Author Archives: ccburn

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 22nd by Chris B

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Love

Romantic love is a fine thing, especially at the
movies, but love is not about dependence: ‘I can’t
live without you’ amounts to codependency. Love is
essentially what you do for another person. It is an
activity, not a feeling. That is what makes it so
powerful – if we all have love in our hearts, we are
actively working to help each other. Morgan Scott
Peck, author of The Road Less Travelled, said
exactly this. It came as a shock to some people. Do I
understand that real love is unselfish?


Step Eight is about brotherly love. It is the time
when we stop focusing on ourselves and look at the
damage we have done to others and what we can do
about it. Making amends is about honesty, courage,
forgiveness – and love. It is asking myself: What can
I do for this other person that I have hurt? It does
not matter how painful it is to make amends, we
have to be rigorously honest in all our affairs. The
truth will set us free, though it may hurt a bit too. If
we are going to truly love ourselves and our fellow
human beings, we must take this Step in courage
and humility. Today I ask to show true love.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 21st by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – enjoy the moment


Higher Power

When considering Higher Power, some people get
very tied up with what this means. Are they dealing
with a religious God and if so, which religion? What
does this Higher Power look like? They ask. The
point lies in the word ‘Power’. There is a power that
helps us, a power in the meeting rooms that you can
sometimes feel. Trying to put a label on this power
is missing the point. It is enough for us that the
power is there, and it works through other people.
Empirical knowledge of a Higher Power is not
possible, so let us just accept that it exists, if only
because something must make the planets go round
the sun. Why do we need a label? How important is
it? Am I content to accept my Higher Power as an
unknown but powerful source of help?

People of every outlook, background and belief find
support and success in the Twelve Step fellowships.
Atheists do as well as religious believers. I must
look at the similarities and keep it simple. The urge
to complicate things has been my downfall in the
past. A Power greater than myself is all I require.
Today I ask God for wisdom to keep things simple.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 20th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – send positive thoughts

Denial

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to
change the world. Today I am wise, so I
am changing myself. Rumi.
Feeling that we were clever and able to get away
with bad behaviour simply led us further down the
slippery slope of addiction. It may seem clever to
us during the bad times to change our job, our
location, our doctor or even our spouse – anything
in fact, except to change ourselves – the one thing we
really needed to change. That is not the behaviour
of a clever person but of somebody blinded by
selfishness and denial. How clever am I ?

Denial is the refuge where we hide from reality, and
it takes courage and humility to come out and admit
we were wrong. Years of denial turn us into people
‘constitutionally incapable of being honest with
themselves’ that are mentioned in Chapter Five of the
AA Big Book. We should not expect to turn that
around easily, it may take time. If we can identify
the problem and commit to doing something about
it honestly, then we have made a start. Today I ask
for honesty to face reality.

Daily reading from Recovery Days May 19th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly


Honesty


If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
Mark Twain.
We are victims of our own dishonesty. The tangled
web we weave when we tell lies, leaves us
floundering and trapped. The stress of dishonesty is
enormous, that’s why lie detectors work so well. It’s
also why honesty, openness and willingness to
change are the three components of successful
therapy. Unless you are honest, you cannot be
yourself and then therapy becomes pointless.
Some people get into the habit of telling lies
because they learn at an early age that it keeps
them out of trouble. Do I understand the harm
that I do to myself through my dishonesty?


Lack of self-honesty is at the root of all our
emotional upheavals and troubles. If I can’t give
myself the honest respect that I deserve, then I
probably don’t trust myself enough to make the
right judgments and choices. The danger of this is
that I may adopt the standards and ideas of
others instead – which may not be good. Much
better to be sure of my own integrity and to choose
according to my own ideals. I ask God today for the
self-respect to value my principles

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 18th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – relax your whole body gradually

Integrity

In normal life we hardly realise how much more
we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without
such gratitude. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who
wrote these words while in prison awaiting
execution by the Nazis, was unusual in returning
from America to Germany in 1939, at a time when
others were fleeing. He saw his duty to oppose
Hitler and later died as a result. A brave man who
listened to his conscience and stood up for his
beliefs. True integrity is surely to do just that. Am I
ready to follow my conscience and stand up for my
beliefs?


I can live a perfectly normal life once I accept that
my life is never going to be perfectly normal.
Ceasing my previous insane behaviour is a start.
When I was regularly repeating the self-destructive
cycle of addiction, there was no normality at all. I
now attempt to make the right choices on the basis
of sensible criteria, even if I don’t always get things
right. I will not dwell on the past. Today I ask that I
may give as much as I am able, because it is in
giving that we receive.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 17th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – review expectations


Doing right


We never know the full effect of our actions and we
each can contribute in ways that we never
imagined. There is a story that the official
acclamation for the building of the cathedral of
Santa Sophia in Constantinople was given not to the
Emperor Constantine, who commissioned it, but to
a poor widow named Euphrasia, who took a wisp of
straw from her mattress to give to the oxen who
pulled the blocks of marble to the site. The butterfly
effect can change history, and we are each a part of
the world’s living history. Am I ready to play my part
in doing what I think right, no matter how
insignificant it may seem at the time?

In all things, God works for the good of those
who love him. St Paul, Romans.
The smallest thing that I do, the smallest act of
kindness can have unimagined effects. I must never
think that I am insignificant or allow myself to not
act, because I think it unimportant. Today I will
strive to do my best in everything because, with
God’s help, my actions may serve to help others in
ways of which I am not aware.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 16th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – enjoy the moment


Positive, affirmative action

Christ has no body now but yours. No
hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are
the eyes through which he looks with compassion
on this world. Yours are the feet with which he
walks to do good.
St Teresa of Avila.
The great Christian mystic is telling us
that appreciation of someone’s good works (in
this case Christ’s , is not enough. Actions, not
words are required if our life is to have meaning.
The same is true in addiction recovery. We must
take positive affirmative action and become a part
of an ongoing movement rather than just being a
spectator. Am I ready to ‘walk the walk’?

The grace of God is the power that enables a
human being to change from a disconnected,
hopeless individual to a connected, hopeful,
and grateful person. God also manifests as love
for other people and serenity of character. We can
have plenty of power, love, and serenity in our lives
if we ask God for these things. Today, I do ask

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 15th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – send positive thoughts


Serenity Prayer

Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero was a drunk,
known to his mocking soldiers as Biberius Caldius
Mero (bibulous drinker of unwatered wine). He never
changed. His near contemporary, the Stoic
philosopher Epictetus was meanwhile teaching
his students a lesson in acceptance: Make the best of
what is in our power and take the rest as it naturally
happens. Its message is similar to the serenity prayer,
written two thousand years later, by Reinhold
Niebuhr: God, grant me the serenity, to accept the
things I cannot change, courage to change the things
I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Emperors come and go, but addiction is always
with us. Am I ready to change the things I can?


The serenity prayer has great power to calm the
troubled mind. The simple words lead us to trust
that our Higher Power has things under control,
even if we do not. Learning to say the prayer
whenever we have to make a choice that worries us,
is a great habit to acquire. Today I ask that I may
make a habit of reciting the serenity prayer daily.

Daily reading from Recovery Days May 14th by Chris B

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Three Legacies

The three parts of the AA programme – Recovery,
Unity and Service are represented by the symbol of
the triangle within the circle (the circle represents
the world). These are known as the Three Legacies
which counteract the three parts of the disease of
addiction – Physical, Mental and Spiritual. Of
course, AA is not based on mathematical formulas
but there is a pleasing symmetry about this trinity
and also the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and
Twelve Concepts. Am I grateful to the insight of the
founders?

The priests and seers of antiquity regarded the circle
enclosing the triangle as a means of warding off
spirits of evil, and AA’s circle
and triangle of Recovery, Unity, and Service
has certainly meant all of that to us and
much more. Bill W.
A triangle is only strong if all three sides are in
place. Thus, I must be responsible for doing my
part in each of the three. Today I thank God that I
can work recovery, unity and service.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days May 13th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – review expectations
Sharing problems
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil
the law of Christ. St Paul, Galatians.
Getting into recovery does not mean that we won’t
have challenges ahead. The message is that a
problem shared is a problem halved. Connection
and sharing are the answer to so many of life’s
problems. Letting go of the burdens of the past will
help us too. Am I ready to let go of the past and
share today’s problems, because that is the sensible
and human thing to do?
I used to think that I should be able to handle my
problems myself and that asking for help was a
sign of weakness. But self-reliance isolates us, and
society does not work well like that. Helping
others should be a pleasure and if we avoid help,
we may be denying others the chance of self-improvement
and the self-respect that comes from
giving. Today I will ask for help when I need it,
because realism is honesty and asking for help is
connecting.