Daily Motivation 10-19-10

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Today's Gift

 

If only I could throw away the urge to trace my patterns in your heart I could really see you. —David Brandon

 

Trying to control and change the people around us creates great problems in our relationships. When people we love are expressing themselves, we're thinking about what we wish they would say, and it blocks us from hearing clearly. A need for safety and for a guarantee that we won't be abandoned urges us to manipulate the people we love. We know we have innocent motives. We say we only want what is best and that we are only trying to protect ourselves or be helpful. But we hide from the effects our actions have on our relationships.

We seem to be more trapped in these self-centered behaviors with the ones we are closest to. We can change ourselves by slowly releasing our security grip on others. We can focus more on understanding what others are saying to us than on changing how they think and feel. Intimacy is clearly seeing each other and knowing the differences as well as the similarities. It requires that both people be allowed to walk on separate paths.

I will release my grip on my loved ones and turn to my Higher Power for security and serenity.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©

 

 

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Keep It Simple
 
A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.---Seventeenth century proverb

We addicts used to be stubborn. Once we got an idea in our heads, we wouldn’t change it.
We didn’t listen to others ideas. We almost seemed to say, “Don’t tell me the facts. I’ve already made up my mind.”

But lately , some new ideas are making sense to us. We are starting to change our minds. Maybe we are good people, after all. Maybe we do deserve to be happy. Maybe other people can help us. Maybe our Higher Power does know best.

We’re not acting like fools any longer. We’re learning to change our old ideas.

Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, when I hear a better idea, help me change my mind.

Action for the Day:  When I hear or read a new idea today, I’ll really think about it. If it fits, I’ll try it.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Appeal

In complete defeat, with no hope or faith whatever,
I had made an appeal to a Higher Power.
I had taken Step One of today's AA program -- "Admitted we were powerless
over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable."
I'd also taken Step Three -- "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives
over to the care of God as we understood Him."
Thus was I set free. It was just as simple, yet just as mysterious, as that.
- Bill W., July 1953. The Language of the Heart, p. 198

Thought to Ponder . . .
Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober hour.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Awesome.

 

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Daily Motivation

 

Making fears insignificant

 

Fear is possible only when you forget how much power you really have. Fear takes up those spaces in your world that you have neglected to fill with love and positive possibility.

 

You don't have to fight the fear. You don't have to let the dark clouds of dread and anxiety cast their crippling shadows over your life any longer.

 

Instead, allow love to fill your awareness. Give in to that beautiful longing you feel to be fully and authentically you.

 

Give your life's energy to your highest hopes, desires, dreams and positive possibilities. Then your fears will naturally recede into insignificance.

 

With your mind and your spirit at peace, your thoughts and actions are free to be strong, focused and effective. You'll unleash the ability to create value and richness in your world.

 

The positive possibilities are truly without limit. Imagine them, allow them to inspire you, and turn your attention toward fulfilling the best of them.

 

-- Ralph Marston