Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Today's Gift
Letting Go of Fear -- Picture yourself swimming floating - peacefully down a gentle stream. All you need to do is breathe, relax, and go with the flow.
Suddenly, you become conscious of your situation. Frightened, overwhelmed with "what if's?" your body tenses. You begin to thrash around, frantically looking for something to grab on to.
You panic so hard you start to go under. Then you remember - you're working too hard at this. You don't need to panic. All you need to do is breathe, relax, and go with the flow. You won't drown.
Panic is our great enemy.
We don't need to become desperate. If overwhelming problems appear in our life, we need to stop struggling. We can tread water for a bit, until our equilibrium returns. Then we can go back to floating peacefully down the gentle stream. It is our stream. It is a safe stream. Our course has been charted. All is well.
Today, I will relax, breathe, and go with the flow.
From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Keep It Simple
You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making their nest in your head.---Chinese proverb
Life is full of feelings. We can be happy, sad, mad, scared. These feelings can come and go quickly. Or we may hang on to them. As recovering addicts, we used to hang on to feelings that made us feel bad. We let them make"nest" in our hair. We used our feelings as excuse to drink or use other drugs. Now we're learning to hang on to our good feelings. We can let go of anger, hurt, and fear. We can shoo away the birds of sadness and welcome the birds of happiness.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me become a "bird watcher." Help me learn from my feelings. And help me let go of the bad one so I can be happy.
Action For the Day: If I need to get rid of the sadness or anger that I'm hanging on to, I'll get help from my sponsor, a counselor, or a clergy person.
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One Day At A Time
Free
I can be free of my old enslaving self.
After a while I recognize, and believe in, the good within myself.
I can see that I have been loved back to recovery by my Higher Power,
who envelops me.
My Higher Power becomes that source of love and strength that is becoming
a continuing miracle in me. I am sober . . . and I am grateful.
- Daily Reflections, p. 270
Thought to Ponder . . .
The power within me is far greater than any fear before me.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H J F = Happy, Joyous, Free.
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Daily Motivation
The problems
If there’s a problem holding you back, take steps to solve it. If it’s not in your power to solve it, figure out a way to transcend it.
If you cannot transcend the problem, make the choice to accept it and live with it. Then get busy filling your world with so much joy and richness that whatever the problem is, it won’t really matter.
Problems are nothing to be afraid of. In fact, they can lead you to great and valuable opportunities.
Problems are not reasons to postpone your life. In fact, those people who encounter the most problems are the people who are living most fully and richly.
Pay attention to the problems and find ways to turn their energy in a positive direction. By all means, don’t hide from life just because you’re afraid of coming across a few problems.
Let the problems come, and let the problems go. Whatever the problems may be, engage yourself purposefully and enthusiastically with the best life has to offer.
— Ralph Marston
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