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Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 23rd by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly


The adventure of recovery


In classic adventure stories the hero goes on a journey
where they meet great dangers, risk death at least
once and finally return home richer and wiser than
they were before. Treasure Island or Robinson
Crusoe are good and gripping examples. We are the
heroes of our own life’s adventure story. For those in
recovery, each story has the elements of adventure –
we undergo trials but get home wiser and richer, in
spirit, if not at the bank. It has been a voyage of
discovery. But there is a sequel because our new life
in sobriety is another great adventure. Am I making
the most of my second great adventure story, my
voyage of recovery?


Adventure is not a word that features in the indexes
of many books of daily reflection. That’s a pity. The
old meaning of the word is said to be a ‘wonder’
then later ‘a remarkable occurrence’. Recovery is
that too. I grasp my recovery with both hands
because it is a precious thing. Put on your recovery
boots and you’ll feel like Winnie the Pooh:
As soon as he saw the big boots, he knew that an
adventure was going to happen.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 22nd by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – sit comfortably


Choices


We make choices every day, some small, some big.
Life can be seen as just a series of choices. It is thus
important that we learn how to choose correctly.
Addicted people often choose only to meet their
immediate wants – perhaps a pill or a drink. In that
way, they are seeking instant relief, as children
want their immediate needs to be met. But children
learn gradually to make responsible choices –
through the example of others, and by trial and
error. Unfortunately, addiction means we don’t
learn this way and the results are obvious. Recovery
is about making grown-up choices. Am I learning
to make the right choices?


People only make changes when they understand
the need. If for example, I want to change my
outbursts of anger, I must first understand why
they happen, what makes me behave like that.
Practising self-awareness and honesty leads me to
discover the things in me that I need to change.
Today I will reflect on the process of making choices
and ask God for wisdom to make the right ones

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 21st by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – enjoy the moment


True love


Awareness begins with viewing your thoughts and
emotions in as detached a way as possible and
learning from them. It is a technique that may seem
awkward at first but then becomes a habit.
Perseverance produces insights that lead to change.
The change that helps people most is ceasing to see
oneself and one’s needs as the main focus of
attention. See oneself as part of creation, so that
everything is no longer about ‘me’, can be called
‘disidentification.’ Am I ready to learn awareness?


Modern love stories are often about manipulation,
intrigue and possessiveness. People pursue other
people in states of anxiety, desperation and burning
desire. It makes for great reading and great cinema,
but real love is something else. Loving people
because you need them in order to be happy is not
what love should be – it becomes about control
instead. I must recognise only real love.
Love does not dishonour others, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it
keeps no record of wrongs. St Paul.
I ask God today that I will seek only true love.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 20th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly


Ego


It’s said that the three hardest things for most people
to do are: giving love in return for hate, including
the excluded, and admitting to being wrong. What
makes it so difficult for us? It’s our old problem –
our ego. We are so used to wanting success, fearing
the disdain of others and of not meeting their
expectations, that we find it acutely painful when
our pride is threatened. When we find inner peace, it
becomes unimportant what others think or say. Am I
too concerned about what people think of me?


The good in the world comes from love, the bad is
basically fear. The more that I fill my heart with
love, the less room there will be for fear. My fears
come from my lack of insight and lack of trust.
Situations that frighten me are manageable when I
understand them properly. There may be situations
that I cannot understand, but if I really believe in a
Power greater than myself, then I should trust and
not be afraid. Today I reflect on this

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 19th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – breathe slowly


Self-respect


Self-respect is important because it changes not just
the way you see yourself but also the way others see
you. A young American in Detroit made a meagre
living making clay pots and selling them in the
local market. He decided one day that change was
needed, so he wrote a large placard explaining that the
pots were made with very special clay under
supervision of a master craftsman, in a limited
edition of just two hundred. He also upped the
price tenfold. Within a day he had sold them all. He
is now a leading artist and advocate for social
change in the area. His story illustrates a truth –
that if you increase your valuation of something,
even of yourself, then others will respond positively
and agree with your valuation. Do I place a high
enough value on myself?


I must not over-value myself, that would be too
prideful but neither should I undervalue myself,
because that is effectively undervaluing my Higher
Power who is my guide and strength. I just need to
have a realistic view of myself and my strengths and
weaknesses. Today I ask God for the wisdom to see
myself as I really am.
……………………………………………………….

August 18th

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Remember Mindfulness – feel your body from top to toes

Trust in a Higher Power

In the book The Outsider, the hero Meursault is shown as a cold-bloodied murderer awaiting execution who says that he has only a little time left and he doesn’t want to waste it on God. That is an astonishingly arrogant statement. The author, Albert Camus is trying to shock the reader, but he is also saying somewhat bleakly, that total honesty, and uncompromising self-sufficiency is the only answer, if you believe God does not exist. Camus does not want this to be the case, indeed he spent his life attempting to transcend nihilism. Believing in a Higher Power allows us to feel we are connected. Do I feel I am not alone?

Blaise Pascal’s thoughts on the existence of God are known as Pascal’s Wager: If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that he exists. This is a sensible approach, but much better to believe completely in a Higher Power. Today, I reflect on the further words of Pascal: there is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 17th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – relax your whole body gradually

Life as a prayer

You pray in your distress and in your need, would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. Kahlil Gibran.
We have so much to be grateful for, it should be a pleasure to express our thank but prayer is a twoway system. If you can say hello to your next-door neighbour, surely you can say ‘good morning and ‘good night’ to your Higher Power. Do I have a a regular connection with my Higher Power?

Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. St Teresa of Avila. If we make prayer a mental task or even a vocal performance, then we are missing the whole point. God is here on earth, involved in everything we do. As St Teresa also said:

Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on the world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses the world.

She makes it sound as if everything we do each day is a kind of offering in prayer. It is.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 16th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly


Connection


Prayer is a multipurpose tool. Spiritual teacher
Anthony de Mello told the story of the poor farmer
who found himself stuck in the remote countryside
without his prayer book. The simple man could not
remember any prayers from the book, so he made this
simple offering: Lord, I am without my prayer book
and my memory is so bad that I cannot remember
any. So, I will recite the alphabet five times very
slowly and you, to whom all prayers are known, can
put the letters together to form the prayers I want
to say, but can’t. In other words, sincerity and
connection are more important than mere words.
Whatever my concept of a Higher Power, I need to
establish lines of communication. Do I
understand that in spiritual matters, words are less
vital than communication?


A rich businessman living in London some years ago
would keep a permanently open telephone line to his
mother in Italy so they could chat whenever they
felt like it. Prayer does not have to be a ritual, it
can happen at any time, but the more
permanent the connection, the better. Today I
will establish an open connection with my
Higher Power.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 15th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – enjoy the moment


Recovery requires maintenance


We’re not in Kansas anymore.
The Wizard of Oz.
Indeed, we are not. We are in recovery and Oz is our
Rehab. The cyclone that threw little Dorothy into a
whole new world has been likened to the storm
created by addiction. The Scarecrow that she meets
(who needs a brain), the Tin Man (who needs a
heart) and the Lion (who needs courage) remind us
of the essentials required for change to happen.
The Wicked Witch is of course, our addiction. On
this day in 1939, The Wizard of Oz premiered in
Hollywood. I don’t know why so many children’s
stories seem to be metaphors for addiction, perhaps
it is in the eye of the beholder. Am I grateful today
that I can reflect on stories of all kinds without any
negative feelings?


Many things require maintenance including
physical health, relationships and beliefs. I must
maintain my recovery seriously. The Wicked Witch
may not get me if I don’t, but addiction certainly
will. Today I ask God for the wisdom not to minimise the need to maintain my recovery.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 14th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – sit comfortably


Power of example


Richmond Walker wrote the Twenty-four Hours a
Day AA meditation book, published in 1954. It has
sold over ten million copies. Richmond was a
member of the first AA group in Boston, USA and died
in 1965 after twenty-two years of sobriety. An artist and
a poet as well as a dedicated family man, he is a great
example of service freely given. The Little Black
Book, as it is known, was officially published by the
Hazelden Foundation in an amicable arrangement
with Alcoholics Anonymous. Richmond did not profit
financially, and his name did not appear as author.
Am I ready to do service unselfishly?


The writer of the Little Black Book continues the tone
set in the AA Big Book, first published some fifteen
years earlier: This is what I found, this is what I did,
do you wish to do the same, with God’s help? The
book does not advocate any specific religion. If I
wish to grow spiritually, then there could hardly
be a better method.. Today I give thanks for the
power of example in my recovery.