Monday, January 2, 2017
Today's Gift
Progress, not perfection, is our goal in this recovery program. And many days we'll be haunted by the feeling that we've regressed. We will display old behavior. We will feel unable to change, to go on, to make gains once again. But these periods will pass, and soon progress will be evident again.
We must be wary of our need for perfection. It's this need that makes normal progress seem not good enough. And yet, that's all we're capable of--and all we'll ever need to be capable of. The program, its Steps and the promises offered, provide the tools we have lacked, yet need to use in order to accept ourselves wholly and imperfectly.
Daily attention to our spiritual side will foster the spiritual and emotional health we long for. Prayer and meditation, combined with honest inventory-taking, can show us the personal progress needed, the personal progress made. However, we will falter on occasion. We will neglect our program some days. But it won't ever be beyond our reach. And each day is a new beginning.
From: Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums
Living Sober
Somewhat to our surprise, staying sober turns out not to be the grim,
wet-blanket experience we had expected!
While we were drinking, a life without alcohol seemed like no life at all.
But for most members of AA, living sober is really living—a joyous experience.
We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking.
One more note: anyone can get sober. We have all done it lots of times.
- Living Sober, Foreword
Thought to Ponder . . .
Life didn't end when I got sober—it started.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
Extraordinary purpose
by Ralph Marston
Live the ordinary days with extraordinary purpose, and you achieve great things. Remember often enough where you intend to go, and you absolutely will get there.
A New Year is upon you, filled with days, with moments, with opportunities. Commit yourself right now to take those opportunities, to live the upcoming days with positive purpose, with enthusiastic energy, with the highest expectations.
You deserve to live a life that’s rich with meaningful experience, a life that matters, that makes a difference. And you deserve to be the person who makes that life unfold in your own unique way.
You have skills you don’t yet know you have, and resources you don’t even realize are available to you. The way to discover all the great things you can do is to constantly push yourself to act, to constantly be reminded of your best possibilities.
Imagine what will happen this coming year when you funnel all your energy, feelings, joys, passions, dreams into purposeful action. Imagine how great you’ll feel, knowing you’ve made full and loving use of all the moments available to you.
Imagine it, then make the choice to make it happen. The New Year awaits, and you’ve already begun to live it with extraordinary purpose.
When you can't stand criticism you learn to be a perfectionist. —Anonymous
It's human to make mistakes and to feel incomplete. Perhaps if we were all smooth plastic printouts we could expect perfection of ourselves. Each man is actually a process. We are not things, but events - happenings - and the events are still unfolding. These are our creative spiritual adventures.
We have somehow learned that openness to criticism is dangerous. Perhaps we thought someone would not like us if we were wrong, or that we would get hurt or belittled. When we live with a relationship to our Higher Power, we can stand up for ourselves. A person has a right to make some mistakes! We grow more if we allow ourselves the leeway of simply being in process.
I will not ask to have the power of perfection. I will only ask that I not be alone in the process of living my life.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©
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
Keep It Simple
In the process of growing to spiritual maturity, we all go through many adolescent stages. --Miki L. Bowen
In the process of growing to spiritual maturity, we all go through many adolescent stages. --Miki L. Bowen
Progress, not perfection, is our goal in this recovery program. And many days we'll be haunted by the feeling that we've regressed. We will display old behavior. We will feel unable to change, to go on, to make gains once again. But these periods will pass, and soon progress will be evident again.
We must be wary of our need for perfection. It's this need that makes normal progress seem not good enough. And yet, that's all we're capable of--and all we'll ever need to be capable of. The program, its Steps and the promises offered, provide the tools we have lacked, yet need to use in order to accept ourselves wholly and imperfectly.
Daily attention to our spiritual side will foster the spiritual and emotional health we long for. Prayer and meditation, combined with honest inventory-taking, can show us the personal progress needed, the personal progress made. However, we will falter on occasion. We will neglect our program some days. But it won't ever be beyond our reach. And each day is a new beginning.
Action for the Day: Today is before me, and I can make progress. I will begin with a quiet prayer and a moment of meditation.
From: Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums
Daily Recovery Readings - http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2
****************************
One Day At A Time
Living Sober
Somewhat to our surprise, staying sober turns out not to be the grim,
wet-blanket experience we had expected!
While we were drinking, a life without alcohol seemed like no life at all.
But for most members of AA, living sober is really living—a joyous experience.
We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking.
One more note: anyone can get sober. We have all done it lots of times.
- Living Sober, Foreword
Thought to Ponder . . .
Life didn't end when I got sober—it started.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness
From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net)
***************************
Daily Motivation
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
Extraordinary purpose
by Ralph Marston
Live the ordinary days with extraordinary purpose, and you achieve great things. Remember often enough where you intend to go, and you absolutely will get there.
A New Year is upon you, filled with days, with moments, with opportunities. Commit yourself right now to take those opportunities, to live the upcoming days with positive purpose, with enthusiastic energy, with the highest expectations.
You deserve to live a life that’s rich with meaningful experience, a life that matters, that makes a difference. And you deserve to be the person who makes that life unfold in your own unique way.
You have skills you don’t yet know you have, and resources you don’t even realize are available to you. The way to discover all the great things you can do is to constantly push yourself to act, to constantly be reminded of your best possibilities.
Imagine what will happen this coming year when you funnel all your energy, feelings, joys, passions, dreams into purposeful action. Imagine how great you’ll feel, knowing you’ve made full and loving use of all the moments available to you.
Imagine it, then make the choice to make it happen. The New Year awaits, and you’ve already begun to live it with extraordinary purpose.
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