Tag Archives: Recovery

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 20th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly

Balance

Balance in life is everything. The all-or-nothing
attitude that we had while our addiction was on the
rampage does not serve us well in recovery. We do
not have to be perfectly balanced in our new
approach but there is a danger if we focus too much
on just one aspect – say meditation – and ignore the
others. Honesty, openness and willingness to
change can be useful reference points in checking
our recovery progress. It can help to follow
someone who you see handling their recovery in a
purposeful and balanced way as a role model. Am I
growing my recovery in a balanced way?

If I feel overwhelmed in any aspect of my life –
work, home or relationships, then perhaps I have
not been giving attention to self-care. Looking at my
anxiety levels honestly will tell me. The solution may
be simply learning to say ‘no’ or to manage
expectations and reduce the pressure I put on
myself. I must get real. Recovery is about peace of
mind and enjoying life, not about putting myself in
difficult situations or testing myself. I ask for
insight to view myself honestly, to give life balance.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 18th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – breathe slowly


Dreams and reality


It’s the possibility of having a dream come
true that makes life so interesting.
Paolo Coelho.
Not all dreams are worth working for. Are yours
valid? Imagine all your life pursuing a dream only to
find at the moment you have it, that it’s not up to
scratch. Sometimes a finite goal is better than a
dream. When you achieve your dream – perhaps to
be a millionaire – it can be a huge disappointment.
Perhaps it’s true what they say: the pleasure is in the
journey, not the arrival. Be careful what you wish
for. Will I be glad when my dreams come true?


Are my dreams actually just desires, a mirage of
endless pleasure that will turn to dross? A dream
worth pursuing has to be for a valid purpose.
Setting ourselves up to follow a dream like that is
fine but we should not become obsessed:
If you can dream and not make dreams
your master. Rudyard Kipling.
Whatever we achieve, there will still be things to do
after that. I ask to balance my dreams with reality.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 17th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – enjoy the moment

Humility

Step Seven is about working to remove all our
shortcomings. That won’t happen simply because
we want it to. Our Higher Power will help us, but we
need to take action. From now on, every choice that
we make has to be based on our new principles,
attitudes and expectations. We need humility,
honesty and determination to make this happen.
This is new territory and every move we make
should first be considered, as if we were in a
minefield. Step Seven is one of the real work Steps
where we put into action the ideas we have learnt so
far. For example, if people-pleasing is one of our
defects of character, now is the time to choose to say
no when someone tries to manipulate you. Am I
ready to make the right choices?

There will be moments when I will find it hard to
make choices that are good for my long-term
growth. The new attitudes that I have been
practising since I started on the Steps are not
marks of weakness. They give me a realistic
sense of myself to enable me to interact
normally with other human beings. I no longer
need to pose as strong or tell people what they want
to hear. I can choose simply to be myself.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 14th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly

Managing my internal revolution

The storming of the Bastille in Paris on this day in
1789 marked the start of a decade of bloody
revolution which led to the rise of Napoleon
Bonaparte – perhaps France’s most glorious era.. It’s
tempting to use the event as a metaphor for all kinds
of situations where great gain comes out of great
pain. Addicted people make their own drama and
we all need a revolution to depose our internal
‘ancien regime’ of sloth, dishonesty and hypocrisy.
No need to say more. Can I embrace my recovery in
the spirit of sobriety, liberty and fraternity?

I must accept the world as it is. Life is difficult and I
must take care not to make it any worse. People only
behave violently, as they did in the French
Revolution, when they have nothing to lose. But I on
the other hand must behave well, because I have
everything to lose – my new life in sobriety with all
that it has given me: new interests and peace of
mind, new friends and old friends rediscovered, and
most of all, my Higher Power. Today I give thanks
to God for taking me through moments of great
upheaval and pain into a state of peace of mind.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 12th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – feel your body from top to toes

Positive, affirmative action

Three frogs sat on a log in a pond. One decided to
jump into the water. How many frogs were left on the
log? Three, because none actually jumped. There is
no point in deciding to take action unless you act.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Half-truths are a way of avoiding action. Saying you
will ‘try’ is no good. Trying is lying, as they say in
the fellowships. There is no substitute. We should do
what we say we will do. That way, we gain selfesteem
and respect. Will I be a positive person who
always does what I say I will do?

I must strive to be the kind of person that does not
act just to seek the approval of others. If I feel that
what I do is morally right, then it should not matter
if I am approved or ridiculed, because I have peace
of mind. If I ask my Higher Power to guide me in all,
and not worry about the views of the world but
simply do what is right, I will have the courage of
my convictions. I ask that in doing so, I will become
an example to others and thus be giving of myself.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 9th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – sit comfortably


The child within

Childhood can be tough. Traumatic events leave
emotional scars as well as physical ones. The absence
of love causes lasting psychological pain. A damaged
child learns to be wary of attachments because:

  • Love is conditional (manipulation)
  • Love makes you weak and vulnerable
  • Love must be searched for and can be lost
  • Love hurts but emotions need to be hidden.
    Many of us have had bad childhood experiences
    that still affect us. The way they have influenced
    our attitudes to life may be small – or large: Don’t
    do that, you’re not clever enough to try or don’t say
    what you really think – it’ll get you into
    trouble. Addiction is often rooted in attachment
    problems. Do I recognise the suffering of
    my inner child and see there is more work to do?

  • Past suffering remains a measure of who we are, a
    characteristic of our inner child. To comfort this
    child, we must understand suffering, because some
    good may come of it in the end. This can seem
    contradictory but is often a theme of religious
    teaching. Today, I will treat others with kindness.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 7th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – breathe slowly

Positivity

Positivity means looking for the good in people,
expecting good outcomes and being generally
optimistic.. Addiction makes us very negative but
there are ways of becoming positive. Practising
gratitude is recommended because conscious
actions like making a gratitude list, force us out of
our negativity. Another good way of finding
positivity is through mindfulness: and meditations
on such subjects as: He who enjoys doing, is happy.
In Twelve Step recovery, I get the feeling that my life is
improving, with God’s help.

As I grow in the
programme, I am less and less drawn back to my old
addictive behaviour because my new life is so
enjoyable. The thought of spoiling what I now have
seems absurd. Character defects keep trying to
come back into my life – envy, judging others,
complacency. I must remain vigilant, but my
positivity motivates me to want to keep what I have.
Today I am thankful for all the benefits of sobriety
and for the positivity that it brings.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 6th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – feel your body from top to toes

Power of example


Everything we say and write comes in one of four forms:
statement, question, exclamation or command. The
Twelve Steps are written in the form of a statement:
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a
programme of recovery. Before the AA Big Book was
published, in 1939, the authors were advised to make
the tone of the work less directive: a lot of ‘musts’ were
replaced by ‘should’ or ‘we suggest’. Remarkably, the
approach worked. Perhaps alcoholics are people who
don’t like being told what to do. If you compare the
Twelve Steps of AA to the Ten Commandments in the
Christian Bible, you will see a marked difference in
tone.


Reading the AA Big Book widens our knowledge of
Alcoholics Anonymous and of addiction itself.
There is something very moving about reading the
lives and experiences of people just like us who
struggled with addiction nearly a hundred years
ago. Their problem was mine and all of their stories
are truly inspirational. I am proud and grateful to
follow in their footsteps. I will try to be open to the
possibilities of change so that with humility and
love I too can be an example to others.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 5th by Chris B

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Remember Mindfulness – close eyes briefly

Help to change

Honesty, openness and willingness to change are
three essentials of successful recovery. Openness is
important because it allows us to accept new ideas.
These can take many forms but one of the most
surprising for some people is the idea of a Higher
Power. Yet, anyone looking back at our past and the
change that has happened since, might conclude
that they see something pretty miraculous. How do
people who have been written off as hopelessly
addicted manage to turn their lives around? Since
we were unable to help ourselves at that time, some
other powerful force must have appeared.


A miracle is an extraordinary event that is not
explicable by natural or scientific laws. Life itself is
one – nobody has been able to explain scientifically
how it first happened. I am not being asked to believe
in a specific source of power in the universe. I am
simply asked to open my mind to the idea that
there is a power of some kind that is greater than
me and which helps me if asked. I can feel that
power in the experience, strength and support of
other people. May it always be there for us all, so
that what I see darkly, I will see face to face one day.

Daily Reading from Recovery Days July 4th by Chris B

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Enjoy the simple things in life


Happiness and good self-esteem are legitimate
goals in life and recovery gives us a second chance.
In that sense, we are truly fortunate. Life may be
difficult, but recovery should most certainly be
enjoyable, otherwise – what is the point? Our goal
should be to become ‘Better than Well’. If we keep
things simple and just try to do the right thing, we
will reach our goal in the end. Poet William Blake
wrote about the simple things of creation and the
need to know right from wrong:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your Hand
And Eternity in an Hour.
William Blake.


There is a choice in life between the material and
the spiritual – between wealth, pride and status on
the one hand and honesty, love and service on the
other. Which will be the dominant principle in my
life? It is difficult to try to achieve both. Wealth and
status are not necessarily evil, but I need to choose
whatever brings peace of mind and happiness.