Monday, February 5, 2018
Today's Gift
The boundaries between us in our families and our friendships often need to be reshaped. We need to know our feelings are private. We reveal them at our choosing, with whom we choose. We give up on mind reading or probing because it intrudes upon another's privacy. We actively engage in our relationships by sharing ourselves and listening to each other.
A secret that makes a relationship dishonest is destructive and ought to be told. But we cannot force another person to be honest, or pry the truth from a loved one. We can only be honest ourselves and guard our own right to privacy. Intimacy is the bridge, which is built between two separate people. Only when we let others have their privacy and we take ours can our relationships be more intimate.
Change
We thought "conditions" drove us to drink and/or drug, and when we tried to correct these
conditions and found that we couldn't to our entire satisfaction, our drinking and/or drug drugging went out of hand and we became alcoholics/addicts. It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves to meet conditions, whatever they were.
- Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions, p. 47
Thought to Ponder
If you want to change who you are, change what you do.
AA-related 'Alconym'
A B C = Accept, Begin, Continue
Give your best
Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got. —Janis Joplin
When we don't know who we are, it's easy to compromise ourselves. When we don't know where we stand on an issue, it's easy to be swayed by a forceful voice. Values may be cloudy in our minds, or we may not be aware of them at all. It's then that we are vulnerable to the persuasion of another. In Life, we are offered many ways to know ourselves. We are supported in our efforts, and we realize we have friends who don't want us to compromise ourselves - who value our struggle to know and to be true to ourselves.
One of Life's greatest gifts is discovering we can make decisions that represent us, our inner selves, and those decisions please us. We all are familiar with the tiny tug of shame that locates itself in our solar plexus. When we "go along," when we "give in" on a personally important issue, we pay a consequence. We lose a bit of ourselves. Over the years we've lost many bits. We have a choice, however.
I will have a chance, soon, to act according to my wishes. I will take it.
From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey ©
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
The human animal needs a freedom seldom mentioned: freedom from intrusion. They need a little privacy quite as much as they want understanding or vitamins or exercise or praise. --Phyllis McGinley
The human animal needs a freedom seldom mentioned: freedom from intrusion. They need a little privacy quite as much as they want understanding or vitamins or exercise or praise. --Phyllis McGinley
The boundaries between us in our families and our friendships often need to be reshaped. We need to know our feelings are private. We reveal them at our choosing, with whom we choose. We give up on mind reading or probing because it intrudes upon another's privacy. We actively engage in our relationships by sharing ourselves and listening to each other.
A secret that makes a relationship dishonest is destructive and ought to be told. But we cannot force another person to be honest, or pry the truth from a loved one. We can only be honest ourselves and guard our own right to privacy. Intimacy is the bridge, which is built between two separate people. Only when we let others have their privacy and we take ours can our relationships be more intimate.
Action for the Day: I will maintain the boundaries of my privacy today and respect the right of others to do the same.
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
Change
We thought "conditions" drove us to drink and/or drug, and when we tried to correct these
conditions and found that we couldn't to our entire satisfaction, our drinking and/or drug drugging went out of hand and we became alcoholics/addicts. It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves to meet conditions, whatever they were.
- Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions, p. 47
Thought to Ponder
If you want to change who you are, change what you do.
AA-related 'Alconym'
A B C = Accept, Begin, Continue
From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net)
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
Give your best
by Ralph Marston
This day exists so you can give new richness to life. Ingrained deep within you is the desire to matter, to make a difference, and now is when you can.
What gives you fulfillment is what you give yourself to. What brings your life lasting treasure is all the good work you do to create, support, encourage, to offer kindness, to give hope.
The possibilities exist so you can savor the experience of bringing them to life. The challenges exist so you can work your way through them, lifting the world a little higher.
Countless circumstances, distractions, fears will tempt you to give less than your best. Pay no heed to those temptations, for they will only lead you to regret.
Don’t leave yourself stuck at the end of this day with bitter thoughts of what could have been. Give your best to every hour, every opportunity, every encounter, every situation.
Give your best, and discover each time how much better it makes your life. Give your best, for deep inside you know that is what you are here to do.
This day exists so you can give new richness to life. Ingrained deep within you is the desire to matter, to make a difference, and now is when you can.
What gives you fulfillment is what you give yourself to. What brings your life lasting treasure is all the good work you do to create, support, encourage, to offer kindness, to give hope.
The possibilities exist so you can savor the experience of bringing them to life. The challenges exist so you can work your way through them, lifting the world a little higher.
Countless circumstances, distractions, fears will tempt you to give less than your best. Pay no heed to those temptations, for they will only lead you to regret.
Don’t leave yourself stuck at the end of this day with bitter thoughts of what could have been. Give your best to every hour, every opportunity, every encounter, every situation.
Give your best, and discover each time how much better it makes your life. Give your best, for deep inside you know that is what you are here to do.
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