Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 14th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – send positive thoughts

Potential for good


The skills you need to dig a hole for yourself are
quite different from the skills you need to get out of
it. NA and AA offer us an exciting chance to
explore new talents and new interests with which we
can eventually discover ourselves as unique and
effective individuals, able to cope and love and live
life to the full. These things do not come overnight.
They come gradually as the mists clear, and we
listen and talk and meditate and seek. Am I ready to
explore my potential through embracing the
fellowships of NA and AA?

If I think of myself as part of creation which has
been conceived by a Higher Power, then viewing
myself negatively seems like a criticism of creation
itself. What right have I to do that? I should accept
myself with my shortcomings, as part of a great
universal plan. The same goes for criticising other
people. It is far better to accept and to try to
understand. I give thanks today for all of creation
and commit myself to playing my rightful part
therein.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 13th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – sit comfortably


Gratitude and humility

Gratitude is partly the sense that we have benefited
from the actions of another person. Humility is
partly an increased respect for others. You can say
that gratitude and humility therefore reinforce each
other, and this combination is a powerful motivator
for change. Suddenly we see that the help of others
is what we need, and we open ourselves to receive it.
Such a powerful combination is exactly the tool
which we require in order to address the longrunning
problem of our ego. The usefulness of
humility is not about being humble and selfabasing,
but about regulating our ego, so that we
become open to new learning opportunities. Can I
use my gratitude and humility to control my ego?

Gratitude and humility tend to be undervalued in
the twenty- first century. People tend to associate
them with weakness and passivity – a dangerous
state in an increasingly cruel world. Yet many of the
greatest leaders in history have shown these very
qualities – Lincoln, Gandhi and of course, Jesus
Christ. Today I ask that pride will not

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 12th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – feel your body from top to toes

Faith

Faith is to believe what you do not see.
The reward of faith is to see what you believe.
St Thomas Aquinas.
Everybody doubts their faith at some time or other.
But the strong will carry on and find ways to
overcome anything. For the rest of us, we will get
through today if we simply do our best and let God
take care of the rest. It’s when we try to do things by
ourselves that we become overwhelmed. Am I
prepared to ‘Let go and let God?’

I must always try to be part of the solution, not part
of the problem. It is so easy to see the negative side
of things. To be part of the solution is to act
responsibly. I must have an open mind, not
complain, praise rather than criticise, listen to
others, participate actively, help others and avoid
jealousy and resentments. These are all things that
are covered when I work the Twelve Steps to the
best of my ability. There is always something
meaningful that I can accomplish every day if I give
my mind to it. Today I ask to do my best in
everything that I attempt because that is part of my
mission in life.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 11th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – send positive thoughts

Gratitude

Old-timers in AA talk about the ‘Attitude of
Gratitude’, saying that if you fill your mind and soul
with gratitude, there will be no room left for
resentments or any of those other nasty feelings that
are so dangerous for people in recovery. They have a
point. One of the best ways of clearing resentful
thoughts from your head is to make a list of all the
things that you are grateful for. Why allow ourselves
to entertain such negativity when we can fill our
head with pleasant things? Am I grateful to my
Higher Power for doing for me what I could not do
for myself?


Gratitude is sometimes said to be both a feeling and
a behaviour. This means that as well as being an
emotional response to the good things that are
happening to us, it is also an act of responsibility to
live a life of gratitude that involves the power of
example. We should feel grateful, but we should also
demonstrate our gratitude through our behaviour.
Today I give thanks to God for all the blessings that
I have received in recovery.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 10th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – listen to your breathing


Fellowship

We live for human connection. It motivates us to
learn social skills so that we can build friendships.
Relationships increase our confidence and self-esteem.
We feel important, worthy and validated. We
also feel that we belong – another human need that
goes back to the earliest man. The absence of
connection and belonging makes most people
profoundly unhappy. When you have felt excluded
by your addiction from many things, it can come as
a pleasant shock to be made welcome at your first
Twelve Step meeting. Don’t react negatively, be
grateful for the attention. Everyone there has had a
‘first time’ experience too. Can I accept the simple
act of reaching out to another human being?

Our Higher Power works through other people. So,
when another person welcomes you with the hand of
friendship, recognise this as the work of your Higher
Power and accept graciously. It is all a part of
handing over. May I be grateful today for the help of
God, working through other people to bring
connection and belonging back into my life.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 9th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – review expectations

Opportunity of recovery

When we first experience the Twelve Step way of
recovery, a lot of the ideas seem quite alien: admit
that you’re powerless, hand it over, explore
character defects, a day at a time – it’s as if we’re
being asked to reveal our inadequacies for no good
reason. As always, our response is crucial – do we
choose to see the positive or the negative in all this?
What could be seen as a major stumble along life’s
pathway can also be seen as the perfect opportunity
to reinvent ourselves. Am I willing to see the great
opportunity offered by recovery?

Confronting a problem and exercising choice in
what to do about it, will not solve the problem. We
still have to do something about it. Accept
powerlessness and unmanageability, change our
attitudes and behaviour, seek help, follow the Steps
until healthy habits are established. It may seem a
lot, but thousands have lived happy lives by doing
just that. I ask today for the courage to take positive
action and for the understanding of my values,
principles and needs that will lead me to the right
course.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 8th by Chris B

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Opportunity of recovery

When we first experience the Twelve Step way of
recovery, a lot of the ideas seem quite alien: admit
that you’re powerless, hand it over, explore
character defects, a day at a time – it’s as if we’re
being asked to reveal our inadequacies for no good
reason. As always, our response is crucial – do we
choose to see the positive or the negative in all this?
What could be seen as a major stumble along life’s
pathway can also be seen as the perfect opportunity
to reinvent ourselves. Am I willing to see the great
opportunity offered by recovery?

Confronting a problem and exercising choice in
what to do about it, will not solve the problem. We
still have to do something about it. Accept
powerlessness and unmanageability, change our
attitudes and behaviour, seek help, follow the Steps
until healthy habits are established. It may seem a
lot, but thousands have lived happy lives by doing
just that. I ask today for the courage to take positive
action and for the understanding of my values,
principles and needs that will lead me to the right
course.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 7th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – send positive thoughts

Giving oneself


We all need connection. It is not possible to be
happy when you are completely alone. Kindness,
honesty, forgiveness and gratitude provide
meaning to life. But they are all just pointless words
unless we show them to another person. We cannot
validate ourselves if we live in a vacuum. We all
naturally look for happiness and avoid suffering and
this may lead us to view other people as a threat, but
we can only create happy lives by giving to others.
Am I ready to give myself to others?

Human beings have the power of choice.
Sometimes we like to think that we have no choice,
but this is often just a quick way of saying that we
have given in to our baser instincts – greed, fear and
the like. We always have a choice of how we can
react to any situation, but we struggle sometimes to
see what is essential and what is secondary. That is
why it is important to have a good value system and
high principles. We won’t always get it right, but we
learn from mistakes. Today I pray that I may make
the right choices, with God’s help.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 6th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – listen to the silence


Change through example of others


Change happens not through words but through
example. Opinions and advice do not sway many
people, but actions are powerful. If we isolate
ourselves, we risk never exposing ourselves to this
kind of power directly. Just as when you learn to ride
a bicycle, reading about it in a book or having
someone tell you how is not as effective as seeing it
done. If we see a person, especially someone we
know, actually doing something, we tell ourselves: I
could do that too. Recovery is like that, provided I
interact with others in recovery. Am I involved with
other recovering people in the fellowships?

There is strength in numbers and inspiration in the
example of others. We in recovery are blessed that
we have access to the vast resource of positive help
that the Twelve Step fellowships offer. Our spiritual,
mental and physical needs are all catered for by this
worldwide fellowship of like-minded people. There
are few organisations that compare, and we should
indeed be grateful. I give thanks today for the great
blessing of the Twelve Step fellowships which are a
force for good in the world.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 5th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – breathe deeply

Day at a time

It is a fine aspiration to be able to take each day as it
comes, to face down misfortune or disapproval or
disease and simply live in the day. But it requires
courage and the help of our Higher Power. It also
requires a clear conscience because we cannot fully
devote ourselves to the business of living in the right
way, if we know that deep down, there is something
within us that is wrong. We do not have to be
perfect; we simply need to be doing our best to
make progress and grow spiritually on a daily basis.
Am I ready to take each day as it comes?

Sometimes when we approach the time of
meditation and reflection, our head is so full of
worries and concerns that we feel it impossible to
find peace and calm. Don’t despair. Take a few
deep breaths and close your eyes. Imagine yourself
floating in a peaceful lake surrounded by hills and
trees. Everything is quiet, except for a few birds
twittering in the background. Let nature hold you a
while. Feel that you belong. Be grateful for
belonging and put aside for now all thoughts of
wanting. Feel the moment and be thankful for that.
Today I ask God for peace, for me and for all.