Daily Motivation 3-27-2012

Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Today's Gift

There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness. —Han Suyin

It may take a while to learn to be gentle with ourselves. We have long standing patterns of abusing and shaming ourselves. Maybe we became this way because we were victims. Now it's easier to attack ourselves for mistakes we've made than to be accountable and make amends. We think we deserve to be rejected if we let our friends know our deepest secrets. In the midst of stress we fly to self-doubt and self-abusing thoughts. We withdraw emotionally, we pout, we expect rejection rather than gentleness.

For today, let us pledge to be gentle with ourselves. Gentleness isn't dishonest; it isn't arrogant or self-centered. It is taking reality - with whatever pain that includes - and treating ourselves as worthwhile men and women. We will be stronger and less self-centered when we accept this gentleness. We will be as loyal to ourselves as we are to our best friends. Each day with this new attitude will build strength of character and wisdom.

Today, may I treat myself with gentleness and learn the strength it has to teach me.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Keep It Simple

 

Is there ever any particular spot where one can put one's finger and say, "It all began that day, at such a time and such a place, with such an incident"? --Agatha Christie

 

No experience of our lives is pure, unadulterated, set apart from all other experiences. There is an eternal flow in our lives. It carries us from one moment, one experience, into the next. Where we are today, the growth we have attained as recovering women and the plans we have for further changes are prompted by the same driving desires that contributed to our many actions in years gone by.

 

We can reflect on a particular experience and tag it a turning point. However, neither a lone prescription nor a single martini opened the door we passed through when we chose recovery. But they each may have played a part, and it's the many parts of our lives, past and present, that guarantee us the turning points that nudge us further up the mountain. We will see the summit. And we will understand how, each time we stumbled, new strength was gained.

Action for the Day: Every day is a training ground. And every experience trains me to recognize the value of succeeding experiences. With richness, I am developing, one moment at a time.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Card Tricks
On bad days I come home and just stew. My sponsor has told me
all the things to do to stay sober at such times, but I keep forgetting a few.
Then I remembered a trick from my college days -- using a memory aid.
So CARDS has become my recipe for sobriety: Call your sponsor,
Ask for help from your Higher Power, Read the Big Book,
Do the Twelve Steps, Stay active in your group.
- Thank You For Sharing, p. 194

Thought to Ponder . . .
I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
C A R D S =
Call your sponsor,
Ask for help from your Higher Power,
Read the Big Book,
Do the Twelve Steps,
Stay active in your group.

 

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Daily Motivation

Take a step back

Step back from the loud and pressing concerns of the moment. Step back, get some perspective, and remind yourself of how good life can be.

Many of the things you see as problems would have been considered to be blessings by people in an earlier era. Think of how good you have it, and of how you can make good and fulfilling use of what you do have.

You are able to make a difference, and that ability can literally take you anywhere you wish to go. Though your efforts may be difficult and challenging, those efforts give you some extremely valuable options.

Don’t take those options for granted by letting them sit idle and unused. Instead, take them to heart and consider how you can make life richer and more beautiful by making use of what you have.

Take a step back, and look objectively at where you are. What you will see is the great and wonderful opportunity that is your life.

Now, while you have it, seize that opportunity. Life is always good, because you can always make it better.

— Ralph Marston