Tag Archives: Recovery

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 20th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – sit comfortably

Willingness to change

The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the
better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder
whatever responsibility this entails.
Bill W.
Personal change always has two parts – the
willingness and the action. But in between comes a
third part – commitment. Commitment turns theory
into practice. When we are motivated to do
something, it is not always because we have a sense
of commitment. Motivation can have a short life, but
commitment lasts until the job is done. A bad
hangover can motivate you to give up booze – until
cravings appear. Am I fully committed to change?

Just as surrender has to be total and not just a
ceasefire, so commitment has to be total and not just
a dalliance. In recovery, surrender can be seen as
letting others help us and commitment can be seen
as letting us help ourselves. Neither will work unless
done wholeheartedly. I ask God today for the honesty
to commit myself fully to the process of change
because half measures will not help me.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 19th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – review expectations

Responsibility for change

Newcomers to Twelve Step fellowships are often
advised to stop focusing on why they are addicted
and instead think on what they can do about it.
Discovering a reason for your addiction might seem
like a way of resolving a problem easily, but in truth
there may be no reason, except that you’re an
addicted person. Seeking a reason may well be a
device to avoid the pain of having to make some
life-changing decisions. Far better to focus on
positive action and take responsibility for change.
Am I prepared to face the reality of my addiction
and take responsibility for change?

When we embark upon a searching and fearless
personal inventory at Step Four, it may help us to
reflect that a life of total dedication to the truth is a
reasonable aspiration for anyone. It is likely to
result in true peace of mind, but it will not be easy.
It does require continuous self-appraisal as
recommended in Step Ten. Yet the feeling of relief
when we have completed Steps Four and Five will
be enormous. Today I ask for the strength to be fearless and thorough in taking personal inventory.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 18th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – send positive thoughts

Response to challenge


Life is not easy. For a lot of people, it is just one
challenge after another. Yet many seem to expect it
to be smooth going and complain when it is not.
Others try to avoid the challenges and seek the
softer easier way, but life usually finds them out in
the end. Some become addicted. We have all seen
people who seem to stroll through life without
difficulty as if possessed with magic powers. In fact,
they are people who have a clear vision of the world
and what they need to do about living in it with
peace of mind. They have taken the necessary
action. The concept is simple, but hard to achieve
without rigorous honesty, determination and high
principles. Can I reject the softer, easier way?

People who truly live life well are always respected.
They trigger in us a desire to be like them because
we have a longing to live a good life and to do what
is right. We may forget words, but we remember
how people make us feel. That is why the power of
example matters. Today I ask God that I may live
my life in the very best way that I can.

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 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 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.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 3rd by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – send positive thoughts


Step Three

In Step Two we have found hope and comfort in the
idea that help is available and in Step Three we
commit ourselves to asking for this. Finally, it is
time to act. Our response to situations is what
matters. When our lives are spiralling out of control,
the one power left to us is the ability to choose our
response. Do I fully understand that my response to
any situation is what matters?

‘Let go and let God’ is a well-known fellowship
slogan. It does not mean that we can sit back and
receive a miracle. By turning our will and our lives
over to the care of God, we first hope for a sense of
direction in our lives. God will supply the strength,
but it is then up to us to make the effort. Most of us
ask for things and expect quick fixes but recovery is
about changing attitudes and taking positive action.
US statesman Frederick Douglass said:
I prayed for twenty years and received no answer
until I prayed with my legs.
Today I ask God for the courage to commit myself
to surrender my ego and ask for help

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 2nd by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – listen to your breathing

Failure is opportunity

Smooth seas don’t make good sailors. The
fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous was born out of
failure. But failure is a fact of life. It is almost
impossible to live without failing at something, yet
the more you fail the more you learn. Failure opens
our minds to new ideas. Some of the most creative
people got their best ideas when failure was
staring them in the face.


If necessity is the mother of invention, then failure
must be the father of creativity. When we are at
our most desperate is when we are at our most
creative. It’s often struggling artists who paint
the most dramatic pictures. Alcoholics
Anonymous can be seen as a fellowship of once despairing
people who made a virtue of their
misfortune:
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred Lord Tennyson.
May I never allow myself to be defeated by
adversity. May I continue to be inspired by the
example of others, especially those who
successfully recover from addiction.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days March 1st by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – feel your body from feet to your scalp

Paradox of recovery

I know one thing, said Socrates, father of ancient
philosophy, that I know nothing. If only others had
been so honest. Paradoxes raise questions that
encourage us to think. Here are some recovery
paradoxes: ‘No Gain Without Pain’, ‘Give it Away to
Keep it’, ‘Perfectionists Underperform’, ‘Learn from
Your Enemies’. And it seemed quite a paradox when
two hopeless drunks met in a hotel room in Akron,
Ohio and discovered that talking together kept them
sober. From that meeting, millions of people have
been helped thanks to the fellowships of the Twelve
Steps. Am I grateful for the Twelve Step fellowships?

One of the most damaging aspects of addiction is
that it interferes with our normal development into
adults – mental, social, moral and spiritual. Perhaps
when we sober up, we need to go back to college for
a while. The fellowships provide us with a way of
growing up and educating ourselves besides the
more obvious benefits on offer. May I never take the
Twelve Step fellowships for granted. May I be
humbly grateful for all the support that they offer.