Essentials Of Recovery

Created to carry the message of recovery to all addicts. Whether the addiction is alcohol, drugs, food or any other addiction the program of recovery is the same. I am a recovering alcoholic of over twenty-seven years, a day at a time of course and I believe my primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve recovery. Remember seven days without a meeting makes one weak. Sign up to get emails.This Blog is NOT IN ANY WAY affiliated to either A.A. or N.A. Help to stop drinking.

Friday 26 April 2024

They may just be right...

EssentialsOfRecovery

Chuck C. "Practicing Principles at Home and in Personal Relationships" - AA Speaker #essentialsofrec #Recovery #ChuckC #Speakers

Wonderful share by one of the best AA speakers ever, Chuck C. from California! At home and in personal relationships is where our Program is put to the test and Chuck offers some awesome experience on the topic with his common sense approach and his engaging story-telling.

Daily Reflections #essentialsofrec #Happiness

HAPPINESS IS NOT THE POINT

I don’t think happiness or unhappiness is the point. How
do we meet the problems we face? How do we best learn from
them and transmit what we have learned to others,

if they would receive the knowledge?

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 306

In my search “to be happy,” I changed jobs, married and
divorced, took geographical cures, and ran myself into
debt–financially, emotionally and spiritually. In A.A.,
I’m learning to grow up. Instead of demanding that people,
places and things make me happy, I can ask God for
self-acceptance. When a problem overwhelms me, A.A.’s
Twelve Steps will help me grow through the pain. The
knowledge I gain can be a gift to others who suffer with
the same problem. As Bill said, “When pain comes, we are
expected to learn from it willingly, and help others to
learn. When happiness comes, we accept it as a gift, and
thank God for it.”

Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc

Just For Today #essentialsofrec #NA #Addiction #Recovery

Self-Acceptance
“The most effective means of achieving self-acceptance is through applying the Twelve Steps of recovery.”

IP No. 19, “Self-Acceptance”

Most of us came to Narcotics Anonymous without much self-acceptance. We looked at the havoc we had wreaked in our active addiction, and we loathed ourselves. We had difficulty accepting our past and the self-image produced by it.

Self-acceptance comes more quickly when we first accept that we have a disease called addiction, because it’s easier to accept ourselves as sick people than as bad people. And the easier it is to accept ourselves, the easier it becomes to accept responsibility for ourselves.

We achieve self-acceptance through the process of ongoing recovery. Working the Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous teaches us to accept ourselves and our lives. Spiritual principles like surrender, honesty, faith, and humility help relieve us of the burden of our past mistakes. Our attitude changes with the application of these principles in our daily lives. Self-acceptance grows as we grow in recovery.

Just for today: Self-acceptance is a process set in motion by the Twelve Steps. Today, I will trust the process, practice the steps, and learn to better accept myself.

pg. 120

Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrec #Action #Recovery

A.A. Thought For The Day
The A.A. program is one of submission, release, and action.
When we’re drinking, we’re submitting to a power greater than
ourselves, liquor. Our own wills are no use against the power
of liquor. One drink and we’re sunk. In A.A. we stop submitting
to the power of liquor. Instead, we submit to a Power, also
greater than ourselves, which we call God. Have I submitted
myself to that Higher Power?

Meditation For The Day
Ceaseless activity is not God’s plan for your life. Times of
withdrawal for renewed strength are always necessary. Wait for
the faintest tremor of fear and stop all work, everything, and
rest before God until you are strong again. Deal in the same way
with all tired feelings. Then you need rest of body and renewal
of spirit force. Saint Paul said: “I can do all things through
Him who strengthens me.” This does not mean that you are to do
all things and then rely on God to find strength. it means that
you are to do the things you believe God wants you to do and only
then can you rely on His supply of power.

Prayer For The Day
I pray that God’s spirit may be my master always. I pray that
I may learn how to rest and listen, as well as how to work.

As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Fellowship

Walk in Dry Places #essentialsofrec #Sober #Recovery

Never withholding ourselves.
Living Sober.

We may have let ourselves believe that we’re supposed to display an attitude that expresses our opinions of others. If a person is crude and boorish, we should be cool and defensive for our self-protection. If a person is warm and friendly, we should respond in warm and friendly ways.
If we have believed these things, then we’re actually letting others control our attitudes and behavior. We are letting personalities interfere with the high principles we are learning in AA. We are not living at the best possible level.

In reality, we should always display an attitude that reflects kindness, optimism, friendliness, and concern. There other person’s disposition, whether it’s sour or sweet, should have nothing to do with our being what we want to be. We should never withhold the fine inner qualities that develop and grow as we continue to live the program.

In time, we begin to learn that this attitude always comes back to us in the form of greater peace and happiness. And what’s great about iti s that it’s always under our direct control.
As I go about my business today, I will express a kindliness and concern toward everybody. Nobody’s behavior can make me adopt a suspicious or defensive attitude.

Keep It Simple #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Sobriety #Living

Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting gold

~ Maurice Setter

Silver shines as bright as gold does. So often we forget this. So often we push, push, push. We forget to live for the moment. Trying too hard can be a defect of character. It can be a way we avoid life. Gratitude, being thankful, is key part of recovery. Not just gratitude for getting our self-respect back. Not just gratitude for having a Higher Power. But gratitude for the moment. We’re alive again. Let’s see each moment as a time to explore life..

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks for helping me to enjoy each moment. I have gratitude for being alive.

Action for the Day: I’ll list ten gifts of recovery for which I have gratitude.

Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrec #Recovery #FrLeo #Answers

ANSWERS

“If the work of God could be
comprehended by reason, it would
be no longer wonderful, and faith
would have no merit if reason
provided proof.”

–Pope Gregory I

Some things happen that I do not understand or comprehend, but I
have faith that they will happen tomorrow: sunsets, night following
day, the song of the bird, the colors of nature, and the joy and
adventure of being alive. Perhaps the biggest mystery for mankind to
grapple with is love – a man will suffer, endure persecution, even be
put to death for that which he loves; the pain and sorrow of love is
mingled into what it is to be a human being.

Reason does not have the answer to life. Faith is the medication for
our existence. We have a belief in tomorrow because of what we have
experienced today. If I can say “no” to alcohol today then I can do it
tomorrow – if I really want to.

Lord, let me not seek for proof but daily seek to grapple with the problems of life.

A Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Laughter #Humor

Reflection For The Day

When I first came to The Program, I was stunned by the constant sound of laughter. I realized today that cheerfulness and merriment make for usefulness. Outsiders are sometimes shocked when we burst into laughter over a seemingly tragic experience out of the past. But why shouldn’t e laugh? We have recovered, and have helped others to recover. What greater cause could there be for rejoicing than this? Have I begun to regain my sense of humor?

Today I Pray

May God restore my sense of humor. May I appreciate the honest laughter that is the background music of our mutual rejoicing in our sobriety. May I laugh a lot, not the defensive ego-laugh which mocks another weakness, not the wry laugh of the self-put-down, but the healthy laugh that keeps situations in perspective. May I never regard this kind of laughter as irreverent. I have learned, instead, that it is irreverent to take myself too seriously.

Today I Will Remember

A sense of humor is a sigh of health.

One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Anger #Forgiveness #Recovery

Forgiveness

“You keep carryin’ that anger, it’ll eat you up inside.”

Don Henley

I have been carrying around so much anger in my life that it has fanned the flames of my addiction. I wouldn’t allow myself to feel the anger because I was afraid it would overwhelm me. I used food and other substances to stuff it down and the anger became rage and turned inward as depression. My compulsive eating spiraled out of control.

Many things have happened to me to justify the anger I’ve been carrying. Healthy anger indicates that someone has violated my boundaries or placed me in an untenable position. Anger that is felt and then released is a healthy emotion. But anger that is stuffed is toxic and will surely corrode my spirit and trap me even further in the cycle of addiction.

I have learned through the Twelve Steps that forgiveness is the only path to letting go of toxic anger. Forgiveness does not mean excusing others’ abusive behavior nor accepting my abusers back into my life. Forgiveness happens when I allow myself to feel and work through my anger, and then release it to my Higher Power. Forgiveness is self-love.

One Day at a Time . . .

I will feel and express my healthy anger and strive for forgiveness.

~ Suzanne

The Eye Opener #essentialsofrec #Expectations #Recovery

Many of us came into AA either in middle life or beyond and feel that with our reasonable life expectancy, it is practically impossible to atone for our previous wrong actions. The thief at the Crucifixion probably thought the same thing but, by one single act, he brought the promise that “this day, thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

Hazelden Foundation

Daily Tao / 116 – Fulfillment #essentialsofrec #Tao #Taoism #Zen

Accomplish your visions.
Persevere in your ambitions.
Only then can you negate
Visions and ambitions.

Some say that one should not have ambitions; they equate these with greed and lust. However, some ambitions are the result of curiosity and inner desire. They are individual interests, like wanting to know about a certain subject or wanting to achieve goals. As long as they do no harm to others, they should be exercised rather than suppressed.

Many young people are held back by their peers and their elders. Sometimes there are valid reasons, but usually the motivations of the others are colored by fear, ignorance, jealousy, or inadequacy. No one should hold you back from achieving your life’s goals.

Whatever you want to do, do it to the fullest. There are just a few provisions. First, you must realize that nothing is forever. You may achieve your goals only to find out that they are no longer important to you. This is all right. That means you have come to the end of your interest and are now free to go on to something else. Secondly, your ambitions should not determine your life. You are a human being first, and your goals are merely adjuncts to your basic quest as a person. Finally, you should realize that the fulfillment of your goals should include the eradication of all fears. Once you have accomplished these things, you will truly have nothing standing between you and spiritual realization.

Emmet Fox Be Still - A treatment against fear #essentialsofrec #Emmet #Fox #GOd

He says firmly that God IS, that He exists indeed; and then he enumerates three facts concerning God. He says that He is our refuge; he says that He is our strength; and he says that He is "a very present help in trouble." This verse is really tremendous, is it not ? If we get through the crust of familiarity that tends to hide the real meaning from us, and study these words with a fresh mind, we shall be amazed, I think, at all that they imply. Note that he says that God is our refuge. He does not say that such may very well be the case, or that it is a pious hope upon which we are justified in leaning; but that, plain and plump, God is our refuge.

Now pause a moment to consider all that God is. Review briefly, at this point, the principal aspects and attributes of God as you know them, and then consider that this Infinite Being is our refuge. That is to say, this Unlimited Power of Wisdom and Love is a refuge to which we can go in any kind of difficulty. Many devout souls

Walk In Dry Places

Friday 26 April 2024