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.~ Carol B. ~
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.
Each Day A New Beginning
—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
Food For Thought
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.
The Language of Letting Go
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.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
On a dark night, the bright lights of the corner tavern look mighty inviting. Inside, there seems to be warmth and good cheer. But we don't stop to think that if we go in there we'll probably end up drunk, with our money spent and an awful hangover. A long mahogany bar in the tropical moonlight looks like a very gay place. But you should see the place the next morning. The chairs are piled on the tables and the place stinks of stale beer and cigarette stubs. And often we are there too, trying to cure the shakes by gulping down straight whiskey. Can I look straight through the night before and see the morning after?
Meditation for the Day
God finds, amid the crowd, a few people who follow Him, just to be near Him, just to dwell in His presence. A longing in the Eternal Heart may be satisfied by these few people. I will let God know that I seek just to dwell in His presence, to be near Him, not so much for teaching or a message, as just for Him. It may be that the longing of the human heart to be loved for itself is something caught from the Great Divine Heart.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have a listening ear, so that God may speak to me. I pray that I may have a waiting heart, so that God may come to me.
From
Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights
reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any manner
without the written permission of the publisher.
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