abstinence, and all the 24 Hours of clean time we accrue are gone if we buy into the myth that we can get away with “just one.” And “just one” sets in motion total relapse. Even if we have racked up a significant number of 24 Hours, we are no more sober than the alcoholic who woke up this morning with a hangover. Remember the yesterdays when we awoke to the harsh reality that the 24 Hours we had before are gone, and know that our yesterdays are the best predictor of our behavior today and tomorrow — and learn from yesterday to avoid repeating its mistakes. Keep the ego in check — the other alcoholic who woke up hung over yesterday but is sober this morning is no less clean than we. Today, when it comes to being and staying sober, take it literally just for today. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2024

March 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, March 24, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

Strength comes from honestly telling your own experiences with drinking. In religion, they call it confession. We call it witnessing or sharing. You give a personal witness, you share your past experiences, the troubles you got into, the hospitals, the jails, the break-up of your home, the money wasted, the debts and all the foolish things you did when you were drinking. This personal witness lets out the things you had kept hidden, brings them out into the open, and you find release and strength.

Am I receiving strength from my personal witnessing?

Meditation for the Day

We cannot fully understand the universe. The simple fact is that we cannot even define space or time. They are both boundless, in spite of all we can do to limit them. We live in a box of space and time which we have manufactured by our own minds and on that depends all our so-called knowledge of the universe. The simple fact is that we can never know all things, nor are we made to know them. Much of our lives must be taken on faith.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that my faith may be based on my own experience of the power of God in my life. I pray that I may know this one thing above all else in the universe.

Hazelden Foundation

March 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Reflection for the Day

All of us are faced with the troubles and problems of daily living, whether we’ve been in The Program two days or 20 years. We’d sometimes like to believe we could take care of all our problems right now, but it rarely works that way. If we remember the slogan “Easy Does It” when we are ready to panic, we may come to know that the very best way to handle all things is “Easy.” We put one foot in front of the other, doing the best we are capable of doing. We say, “Easy Does It,” and we do it.

Are The Program’s slogans growing with me as I grow with The Program?

Today I Pray

May even the words “Easy Does It” serve to slow me down in my headlong rush to accomplish too much too fast. May just the word “Easy” be enough to make me ease up on the whips that drive my ambitions, ease up on the accelerator which plunges me into new situations without enough forethought, ease off the number of hours spent in material pursuits. May I hark to the adage that Rome wasn’t built in a single day. Neither can I build solutions to my problems all at once.

Today I Will Remember

Easy Does It.

Hazelden Foundation

March 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Life is not a succession of days on earth, but rather it is an accumulation of experiences. Days are simply time locations where experiences transpired. The day on which no event occurred is a day lost out of life, for it had nothing in it to justify its memory.

Hazelden Foundation