Friday, August 14, 2020
Today's Gift
—Marcus Aurelius
How do we think about ourselves? Do we feel unattractive? Do we feel we aren't start enough? Do we doubt our ability to perform our roles as friends, spouses, or parents? Such thoughts are common among adults. There is no problem in having them; they are normal to some extent. But what we do with our thoughts - how we think about what we think - makes a big difference in our lives.
When we think we are odd or different from other people for feeling this way, we become more self-centered. When we don't stand up for our rights to have our doubts and weaknesses, we become even more weak and doubting. When we don't talk about our thoughts and feelings to others, we become isolated and lonely. We have a right to feel insecure and to know we have weaknesses. We become stronger by accepting our doubts. They may still cause some pain but they have lost their power to control us. Just as a repaired seam can be stronger than the original, what was our weakness becomes our strength.
Today, I accept my thoughts of weakness and self-doubt as part of 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
The relationship between emotion and behavior is actually a two-way street because behavior can cause emotion.
All feelings are okay, but not all behaviors are. This is the basic guiding principle for our emotional lives. “Emotional fluency” is the ability to be in touch with whatever we are feeling inside and able to communicate those sensations to ourselves—and others—in ways that are life enhancing rather than destructive.
We develop this capacity for emotional fluency gradually, starting in childhood, as we learn to identify and name certain bodily sensations. We then expand the vocabulary we use to express the continuum of each core feeling. Using “I” statements, followed by a feeling word, helps us refine our ability to take responsibility and make these internal sensations our own. I feel scared when I see you drinking so much. I feel upset and angry with myself when I mess up.
Mood storms teach us about the ever-changing tempestuous nature of our emotional life. We all go through times when our emotions seem to have us in their grasp, more than we are having them. Through all these developmental phases, we learn to experience, recognize, name, and then express our internal experience to others. Addictions commonly interrupt this growth and tend to leave us with less mature skills in identifying and revealing our inner states. Sobriety allows us reclaim what we have been missing.
Action for the Day: Whatever I am feeling is valid; how I choose to express it needs healthy boundaries.
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
We are careful never to show intolerance or hatred of drinking
as an institution. Experience shows that such an attitude is not
helpful to anyone. Every new alcoholic looks for this spirit among us
and is immensely relieved when he finds we are not witchburners.
A spirit of intolerance might repel alcoholics whose lives could have
been saved, had it not been for such stupidity.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Working With Others) p. 103
Thought to Ponder
Love and tolerance of others is our code.
AA-related 'Alconym'
A A = Altered Attitudes
From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) http://www.aa-alive.net/index.html
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Daily Motivation
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
by Ralph Marston
The more emotionally connected you become to what you don’t want, the more of it you’ll have. And the more emotionally connected you become to what you do want in your life, the more of it you’ll have.
If you worry and fret and get upset over your problems, those problems will grow stronger as they feed on your intense emotional energy. But imagine what would happen if you took that energy away from your problems, and gave it to your most treasured desires.
Think about what you don’t want, but only long enough to figure out what you do want. Then give the power of your emotions over to the best of your positive possibilities. In your mind, feel what it will feel like when those goals become a reality. Experience the excitement, the satisfaction and the feeling of fulfillment.
Emotions feel powerful, and that’s because they are powerful. On a deep and undeniable level, they influence your physiology, your attitude, your actions and your effectiveness. Get the power of your emotions working in your favor by keeping them aligned with your most positive dreams, goals and desires.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
The more emotionally connected you become to what you don’t want, the more of it you’ll have. And the more emotionally connected you become to what you do want in your life, the more of it you’ll have.
If you worry and fret and get upset over your problems, those problems will grow stronger as they feed on your intense emotional energy. But imagine what would happen if you took that energy away from your problems, and gave it to your most treasured desires.
Think about what you don’t want, but only long enough to figure out what you do want. Then give the power of your emotions over to the best of your positive possibilities. In your mind, feel what it will feel like when those goals become a reality. Experience the excitement, the satisfaction and the feeling of fulfillment.
Emotions feel powerful, and that’s because they are powerful. On a deep and undeniable level, they influence your physiology, your attitude, your actions and your effectiveness. Get the power of your emotions working in your favor by keeping them aligned with your most positive dreams, goals and desires.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
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