For Today: February 14th

 Infantile love follows the principle: I love because I am loved.  Mature love follows the principle: I love because I love.

Erich Fromm

Emotional growth often begins the moment we walk in the OA door.  Given the eroded self-regard of many compulsive overeaters, it is a deeply affecting experience to find unconditional acceptance in the OA meeting rooms.

From that beginning come self-acceptance and the ability to accept and love others without conditions or expectations.

For Today:  Do I show people acceptance and love without insisting that they first assure me of theirs?

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 Eroded self-regard............being overweight for the vast majority of my life has indeed eroded my self-regard.  I never felt equal to others...........I felt embarrassed of myself instead of my appearance.  I thought I was lesser of a person because of my weight problem, and didn't feel worthy of unconditional love.  I thought God would only love me if I was perfect, and I was SO far from that ideal, that I felt alone and abandoned by everyone.

Compulsive overeating is a disease of isolation.  Feeling abandoned entitled me to overeat while licking my wounds. Shutting myself away from others, and shutting myself DOWN with food, prevented me from living a full life (to say the least).  I sought love and friendship and acceptance in food...........which is not what food is intended to provide.

When I got into recovery, my self esteem started to grow, little by little. I stepped out of myself.......out of my own head........and into the real world where I embraced my fellow-man instead of hiding.  I learned how valuable I truly am.........in God's eyes, and in the eyes of those who really DO love me.

For today, Valentines Day, I am willing to feel unconditional love, and to give it back to others. No box of candy on earth contains that magnificent feeling! So, for today, I choose to abstain from consuming chocolate and to consume & offer LOVE instead!