Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - February

[bluidkiti]

February 29

Step by Step

Today, understand that even if my last drink was years ago, my next drunk, like the guy whose last drunk was 24 Hours ago, is just one drink away. My quantity of sobriety says little about its quality, and I have to re-examine that quality if my sobriety is riddled with anger, frustration, despair, hopelessness and a brain that processes my world with the same mind soaked by my last drunk. And even if my last drunk was months or even years ago, my next one is just as close as for the man who woke up with a hangover this morning. Quality – not quantity. This is the what recovery is about. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M.

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~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~

Realities

Realities are less dangerous than fantasies, ... fact-finding is more effective than faultfinding. --Carl Lotus Becker

Accepting reality is a beginning toward progress for recovering addicts. Reality always gives us plain answers, not empty desires. Empty desires are fantasies.
Reality can't be replaced by rationalizing. We can't guesswork in seeking answers to how we can achieve serenity and grow in character. We must have facts.
Reality cannot change, but our attitudes can. What happens to us us not our responsibility, but our reactions to what happens to us are. We spend time trying to become the person we want tobe. We no longer spend time finding fault with the person we are.
The Program teaches us to work for progress, not perfection. We no longer set ourselves up for failure by trying to be perfect.

Reality warns me not to look for answers in a mirror, but to listen to truth from the heart.

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~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

We are surrounded by cynical attitudes and mistrust. We carry large rings of keys that symbolize all the guards we maintain as part of ordinary daily life. It is hard for us to develop a vision from our hearts amidst all this wariness. Indeed, we are trying to move beyond the scorn and contempt of the mainstream world. What we pursue is an alternative and wiser way.
What the heart can see is the deeper man in the person next to us. Sometimes, with out hearts, we see good as well as bad inside ourselves and others. We can see a future developing for our children and all the little people around us. Instead of protecting only ourselves, we also see opportunities to help others and to take on worthwhile projects that benefit our communities; we escape the narrow confines of our self-centeredness. With exercise, our vision grows stronger every day and we see more.

Today I will open my heart to see beyond my personal walls and into the true nature of those around me.

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~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~

The journey to a new life---physically, mentally, and spiritually---includes the joy of rediscovering a faith that had been lost. --Louise A. Rice

What does it mean to have faith? How does having faith make our live different?
Having faith doesn't make us into totally different people. Our pattern of speech may not reveal our newfound faith, and our daily routine may remain much the same.
Bit there are subtle differences. We tense up less often. We seldom experience fear over how something will turn out. We enjoy more energy. We are more at ease with the people in our lives. We come to believe that all things are working out for the best, and we trust that we will be given the information we need to make decisions or new choices when the time is right.
Faith gives us serenity and frees up many hours that were previously consumed by tension. We can fill these hours creatively when we trust the outcome. Surely this is the program's best gift.
I will let my faith work in my life today. Nothing has to upset me.

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~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~

I look forward to my meeting.

I now know I need contact with people and I want to be with people at times. But having a dual disorder makes it hard. Without alcohol or other drugs (my former crutch), I often feel shy and uncomfortable around people. Still, I want to be accepted as a person, regardless of my disability.
At my meeting, acceptance is exactly what I get. Week in and week out, I share a part of my life, say what's working and what's not, and offer whatever strength I have. In return, I get respect and caring, as well as spiritual and emotional support. This is a gift. I did not know such benefits were possible. I feel humble and immensely grateful.

I will put together a schedule of Twelve Step meetings (dual recovery and other Twelve Step groups) and keep it handy.

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~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~

Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views. --George Sand

Adding an extra day to the calendar year--February 29--serves a significant purpose. Because it takes the earth roughly 365 and a quarter times to turn on its axis and complete a full year's orbit around the sun, a day is added to the calendar every four years.
Out of this need to synch time with earth sprung folklore. It was once thought that babies born on this day would be sickly and hard to rear. People believed the extra day would disrupt nature and that crops planted during leap year would grow the wrong way. Women were granted the privilege to propose marriage on this day provided, one convention dictated, that she was wearing a red petticoat.

A similar blurring of fact and fiction occurs whenever you embellish the truth or deliberately lie to create a different reality. The more adept you are at seeing things as you would like them to be, the more truth they can attain in your own mind. Recovery not only teaches truthfulness, but also requires it. The more you work the program, the less comfortable you will feel with dishonesty and the more comfortable will will become with telling the truth.

With truth comes greater understanding. I will speak the truth only.

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~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~

The preservation of health is duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality. --Herbert Spencer

How often do we allow ourselves to become hungry, angry, lonely, and tired? When we are feeling those feelings, we are not taking good care of ourselves. And when we're not in good physical health, our emotional health suffers.
Our past may have been filled with fast food and empty calories or sleepless, caffeine-filled night. Just as we need to take steps today for our emotional well-being, so must we take steps for our physcial being. The first step is good nutrition. We can become conscious of the foods we eat and the vitamins we need. The second step is to exercise our bodies. The third step is to break lonely isolation by making wise choices: attend meetings or spend time with friends. The fourth step is unloading our feelings of anger, frustration, or sadness. The fifth step is to get plenty of sleep.

We can change hungry, angry, lonely, and tired--HALT--with these five steps. We can be renewed!

Tonight I will sleep soundly, for with a healthy mind and today, I can make healthy choices tomorrow.


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"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Don’t tell your Higher Power how big the problem is; tell the problem how big your Higher Power is.

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The Eye Opener

The older some of us get in AA, the more we notice a tendency on our part to become a little bit less tolerant, a little less understanding of our relationship with the man still having trouble. We have been so long removed from the actual suffering that we are losing some of our understanding.

This is a good time to pick out the messiest case we can find and get back in the groove again. We can’t afford to forget that we, too, are alcoholics and, but for the Grace of God, we would be in just as bad shape.

We may be years away from our last drunk, but we are only one drink away from our next one. Don’t lose the common touch.

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~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~

Stop Fixing Others: Dear Higher Power, When I am overly dependent on others, I try to fix them. I have a real talent in pinpointing what is wrong with other people. But the very thing that enables me to see their defects most often blinds me to the same, sometimes even worse, shortcomings in myself. Help me stop fretting about others and instead focus on correcting my own character defects.