~ ERRORS AND ASSETS ~
We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors
and convert them into assets.
The Big Book
I have had a paradigm shift in my life. This means that I have begun to see some of my most basic ideas about food and nourishment from a different angle. I never really thought these things through before this program nudged me to have a look at my life with rigorous honesty. Oh, I wanted to be thin, but I barely related that to my feelings about food.
I was on autopilot for years and now realize that my concept of food was reasoned out when I was still a child. I put that childish set of ideas in place and then just stopped thinking about it. That little child wanted the most she could get of everything there was. She wanted the most attention, the most love, the most toys . . . and the most food. And at that time it was exactly the right way to look at the world. When I was a child setting up the system that constantly demands more to calm or soothe or comfort or love, I turned to food because it is simple and I did not possess the skills to get my needs met in other ways. It was a victory really, because I coped, made it through to now. But, to stick with a plan set up by a little child reflects a lack of willingness to face a basic error in engaging the world and change my behavior.
Now I know that eating mass quantities of food isn't about love, or fun, or comfort. Now my adult mind knows that food is a fuel that, if chosen judiciously, helps my body to work efficiently and clears my mind for the task of being a responsible adult in a busy, troubled world. By shifting from "How much food do I get for me?" to "What must I eat today to be healthy?" I change my whole basis for choosing. I take an area of my life that has been a constant error and change it into an asset, one that nourishes me and helps me to do that next right thing.
One Day at a Time . . .
I am willing to face my flawed thinking about food and change the way I make food choices, meal by meal, so that food is an asset to me and not a liability.
~ Carol B. ~
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Each Day a New Beginning
I believe that a sign of maturity is accepting deferred gratification.
—Peggy Cahn
It's okay to want to feel good all the time. Happiness is something we all deserve. However, there are often preparatory steps we need to take, a number of which will not bring joy, before we arrive at a place of sustained happiness.
—Peggy Cahn
It's okay to want to feel good all the time. Happiness is something we all deserve. However, there are often preparatory steps we need to take, a number of which will not bring joy, before we arrive at a place of sustained happiness.
The level of our pain at any particular moment
has prompted us to seek short-term highs. And with each attempt at a
quick "fix," we will be reminded that, just as with our many former
attempts, the high is very short-term.
Long-term happiness is not the byproduct of
short-term gratification. We don't have to earn happiness, exactly, but
we do have to discover where it's found. How fortunate we are to have
the program guiding our search. We will find happiness when we learn to
get quiet and listen to our inner selves. We will find happiness when we
focus less on our personal problems and more on the needs of others.
Many of us will need to redefine what happiness
is. Understanding our value and necessity to our circle of acquaintances
will bring us happiness, a happiness that will sustain us, and so will
gratitude for our friends, our growing health, our abstinence also
sustain us. Sincerely touching the soul of someone else can tap the well
of happiness within each of us.
I will find happiness. Searching within myself, I will patiently, trustingly share myself with others.
From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey
© 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation.
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Food for Thought
The Power of Love
Love is the best motivation. When we are plugged in to our Higher Power, we are plugged in to love. It flows through us like a current, energizing our sluggish hearts and minds.
As we work the Steps of this program, we are given increased ability to love. By turning over our lives and our wills, we become receptive to the love, which surrounds and sustains us. By taking inventory and being ready to have our character defects removed, we are able to get rid of old ways of thinking and acting which have been blocking out love.
We cannot produce love for others by ourselves, but we can receive it from our Higher Power. We can even receive love for people we don't particularly like.
Love gives energy for action and directs its course.
May I grow in Love.
Love is the best motivation. When we are plugged in to our Higher Power, we are plugged in to love. It flows through us like a current, energizing our sluggish hearts and minds.
As we work the Steps of this program, we are given increased ability to love. By turning over our lives and our wills, we become receptive to the love, which surrounds and sustains us. By taking inventory and being ready to have our character defects removed, we are able to get rid of old ways of thinking and acting which have been blocking out love.
We cannot produce love for others by ourselves, but we can receive it from our Higher Power. We can even receive love for people we don't particularly like.
Love gives energy for action and directs its course.
May I grow in Love.
From Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L.
©1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation.
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The Language of Letting Go
Stopping Victimization
Before recovery, many of us lacked a frame of reference with which to name the victimization and abuse in our life. We may have thought it was normal that people mistreated us. We may have believed we deserved mistreatment; we may have been attracted to people who mistreated us.
Before recovery, many of us lacked a frame of reference with which to name the victimization and abuse in our life. We may have thought it was normal that people mistreated us. We may have believed we deserved mistreatment; we may have been attracted to people who mistreated us.
We need to let go, on a deep level, of our need
to be victimized and to be victims. We need to let go of our need to be
in dysfunctional relationships and systems at work, in love, in family
relationships, in friendships. We deserve better. We deserve much
better. It is our right. When we believe in our right to happiness, we
will have happiness.
We will fight for that right, and the fight will emerge from our souls. Break free from oppression and victimization.
Today, I will liberate myself by letting go of my
need to be a victim, and I'll explore my freedom to take care of
myself. That liberation will not take me further away from people I
love. It will bring me closer to people and more in harmony with God's
plan for my life.
From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie
©1990, Hazelden Foundation
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He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.
-- Thomas Fuller
Often we're afraid to forgive others who've hurt us because we believe that, in doing so, we are permitting what they've done. This is not true. When we forgive, we are saying, "I pardon you, I give up any claim for revenge, you are no longer an enemy."
Relationships are not all black and white. We can forgive people and still not want to spend time with them. Forgiveness is for ourselves. It is a housecleaning of the heart. It feels good to sweep out the resentments and bitterness, lift up the windows, and let in the forgiveness.
Today let me offer forgiveness, either silently or out loud, to someone who has hurt me.
You are reading from the book:
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