Thursday, March 3, 2016
Today's Gift
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
Accepting Ourselves
While driving one day, a woman's attention focused on the license plate of the car ahead. The license read: B WHO UR. How can I? she thought. I don't know who I am!
Some of us may have felt confused when people encouraged us to be ourselves. How could we know ourselves, or be who we are, when, for years, many of us submerged ourselves in the needs of others?
We do have a self. We're discovering more about ourselves daily. We're learning we're deserving of love.
We're learning to accept ourselves, as we are for the present moment - to accept our feelings, thoughts, flaws, wants, needs, and desires. If our thoughts or feelings are confused, we accept that too.
To be who we are means we accept our past - our history - exactly as is.
To be ourselves means we are entitled to our opinions and beliefs - for the present moment and subject to change. We accept our limitations and our strengths.
To be who we are means we accept our physical selves, as well as our mental, emotional, and spiritual selves, for now. Being who we are means we take that acceptance one step further. We can appreciate our history and ourselves.
Being whom we are, loving and accepting ourselves, is not a limiting attitude. Accepting and loving ourselves is how we enable growth and change.
Today, I will be who I am. If I'm not yet certain who I am, I will affirm that I have a right to that exciting discovery.
From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©
From: Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation - Thought for the Day http://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/recovery/thought-for-the-day
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Keep It Simple
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume, you shall assume. --Walt Whitman
Some of us may think Walt Whitman must have been terribly conceited to have written words like that. But he wasn't. He knew himself well, and accepted himself, even his darker side. He could laugh at himself and celebrate his humanness.
And because he loved and accepted himself just as he was, others could do the same. That's difficult to understand sometimes, but it's true: no one else is going to love and accept us until we come to love and accept ourselves.
We teach others how to treat us by the way we treat ourselves, so perhaps it makes sense to apply a variation of the Golden Rule: "Do unto ourselves as we would have others do unto us."
Action for the Day: I will allow my kindness to myself overflow to another person today.
From: Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums
Daily Recovery Readings - http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2
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One Day At A Time
Surrender
It is only when I have experienced enough emotional pain, through failed attempts to fix myself, that I become willing to surrender to my Higher power's will for my life.
Surrender is like the calm after the storm. When my will is in line with my Higher Power's will for me, there is peace within.
- Daily Reflections, p. 77
Thought to Ponder . . .
The storm has passed. I've learned a little more about peace. It was inside all the time.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
W O W = Willingness Over Willpower.
From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net)
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Daily Motivation
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
A great place to be
by Ralph Marston
If you’re unhappy with what you already have, then getting more is not going to make things better. Instead of fighting against what is, make full and loving use of it.
Instead of striving for what you think you lack, simply change your thinking. Realize that where you are is a great place to be.
Achievements and possessions will never make you happy. They can, however, serve as tangible expressions of the happiness you have chosen to create within yourself.
Do you feel that something is missing in your life? Most likely, the only thing really missing is your commitment to fully accept and live the abundance that is already there.
That abundance comes to you in the people, places, things, events and situations that flow through your life each day. The way to connect with it is through sincere and sustained gratitude.
Be truly thankful for it all, for the ups and the downs, the pleasures and the pains, the progress and the setbacks. Joyfully accept what is, and you’ll surely find it is a great place to be.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
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