You Are Worthy

[MajestyJo]

You are worthy!

"A person's worth is contingent upon who he is, not upon what he does, or how much he has. The worth of a person, or a thing, or an idea, is in being, not in doing, not in having."

-- Alice Mary Hilton

As a human being, as spirit manifested in form, you are innately worthy. Your worthiness does not have to be strengthened or improved. However, you may not PERCEIVE yourself to be worthy.

If you doubt your self-worth, consciously or unconsciously, you will limit the good things you will allow into your life.

Do you consider yourself worthy? It may help to answer these questions:

- Do you find it easier to give than to receive?
- Do you have as much money as you would like?
- Do you feel driven to improve yourself?
- Do you value other people's time more highly than your own?
- How would you feel if someone offered to pay you a salary of $1 million/year?

If you find you lack self-worth, don't despair. Just being aware of your self-worth issues will help you let them go.

"Every achiever that I have ever met says, ‘My life turned around when I began to believe in me.’"

-- Dr. Robert H. Schuller

"We cannot achieve more in life than what we believe in our heart of hearts we deserve to have."

-- James R. Ball

Higher Awareness used with Permission

[MajestyJo]

You Are Worthy



Do not undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.

It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Do not set your goals by what other people deem important.

Only you know what is best for you.

Do not take for granted the things closest to your heart.

Cling to them as you would your life. For without them, life is meaningless.

Do not let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past nor for the future.

By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Do not give up when you still have something to give.

Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

It is a fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Do not be afraid to encounter risks.

It is by taking chances that we learn to be brave.

Do not shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible to find.

The quickest way to receive love is to give love;

The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly.

In addition, the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Do not dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope,

To be without hope is to be without purpose.

Do not run through life so fast that you forget not only where you have been

But also where you are going.

Life is not a race but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

So smile and let the sun shine through.

For there's someone, somewhere, watching over you.


From DailyReflections-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

So many times I have heard people share about going back out because they didn't feel like they were deserving of recovery.

The old tapes in their heads told them that they were failures at life and the were unable to grasp the concept that we need to go through what we had to go through to get to where we are today. We all have a story to share, and I believe that we are each chosen. So many seemed more worthy of recovery than me, but I was one of the ones that made it. For that alone, I will always be grateful.

Grateful also for the person who said, "Remember God doesn't make no junk!" I have a message to carry, as they say, gratitude is an action word. I don't want to ever be the bearer of the news that "To use is to die!"

It was a real spiritual awakening to find that God hadn't abandoned me, I had abandoned God and He had cared for me and helped me survive to make it here.

[MajestyJo]

If God has brought you to it, He will see you through it.

When we substitute other substances for drugs and alcohol it still leads to the same soul sickness. SIN for me means soul in need. All my life I was looking out there for something to make me feel better or help me to deal with life.

It is such a big reward of recovery to know that I have a Higher Power who is there for me at all times and that I don't have to pick up something else to get me through.

In Canada we have a slogan that says, "Utilize not Criticize." All my life I used people, places and things. My attitude was the world owed me a favor and a living.

Today my Higher Power shows me a new way of living. He talks to me through other people, He doesn't criticize me for my choices, He loves me for who I am and not who people would have me be. I lived my life through other people all of my life. It was never okay to be me.

Do you rember some of those one liners...

Who asked you, if I wanted your opinion I would asked for it, did you hear me speaking.

If you weren't so stupid...

If I had, .....

I am only going to have this one, then....

If you had a brain in your head it would get lonesome.

If you had a brain in your head you would eat it.

What makes you think you are right...

Who are you to know...

When I slip into old patterns, the longer I am in recovery I learn to recognize them faster. This is a program of reflection and so I learn who I am by being around other people, isolation is part of my disease.

I become God of my life, because I tell myself I am just fine, and who is going to argue with me.

I remember once when I made stew, and I was reaching for the third helping, and I paused and thought, "why are you doing this?" "You don't need this, you are not hungry, so why are you eating it?" I remember coming home from therapy and stopping by Tim Hortons to have the biggest, gooiest donut I could find because I wanted to stuff the emotions. I recognized what I was doing and ate it anyway. I am given freedom of choice.

When I quit smoking someone said, "JoAnne, if you quit smoking and gain 30 lbs, we will still love you." I said, "But I wouldn't love myself, I would leave all my self-esteem and self-worth." When I made the decision to quit smoking I went to meetings, I picked up key tags, used my support system, didn't substitute with other things, and used my spiritual program and LOST 3 LBS.

I am what I feed my body, mind and spirit!

I am the company I keep!

I am a product of my environment!

I am a child of God and He loves me!

Who am I not to love myself, who am I, God?

Written in 2004

So many times we wear mask. Sometimes we wear masks and don't recognize ourselves. We lie and believe it is the truth.

[MajestyJo]

Haven't felt very lovable lately, I go through a phase every time my body swells. Since I have been on the new medication, I have lost 17 lbs. and I think most of it is fluid. My clothes are baggy and my jeans fit so bad on Saturday, I wouldn't wear them.

Then I realized, here I go again, looking at the outside. I am sure Bert didn't care if the seat of my jeans were baggy!

I was feeling so good on Saturday that I even pulled out a pair of earrings to put on. Before, I wouldn't leave home without them, and in the last few years, I got to a stage where I just didn't care.
Written in 2011

What a difference a year makes, I went out and bought skinny jeans. If the feet are swollen, the skinny jeans are baggy. LOL!

I have the distinct honour of being the only woman that Bert has taken to his anniversary. I remember last year wondering whether I should dress up or wear jean, and he had on this bright tropical orange shirt that I didn't want to be seen with. I told myself it served me right for being so full of vanity and pride. Acceptance is the key.

This was written a year ago. I have more acceptance of myself, certainly more than when I came into recovery, it is night and day. It was often one step forward and two backward. Looking at the outside with expectations and feeling like I didn't measure up.

I know I am worthy of recovery. Then I got thinking, even 'this' is too big for my God. Miracles are miracles and then there is me, such a defeatist attitude wasn't going to get me anywhere, certainly growth in recovery. What a great day when the outside matched the inside (most days), and though I generally looked in the mirror for affirmation, I knew that I had to go within for the validation.

[MajestyJo]

What message did you most need to hear?

"One word frees us from the weight and pain of life; that word is love." --Sophocles

In exploring the enneagram, Riso and Hudson have identified ‘lost messages’ that we needed to hear as children but didn’t. The absence of these words may be at the heart of our most basic fear. And unconsciously we may still be seeking to hear these words from others.

Review the following messages and note if any one touches you more strongly than the others:

1. "You are good."
2. "You are wanted."
3. "You are loved for yourself."
4. "You are seen for who you are."
5. "Your needs are not a problem."
6. "You are safe."
7. "You will be taken care of."
8. "You will not be betrayed."
9. "Your presence matters."

"Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are -- chaff and grain together -- certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."

-- Dinah Mulock


This is from my site Star Choices. I also think it originated with Higher Awareness.

[MajestyJo]

She would greet us pleasantly, and immediately she seemed to surround the chaotic atmosphere of morning strife with something of order, of efficient and quiet uniformity, so that one had the feelings that life was small and curiously ordered.

- Meridel LeSueur

Whew! Isn't it a relief to know that there are people in the world who are so present to the moment that when they enter a chaotic atmosphere they create calm? This calm is not born of control or manipulation. This calm is born of presence.

Only a person who is present to herself carries a feeling of serenity with her. As we work the Twelve-Step Program, we begin to experience this kind of serenity for ourselves.

Order that comes out of control is full of tension. Order that comes out of rigidity is full of strife. Order that comes out of serenity is peaceful.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: May 8, 2004

This reminds me of the surprise I felt when my boyfriend said that he was first attracted to my 'presence' then by my cooking! This morning he remarked on my tolerance of the pain I have gone through since he met me. It has only been possible by being in the moment and accepting of what is, knowing that everything is subject to change. i.e. I no longer have an eye infection. I went to the doctor's for an antibiotic for swollen glands and a virus in my throat, which is probably the result of the other infection draining into my system. Life happens, one day at a time, it is better than when I was back using.

I just went to the eye specialist for a check up last week and all was good. I need to take care, because diabetes can affect my eyes.

So many times prior to recovery, I didn't go to the doctor's to see what was wrong. I figured I wasn't worth while and what difference did it make any way. Thoughts like, "Well, I am fat, so what! No thought of eating healthy and practising healthy ways of living. Just pick up a drink and wash it away or pop a pill(s), cover it up, and pretend it isn't there.

[blackrose]

I like it very much... thanks for this sharing... and keep it up...

[lcount]

Jo, Glad all is well. So many times I would not go the dr. because I knew my liver enzymes would be sky high if they did labs, which most times mine does! I was living with low thyroid and anemia, wondering why I was so tired and cold. Found out and was treated six months into recovery, and my liver enzymes were NORMAL again! Thanks for your share!

[MajestyJo]

Welcome Black Rose, thanks for sharing. Look forward to hearing more from you. Any feed back or questions you want to ask, feel free to ask. I was told there was no such thing as a stupid question. How can you know and learn if you don't ask.

[MajestyJo]

Author Dan Millman says, "...our sense of self-worth is the single most important determinant of the health, abundance, and joy we allow into our lives."

In truth, each of us is innately worthy. Our worthiness does not have to be strengthened or improved.

I may not PERCEIVE myself to be worthy, however. If I doubt my self-worth, consciously or unconsciously, I will limit the good things I will allow into my life. Subconsciously, I will choose or attract into my life what I believe I deserve and nothing more.

EXERCISE: Your self-worth reflects your overall sense of your own value. Our exercise today asks you to explore this question: HOW DESERVING AM I?

It may help to ponder these questions:

- Do you find it easier to give than to receive?
- Do you have as much money as you would like?
- Do you feel driven to improve yourself?
- Do you value other people's time more highly than your own?
- How would you feel if someone offered to pay you a salary of 10 million/year?

Take some time to answer these questions and write your thoughts in your journal. If you discover you have set limits on what you deserve to receive in life, don't despair. (We all doubt our self-worth to some degree.) Being aware that we have set limits is a huge step forward in beginning to let them go.

"I have never been contained except I made the prison."
-- Mary Evans

"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."
-- Brendan Francis

You are worth it!