Tag Archives: meditation

Daily Reading from recovery Days September 6th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – feel your body from top to toes


Perception


The Buddha himself was once insulted vigorously
by a visitor but seemed unmoved. When his
followers asked how he kept his serenity he said:
Imagine that someone sent you a letter that you did not
open, you would be unaffected by its contents. Think of
that when you are insulted. The Buddha.
A feeling such as anger is a choice. If I choose to be
angry at somebody’s unkind words, I am giving
them power over me to make me unhappy. If a
small child should smack me, I don’t mind because
I have the greater maturity to understand that the
action comes from ignorance. Taking insults too
personally is making myself a victim. Do I have
maturity to treat insults with detachment?


Our reality is in our thoughts and perceptions. If I
look at the sky, I can think of it as beautiful or
threatening. How I think will affect my feelings and
thus my actions. I can understand how this process
works and I can train myself to be positive because
if I habitually see things as threats, I will make my
days much more uncomfortable. Today I ask God
to keep a sense of awareness.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days September 5th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – breathe slowly


Understanding


Tolerance is not a specific principle of the Twelve Step
fellowships, but it is behind all the Twelve Principles,
which are: Acceptance, Hope, Faith, Courage,
Honesty, Patience, Humility, Willingness, Brotherly
Love, Integrity, Self-Discipline and Service. It is
hard to see how you can embrace any one of those
without tolerance. The essence of the programme is
tolerance and a first timer at a meeting who listens
to the preamble would appreciate that. We know the
dangers of judging others and we have seen how
rules and dogma lead to argument and
enforcement. Am I grateful to be one of a group
that tries to live by spiritual principles?


Who am I to pass judgement on another? Well,
perhaps there are times when I should do so,
otherwise society might become chaotic. On the
other hand, I am not without fault. I may be right
to confront unacceptable behaviour in others, but I
should not label every person as bad who does not
act the way that I want. Understanding other
people is more important than judging them. With
understanding, I will find the good in people not
the bad. Today I ask not to be judgmental

Daily Reading from Recovery Days September 4th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly


Awareness


Self-awareness never happens for some people. For
others, it can happen quite unexpectedly. Take the
movie ‘Groundhog Day’ which could have been
subtitled ‘how I learned to love myself, a day at a
time.’ This is a story of a man trapped in precisely
the same day, that recurs over and over again. The
movie shows how the basically unpleasant man
realises that he cannot change his location or time
and indeed, can only change himself. He eventually
manages to do this, using creativity, compassion and
self-awareness. From at first hating his situation and
locality, he comes eventually to love it and to wish for
nothing more than to live there. And reaching this
state of contentment appears to break the spell and
he lives happily ever after, we assume. Am I
working on self-awareness, a day at a time?


Do I have the honesty to understand that in every
situation that I face, the thing that needs to change
is me? If I allow my life to be dictated by outside
events, I become a victim. I have the power to
choose my response to everything that happens. It
will define the sort of person that I am. I ask God
today for awareness and guidance in my responses.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days September 3rd by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – enjoy the moment


Learning responsibility


When we start Step Nine, we are putting personal
responsibility in action. We actually go about
making amends to people we have hurt, where
appropriate. In other words, we do what we need to
do for our recovery, but we consider the needs of
others as well. We approached things very
differently when we were in active addiction. In those
days, gratification came first and nothing else
mattered. If we do this Step in the right way, we can
say that change is really happening. Can I display
true responsibility when I do Step Nine?


Facing the challenges of the Steps would have been
impossible without the strength and guidance of
my Higher Power, that came to me through the
support and example of my fellows in recovery and
my sponsor. I was too set in my selfish ways and too
immature. It would have been like expecting a small
child to drive a car. But I must remember that I am
still learning and must take things a step at a time.
Today I ask God to guide me while I grow in
maturity and learn to practice personal
responsibility in my daily life.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 27th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – breathe slowly


Self-expression


Addicted people are creative. Anyone who has had
to explain why the joint bank account is in the red,
or why they smell of drink in the early morning, will
agree. In recovery, we can put this creativity to good
use. The emotional baggage that we carry needs to be
dealt with. The brain must process the past
somehow, and writing can help. Recovering people
sometimes start to keep a daily journal, not to be
shared, but to perhaps clarify their thoughts –
experiences, hopes and fears. Writing also helps
self-discovery and can become a lifetime interest.
Will I explore the creative possibilities of writing?


I had no idea that I could express myself like that, I
heard a newly sober person say, and I felt the same. I
can use writing to express feelings too painful for
speech, or to try to understand what exactly it is I
feel. I can also write just to order my thoughts and
perhaps create over time a record of how my
thinking changes. There are many options. Until I
start writing, I may not know how it will help me.
But somehow, I feel that it will. Today I ask for the
willingness to try the new experience of expressing
my thoughts in writing.

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 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 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 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.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days August 12th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – relax your whole body gradually


Love


Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together. For the
pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and
the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
Kahlil Gibran.


Love, says Gibran, is about nurturing one another without being codependent. As we grow spiritually, we also grow in self-reliance. The selflessness of real love is at odds with the obsessive desire that romantic love produces. Love is a strong emotion and the newly sober are encouraged to attend to other aspects of their recovery first. There is of course another form of love – that of one’s fellow human beings who deserve all the love we can give in their struggle in sobriety. Can I extend the hand of love to my fellow humans who are addicted?

When you love you should not say, ‘God is in my heart’
but rather, ‘I am in the heart of God.’
Kahlil Gibran.
If I am in love, I know I am alive. Today I give thanks that I can experience love.