Recovery
Meditations: October 25th
Courage
“If you're going
through hell, keep going.”
Winston Churchill
Recovery work takes great courage. Everyone who tells you
differently has not explored themselves in great depth.
It takes great courage for many of us to get up each morning
to face a day of physical challenge. Others feel the pull of emotions, job, or
family issues.
If but for today, reach inside and give yourself a big hug
for being willing to hang on one minute longer. That minute will turn into
moments, and before you know it, you will have lived out the Program message,
“One day at a time."
One day at a time...
I will honor and
celebrate the courage shown in working this program.
~ January K.
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Each Day A New Beginning
—Sylvia Ashton-Warner
We are changed through loving and being loved. Our attitudes are profoundly and positively affected by the presence of love in our lives. Each time we offer a loving response to a friend, co-worker, even a stranger, we powerfully influence the dynamics of the interaction between us.
Every response we make to someone changes us while it informs him or her. When we treat others with disdain, we invite the same. When we express only criticism of others, our self-assessment is equally negative. The beauty of a loving posture is that it calls forth love in response. The more love we give away, the more we receive.
Any task before us is lessened when we carry love in our hearts. Love is more powerful than fear. Love helps to open the channel to God, assuring us of the strength, the understanding, and the patience needed to complete any assignment confronting us.
God loves me, unconditionally. And I will experience the reality of that love the more I give it away. Love wants to change me - and it can.
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Food For Thought
Habit sometimes locks us into relationships, which are not in our best interest. It is easy to mistake dependency for love. When we stop overeating compulsively, we can evaluate our attachments to other people with greater clarity and perception than was possible when we continually escaped into food.
Our OA friends act as sounding boards for us as we try to sort out the healthy from the unhealthy relationships in our lives. We may find that for our continued growth we need to move away from old emotional entanglements, which are hampering our progress with the program. Abstaining from a harmful relationship can be as difficult at first as abstaining from compulsive overeating! The same physical restraint is necessary to keep ourselves from following old habit patterns.
By taking Step Three, we make all of our relationships with other people subject to the will of our Higher Power. When God comes first, other loves fall into their proper places.
Show me how to love.
From Food for
Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L. ©1980, 1992
by Hazelden Foundation.
The Language of Letting Go
... in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them.
—Ps. 139:16
Some people believe that each of our days were planned, Divinely Ordered, before we were born. God knew, they say, and planned exactly what was to transpire.
Others suggest we chose, we participated in planning our life - the events, the people, the circumstances that were to take place, in order to work through our issues and learn the lessons we needed to master.
Whatever our philosophy, our interpretation can be similar: Our past is neither an accident nor a mistake. We have been where we needed to be, with the necessary people. We can embrace our history, with its pain, its imperfections, and its mistakes, even its tragedies. It is uniquely ours; it was intended just for us.
Today, we are right where we need to be. Our present circumstances are exactly as they need to be - for now.
Today, I will let go of my guilt and fear about my past and present circumstances. I will trust that where I have been and where I am now are right for me.
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
The Junkie can never start to cure himself until he recognizes his true condition.
-- Malcolm X
-- Malcolm X
Now we know what the problem is. Now we can do something about it. The truth of our problem is, we can't handle alcohol or other drugs. They handle us. They control us. The Steps ask us to face the truth. And the truth sets us free. What a wonderful gift! We feared the truth, but now it's our friend. It's a relief. Facing the truth means we're honest. And honesty is our best friend in recovery. It's like a cozy fire on a winter's night. Honesty is how we get well. It's also what will keep us well. Do I truly believe I can't use alcohol or other drugs?
Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me see my illness for what it is. It's my enemy. Help me see that honesty is my best friend.
Action for the Day
Today, I'll take fifteen minutes to think about what my true condition was when I was drinking and drugging. And I'll think about what my true condition is now.
You are reading from the book:
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