Monday, April 22, 2019
Today's Gift
Our own rough edges become smooth as we help a friend smooth their edges. --Sue Atchley Ebaugh
Focusing on a good point in every person we encounter today will benefit us in untold ways. It will smooth our relations with that person, inviting them to respond kindly also. It will increase our awareness of the goodness all around us. It will help us realize that if everyone around us has positive traits, then we must also have them. But perhaps the greatest benefit of focusing on good points is that it enhances us as a person; a healthy, positive attitude must be cultivated. Many of us had little experience with feeling positive before the turning point, recovery.
The Universe is offering us a new lease on life every moment. We are learning new behaviors, and we are learning that with the help of a higher power and one another, all things that are right for us are possible. It is energizing, focusing on the good points of others, knowing that their good points don't detract from our own.
In the past, we may have secretly hated other person's strengths because we felt inferior. We are free from that hate now, if we choose to be. A strength we can each nurture is gratitude for being helped by, and privy to, the strengths of our friends and acquaintances.
Action for the Day: Bad points get worse with attention. My good points will gain strength.
A Fair Hearing
We looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes
used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation.
We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves.
We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because
we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees.
We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 50
Thought to Ponder
When I change the way I look at things,
the things I look at change.
AA-related 'Alconym'
P U T = Patience, Understanding, Tolerance
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
Negative exaggeration
Sometimes you can feel like everything is going wrong, but of course that is not literally true. Many things may be seriously out of order, but certainly not everything.
So start with that realization, that some aspects of your life, of the world, are still okay. Challenge your negative exaggeration, and replace it with a more thoughtful, considered view.
Provide yourself with a concrete example that contradicts your exaggeration. Remind yourself of what still works, of what continues to be dependable, reasonable, of what can bring a smile to your face.
You can be realistic and acknowledge a difficult situation without descending into hopelessness. And then you can take action -- positive action, hopeful action, effective action.
Negative thoughts often become exaggerated in order to command your full attention. Once they have your attention, they’ve done their job, and your best option is to quickly replace them.
Assure yourself that all is not lost, and prod yourself to craft a positive way forward. Make good use of whatever still works well, to repair and transcend all that has gone wrong.
I would be honest, for there are those who trust me. ~Howard Arnold Walter
Some of those around us seem to see only the good in us. They trust and respect us, even when we ourselves may not feel we deserve it. A young girl once talked about her grandfather. She said, "He was the only person in my life who saw the good in me." She mentioned that she sought to please her grandfather and not disappoint the trust which he placed in her.
He brought out the best in her because of the way that he looked at her. Each of us can be like this grandfather by focusing on the good in other people. We can use our spiritual eyes to see love, honesty, trustworthiness, and unselfishness in the heart of another. As we look for the good, we are doing our part to help create it.
Do I see the good in those around me right now?
From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©
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
Focusing on a good point in every person we encounter today will benefit us in untold ways. It will smooth our relations with that person, inviting them to respond kindly also. It will increase our awareness of the goodness all around us. It will help us realize that if everyone around us has positive traits, then we must also have them. But perhaps the greatest benefit of focusing on good points is that it enhances us as a person; a healthy, positive attitude must be cultivated. Many of us had little experience with feeling positive before the turning point, recovery.
The Universe is offering us a new lease on life every moment. We are learning new behaviors, and we are learning that with the help of a higher power and one another, all things that are right for us are possible. It is energizing, focusing on the good points of others, knowing that their good points don't detract from our own.
In the past, we may have secretly hated other person's strengths because we felt inferior. We are free from that hate now, if we choose to be. A strength we can each nurture is gratitude for being helped by, and privy to, the strengths of our friends and acquaintances.
Action for the Day: Bad points get worse with attention. My good points will gain strength.
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
A Fair Hearing
We looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes
used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation.
We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves.
We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because
we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees.
We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 50
Thought to Ponder
When I change the way I look at things,
the things I look at change.
AA-related 'Alconym'
P U T = Patience, Understanding, Tolerance
From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net)
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
by Ralph Marston
Sometimes you can feel like everything is going wrong, but of course that is not literally true. Many things may be seriously out of order, but certainly not everything.
So start with that realization, that some aspects of your life, of the world, are still okay. Challenge your negative exaggeration, and replace it with a more thoughtful, considered view.
Provide yourself with a concrete example that contradicts your exaggeration. Remind yourself of what still works, of what continues to be dependable, reasonable, of what can bring a smile to your face.
You can be realistic and acknowledge a difficult situation without descending into hopelessness. And then you can take action -- positive action, hopeful action, effective action.
Negative thoughts often become exaggerated in order to command your full attention. Once they have your attention, they’ve done their job, and your best option is to quickly replace them.
Assure yourself that all is not lost, and prod yourself to craft a positive way forward. Make good use of whatever still works well, to repair and transcend all that has gone wrong.
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