For Today: July 26th

Little privations are easily endured when the heart is better treated than the body.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

The comforts of material possessions do not make up for emotional and spiritual impoverishment.  Being a product of this society, I tell myself that if I had this and that, I would feel better.  So I get this and that, and I find that my purchasing power does indeed seem to reduce anxiety, but not for long.  No matter what I do, it is only a distraction and I return again and again to myself.

When I am close to my Higher Power and the people I love, I am not aware of the car I drive, the house I live in. I am not fighting temptation, nor am I wanting and wishing. I am neither afraid nor overconfident.

For Today:  When I am busy cultivating loving relationships, I can easily do without a surprising number of things

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Money can't buy me love, or so the Beatles tell me.  It's true, too.  Material possessions are only distractions to keep me amused and not focused on what may be bothering me.


I've used distractions like food and shopping and drinking to numb me from the pain of everyday life, or to hide from the fact that I was unhappy on the inside.  But these distractions are only temporary, and require more & more & more to produce a feeling of comfort.


A binge can start out small, and grow to enormous proportions where I was eating until I became physically sick.  I don't want to live that way....with food controlling ME and acting as a numbing agent to shield me from pain.


The pain of compulsive overeating far outweighs the pain I'm trying to avoid anyway! That is the nature of addiction.  What starts out as a comfort turns against me and grows into a monster that controls ME.


For today, I will rely on God and my family to provide me with comfort, rather than food or material possessions which only give me a quick fix.  Loving relationships provide long term comfort & I pray to recognize that fact.