When one alcoholic/addict shares with another alcoholic/addict [Archive] - Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums

MajestyJo

11-01-2013, 09:25 AM

August 28

"Not drinking is the first requirement for joy; the
second requirement is gratitude."

In Our Own Words

Lombard, Ill., Feb. 1995
"The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language"
In Our Own Words: Stories of Young AAs in Recovery

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August 29

"Not only ... could spiritual experiences make people saner, they could transform men and women so that they could do, feel, and believe what had hitherto been impossible to them. It mattered little whether these awakenings were sudden or gradual; their variety could be almost infinite."

The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1953
"A Fragment of History: Origin of the Twelve Steps"
The Language of the Heart

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August 30

"Happiness or tragedy might just depend upon a slight sign of recognition, a nod of the head or perhaps a friendly smile."

Chappaqua, N.Y., December 1947
"Recognition"
AA Grapevine

August 31

"My past sobriety is not a ticket to future sobriety. I have to pay that fare and make the decision to recover daily."

In Our Own Words

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1953
"A Fragment of History: Origin of the Twelve Steps"
The Language of the Heart

Grapevine quote of the day for the month of August. Sorry I have not been able to be post these daily.

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MajestyJo

11-01-2013, 09:27 AM

September 1

"I don't need to project the future or cry about the past. Just live to the best of my ability, one day at a time."

AA Around the World

Bangkok, Thailand, October 1988
"The Best of My Ability"
AA Around the World: Adventures in Recovery

=====

September 2

"By admitting where I was at fault, I was given the ability to forgive ... With forgiveness came a freedom that I had not anticipated. The amends had required nothing but courage, and a faith that my Higher Power would carry me where I had been too afraid to walk alone."

Step by Step Book

Sterling, Alaska, September 1993
"Scene of the Crime"
Step By Step

=====

September 3

"I had a really good reason for working Step Nine and making amends to my family and friends. I didn't want a parade of people at my funeral singing, 'Ding, dong, the wicked witch is dead!'"

Step by Step Book

Sarasota, Fla., February 2009
"Heard at Meetings"

=====

September 4

"AA is spiritual, is the eye of the hurricane, is my refuge and my comfort."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Oklahoma City, Okla., December 1992
"Eye of the Hurricane"

=====

September 5

"My Higher Power works incognito, defying definition and requiring faith."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

State College, Penn., April 1994
"Working Incognito"
Spiritual Awakenings

=====

September 6

"I felt myself move with a new power, courage, and faith that, by the grace of God, I have acquired as a result of working the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous."

Spiritual Awakenings II
Click to learn more
Conn., June 2005
"Life and Taxes"
Spiritual Awakenings II

=====

September 7

"The individual must sometimes place the welfare of his fellows ahead of his own uncontrolled desires. Were the individual to yield nothing to the common welfare there could be no society at all - only self-will run riot; anarchy in the worst sense of the word."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1946
"The Individual in Relation to AA as a Group"

September 8

"I am feeling much better now, and I thank God for AA and my good friends. I have learned how to accept their help."

Emotional Sobriety II

Queens, N.Y., February 1971
"Carrying the Message"
Emotional Sobriety II

=====

September 9

"When I'm willing to pay the price for top-shelf sobriety, 'action' is still the magic word."

Emotional Sobriety II

Craig, Colo., January 1997
"Paying the Price for Improvement"
Emotional Sobriety II

=====

September 10

"We who live in the haven of AA cling together with an intensity of purpose which the outside world seldom comprehends. The anarchy of the individual melts away. Self-love subsides and democracy becomes a reality. We begin to know true freedom of the spirit."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1946
"The Individual in Relation to AA as a Group"

=====

September 11

"Alcoholics Anonymous has given me something of real value that I can share with others."

Spiritual Awakenings II
Click to learn more
Tucson, Ariz., May 2004
"The Fugitives"

=====

September 12

"Ever so slowly, I could feel myself changing. Things that had seemed important were no longer important. There was inside me a warming, a softening, a stirring, as the petals of a rosebud stir almost imperceptibly into a blossom."

Spiritual Awakenings II
Neoga, Ill., February 1974
"There Can Be Love and Laughter"

=====

September 13

"I am learning how to cope with life, people, and situations, not as I want them to be, but as they really are."

Emotional Sobriety II

Millburn, N.J., July 1971
"Reality Can Be Uncomfortable"

=====

September 14

"The way our 'worthy' alcoholics have sometimes tried to judge the 'less worthy' is, as we look back on it, rather comical. Imagine, if you can, one alcoholic judging another!"

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., August 1946
"Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?"
The Language of the Heart

=====

September 15

"The next time you feel hurt, outraged, bitter or resentful - the beginning of many a slip as attested to by AA speakers - try to remember quickly that you haven't been mortally harmed. In nearly all cases, it's just a pain in your feelings!"

Emotional Sobriety II

Elmhurst, N.Y., March 1950
"Got a Pain in Your Feelings?"

MajestyJo

11-01-2013, 09:28 AM

September 16

"Am I strong enough? Am I willing to commit my life and my heart at an even deeper level to doing whatever it takes to keep moving forward?"

Spiritual Awakenings II

North Hollywood, Calif., September 2005
"Where's My Reward?"
Spiritual Awakenings II

=====

September 17

"Though all alone out there, an AA from the Marshall Islands still claimed his group had three members, to wit: 'God, the book Alcoholics Anonymous, and me.'"

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., September 1950
"We Came of Age"
The Language of the Heart

=====

September 18

"The inner energy that is love connects all the parts of us - our emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual selves."

Emotional Sobriety II
Calif., March 1984
"Powerful Simplicity"
Emotional Sobriety II

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September 19

"One day, after sitting alone, soaked in tears and feeling empty, worthless, and crippled in the smallest task, I reached out and gave my phone number to someone else - they were hurting, too. In that simplest of acts, my world changed."

Spiritual Awakenings II

Salt Lake City, Utah, July 2007
"Life, Not Regrets"
Spiritual Awakenings II

=====

September 20

"There has to be something to be grateful for if I am only willing to change my attitude and look for it."

Emotional Sobriety II

Mesa, Ariz., March 2010
"Not On Fire"
Emotional Sobriety II

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September 21

"Most of us do follow, in our personal lives, the Twelve suggested Steps to recovery ... We do this from choice. We prefer recovery to death. Then, little by little, we ... conform because we want to."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1947
"Will AA Ever Have a Personal Government?"

=====

September 22

"With the help of the Fellowship, the Twelve Steps, and a Higher Power ... I do not have to be a newcomer again."

Emotional Sobriety II

Montpelier, Vt., March 2003
"Confessions of a Reluctant Newcomer"
Emotional Sobriety II

=====

September 23

"I have made a determined effort to focus more on seeing myself as God sees me."

Spiritual Awakenings II
Click to learn more
Reston, Va., December 2009
"I'm Not Broken"
Spiritual Awakenings II

=====

September 24

"While we readily share our views, perhaps one of the nicest things about the AA program is that we don't always have to agree with each other."

Emotional Sobriety II
Click to learn more
Brooklyn, N.Y., June 1975
"Self-Acceptance"
Emotional Sobriety II

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September 25

"Those little maxims 'Easy Does It' and 'Live and Let Live' have come to be deeply meaningful and significant."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1947
"Will AA Ever Have a Personal Government?"

=====

September 26

"The beauty of sobriety is that sometimes I am the one supported, and other times the one supporting. One act helps destroy my ego, the other my self-centeredness. I need to practice both actions if I want to survive"

No Matter What

Los Angeles, Calif., July 2007
"Self-Support"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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September 27

"Always a heady wine, success may sometimes cause us to forget that each of us lives on borrowed time."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., October 1947
"Traditions Stressed in Memphis Talk"
The Language of the Heart

=====

September 28

"I don't fear for the future because I am in the loving arms of AA today."

No Matter What
Los Angeles, Calif., July 2007
"Self-Support"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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September 29

"I've never taken my sobriety for granted because I know I'm only one drink away from ruining my life."

No Matter What

Jamaica Plain, Mass., May 1997
"The Littlest Things"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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September 30

"Since today marks not only the last day of my life to this date, but also the first day of the rest of my life, and since I have come to believe that the best is yet to come, I think today has been my best day sober."

Lubbock, Texas, December 2000
"My Best Day Sober"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

MajestyJo

11-01-2013, 09:29 AM

October 1

"Keeping a Tenth Step journal about my day-to-day life, my relations with other people, and the stuff that still roiled around in my head helped me see patterns in my thoughts and behavior, which I could discuss with my sponsor. And once I began to sit quietly, reflect on what I'd written, and pray, I began to sleep peacefully for the first time in my life."

In Our Own Words

Manchester, N.H., March 2001
"Peace at Last,"
In Our Own Words: Stories of Young AAs in Recovery

=====

"We can always come up with a reason to drink. The secret is, how many reasons can we come up with to stay sober?"

No Matter What
Click to learn more
Topeka, Kan., July 2001

An Important Secret

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

"The measure of my sobriety isn't the distance between now and the last drink -- the measure of my sobriety is the distance between now and the next drink."

No Matter What

White Rock, British Columbia, May 2005

"Life -- It Happens"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

October 4

"We AAs have had to learn that the kinds of freedom that we must possess cannot possibly be obtained by violence. As a Fellowship, we cannot fight anybody, anywhere or at any time. This has been proved. When we had directly attacked John Barleycorn, we had lost. Booze fighting had never worked. When we quarrel too much with each other, we get drunk."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1960

"Freedom Under God:

MajestyJo

11-10-2013, 10:53 AM

October 5

"Each night, I think of the Tenth Step and ask myself, 'Have I, this day, helped more than I've harmed? Given more than I've taken? Created more than I've destroyed?'"

Step by Step Book

Minneapolis, Minn., December 1977

"It Takes Practice to Be Human,"

Step By Step

=====

October 6

"Nothing could be sadder than to lose touch with ourselves in recovery; to have our connection to our Higher Power blocked by resentment; to be governed by old ideas we are only dimly aware of and that hold us back; or to be reduced by our fears to living sequestered from life. For the sunlight of the spirit to enter, the window must be kept clean so the light can pour through."

Step by Step Book

New York, N.Y., October 2010

"Safety Valve,"

Step By Step

=====

October 7

"As of this moment I repose serenely on Cloud 9, being thankful in silent meditation. I know the grim realism of this troubled world will bring me sharply back to earth at any moment, but I pray I may make a safe, happy landing."

Cincinnati, OHIO, May 1957

"Let There Be Light,"

Into Action

=====

October 8

"I know what the temptation of fame and money really is ... I was once a breaker of anonymity myself. I thank God that years ago the voice of experience and the urging of wise friends took me out of that perilous path into which I might have led our entire Society."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1955

"Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous"

The Language of the Heart

=====

October 9

"The slogans are simple things ... these AA tranquilizers do not solve our problems, but they can calm us down, remind us of a better way to proceed, and perhaps even put us in a mood to make better decisions."

New York, N.Y., November 1958

"Using the Slogans,"

Into Action

MajestyJo

11-10-2013, 10:54 AM

October 10

"With the clock ticking like it is, I do not have time for anger, resentment, or self-pity. Time is far too precious."

Durham, N.C., April 2002

"Just an Attitude,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

October 11

"One night, in a moment of desperation, I got down on my knees and remembered a prayer an old sponsor had given me. It said, 'God, help me be of service ... to something or someone...' I knew intuitively it was the answer."

Edmonton, Alberta, May 2010

"Sinking Fast,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

October 12

"The temptations of riches could sometimes be worse than the pains of poverty."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., December 1957
"The Greatest Gift of All"
The Language of the Heart

=====

October 13

"Seeing my defects is not enough to make them improve or go away -- the solution seems to be following awareness with action."

Step by Step Book

Coldwater, Mich., December 2006

"Daily Reminder,"

Step By Step

=====

October 14

"How does one tune in to the Higher Power? The answer I have learned from AA is to recharge my spiritual battery every day -- 'you can't pull today's load with yesterday's horse.'"

Joliet, Ill., July 1985

"Willingness to Grow,"

Into Action

=====

October 15

"I found I had to exert every ounce of will and action to cut off these faulty emotional dependencies upon people, upon AA, indeed, upon any set of circumstances whatever. Then only could I be free to love."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1958

"The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety"

The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

11-10-2013, 10:55 AM

October 16

"As I continue to struggle, I think of the words of an old-timer in my area. No matter what the topic, he always finishes sharing with the words, 'and I haven't had a drink today.' Remembering his words never fails to bring to my mind the words 'experience, strength, and hope.'"

"Out of Work, But Not Hope," Anonymous, December 2000

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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October 17

"A new spiritual awakening can come at every meeting."

Hartsdale-Ardsley, N.Y., January 1957

"Twelve Steps to a Meeting,"

Into Action

=====

October 18

"One day leads to the next, no matter how unhappy I choose to be."

Sioux Rapids, IA, January 2004

"Adult Love,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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October 19

"A leader in AA service is ... a man (or a woman) who can personally put principles, plans and policies into such dedicated and effective action that the rest of us want to back him up and help him with his job."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., April 1959

"Leadership in AA: Ever a Vital Need"

The Language of the Heart

=====

October 20

"First Things First. That's a real gem."

New York, N.Y., November 1958

"Using the Slogans,"

Into Action

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MajestyJo

11-10-2013, 10:56 AM

October 21

"Only by accepting my powerlessness over alcohol did I begin to discover the powers that alcohol had obliterated: God, health, truth, love, nature, fellowship, humor, creativity, and even simple daily kindness."

Barrington, Ill., June 2007

"In Your Bones,"

Into Action

=====

October 22

"My anger served as an iron shield, and I refused to remove it for fear God would send me still more pain."

Jamaica Plain, Mass., May 1997

"The Littlest Things,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

October 23

"To be teachable, I had to be reachable."

Wollstonecraft, Australia, May 1984

"The Winner's Guide to Boring Meetings,"

Into Action

=====

October 24

"This process of identification and transmission has gone on and on. The skid rower said he was different. Even more loudly the socialite (or Park Avenue stumble bum) said the same -- so did the arts and the professions, the rich, the poor, the religious, the agnostics, the Indians and the Eskimos, the veterans and the prisoners.

"But nowadays all of these, and legions more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are when we all admit that the chips are finally down; when we see that it is really a question of do or die in our world wide Fellowship of 'the common suffering and the common deliverance."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960

"AA Communication Can Cross All Barriers"

The Language of the Heart

=====

October 25

"I made the decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, and then I got out of the way."

Christchurch, New Zealand, March 2010

"Gimme Shelter,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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MajestyJo

11-10-2013, 10:57 AM

October 26

"The Traditions are neither rules, regulations, nor laws. No sanctions or punishments can be invoked for their infractions. Perhaps in no other area of society would these principles succeed. Yet in this Fellowship of alcoholics, the unenforceable Traditions carry a power greater than that of law."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960

"The Language of the Heart"

=====

October 27

"It's funny how life is lived forward -- and understood backward."

Vail, Ariz., October 2005

"Living Life Forward,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

October 28

"In this life we shall attain nothing like perfect humility and love. So we shall have to settle, respecting most of our problems, for a very gradual progress, punctuated sometimes by heavy setbacks. Our old-time attitudes of 'all or nothing' will have to be abandoned."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., March 1962

"What Is Acceptance?"

The Language of the Heart

=====

October 29

"No one at the gym, at work, in my neighborhood, or even in church had ever put their hand out to me. In AA, it happened every day."

Trenton, N.J., April 2005

"Falling Apart on the Inside,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

October 30

"My perception of any situation is in my control -- I have a choice about which way my mind will react. I try my best to look for positive solutions; I take my problems to my sponsor or I let my friends at a meeting know what is going on inside me."

Pinellas Park, Fla, November 2006

"How the Universe Works,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

October 31

"At the end of each day ... I hope that I can say a short prayer of gratitude for another day of sobriety. Anything else good that happens is a bonus."

White Rock, British Columbia, May 2005

"Life--It Happens,"

No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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MajestyJo

11-10-2013, 10:58 AM

November 1

"No prophet can presume to say whether the world outcome will be blazing destruction or the beginning, under God's intention, of the brightest era yet known to mankind. I am sure we AAs well comprehend this scene. In microcosm, we have experienced this identical state of terrifying uncertainty, each in his own life."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1962
"This Matter of Fear"
The Language of the Heart

=====

November 2

"In despair, I had cried out, 'Now I am willing to do anything. If there is a God, will he show himself?' And he did. This was my first conscious contact, my first awakening. I asked from the heart, and I received."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960
"The Language of the Heart"
The Language of the Heart

=====

November 3

"I've got a brand new feeling, gratitude -- a feeling that has visited me more and more frequently -- sometimes with the rush of cleansing tears -- sometimes with just a serene flow of mental thank-yous for some small, God-given bonus in a routine day."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Minneapolis, Minn., April 1983
"A Rush of Gratitude,"
Spiritual Awakenings

=====

November 4

"Regardless of what happened before or what may happen tomorrow, what is the very best thing I can possibly do, right now?"

Santa Monica, Calif., May 2007
"A Life Without Problems,"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

November 5

"One of the truly great gifts in this Fellowship of mutually concerned people is the gift of the art of listening ... But our need to listen goes beyond meetings and talks with friends ... We need Step Eleven and our greater conscious contact with the Divine Listener. Then will our serenity emerge; then will our help to others have quality."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Anonymous, May 1960
"Where the Words Come From,"
Spiritual Awakenings

=====

November 6

"The Twelve Steps ... are simple in language, plain in meaning. They are also workable by any person having a sincere desire to obtain and keep sobriety. The results are the proof. Their simplicity and workability are such that no special interpretations, and certainly no reservations, have ever been necessary. And it has become increasingly clear that the degree of harmonious living which we achieve is in direct ratio to our earnest attempt to follow them literally under divine guidance to the best of our ability."

Best of Grapevine Volume 2

AA Co-Founder, Dr. Bob, September 1948
"The Fundamentals in Retrospect"
The Best of the Grapevine, Volume 2

=====

November 7

"Our Twelve Traditions ... represent the sum of our experience as individuals, as groups within AA, and similarly with our fellows and other organizations in the great fellowship of humanity under God throughout the world. They are all suggestions, yet the spirit in which they have been conceived merits their serious, prayerful consideration as the guideposts of AA policy for the individual, the group, and our various committees, local and national."

Best of Grapevine Volume 2

AA Co-Founder, Dr. Bob, September 1948
"The Fundamentals in Retrospect"
The Best of the Grapevine, Volume 2

=====

November 8

"Spiritual progress isn't what gets us sober, it's what keeps us sober."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

State College, Pa.,April 1994
"Working Incognito,"
Spiritual Awakenings

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MajestyJo

11-10-2013, 04:12 PM

November 9

"Full consciousness ... implies not only the willingness to receive the love and benefits AA has to offer, but also to surrender to the equally painful experience of exposure to ourselves, and others, of ourselves."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Pleasantville, N.Y., August 1959
"The Sense of Sobriety,"
Spiritual Awakenings

November 10

"We measure our progress in AA by two words, 'humility' and 'responsibility.' May I ever keep my eye on these yardsticks as I continue to seek only knowledge of his will for me."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Tulsa, Okla., July 1978
"The Power of the Program,"
Spiritual Awakenings

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MajestyJo

11-19-2013, 08:10 AM

From "Working with Others:

"Practical experience shows that nothing will
so much insure immunity from drinking as
intensive work with other alcoholics. It works
when other activities fail....You can help when
no one else can. You can secure their confidence
when others fail."

c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 89

We help others by helping ourselves. It has been my experience that even though someone may continue using the seed has been planted. I don't have the power to stop someone from using, all I can do is carry the message of recovery by sharing my experience, strength, and hope.

When I do that, I stay clean. By helping new people, I don't forget where I came from, what it was like, so that I can appreciate what I have in today and be grateful for the recovery that has been given so freely to me. In order to keep it, I must give it away. More importantly, I have to have it to give. You can't give away what you don't have.

I was told that I needed to top myself up and then give away the overflow.

I have also found that you can't help someone unless they are truly willing to get help. There are many who need this program, but it only works for those who want it and have a willingness to live it.

When I share or listen with a fellow alcoholic/addict, it is important to identify and not compare. We may not have used the same substance, but the feelings and the pain is the same. Whether I use alcohol, pills, men, relationships, food, work, gambling, etc. to fill my emptiness, it all leads to the same soul sickness.

http://www.animated-gifs.eu/mammals-elephants-love/0012.gif

MajestyJo

11-19-2013, 08:15 AM

"Accepting God's Gifts"

"It is necessary for all of us to accept whatever positive gifts we receive with a deep humility, always bearing in mind that our negative attitudes were first necessary as a means of reducing us to such a state that we would be ready for a gift of the positive ones via the conversion experience. Your own alcoholism and the immense deflation that finally resulted are indeed the foundation upon which your spiritual experience rests."

© 1967, As Bill Sees It, page 168

Acceptance is one of the spiritual principles of Step One. I was told that I had to do the first half of this step 100%, and I was warned that the second half was conditional to my spiritual connection, one day at a time.

When I accepted my disease, surrendered my day to my Higher Power, got honest with me, then my life would be manageable. If I didn't have these spiritual principles, and tried to manage my own life, then it certainly would become unmanageable, and would stay so until such a time, as I could find the honest, surrender and acceptance I need to bring myself back to my essence and connected to the God of my understanding.

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MajestyJo

11-19-2013, 10:14 AM

JUST FOR TODAY!

Guidance

from: "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous"

"I [Bill W.] was in this anything-but-spiritual mood on the night [in December 1938] when the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were written. I was sore and tired clear through. I lay in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and with a tablet of scratch paper on my knee. I could not get my mind on the job, much less put my heart in it. But here was one of those things that had to be done….

"Finally I started to write. I set out to draft more than six steps [used by Oxford Groups]; how many more I did not know. I relaxed and asked for guidance. With a speed that was astonishing, considering my jangling emotions, I completed the first draft. It took perhaps half an hour.

The words kept right on coming. When I reached a stopping point, I numbered the new steps. They added up to twelve."

© 1957, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pages 160-161

May 2004

For me, this is totally awesome and it gives me goosebumps.

It tells me that the Steps were Divinely inspired and that when I turn my life and my will over to my Creator, that I too can get the answer, that I too can get the guidance and direction I need to stay clean and sober, one day at a time.

God Bless.

I don't have to be perfect, and even if I feel less than or not worthy, I can be of service to someone else. We all have a purpose and a message to carry, it is our message, although we will often hear our story told by someone else in the rooms. Even if it is just to make someone smile, feel loved, and/or feel good about themselves and let them know that "God doesn't make no junk," and He/She/It, loves them as they are. So many times we judge ourselves by our outside and forget that we are not our disease.

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MajestyJo

11-29-2013, 07:23 PM

November 11

"We can't grow without giving ourselves space for silence and the voice within."

I Am Responsible

Greenwich Village, N.Y., December 1997
"Oh God, You Again?"
I Am Responsible: The Hand of AA

=====

November 12

"Our Serenity Prayer ... brings a new light to us that can dissipate our old-time and nearly fatal habit of fooling ourselves."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., March 1962

=====

November 13

"When I first started in AA, I began each day asking God to help keep me sober that day, and ended each night by thanking him for another day of sobriety. I still end each day that way, as I have done almost every night during the past forty-one years. It is a routine for me, but every once in a while I pause to reflect on what it truly means. I do it every night so that God won't change his mind, as I truly believe he helped lead me from the pits of alcoholism to the AA way of life."

Voice of Long Term Sobriety

Alexandria, Va., April 2002
"A Real War Story,"
Voices of Long-Term Sobriety

=====

November 15

"We now know that we do not have to run away, nor ought we again try to overcome adversity by still another bulldozing power drive that can only push up obstacles before us faster than they can be taken down."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., March 1962
"What Is Acceptance?"

=====

November 16

"Times change, alcoholism doesn't."

Voice of Long Term Sobriety

Marysville, Wash., September 2001
"The Same Chance I Had,"
Voices of Long-Term Sobriety

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MajestyJo

11-29-2013, 07:24 PM

November 17

"Few of us will ever be famous, but we can all be great because we serve each other."

Thank You For Sharing

McAllen, TX, October 1997
"Internal Restoration,"
Thank You for Sharing

=====

November 18

"How wonderful to be sober, to be able to think clearly (at times, at least), and to become aware of some portion of the greater wisdom concealed so deeply within myself."

Voice of Long Term Sobriety

Columbus, OH, April 1981
"A New Way of Looking at Life,"
Voices of Long-Term Sobriety

=====

November 19

"The best university for me -- the best school, the best teaching -- was in analyzing mistakes that I'd made and problems I created because of these mistakes. Not my successes."

AA Around the World

Warsaw, Poland, October 1996
"A Smiling Man, A Happy Man,"
AA Around the World

=====

November 20

"I'd like to develop Step Eleven further -- for the benefit of the complete doubter, the unlucky one who can't believe it has any real merit at all .... As he goes along with his process of prayer, he begins to add up the results. If he persists, he will almost surely find more serenity, more tolerance, less fear, and less anger. He will acquire a quiet courage, the kind that doesn't strain him. He can look at so-called failure and success for what they really are. Problems and calamity will begin to mean instruction, instead of destruction. He will feel freer and saner ... His sense of purpose and of direction will increase. His tensions and anxieties will commence to fade. His physical health is likely to improve. Wonderful and unaccountable things will start to happen. Twisted relations in his family and on the outside will unaccountably improve.

"Even if few of these things happen, he will still find himself in possession of great gifts. When he has to deal with hard circumstances he can face them and accept them. He can now accept himself and the world around him."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., June 1958
"Take Step Eleven"
The Language of the Heart

=====

November 21

"Until today, at least, I am getting further away from that first drink, which is the one that inevitably leads me to complete disaster."

AA Around the World

Caracas, Venezuela, May 1971
"My Name Is Adolfo,"

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MajestyJo

11-29-2013, 07:25 PM

November 22

"For all its usual destructiveness, we have found that fear can be the starting point for better things. Fear can be a stepping-stone to prudence and to a decent respect for others. It can point the path to justice, as well as to hate. And the more we have of respect and justice, the more we shall begin to find the love which can suffer much, and yet be freely given. So fear need not always be destructive, because the lessons of its consequences can lead us to positive values."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1962
"This Matter of Fear"
The Language of the Heart

=====

November 23

"The Twelve Steps are deceptively simple but provide limitless spiritual growth for anyone with the patience to stay the course."

Voice of Long Term Sobriety

Riverside, Ill., September 2007
"It Works for Me,"
Voices of Long-Term Sobriety

=====

November 24

"We sense that here in AA this shared darkness has become a shared light."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1
Pleasantville, N.Y., August 1959
"The Sense of Sobriety"
Spiritual Awakenings

=====

November 25

"I ask the newcomer to help me wash the coffeepot, or put chairs away, because service was, and still is, my key to belonging."

I Am Responsible

Manchester, New Hampshire, September 2000
"The Key to Belonging,"
I Am Responsible: The Hand of AA

=====

November 26

"I was amazed at the things I was grateful for: those painful situations that served to show me my character defects; the ability to accept and share my pain with others; the opportunities to do things I was afraid to do which gave me strength and confidence."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

State College, Pa., April 1994
"Working Incognito,"
Spiritual Awakenings

=====

November 27

"To be happily sober, we must be active -- and this does not necessarily mean group activity. The Loner is part of a much larger group of people in far distant places, all members of AA with the same problems, fears, and happiness to be shared ... I may not be in face-to-face contact with other AA members, but my real friends in AA are too many to enumerate, and I find there aren't enough hours in the day to do all I should."

AA Around the World

Salisbury, Rhodesia, February 1970
"Alone? Not This Loner!"

=====

November 28

"Recovery is giving it away. If you don't give it away you can't have it ... Be part of the pipeline."

I Am Responsible

Greenwich Village, N.Y., December 1997
"Oh God, You Again?"
I Am Responsible: The Hand of AA

=====

November 29

"Difficult times bring us to new degrees of acceptance and humility because we learn on a deeper level how close we really are to our next drink. If we hang on, we learn how the grace of the Fellowship and the principles of the program carry us through the tough spots as well as the times of joy."

Voice of Long Term Sobriety

Providence, R.I., March 2009
"The Bottom of the Glass,"
Voices of Long-Term Sobriety

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MajestyJo

12-02-2013, 06:12 PM

November 30

"I began to find ... a more centered, purposeful life, at least in the sense that my body, mind, emotions, and soul were all more or less heading in the same direction. I was riding one horse instead of four."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

La Canada, Calif., November 1989

=====

December 1

"The greatest promise in the program is the one in the Twelfth Step. It tells me I will have a spiritual awakening as the result of the Steps. I know I need that awakening to have a chance to stay sober"

White Rock, British Columbia, May 2005
"Life -- It Happens"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

=====

December 2

"I sabotage myself if I attach my sobriety to people, places, or things."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Carbondale, Ill., August 1988
"It's Always Dark at the Beginning,"

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MajestyJo

12-03-2013, 05:31 PM

December 3

"Only the sharing of despair can bring us ... illumination."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Pleasantville, N.Y., August 1959
"The Sense of Sobriety,"

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MajestyJo

12-04-2013, 11:44 PM

December 4

"No matter how truthful the words of my message, there could be no deep communication if what I said and did was coloured by pride, arrogance, intolerance, resentment, imprudence, or desire for personal acclaim -- even though I was largely unconscious of these attitudes"

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960
"The Language of the Heart"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

12-07-2013, 12:52 AM

December 5

"Some of us take a long time to 'come to' before we can 'come to believe' that there is any hope for us."

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Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

Nanaimo, British Columbia, February 2003
"My Name Is Gary and I'm a Human Being,"
Spiritual Awakenings

MajestyJo

12-07-2013, 12:53 AM

December 6

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

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Tukwila, Wash., July 2005
"Heard at Meetings,"
AA Grapevine

MajestyJo

12-08-2013, 12:59 AM

December 7

"Certainly, we need leaders, but we must regard them as the human agent of the Higher Power and not with undue adulation as individuals."

Best of Grapevine Volume 2

AA Co-Founder, Dr. Bob, September 1948
"The Fundamentals in Retrospect"
The Best of the Grapevine, Volume 2

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MajestyJo

12-09-2013, 06:02 PM

December 9

"Success and failure share a common denominator ... both are temporary"

Emotional Sobriety I

Escondido, Calif., August 2001
"Win or Lose"
Emotional Sobriety: The Next Frontier

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MajestyJo

12-11-2013, 11:45 PM

December 10

"God grant that AA may ever stay simple."

Best of Grapevine Volume 2

AA Co-Founder, Dr. Bob, September 1948
"The Fundamentals in Retrospect"
The Best of the Grapevine, Volume 2

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MajestyJo

12-11-2013, 11:46 PM

December 11

"Today's disappointment, viewed six months hence, may turn out to be one of the best breaks we ever got."

Jackson, Mich., February 1958

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MajestyJo

12-13-2013, 12:34 AM

December 12

"Coincidences are merely a manner in which God protects his anonymity."

AA Around the World

New York, N.Y., January 1999
"There's a Seat for Me in Cuba,"
AA Around the World

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MajestyJo

12-14-2013, 04:10 AM

December 13

"If each sufferer were to carry the news of the scientific hopelessness of alcoholism to each new prospect, he might be able to lay every newcomer wide open to a transforming spiritual experience."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1963
"The Bill W.--Carl Jung Letters"

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MajestyJo

12-14-2013, 07:45 PM

From "A Drunk, Like You:"

"I finally began to separate the religious aspects of
my life from A.A.'s spiritual program. Now the
big difference to me is that religion is the ritual, and
we all differ there, and spirituality is the way we
feel about what we do. It's about my personal
contact with my personal Higher Power, as I
understand Him.

"Everything has turned around....All this and more
I owe to the Fellowship in the rooms and the
program in the book."

c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 406

My spirituality enhances my religious beliefs, my religious beliefs enriches my spirituality.

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Meditating with God and Creation is a sure way for me to be balanced, grounded and connected to the God of my understanding.

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MajestyJo

12-15-2013, 01:26 AM

December 14

"My desire to drink became a desire not to."

Beginners' Book

Nipawin, Saskatchewan, November 2003
"Nobody's Fault but Mine,"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

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MajestyJo

12-16-2013, 02:40 AM

December 15

"My drinking career was all about running away. I could pack up and vanish in a flash. Now, I can make commitments and become part of something. I can let myself belong."

Beginners' Book

Kingston, N.Y., May 1997

"At Home in a Home Group"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

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MajestyJo

12-17-2013, 08:14 AM

December 16

"The smile from my face traveled to my heart."

Beginners' Book

Olympia, Wash., September 2006

"The Portals of Service,"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

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MajestyJo

12-17-2013, 08:16 AM

December 17

"My inner feelings boil down to a handful of things - fear, anger, self-pity, shame, and feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. These are the things we need to talk about in AA."

Beginners' Book

Russell, Pa., December 2004

"One Brick at a Time"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

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MajestyJo

12-19-2013, 06:59 AM

December 18

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"You've got one life to live. Don't screw it up with a lot of maybes, what-ifs, and could-have-beens. Focus on what you have."

Beginners' Book

Carmel Valley, Calif., August 2000

"Old Advice"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

MajestyJo

12-19-2013, 07:04 AM

December 19

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"When I call my sponsor, my friends, someone on my home group's phone list, or someone who scribbled their number on a napkin after a meeting, I make progress ... If we just call, we help one another stay sober, one call at a time, one connection at a time."

Beginners' Book

Morristown, N.J., May 2003

"Just Call Me"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

MajestyJo

12-20-2013, 11:59 PM

December 20

"Like every AA member I have a definite responsibility to become a citizen of the world around me; to channel into it the experience of living and working which has been mine in our Fellowship. "

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1961

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MajestyJo

12-22-2013, 12:54 AM

December 21

"Not picking up a drink creates infinite possibilities for me ... When I wake up in the morning I pray for what I need to get through the day sober. I also smile and say to myself, Who knows? This could be the greatest day of my life!"

Beginners' Book

New York, N.Y., January 2006

"Attitude Adjustment"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

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MajestyJo

12-22-2013, 08:18 AM

December 22

"My group included almost every type of alcoholic that old-timers feared most ... The amazing thing is most of us stayed sober, despite all the dire predictions. Why? Because the two things we had in common were more important than all our differences. We were alcoholics and we believed in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous."

Beginner's Book

Springville, UT, March 2000

"Courage to Change"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

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MajestyJo

12-23-2013, 08:25 PM

December 23

"If faith without works is dead, willingness without action is fantasy."

Cheverly, Md., February 1985

"Short Takes"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

12-24-2013, 02:57 PM

December 24

"Experience has taught us that simplicity is basic in preservation of our personal sobriety and helping those in need."

Best of Grapevine Volume 2

AA Co-Founder, Dr. Bob, September 1948

"The Fundamentals in Retrospect"
The Best of the Grapevine, Volume 2

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MajestyJo

12-25-2013, 07:53 AM

December 25

"By whatever name we may call it, the spirit of Christmas is in us all. How best to give and how to receive with ever more gratitude is our common aim. We'd like to practice the spirit of Christmas the year around. Therefore, we shall especially ask ourselves at this season: 'What more can we find in order that we shall have more to give?"

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., December 1952
"Every Day Is Christmas"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

12-26-2013, 10:06 AM

December 26

"I heard my future told around the tables at my home group."

Thank You For Sharing

Houston, TX, October 1994

"Around the Tables,"
Thank You for Sharing

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MajestyJo

12-27-2013, 09:12 AM

December 27

"Service made me feel useful. Twelfth Step work taught me to accept my past."

Spiritual Awakenings Vol. 1

State College, Pa., April 1994

"Working Incognito"
Spiritual Awakenings

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MajestyJo

12-28-2013, 01:27 PM

December 28

"It feels good to be trusted."

Beginners' Book

Nipawin, Saskatchewan, November 2003
"Nobody's Fault but Mine"

Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober

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MajestyJo

12-29-2013, 05:16 PM

December 29

"Serenity is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."

Tacoma, Wash., April 1984

"Short Takes"

AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

12-31-2013, 01:16 AM

December 30

"When I step out under the stars at night, they no longer seem cold or far away. They are a part of me and I am a part of them."

Best of Grapevine Volume 2

L.G., Ontario, August 1962

"Boy Lying in the Grass"
The Best of the Grapevine, Volume 2

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MajestyJo

12-31-2013, 11:55 AM

December 31

"Remembering to observe the Traditions of anonymity and nonendorsement, the AA member can carry AA's message into every troubled area of this very troubled world"

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., February 1958

"Problems Other Than Alcohol"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

01-01-2014, 11:27 AM

January 1

"If humility can expel the obsession to drink alcohol, then surely humility can be our antidote for that subtle wine called success."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., October 1947

"Traditions Stressed in Memphis Talk

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MajestyJo

01-02-2014, 12:20 PM

January 2

"Let it never be said that the spiritual way is a cowardly or escapist approach to life. On the contrary, it requires maximum diligence and persistence to seek divine guidance when all the evidence of our eyes and ears tries to tell us that life is largely physical, intellectual and emotional."

Jackson, Mississippi, November 1964

"Let Go and Let God,"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-03-2014, 12:01 PM

January 3

"I used to think that having a pint was the only way to have fun; now I know that, for me, it's the only way to destroy the fun that I'm having!"

Toronto, Ontario, August 2003

"Front Row on Fun"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-04-2014, 02:07 PM

January 4

"As I trudge the Road of Happy Destiny, AA holds my left hand, God holds my right, and I have no hands left to pick up a drink."

Albuquerque, N.M., January 2002

"Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?"
AA GrapevineA

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MajestyJo

01-05-2014, 12:59 PM

January 5

"I learned ... that I was a sick man emotionally and physically. As every AA today knows, this knowledge can be an enormous relief. I no longer needed to consider myself essentially a fool or a weakling."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960

"The Language of the Heart"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

01-06-2014, 06:46 PM

January 6

"The word powerless ... described my situation with alcohol perfectly and completely. My life was more than unmanageable, it was illegal."

Step by Step Book

Gainesville, Florida, September 1994

"Gateway to Freedom,"
Step by Step

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MajestyJo

01-07-2014, 07:51 PM

January 7

"Each of us must conform reasonably well to AA's Steps and Traditions, or else we shall go mad or die of alcoholism."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., October 1947

"Traditions Stressed in Memphis Talk
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

01-08-2014, 01:08 PM

January 8

"If it were not for the 'we' of AA, there would be no 'I'."

Best of Grapevine Volume 1

New York, NY., November 1969

"Tradition One"
Best of the Grapevine, Volume 1

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MajestyJo

01-09-2014, 01:29 PM

January 9

"By revealing our secrets and thereby ridding ourselves of guilt we can actually change our thinking and by altering our thinking we can change ourselves. What we will be tomorrow is determined by what we think today."

Brentwood, N.Y., May 1991

"What We Will Be Tomorrow"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-11-2014, 07:58 AM

January 10

"The AA message does not carry itself; somebody must carry it."

Jackson, Miss., November 1964

"Let Go and Let God,"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-11-2014, 08:00 AM

January 11

"The most important thing AA has given me is the chance to get to know someone I never knew -- myself."

Calgary, Alberta, December 1994

"Getting to Know You -- I Mean Me"

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MajestyJo

01-12-2014, 06:47 PM

January 12

"Sometimes when I think I am having a bad day, I am really learning a hard lesson, cheap. And sometimes, when I think I am having a good day, I am really in trouble and just haven't recognized it yet. I'm really no judge at all of what kind of day I'm having."

Brentwood, Tenn., April 1991

"Good Days and Bad Days"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-13-2014, 04:38 PM

January 13

"In relinquishing some goals because of lessened physical energy, I have been freed to achieve other and more satisfying ones that a deeper and more extensive Me has always known it wanted."

Home Group

Saratoga, Calif., August 1985

"Beyond the Generation Gap,"
The Home Group: Heartbeat of AA

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MajestyJo

01-14-2014, 03:50 PM

January 14

"The other day, I sent an AA friend on a job interview. He went to the wrong address and he lost the man's name. In another office, he stated his purpose, was offered a job, and came back with one better than the job I sent him to look for."

Wayne, Pa., June 1984

"The Mysterious Ways of the Higher Power"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-15-2014, 04:15 PM

January 15

"We are called to unity, not uniformity."

Oak Harbor, Wash., January 1984

"The Harmony of Service"
AA Grapevine

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The wolf is the teacher. Remain teachable!

MajestyJo

01-16-2014, 02:25 PM

January 16

"Sponsorship is a bridge to trusting the human race, the very race we once resigned from. In learning to trust, we are strengthening our sobriety."

One On One: AA Sponsorship in Action

Grand Island, Neb., February 1984

"A Means to a Beginning,"
One On One: AA Sponsorship in Action

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MajestyJo

01-18-2014, 09:19 PM

January 17

"When things go well, we must never fall into the error of believing that no great ill can befall us. Nor should we accuse ourselves of 'negative thinking' when we insist on facing the destructive forces in and around us, both realistically and effectively. Vigilance will always be the price of survival."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1960

"Freedom Under God: The Choice Is Ours,"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

01-18-2014, 09:23 PM

January 18

"Life is travel -- enjoy the journey, bumpy roads and all."

New York, N.Y., May 1977

"You and I Need Each Other"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-19-2014, 04:19 PM

January 19

"I am responsible for reporting for duty and making the effort to overcome adversity, and in so doing to overcome myself."

Van Nuys,Calif., November 1966

"Responsibility Is the Name of the Game,"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-20-2014, 09:47 PM

January 20

"The language of AA is the language of self-discovery, of speculation, of wonder. It has a dual reality: While it describes experience, it also creates experience, and allows each member to grow in the search for personal meaning."

Thornbury, Ontario, August 1984

"The Language of AA"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

01-21-2014, 07:07 PM

January 21

"We shall always have to deal with the fearful forces which are released when the human ego runs amok -- the same forces that are shattering the world of our time. Deliver us from temptation must therefore continue to be a prime ingredient of our every attitude, practice, and prayer."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1960

"Freedom Under God: The Choice Is Ours,"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

01-23-2014, 04:16 AM

January 22

"By helping to insure the sobriety of others to come, we insure our own sobriety today."

Home group

Rochester, N.Y., October 1987

"The Rise and Fall of a Home Group,"
The Home Group: Heartbeat of AA

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MajestyJo

01-23-2014, 02:12 PM

January 23

"Sincerity of purpose, humility in the knowledge of our own power to help, and confidence in our understanding of our capacities in AA are likely to help in working with others."

Home Group

St. Paul, Minn., December 1945

St. Paul's Four Discussion Groups

The Home Group: Heartbeat of AA

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MajestyJo

01-24-2014, 02:04 PM

January 24

"I try to accept reality instead of trying to control it. When I make that adjustment, the struggle ends."

Beginners' Book

El Granada, Calif., March 2003

"How an Atheist Works the Steps,"
Beginners' Book:

Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

01-25-2014, 10:24 AM

January 25

"Genuine peace will always be a chief ingredient of AA's freedom. But let none suppose that we shrink from major conflict only because we are afraid. Nowadays we believe we keep the peace because we love each other."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1960

"Freedom Under God: The Choice Is Ours,"
The Language of the Heart

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Had the thought that I can get into trouble with two arms, thank God, He didn't see fit to give me more.

MajestyJo

01-26-2014, 03:43 PM

January 26

"Perhaps for some, 'How It Work' has become a tired, overworked bit of dogma, an opportunity to daydream. But not for this alcoholic. I get more out of those words with each passing day. The words don't change, but I do."

Beginners' Book

Paradise, Calif.,October 2003

"How It Work' Works for Me,"
Beginners' Book:

Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

01-27-2014, 06:15 PM

January 27

"I didn't need to learn how to meditate before meditating. It turned out to be one of those learn-as-you-go things -- just as learning how to stay sober is part of staying sober a day at a time."

Beginners' Book

Anonymous, November 1991

"Trusting the Silence,"
Beginners' Book:

Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

01-28-2014, 08:18 PM

January 28

"Nothing improves if you drink."

Beginners' Book

El Granada, Calif., March 2003

"How an Atheist Works the Steps,"
Beginners' Book:

Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

01-30-2014, 01:40 AM

January 29

"Up to now AA seems to have taken the right turning at each new crossroad. This could scarcely have been our doing alone. Our Fellowship has afforded a convincing proof of that wise old adage which declares that 'man's extremity is God's opportunity."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1961

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MajestyJo

01-31-2014, 12:31 AM

January 30

"I am finally learning really to live one day at a time and to appreciate and be alert to the beautiful, marvel-filled, albeit sometimes infuriating world around me."

Home group

Saratoga, Calif.,August 1985

"Beyond the Generation Gap,"
The Home Group: Heartbeat of AA

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MajestyJo

02-01-2014, 03:43 AM

January 31

"We well know that our defects, as people and as a Society, have been and still are very great. And we hope that we shall never cease to rededicate ourselves to their correction."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., March 1960

"After Twenty-Five Years"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

02-01-2014, 02:39 PM

February 1

"While I may be powerless to solve the globe's problems, I am given all the power I need to make a difference to my community, my family, my job, my friends, and most importantly, to stay sober and help other alcoholics."

Woodinville, Wash., November 2013

"From: "The Scoop" "
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

02-02-2014, 03:09 PM

February 2

"It's a waste of time to take God's inventory."

Beginners' Book

November 1991

From: "Trusting the Silence"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-03-2014, 12:00 PM

February 3

"Nearly all of us, when we think about it, agree that we are a long, long way from being anywhere near grown up, from almost any point of view. We can clearly see that our job as individuals and as a Fellowship is to keep right on growing by the constant use of our Twelve Steps."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960
From: "AA Tomorrow"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

02-05-2014, 06:13 PM

February 4

"While I've never been sober today before, I count on my Higher Power to keep me sober as he has done on all those other days before."

Beginners' Book

Huntington, W.V., August 2006
From: "Never Sober Today Before"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-05-2014, 06:16 PM

February 5

"What matters is what works, not my opinion of what works."

Beginners' Book

November 1991
From: "Trusting the Silence"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-06-2014, 11:12 AM

February 6

"We of AA can never set any hampering limitation upon the ultimate destiny of ourselves and our Fellowship, nor any whatever upon God's love for us all. Individually and collectively, structurally and spiritually, we shall ever need to build for the future."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960
From: "AA Tomorrow"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

02-07-2014, 08:51 PM

February 7

"Be willing to be willing to follow directions and you will find your life changing in all areas."

Beginners' Book

Milwaukie, Ore., June 1999
From: "A Lady After All"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-08-2014, 09:52 PM

February 8

"If you need a friend who understands, look no further than the rooms of AA and the Big Book. They always hold an answer and some faith for me."

Beginners' Book

Santa Rosa, Calif, October 2006
From: "Imperfect Progress"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-10-2014, 09:49 PM

February 9

"The Secret is, there is no Secret! Working the Steps with a sponsor, going to meetings, helping others, and above all, keeping God and sobriety first have kept me sober almost five years now. I always had heard that things in plain sight are the hardest to find!"

Beginners' Book

Vandalia, Ill., February 2001
From: "The Secret"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-10-2014, 09:52 PM

February 10

"A vast communications net now covers the earth, even to its remotest reaches ... Nothing can matter more to the future welfare of AA than the manner in which we use this colossus of communication. Used unselfishly and well, the results can surpass our present imagination. Should we handle this great instrument badly, we shall be shattered by the ego demands of our own people -- often with the best of intention on their part."

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1960
From: "Freedom Under God: The Choice Is Ours"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

02-11-2014, 04:36 PM

February 11

"From the moment I pulled open the doors to my very first meeting, I felt something different, something good was going to happen. Those doors, which at the time I believed to be the heaviest ever made, allowed me to walk into a new way of life."

Beginners' Book

New York, N.Y., January 2006
From: "Attitude Adjustment"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-12-2014, 05:04 PM

February 12

"Clearly, the chief mark of restoration to sanity is our
not taking the first drink."

Step by Step Book

March 1981
From: "Sanity"
Step By Step

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MajestyJo

02-13-2014, 04:14 PM

February 13

"Empathy, not sympathy or pity, is the most useful quality
a sponsor can cultivate."

One On One: AA Sponsorship in Action

Bellevue, Wash., January 1975
From: "Need a Sponsor? Who? Me?"
One on One: AA Sponsorship in Action

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MajestyJo

02-14-2014, 01:40 PM

February 14

"With respect to its own affairs, the collective conscience of the group will, given time, almost surely demonstrate its perfect dependability. The group conscience will, in the end, prove a far more infallible guide for group affairs than the decision of any individual member, however good or wise he may be."

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AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1948
From: "Tradition Two"
The Language of the Heart

MajestyJo

02-16-2014, 01:45 AM

February 15

"One night after a Step Two meeting, I decided to find out what those courageous early members who put our Twelve Steps together really meant by sanity. I was a little surprised to find that my dictionary defined it as the quality of being sound of mind, sound of judgment, reasonable and rational in one's thoughts ... As I sat there mulling over the definition, an idea occurred to me: 'This is what I'm to be restored to -- sound, reasonable, rational thinking.'"

Step by Step Book

Shenandoah, Iowa, February 1982
From: "Sanity Clause"
Step By Step

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MajestyJo

02-16-2014, 03:25 PM

February 16

"If I want to be a leader, I have to do more than just find out in which direction the mob is moving and then get out in front of it ... Leadership involves significant sacrifice of personal goals and ambitions. A person really needs to have Tradition Two right at the center ... Personal pettiness just has no place in leadership."

Humbolt, Saskatchewan, February 1996
From: "I Wish You Well"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

02-17-2014, 08:52 AM

February 17

"I am a student of life just trying to learn how the universe works. The most powerful lesson I have learned is that it all happens inside me. My perception of any situation is in my control -- I have a choice about which way my mind will react."

Pinellas Park, Fla., November 2006
From: "How the Universe Works"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

02-18-2014, 07:38 PM

February 18

"Recovery is something like the restoration of a very old painting, covered over by layers and layers of darkening, distorted varnish ... Not all of the underlying pattern can be revealed at one time. What is uncovered, bit by bit and layer by slow, careful layer, are the things which are necessary and appropriate for me to know about myself right now."

Step by Step Book

Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, August 1992
From: "An Indescribable Benevolence"
Step By Step

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MajestyJo

02-19-2014, 12:12 PM

February 19

"Drinking is no longer a problem, but my thinking sure is. Writing a gratitude list puts the brakes on negative thoughts, turns me back toward the light, and helps me to see the beauty in everyday life."

Beginners' Book

New York, N.Y., January 2006
From: "Tools for Life"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-20-2014, 11:54 PM

February 20

"In the meetings I attend, newcomers sometimes ask me how I've been able to stay sober so long. My answer is always the same: every morning, the first thing I do is say three magic words -- God, help me."

Beginners' Book

Kissimmee, Fla., March 2006
From: "Small but Mighty"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-22-2014, 02:35 AM

February 21

"I use notes to remind me to seek my Higher Power ... On my desk, in front of my computer is the note: 'Good morning, this is God, I will be handling all your worries and concerns for today. I will not need your help!'"

Buffalo Grove, Ill., November 2013
From: "Note to Self"

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MajestyJo

02-22-2014, 10:28 AM

February 22

"Consider the problem of the fast-growing overseas centers just now emerging from their pioneering time -- how they have slowly gained the confidence of medicine, religion, and the press; how they have finally grown into unity through an ever better application of our Twelve Traditions; how they have tried to make good their desperate lack of language translations; and how they have well begun to cross all barriers of race, creed, or social condition."

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., October 1960
From: "Our Pioneers Overseas"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

02-23-2014, 11:07 AM

February 23

"The welcome I received in AA was real. Neither my youth, my race, my newness, nor my foreignness concerned them. All they appeared to see was that I finally admitted my powerlessness over alcohol. That was enough for them."

Beginners' Book

Port of Spain, March 2003
From: "What Do I Like Best?"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-24-2014, 10:29 AM

February 24

"The Italians have a neat way of telling someone 'I love you.' Their expression is 'Ti voglio bene' -- 'I wish you well.' It just seems to put things on a tangible level ... Quite often my prayer is nothing more than this little Italian phrase, 'Ti voglio bene.'"

Humbolt, Saskatchewan, February 1996
From: "I Wish You Well"
AA Grapevine

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MajestyJo

02-25-2014, 06:30 AM

February 25

"I expect to be 'on tap' but never again 'on top,' this being precisely the stance that AA hopes all its old-timers will take."

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1961
From: "Again at the Crossroads"
The Language of the Heart

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NOT BLEEDING DECONS!

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Sorry couldn't resist, a few just about run me out of AA, trying to close my group Freedom of Recovery. Everybody thought with the gossip that was going around that I was holding the meeting in my home, when in fact, I didn't even live in the same building. The group bought more meeting lists for newcomers than all the other meetings in the city. I was hurt by it all that they would turn their back on newcomers just because they didn't like me.

MajestyJo

02-26-2014, 08:07 AM

February 26

"I was told by a sober member of AA that if I wanted to stay sober I would need to do three things: get a sobriety date and don't change it, get a sponsor, and get a home group."

Beginners' Book

Glendale, Calif., March 2002
From: "Three Essentials"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-27-2014, 10:12 AM

February 27

"Today, I don't have the home, the husband, the three cars in the garage. I have one old clunker that takes me to meetings. I am not financially well off, but I have a peace of mind I never dreamed possible. My needs are always met -- and even some of my wishes. I am truly happy for the first time in my life. Thank you AA."

Beginners' Book

Milwaukie, Ore., June 1999
From: "A Lady After All"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

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MajestyJo

02-28-2014, 06:27 AM

February 28

"We found that all progress, material or spiritual, consisted of finding out what our responsibilities actually were and then proceeding to do something about them ... We found that we didn't always have to be driven by our own discomforts as, more willingly, we picked up the burdens of living and growing ... We discovered that full acceptance and action upon any clear-cut responsibility almost invariably made for true happiness and peace of mind."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1965
From: "Responsibility Is Our Theme"
The Language of the Heart

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MajestyJo

07-02-2014, 04:00 PM

JUST FOR TODAY!

Baffling

from: "More about Alcoholism"

"But there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. Our sound reasoning failed to hold us in check. The insane idea won out. Next day we would ask ourselves, in all earnestness and sincerity, how it could have happened."

© 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 37

- The Hoffelds

When I came into recovery, I knew there was a God and I knew I wasn't insane. After a year in recovery, I didn't know who God was, and realized I was insane. Thus started my spiritual journey, because I was so baffled because I was soooooooo sure!

http://www.angelwinks.net/images/mot5.jpg
!

MajestyJo

07-02-2014, 04:04 PM

Just found this AA pamphlet in my stash of literature and thought, "How true this is. How often we compare and stay sick. How some have used just alcohol while others admit to other addictions such as work, food, gambling, drugs (all types), religion, exercise, excessive cleaning and order, and the list goes on. It has been my experience that those who have added crack to their already addictive behavior, hit a bottom so much faster than others, and yet it is one of the hardest to get off. There are so many 'new' drugs out there that were not a part of the scene when I was there.

How many 'pure' alcoholics are there out there! What makes you think you are different or do you?

Alcohol is a drug?

Posted in 2004

I have seen so many people die as a result of finding recovery and then substituting their drug of choice for other things, and end up going back out there and dying.

A friend of mine just died on the weekend. A long time friend told me she was a pure alcoholic, then admitted to having a problem with gambling and having to go and get help. She said, "But I am an alcoholic first!"

I just reconnected with a girl who I met in treatment 13 years ago, she just got her beginners tag in CA. She had one year in AA at one time. I had a call from a friend on Saturday, he had 18 months, and has been out doing research for four years. It was good to know he was still alive.

For me, I am an addict who used alcohol, just like I did many people, places and things in my life. (Relationships, my job and my bed, pills and volunteer work).

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MajestyJo

04-07-2015, 07:59 PM

You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning

Often God shuts a door in our face, and then subsequently opens the door through which we need to go.
—Catherine Marshall

We try and try to control the events of our lives. And not seldom the events in others' lives, too. The occasions are frequent when our will conflicts with God's. Then for a time we feel at a loss. Our direction is uncertain. But always, always, another door opens. A better way beckons. How stubborn we are! And how simple life would be were we to daily, fully, turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. God's help and direction in all things are always available. Turning a deaf ear is like trying to find a seat in a darkened movie theater unaided by the usher.

Every experience is softened when we face it accompanied by our higher power. Any past struggle, any present fear, is a testament to our attempts to do it alone. Too frequently we forge ahead, alone, only to have our way blocked. The detours need never be there. No door closes unless there is a better way. Divine order will prevail.

There is no need to struggle, today. I will breathe deeply and take my higher power with me, wherever I go. And the doors will be open for as far as I can see.

Posted on another site June 27, 2010

Control, the "C" word for me! I couldn't understand the word powerless until I substituted the word control.

As it says here, control is an illusion. I use to keep trying and trying, but 'it' just didn't work out. If they would just do that, "it" would be alright." If I could only do that, "it" would be just fine!

When I hear myself repeatedly saying the "I" word, then I know that I am back controlling my life. My life doesn't 'work' without my Higher Power. Until I could surrender to Him, my life was unmanageable, especially when managed by me. Through that surrender, I am empowered to do what I need to do for myself.

When I turn over the reins, those doors do open. If they appear shut, then I know that the time is not right and I need to learn to 'just be' and know that the door will open with the time is right. When I take my Higher Power with me, I will know what to do and what direction to do it in.

As they say, "If you have to control it, it is already out of control." This was such a profound and enlightening statement for me. It helped to get rid of a lot of denial, not just about my alcoholism, but about my codependency, my eating disorder, and my other addictions.

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MajestyJo

04-12-2015, 01:41 PM

Choice

from: "A Day's Plan"

"Every day I ask God to kindle within me the fire of His love, so that love, burning bright and clear, will illuminate my thinking and permit me to better do His will. Throughout the day, as I allow outside circumstances to dampen my spirits, I ask God to sear my consciousness with the awareness that I can start my day over any time I choose; a hundred times, if necessary."

© 1990, Daily Reflections, page 80

This is a solution that has worked many times for me over the years. A day can start any time, each day is a new beginning, so have a great one.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can make the decision to stay stuck, to continue acting out in old patterns, and allow themselves to slip into depression and self-pity and not take action before it gets to the wallowing stage. This program is one of freedom. I don't have to live that way anymore.

How awful it would be if I woke up in a bad mood and could not change it? With the help of my Higher Power and the Steps I can change how my day starts and start it over whenever I need to.

I know I didn't know how to have fun. I didn't know how to "lighten' up" and not take life so seriously as it says in Tradition Four. I didn't know how to let my inner child come out and play, let alone anything about giving her permission to do so.

I didn't know I could choose the reactions, the actions and the moods, etc. that I had to people, places and things.

:UgoGirl:

MajestyJo

05-12-2015, 03:00 PM

You are reading from the book Twenty Four Hours a Day Hardcover (24 Hours)

A.A. Thought for the Day

Everyone who comes into A.A. knows from bitter experience that he or she can't drink. I know that drinking has been the cause of all my major troubles or has made them worse. Now that I have found a way out, I will hang onto A.A. with both hands. Saint Paul once said that nothing in the world, neither powers nor principalities, life nor death, could separate him from the love of God. Once I have given my drink problem to God, should anything in the world separate me from my sobriety?

Meditation for the Day

I know that my new life will not be immune from difficulties, but I will have peace even in difficulties. I know that serenity is the result of faithful, trusting acceptance of God's will, even in the midst of difficulties. Saint Paul said: "Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may welcome difficulties. I pray that they may test my strength and build my character.

I can't drink safely!

I read these words or said them, not sure which it was, on another site.

If ever I was going to pick up a drink, it would have been in the last month. Again, I have been back in that sick and tired of being tired and sick, only to have something else put on my plate.

People say, "God tests us." I am not so sure, I am still of a second mind on this. I think we test God. I know that I made some unhealthy choices, especially where it concerns food. I also know that a few times I didn't listen to myself, I went with what I thought I should do, rather than what I thought I really needed to do.

I realized yesterday that I had forgotten my cholesterol medication a couple of times and that could account for some of the problem. When I don't sleep, I have problems remembering to take my medications on time and my eating patterns are off. It is all about me, it isn't about God, or my son, or my sister, or my noisy neighbor, it is about me and my sobriety.

Something I posted on another site in 2011. In today it wasn't cholesterol medication, it has been my blood pressure medication that is giving me problems. I don't see my doctor until the 20th. Life is so much, one day at a time. I need to go to the pharmacy and keep an eye on my blood pressure and if need be, go to ER or go to the clinic if things get out of hand, doing what ever it takes to maintain my sobriety.

http://www.animated-gifs.eu/avatars-100x100-humor/0002.gif

MajestyJo

06-20-2015, 05:06 AM

Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to Him.

- Unknown origin.

- Alkiespeaks

They might not who originally said it, I know I heard it many times in recovery and I try to pass it forward.

Sometimes I think we talk too much and don't do enough listening. I am a firm believier that if we have true faith, we don't have to ask over and over for the same thing, especially in the same day. Put it in God's Hands and leave it there.

Meditation takes many forms. As I have said before, "Osho says we can meditate doing dishes." It took me a while to get by the word dishes, but realize that what he was trying to portray, was we can talk and listen for God as we go through our day, listen for His message. I have to guard against being 'too busy' to hear what He has to say. I know I just can't sit on my rear and expect things to happen in my life.

We have a direct line, use it. You don't have to be put on hold unless the timing isn't right and it is your will not the God of your understanding. There is no waiting to pick it up, we can use it any time. We can call in the good times as well as in the not so good times.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTAs3OGstNhh5uQPTg28nFSdkMcNiKuO yvM6KlxfAZf2AD8IRRQhg

MajestyJo

06-25-2015, 06:17 PM

The mind is a powerful tool. It can talk you into or out of anything and everything. When I am not living God-centered, I become a product of that mind. It can tell me I am just 'fine' or it can tell me I am very sick and not worthy of love and care. It is so important to feed my mind with positive affirmations. I have to remember that all I have is today. Whatever label I choose to wear in today, is subject to change be it positive or negative. The choice is mine.

I am a recovering alcoholic/addict, who used alcohol and other mind altering substances, to deal with life. Today, when I hear someone say, "Well I am an addict/alcoholic you know!" I always ask, "So what are you doing about it?

A part of my mind was filled with blame and shame. Blaming other people for the conditions in my life and shame as to where I allowed myself to go as a result of my using. It wasn't just what I did but it was the fact that I lost my principles, put aside my beliefs, went where I said I would never go, and puffed myself into this prideful balloon full of hot air that was false and filled with a lot of things I had no reason to be proud of.

The things that I did as a result of trying to please others, looking for affirmation and acceptance, the letting go my integrity and principles that were such a big part of my life to end up an empty shell with no mind of her own with no will to live and completely void of feelings.

What a gift the program has given back. My sense of self, a new set of principles, and a sense of pride in who I am in today.

The picture is gross but it reminds me how easily I can get my nose all bent out of shape over the littlest things and forget where I come from, and forget how far I have come back.

http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/Bea_Jo2/th_nose.gif

MajestyJo

11-11-2015, 07:01 PM

Good to reprint and give to someone else……….

On Dec. 14, 1934, a failed stockbroker named Bill Wilson was struggling with alcoholism at a New York City detox center. It was his fourth stay at the center and nothing had worked. This time, he tried a remedy called the belladonna cure — infusions of a hallucinogenic drug made from a poisonous plant — and he consulted a friend named Ebby Thacher, who told him to give up drinking and give his life over to the service of God.

Wilson was not a believer, but, later that night, at the end of his rope, he called out in his hospital room: “If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything.

Anything!”

As Wilson described it, a white light suffused his room and the presence of God appeared. “It seemed to me, in the mind’s eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing,” he testified later. “And then it burst upon me that I was a free man.”

Wilson never touched alcohol again. He went on to help found Alcoholics Anonymous, which, 75 years later, has some 1.2 million members in 55,000 meeting groups, while 11,000 professional treatment centers employ the steps.

The movement is the subject of a smart and comprehensive essay by Brendan I. Koerner in the July 2010 issue of Wired magazine. The article is noteworthy not only because of the light it sheds on what we’ve learned about addiction, but for what it says about changing behavior more generally. Much of what we do in public policy is to try to get people to behave in their own long-term interests — to finish school, get married, avoid gangs, lose weight, save money. Because the soul is so complicated, much of what we do fails.

The first implication of Koerner’s essay is that we should get used to the idea that we will fail most of the time. Alcoholics Anonymous has stood the test of time. There are millions of people who fervently believed that its 12-step process saved their lives. Yet the majority, even a vast majority, of the people who enroll in the program do not succeed in it. People are idiosyncratic. There is no single program that successfully transforms most people most of the time.

The second implication is that we should get over the notion that we will someday crack the behavior code — that we will someday find a scientific method that will allow us to predict behavior and design reliable social programs. As Koerner notes, A.A. has been the subject of thousands of studies. Yet “no one has yet satisfactorily explained why some succeed in A.A. while others don’t, or even what percentage of alcoholics who try the steps will eventually become sober as a result.”

Each member of an A.A. group is distinct. Each group is distinct. Each moment is distinct. There is simply no way for social scientists to reduce this kind of complexity into equations and formula that can be replicated one place after another.

Nonetheless, we don’t have to be fatalistic about things. It is possible to design programs that will help some people some of the time. A.A. embodies some shrewd insights into human psychology.

In a culture that generally celebrates empowerment and self-esteem, A.A. begins with disempowerment. The goal is to get people to gain control over their lives, but it all begins with an act of surrender and an admission of weakness.

In a culture that thinks of itself as individualistic, A.A. relies on fellowship. The general idea is that people aren’t really captains of their own ship. Successful members become deeply intertwined with one another — learning, sharing, suffering and mentoring one another. Individual repair is a social effort.

In a world in which gurus try to carefully design and impose their ideas, Wilson surrendered control. He wrote down the famous steps and foundations, but A.A. allows each local group to form, adapt and innovate. There is less quality control. Some groups and leaders are great; some are terrible. But it also means that A.A. is decentralized, innovative and dynamic.

Alcoholics have a specific problem: they drink too much. But instead of addressing that problem with the psychic equivalent of a precision-guidance missile, Wilson set out to change people’s whole identities. He studied William James’s “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” He sought to arouse people’s spiritual aspirations rather than just appealing to rational cost-benefit analysis. His group would help people achieve broad spiritual awakenings, and abstinence from alcohol would be a byproduct of that larger salvation.

In the business of changing lives, the straight path is rarely the best one. A.A. illustrates that even in an age of scientific advance, it is still ancient insights into human nature that work best. Wilson built a remarkable organization on a nighttime spiritual epiphany.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 29, 2010

An earlier version of this column stated that Alcoholics Anonymous has professional treatment centers, but the centers only employ the organization's program without being run by it.

Received with thanks from my friend Dave M.

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere, but came across it tonight on another site.

MajestyJo

12-10-2015, 08:09 PM

We do have an option. We can pray and ask our Higher Power to help us overcome the cravings and obsession, or pick up a drug, no matter what form it takes, a drug is a drug. Substitution doesn't work. For me, in the end I had three substance to overcome, and then I had to deal with my smoking. My doctor put me on an inhaler, because he said for me to quit, because I was one of the really sick one, I would die. It took me 7 years in recovery to be open to the thought of quitting smoking, even though it was affecting my health. I finally came to a decision to quit, because I wanted to be clean, clear channel to carry the message of recovery. I didn't want to quit. I had to pray for the willingness to be willing.

When I get that feeling of using, I get that moment of pause that allows me to make a decision as to whether I am going to use the tools of the program, or call my dealer or go to the nearest bar, or pick up the phone to have something delivered. It is best to call my sponsor. If you don't have one, I suggest you get one, or some close friend or a minister/clergy/counsellor, that you can call. I know my sponsor saved my life many times over.

http://www.animated-gifs.eu/mammals-mice/0093.gif

MajestyJo

12-15-2015, 06:40 AM

We All Come Together

We all come together
With one common goal
To carry the message
God let us hold
When your stumbling drunk
With no where to turn
Comes to our program
Twelve steps learn
When all worn out
From your wild ways
We'll share our hope
Help you to find
Sober days
The ultimate goal
Is to pass
It on
We
Do our best
Before they're gone
Helping others
To get along
First we surrender to win
Then we clean house
Make amends
Where we can
Go to meetings
And then
Go again
This was is simple
But really hard
For we do the battle
In our own yard
When you look in the mirror
Who do you see
Your own worst enemy
Looking back at thee
Now don't be frightened
You're not alone
When you walked
Through our doors
You have a new home
Get a sponsor
Pray extra hard
I'll always remember
How soon I forgot
I thought I was different
But I was not
Real soon
After
That
I drank again
Real fast I remembered
Why I first came in
God saw fit
To give me
Another
Try
I
Had
To get
Honest
And
Not deny
Together we can
Have victory

Daniel M Corkery
1/12/2001

Originally posted on:

Alcohol and Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums

MajestyJo

01-02-2016, 09:43 PM

Today's Gift - 12/28/05

Today's thought is:

We need to let the old go, so the new can emerge.
--Peggy Bassett

When we first entered the program, we heard the saying "One door must close before another can open." That baffled us, even while it gave us comfort. It helped that people we looked up to found solace in the slogan. Their experiences, shared in the meetings, taught us understanding. Each time we fought against a changing condition, someone we admired was able to remind us of its value.

Now we are the truth-bearers for the newcomers. Over time we have come to believe that every experience has special meaning. When something new begins to tap us on the shoulder, that's our cue to let something else go. Newcomers need our demonstration of how it works. No doubt, before this day or this week has passed, we'll each have an opportunity to close one door and open another. Let's make sure we share what we learn with someone else.

I am someone's teacher today. I will not fight circumstances that are changing, but accept that their passing is my opportunity.
You are reading from the book:

A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey

From my site Soundness of Mind

They say we have to give our recovery away in order to keep it. It was a difficult concept to understanding. I also had to remember to save some for myself. My sponsor said to me, "Top yourself up and only give away the overflow."

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQloWa3RLXByZe9TTsRTxTWw_8a6abaS tlgZt7AZRGkn92m7PHdnw

MajestyJo

01-06-2016, 02:51 AM

Guidance

from: "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous"

"I [Bill W.] was in this anything-but-spiritual mood on the night [in December 1938] when the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were written. I was sore and tired clear through. I lay in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and with a tablet of scratch paper on my knee. I could not get my mind on the job, much less put my heart in it. But here was one of those things that had to be done....

Finally I started to write. I set out to draft more than six steps [used by Oxford Groups]; how many more I did not know. I relaxed and asked for guidance. With a speed that was astonishing, considering my jangling emotions, I completed the first draft. It took perhaps half an hour. The words kept right on coming. When I reached a stopping point, I numbered the new steps. They added up to twelve."

© 1957, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pages 160-161

Many people say, it is all in the Big Book. That may be, but what kept me sober were the Twelve Steps. Without them, I would not be sober today. I will be every grateful for the Twelve and Twelve, they are a blueprint to living for me.

Many people say, The Twelve Traditions are for the group. They are also spiritual tools which I need to apply to my own life.

Originally posted in December 2004 on another site

It is amazing, this was written in 2004, and it is just as true in today. This is a living program. It isn't just about the 12 Steps, it is about taking the program outside of the rooms and living it. The 12 Traditions are guidelines to help us live in our home, at work, and in the community.

I found myself in the Big Book. The 12 & 12 showed me how to live with the new me. I not only had to deal with my prescription drug and alcohol addictions, I had to look at my eating disorder and other shortcomings which developed in my life like my computer addiction and my pain. The 12 Steps are applicable to all areas of my life. They helped me to quit smoking and not substitute one addiction for another.

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTyommWteTZweaXYN1mOjL4yaklx57s wTS0RSY2f_VkoofucoQjg

MajestyJo

01-17-2016, 04:19 PM

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

First we work the program because we have to. Then we work the program because we are willing to. Finally we work the program because we want to.

Really like this, except that I would add, "Work the program because I need to."

I need the program just as much in today, as I did when I came through the doors of recovery. They aren't all the same reasons, although chronic pain has always been there in one form or another. Before it was a lot of emotional and physical pain, and I am so glad that I have the tools of the program to deal with it in today.

Life didn't get better, I did. I got better equipped to handle it. I have a relationship with a Higher Power and through His Love and Good Orderly Direction, I learned to love and help myself.

The big difference in today, back then it was God as I understand Him. In today, it is God as I understood Him to be by working and applying the program.

For me, the program is the 12 Steps of AA. Along with going to meetings, a sponsor, literature, helping others, there is prayer and meditation, to help me to maintain my connection to Him/Her.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTnSuMlJrzHVW8IQVzW9Nn1lLqL2F1Cl GnGyBxsuF_d9cB9jnw1

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-symbolism-turtle.html

MajestyJo

01-29-2016, 05:34 PM

Fear
^*^*^
"Unreasonable fear that our instincts will not be satisfied
drives us to covet the possessions of others,
to lust for sex and power,
to become angry when our instinctive demands
are threatened,
to be envious when the ambitions of others
seem to be realized while ours are not.
We eat, drink, and grab for more of everything than we need,
fearing we shall never have enough.
And with genuine alarm at the prospect of work,
we stay lazy.
We loaf and procrastinate,
or at best work grudgingly and under half steam.
These fears are the termites that ceaselessly devour
the foundations of whatever sort of life we try to build."
1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 49
^*^*^*^*^*

Thought to Consider . . .

Fear is a darkroom for developing negatives

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
F E A R = Forgetting Everything's All Right

=================================

Fear
^*^*^
"The practice of AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
in our personal lives also brought incredible releases
from fear of every description,
despite the wide prevalence of formidable personal problems.
When fear did persist, we knew it for what it was,
and under God's grace we became able to handle it.
We began to see each adversity as a God-given
opportunity to develop the kind of courage
which is born of humility, rather than bravado.
Thus we were enabled to accept ourselves,
our circumstances, and our fellows."
Bill W., January 1962
©1988AAGrapevine, The Language of the Heart, p. 268
^*^*^*^*^*

Thought to Consider . . .

Courage is the willingness to accept fear
and act anyway.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
F E A R = Fools Every Alcoholic Repeatedly

================================

Fear
^*^*^
"When, with God's help, we calmly accepted our lot,
then we found we could live at peace with ourselves
and show others who still suffered the same fears
that they could get over them, too.
We found that freedom from fear was more important
than freedom from want."
1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 122
^*^*^*^*^*

Thought to Consider . . .

Courage is the willingness to accept fear and act anyway.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
F E A R = Face Everything And Recover

MajestyJo

01-29-2016, 05:40 PM

I struggle with fear. I fear things that haven't even happend yet, if I let myself. I realize though if I let my fear consume me then I isolate, look at the negative instead of seeing any positive. I sit in my chair and watch TV and eat and complain because I have to get up and let the dogs out for the upteenth time. If I do that, what am I doing to make a difference? What am I doing as an example to my family much less the outside world? What am I doing to myself? I am allowing myself to wither and die a little at a time. I am so grateful for my Higher Power, who I call God. I can give him these burdens, I know I have to stay sober so I can trust and realize who is really in control...it is so freeing and I stop being a burden to myself and others around me. He gets bigger to me all the time of what He can do. That is a blessing. Jeanne

Great words of wisdom that I identify with.

There are healthy fears, fears that keep me from picking up and going back to where I came from. My disease progresses along with my recovery and I know that if I picked up, I would be back where I was or worse. It would mean death for me today, because of my diabetes, which I didn't have 24 years ago.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRnv5voxvOj-QJMYZRa8qoUwLW-Os4NOo4UbnFWhaumWvNJLRF0rQ

MajestyJo

01-29-2016, 05:41 PM

Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.

—Brendan Francis

http://www.animated-gifs.eu/avatars-100x100-rabbits/0081.gif

Love this quote. It was true with a lot of my own fears. When I was able to grasp onto some faith, I was able to take that step. Things were not so dark when I brought them to the light.

One of the greatest tools was realizing that I didn't have to do it alone. I had support from my home group, my sponsor, my new recovery friends, many who had already been there. I was not alone. If I was, it was because I had put up the blocks and not allowed them in.

This is what happened with my Higher Power. He had been with me for years but I had turned my back on Him. I didn't think He had much faith in me. I had not lived up the what I saw as "His" dictates, which in truth was the interruption of others. My God in today is loving, caring, forgiving, all encompassing. He meets my needs. If He leads me to it, He will see me through it.

MajestyJo

02-02-2016, 01:52 AM

Too bad this post wasn't responded to. Meditation is a big part of my own recovery and has been right from the beginning.

At first, I took my Bible (I would only use the New Testament, the Psalms and the Proverbs), and I would say a prayer, open the Bible and read where my eyes fell.

I also did this with the Big Book. When I came on line, I would say the Step 3, 7th, and the Serenity Prayer, plus a form of Step 11, because I couldn't remember it all. Prayer helps me to get out of the way, so my God can work through me instead of around me and over me. It has never ceased to amaze me how my God allowed me to match up pictures and text on so many occasions, things and words were just there.

I like the colour meditation they taught us in recovery. When you close my eyes, I see black, and then the colours start to come, red, orange, green, blue, etc. and asking for the white light. It is very healing.

http://www.meditationcenter.com/healing/color.html

I also put on music, preferably for me, music without words. I have found though that when I put on music to listen to, words come through that I need to hear. The problem with most of today's music, there are words that I don't desire to here.

Candle light and those little white lights that they generally have on only at Christmas helped me and remind me to take things out of the darkness and into the light so I can see them. A lot depends on my willingness to see and my willingness to deal with what I see.

A friend of mine suggested that I sit at a table with a blank piece of paper and a pen. Every time I got a thought, put it on paper, even if it is just a word. It generally shows a pattern and guidance as to where you need to go and what you need to do.

Prayer is asking for help, meditation is listening for help.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/animated/animated34.gif

MajestyJo

02-05-2016, 08:39 PM

People are like magnets, they draw certain energies toward
themselves. I have noticed that anytime my focus turns
negative, it's because I have been focusing on what I might
be doing wrong, real or imagined! Must be me, right?
Nope! This is just those old tapes replaying in my head....

People with negative energy try to suck us in, pulling us into
that same black hole they live in. The only way to battle this
pull is getting back to basics, restoring positive energy and
balance in my life.

Unknown to me

I am a firm believer that we attract like energy. What I put out, I will get back. Negative things happen, but instead of "Oh woe is me!" I try to look for the positive and how I can change that negative into something that is good for me. I have learned that what is positive for me may not be good for someone else and visa versa.

I have had a lot of pain, felt kind of blue, and considering a pity party when the phone rings. If it is someone who is positive, I will hesitate to pick it up but if I do answer I let them know that it isn't really good for me to talk in the moment. Other times, when I know the person tends to be an energy stealer, a taker instead of a giver, I will talk to them and nine times out of ten, the negative energy around me is gone and I have feeling better.

When I get an message on my answering machine, I listen for their voice and if I hear sighs, oh woe is mes, along with a hard luck story, I answer when it is good for me.

Posted on another site by me in 2010

MajestyJo

02-05-2016, 08:42 PM

I am reminded of the slogan, "Let it begin with me." I can't change others, but I can change me and I am a firm believer that we are often products of our environment. I need not only look at what and who is around me, but look at the energy I am putting out.

I was told there was no right or wrong, it was all energy and it was up to me to accept or reject it. What is good for me in today, may not be good tomorrow. What is good for me, may not be good for someone else.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-truQsPQW374/VXMsUXqUUCI/AAAAAAAAlz0/byt0xRPXJrI/w800-h800/art-meets-mathematics-dizzying-geometric-gifs-by-david-whyte-7.gif

MajestyJo

02-12-2016, 01:53 PM

Sharpen Your Ax

A young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. "That depends," replied the foreman. "Let's see you fell this tree." The young man stepped forward, and skillfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "You can start Monday."

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by--and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today."

Startled, the young man replied, "I thought you paid on Friday."

"Normally we do," said the foreman. "But we're letting you go today because you've fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first place on Monday to last place today."

"But I'm a hard worker," the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks?"

The foreman, sensing the young man's integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, "Have you been sharpening your ax?"

The young man replied, "No sir, I've been working too hard to take time for that!"

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take time to "sharpen the ax." In today's world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay sharp?

There's nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But God doesn't want us to get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like taking time to pray, to read and study Scripture, or to listen to "the still small voice of God." We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don't take time to sharpen the ax,
we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

Found this on another site, originally posted by BW in 2010

For me, it was my tongue that was sharp. Was so busy cutting everyone down, comparing instead of identifying my own problems.

We do need to be vigilant as this disease is cunning, baffling and powerful. You never know when it is going to raise it's head and try to take you by surprise. Many times I have asked myself, "Now where did that thought come from?" It is generally my disease telling me that things are okay, when in fact they are not. For me it was about self-honesty and letting go of the denial.

I can't, God can, just for today, I chose to let Him.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/gmpod/gmpod91.jpg

MajestyJo

02-20-2016, 07:59 PM

In A.A. we have to learn that drink is our greatest enemy. Although we used to think that liquor was our friend, the time came when it turned against us and became our enemy.

- 24 Hour A Day

Alcohol was my coping tool. It was made me feel 10 feet tall and bullet proof. I laughed when I heard that phrase. It is an exaggeration, but then, that is what alcoholic do! Drink and exaggerate. It isn't about a drink it is about how many an hour. It isn't about a glass but a bottle. For me it was did I have over 20 or under 20 when I went to the Legion. It wasn't about one hour or a time out. It was about a day or how long did I go this time?

What I thought of as my best friend became my worst enemy. I could no longer drink safely. When I wanted to stop, I couldn't!

I remember asking, "what do I need to change?" My reply was always the same, "Everything!"

It took me a long time to see my disease. I compared the drinking and the actions until I started to identify with the feelings and thoughts behind them.

I don't have a drinking problem today, I still have a thinking problem and that I why I continue to need this program. I have to work on my emotional sobriety every day.

Spirituality is a change in our attitude, sufficient to aid recovery according to the Big Book. It worked for me. Most of my problems were attitude problems and I had a lot of changing to do.

Getting rid of the old to make room for the new. Cleansing my body, mind, and spirit.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/kidpod/kidpod1069.jpg

MajestyJo

02-24-2016, 02:26 PM

(Humour me....but it's become abundantly clear to me how ingrained recovery becomes as a way of life....Feel free to add to the list.

I'd be thrilled to know I'm not the ONLY nutcase out here! LOL)

graced

You KNOW you're in recovery when...

** you have more self help books for overcoming addictions on your bookshelves than the public library but you read only two--the big blue one and the little blue one! (why I don't toss the rest is beyond me!)

**you give a thumbs up to the fella honking behind you cuz you're convinced it's about the 'honk if you're a friend of Bill's' sticker on your bumper and totally missed the fact that you're turning the wrong way onto a one way street. (true ...LOL)

**you stand up to address a group of professionals about work related topics and introduce yourself in the usual manner..."Hi, I'm ___ and I'm an alcoholic" (oops..LOL)

**you excuse yourself in a heated moment with another person to use the restroom to get ON your knees for surrendering purposes. (yep...people will look at ya funny..LOL)

**you tell the officer the reason you're in the park AFTER closing hours with some scared looking person in the car with you- is that you're "doing a fifth".......and promptly begin scrambling like mad to correct that statement! (oy....)

MajestyJo

02-24-2016, 02:28 PM

1) I can respond to this thread, and actually see the humor for a change.

2) Know what they mean when they are talking about "Bill W." & Dr. Bob."

3) Not be "shaking & quaking" in fear at meetings anymore.

4) Sincere honesty doesn't bother me anymore (not quite there yet).

5) I find it easy to call anyone, day or night, on that list they gave me, if necessary. I'm still working on this one.

6) I tend to read recovery texts or daily meditations, rather than do the daily crossword puzzle from the daily newspaper in the morning.

7) I find "service work" humbling. I go to meetings early, so that I may help my sponsor set up for the meeting. I also stay late, for "the meeting" after the meeting. I need it.

8) I offer advice, even when it's not asked for. Grandiose thinking???!!!!

Thanks so much for a great post.

It is always good reminder that we can still have a since humor while sober. Hell, to be perfectly honest, I never had much of one while I was out drinking & using. Everything was pretty much dismal, to be truthful.

But my alcoholic thinking & ways is so very much selective. I tend to want to think of the way it was almost in the very beginning. Things weren't so bad then; I hadn't yet gone down that proverbial "slippery slope" of nearly no return.

I am a newbie. Though familiar with the program, after being in & out for several years, this a new start for me.

I never grow tired of hearing others who have been working the 12 steps for several 24 hours being able to joke around. I literally WANT what they have. To not take a back seat to anyone, yet humble enough for self-deprecating humor.

Anonymous

The greatest gift being able to laugh at myself.

All of the above!

MajestyJo

02-24-2016, 02:28 PM

Yep, a day at a time...you stick around and great things will happen for you!

And the humour truly isn't self depreciating--far from it! I've learned to not take life or myself too darn seriously. When your worth and value isn't in your 'doings' but in your 'beings'......as a child of G-d, you don't get to depreciate the value no matter where your feet have landed....G-d loves ya in spite of it all, 'doesn't make junk' and has a purpose and a lesson in everything.

So......

You know you're in recovery when.....

**you find yourself in the recovery section of Barnes and Noble with your cuppa Starbucks coffee, looking for yet another daily reading book!

**you don't have to ask what you'll be doing this weekend cuz you know exactly which meeting you'll be going to and which pigeon you'll be working with.

**you stomp your foot, cross your arms and admit that you're tantrumming...and if folks will just wait, you'll be done shortly.. (yep..LOL...I still do this one)

**you find yourself chanting slogans and getting through moments that you used to drink over.

**you find yourself finishing the quotes from the Big Book that your sponsor starts and going "yeah, yeah, yeah...I KNOW....I AM my own problem....LOL"

Being able to take the words off the page and applying them to my life.

MajestyJo

02-24-2016, 02:33 PM

You know your in recovery when you try to 12 Step the angry customer in line at the checkout counter whose check won't clear.

Your know your in recovery when you can spot someone else in recovery based on their lingo.

You know your in recovery when Hazelden has you on their mailing list.

You know your in recovery when you feel the sudden urge to give away what you have.

You know your in recovery when you have felt the bliss of Serenity for the first time.

You know you in recovery when you and your hubby spend hours talking about Step work instead of .......

Have a great 24
Love and God Bless

Anonymous

Seems like a lot of people qualify and need the program even though they don't drink. It is a living dis-ease and the drug of choice (alcohol, men, pills, work, relationships, food, etc.) is but a symptom of my disease.

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MajestyJo

03-04-2016, 09:01 PM

SEEK THE INNER CAUSE OF PROBLEMS

"When you arrive at your future, will you blame your past?"
-- Robert Half

What holds you back from being and doing more? In your journal, list what you believe is holding you back.

Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself? It's important to understand that ALL problems are rooted inside us. Even the blocks that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back an issue we have inside that we have not yet owned. Once we address our inner issue, the outer situation no longer troubles us.

The buck always stops with us. We step into our power when we accept responsibility for our lives. "The most self-destructive thought that any person can have is thinking that he or she is not in total control of his or her life. That's when, ‘Why me?’ becomes a theme song."
-- Roger Dawson

"...look at that word blame. It's just a coincidence that the last two letters spell the word me. But that coincidence is worth thinking about. Other people or unfortunate circumstances may have caused you to feel pain, but only you control whether you allow that pain to go on. If you want those feelings to go away, you have to say: ‘It's up to me.’"
-- Arthur Freeman

"Don't make excuses -- make good."
-- Elbert Hubbard

Used with permission from Higher Awareness.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

This reminds me of a time at a meeting when a newcomer was sharing how he had such a difficult time of letting go of blame and shame. I told him, "If you take the word 'me' out of those to words what do you have left. I call it the "bla and sham" game. Told him not to buy into it, and to realize that it was his disease that had done the talking and the action, and he was responsible, but the best way to heal it was to heal himself and take himself out of the equation so he wouldn't have to be a continuing participant.

A long-timer told me a long time ago, one of the biggest contributing factors leading to relapse is guilt, follwed by blame and shame. He thought that guilt was just as much a factor or more so than resentment. I found that a lot of it was projected onto people by their family and friends where had their own anger and issues and it was easier to point the finger than to deal with their own issues. It is amazing how many people sabatoge people in recovery because of their own denial and guilt, and as a result they play the blame and shame game. More spouses and friends are responsible for relapse than most addicts who are already feeling low self-esteem and self-worth, and they don't like the fact that their spouses find recovery in the rooms and do for others what they won't do for them, not realizing that they don't have the power. The power for recovery is in the rooms of recovery, not in the home or church. They can help if there is support there and understanding, but seldom is that the case.

My brother-in-law never knew where to put his face if I mentioned the fact that I was leaving a family function to go to a meeting.

Originally posted in 2004

MajestyJo

03-04-2016, 09:05 PM

It is always good to get affirmations and remember whens.

I can still go into the old guilt when it comes to my son and my abusive marriages. The abused often becomes the abuser, and I found myself hitting back in anger, resentment, and that old adage, "It is all your fault!" Looking at the alcoholic and addict instead of looking at myself. When I looked at me, I realized that I needed the 12 Steps for myself and I fit in and qualified for just about any 12 Step room of recovery I walked into.

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MajestyJo

04-03-2016, 09:50 AM

Fear was something that I remember feeling at the age of 6. Most of my life was fear based. Everything seemed to be "Thou shall not..." and I always seemed to find a way to do and feared the wrath of God was going to strike me down dead." I am glad to know a loving and forgiving God in today. That doesn't mean that I should do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, that is addiction, the nature of my dis-ease.

They say: Face Everything And Recover. I have a choice, I can choose to be "Frustrated, Egotistical, Anxious, and Resentful. You can substitute any word for these letters F E A R and it all boils down to the fact that we lack faith. Faith and fear can not occupy the same place. Many do not believe this, but it is true. God either is or He isn't. No matter who you believe God to be, be it Good Orderly Direction, Group of Drunks and/or Drug Addicts showing me a new way of life, when I stay connected, grounded in today, I do not have to walk in fear. I am never alone unless I choose to be. Isolation is part of my dis-ease.

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MajestyJo

04-03-2016, 09:50 AM

MajestyJo

05-22-2016, 10:54 AM

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

We're all here because we're not all there.- Fr Joe M.

In a way this is very true, because every time I picked up a drink or a drug, I gave away a piece of me. It just sounds hurtful, and although I liked to think I had thick skin, things like this bothered me.

Have heard that line many times over the years, and yet it is part of the saying we hear in the room that I find abusive. When we are new in recovery, we need affirmations and made to feel worthy.

One of the things that really got me going was calling sponsees pigeons. It might have been because there was an issue with them in my building, but I think they are the dirtiest of the dirty, and that is how I felt when I came in and I didn't like having it affirmed by someone trying to be cute.

I brought it up at a meeting once and was told, it was good for Bill and Dr. Bob so it is good enough for me. Well life changes, we have new awareness, and I don't think they realized in the 1930s that it was abusive. It is like the old saying, "Putting someone down to make you feel good.

In 1930, I don't think that there was any thought of young people coming into the program, and there were not many women, and all the alcoholics were good old boys.

Don't know where that all came from, but guess it needed to be said.

Wrote this in 2013 on another site.

Things are not so open and truthful in today. I am grateful that I was brought up with those long-timers. I still don't like the word 'pigeon' and that is me. When I think of pigeon, I think of stool pigeon which in Scottish, I was told was a clipe, or a tattle tale.

Maybe that is what I am, because what I heard and applied to my life are words that I heard in the rooms of recovery or on sites on line.

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MajestyJo

06-01-2016, 08:09 PM

The greatest fault of all is to be conscious of none.

Referring to my list again, I put out of my mind the wrongs others have done, and look at what my part is. (adapted from the AA Big Book, P 67)

- Pocket Sponsor

This was me in early recovery. I was visiting my friend who is living with me now. I said, "Now that I am not drinking, there is nothing wrong with me," and she proceeded to take my inventory for me. I was quite annoyed, but anger can be a great motivator and went home and added 6 more things to the list. I phoned my sponsor and she said, "Now find positive things to balance the negative." That was the hard part.

How can I know what to change if I don't know what is there? How can I change something I can't recognize or feel? It was a process for me. Took off the top layer, I inventoried things as they came up. I had used for so many years and stuffed things from the age of 3 when I saw my brother killed, so had a lot of practice, in shoving things down and now allowing myself to feel. I found that I had to feel it in order to be able to let it go.

Posted by me on another site in 2011

Smiling, was just talking to that friend. She no longer lives me, but we are still friend and see each other. There have been times in my life when I had to detach from her. We met originally in treatment in 1991.

It still applies today. I may not use alcohol to stuff in today, but I can use other substance that don`t seem as harmful, but they become a drug when they do for me what alcohol use to do for me. One is hiding in my bed or running away from home to avoid addressing an issue in the moment. I was glad I made it to my Al-Anon meeting today. It reminded me to take my eyes off the alcoholic in my life and remember this recovering alcoholic and focus on my own recovery.

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MajestyJo

06-10-2016, 07:06 PM

A Way

from: "You Are Not Alone"

"Alcoholics are experts at not being able to see their own illness. They are often the last to admit that they have a drinking problem.

"Help is available, but you must make the decision to ask for it.... [In A.A.] you will simply meet men and women who have found a way to free themselves from their dependence on alcohol and have begun to repair the damage it has done to their lives. Such freedom and recovery can be yours, too."

© 1976, A.A. for the Woman (A.A. Pamphlet P-5), pages 8 and 9

When I came into recovery, it was so nice to know that I wasn't alone. My thoughts were not original, and I was only unique in my journey to get to the doors of recovery, I was not so unique in the fact that I was the only one who had gone through what I did in their life.

What I say is not only my words, only the interruptation of what I heard around the tables at meetings, listening and sharing with others. My best thinking got me here. Sharing that thinking, allows me to let go and make room for new thoughts to come in. When I learn to identify instead of compare, I know I am in the right place.

Originally posted on another site in 2005.

One of the reasons to go to meetings, even though you have a few 24 hours under your belt, is to go and listen to newcomers. It isn't any better out there. We can't forget where we came from. They have a great message for us to hear. We need them as much as they need us to help guide them on a recovery road by sharing what it was like for us.

The first word of the first step is "We..." We can do what I can't do alone. When I go to a meeting, I am not alone. I call a meeting a God Village. A group of spiritual people coming together for a common cause, to stay clean and sober in today.

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MajestyJo

06-12-2016, 10:18 AM

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final Good-bye."

From the poem: I wish you enough love

Love the poem. The first paragraph describes my life prior to recovery and my life the last two years. The nice thing is that I don't have to pick up to cope. The program allows me deal with life on life's terms. When I get to that place of being sick and tired of being tired and sick I know that I have to make some changes in my life because I am in a danger zone.

The difference between the person who came into recovery and the person who is in today is night and day. That person just does not exist any more. I keep coming because I know the answers are in the rooms. So many times I have been in pain, gone to a meeting and gone home pain free. Today there is more pain in my life then there has ever been in my life and yet I don't have to use and abuse myself because of it.

This was written and posted on another site in 2009. The pain over the years has been worse. A different kind of pain, but still I look it as life as it is in the moment.

When I come online and share with others, it helps me to get out of Self so I am not sitting in my pain. It isn't just about me, others are hurting too.

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MajestyJo

06-15-2016, 08:24 PM

...“bad faith” is a phrase which justifies the lack of belief in free choice.

Toxic Antithesis for Clair Drucker

Read this on a post this morning and I thought it could use some perusal.

Just how bad is my faith? Is it justifiable or just fine thank you.

I believe in freedom of choice. Do I exercise that belief and get the most out of the power that is available to me? Or, do I just know, and do nothing about it?

Always thought of faith as a positive thing. I know a little goes a long way. I whole lot strengthens me. I have faith in the AA program. I have faith in the 12 Steps. I believe they are a tool that fits any nut that walks through the doors of recovery. I thought that was very derogatory when I first heard it but found it to be very true. I was one of the biggest, it fit me so why wouldn't it fit someone else.

My hope turned into faith. My faith turned into a connection to my Higher Power. Have I maintained that connection or have I turned it into an Ego?

Faith without works is dead. Work without faith, gets me nowhere.

Very much walking in faith in today. A lot going on that needs a diligent walk with my God. Both my sisters are in poor health and my son still chooses to walk in his disease.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/nostalgicpod/nostalgicpod123.jpg

MajestyJo

06-21-2016, 11:56 PM

From "A Small White Card":

"Yet I had a spiritual experience the night I called A.A.,
though I didn’t realize it until later. Two angels came,
carrying a real message of hope, and told me about A.A.
My sponsor laughed when I denied that I had prayed for
help. I told him that the only time I had mentioned God was
when, in my despair at being unable to get either drunk or
sober, I had cried out, 'God! What am I going to do?'

"He replied, 'I believe that prayer was a pretty good one for a
first one from an atheist. It got an answer, too.'
– Brighton, Colorado, USA"

Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, pg. 25

I really like this. How many times I took or spoke God's name in vane. How many times, I ignored His presence and chose to do things my way.

Looking back over the years, He was there. There were many times, that I should have been dead or hurt much more than I was.

I could really identify. It was taking more and more, and it wasn't enough. It wasn't until I stopped to think about where I was at and reached out for help, that my life changed.

I had faith and lost it. I had to regain in. I had to find out who God was to me. I had to make God personal. I found God to be an old tape. The difference was not the God people told me He was, but God as He revealed Himself to me in today.

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MajestyJo

07-05-2016, 05:34 PM

About Grief

You may feel foolish crying over events that happened so long ago. But grief stays stored up until you have a chance to express it.

The way to move beyond grief is to experience your pain fully and honor your feelings.

Grief has its own timing. You can't say, "This is it. I'm going to grieve now." You have to make room for grief as it arises. You need to give yourself the time and space to let go:

"I had been in therapy for several months and I began to feel safe. There were weeks when I entered the building, went up the stairs, and checked in, all with a smile on my face. Then I'd enter the office, and my therapist would close the door. Before she could even get to her chair, I'd be crying. Deep within me I help those feelings, waiting until I new there would be time and compassion."

However your grieve, allow yourself to release the feelings you've been holding inside. Grieving can be a grief relief.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Many times over the years, especially the last five years of recovery; I have sat in meditation after asking for what I needed to heal, and the ability to let go of what I didn't need, want or desire. I have sat there with tears just streaming down my face. Most times, not knowing the source, but other times, as a result of something that had triggered me in today.

Tears are a great healer. They cleanse the soul.

Sharing with others, helps us to recover, especially when it is someone who has gone through the same thing.

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MajestyJo

07-05-2016, 05:34 PM

Grieving is such a big part of recovery. I looked at a couple of topic discussion books I have and no reference was given.

Just walking into the doors of recovery brings about a loss. A loss of illusion, a loss of a way of life, the losing of walls and survival tools, which no longer serve us in today. Many were more blocks and hinderance, and as we make changes in our life, every changed thought and pattern, puts us through a grieving periods in our life.

I took over the parent role at 14, but I was being trained for the job at 10. I say 10, because that is when I was aware. I have no memory prior to five years old, and that memory came two years ago. The next memory is me with my mother at the age of six, and the next one was 8, and then they start coming in about ten.

I believe that my fibromyalgia is a result of stuffed emotions and pain that was never dealt with as I grew up. We are products of our environment I believe more so than heredity, but it could be in the genes as well as the jeans. I know the jeans seemed to do me more harm that the genes. I was brought up to be a lady, a good little Christian girl, and as a result I got a whole lot of mixed messages.

The first person to rape me was my first husband. I didn't know I had a right to say no! I didn't know I was suppose to enjoy sex, I thought I was just a recepticle for a man's use and my way of serving him! As I type that, I shudder and I can feel the anger. That marriage lasted three years and I have a beautiful son as a result of, I had a year relationship after that which I ran from, and it wasn't until after another four month relationship, that I met a man who became my friend and lover and showed me that God had intended me to enjoy life, sex and was deserving of love.

He wanted me to move to the city of TO and I wouldn't go there, and as a result I was to be sexually abused by a doctor and raped twice before I made the decision at 41 to give up men because they were my problem.

I had to grieve those lost years. When I came into recovery at 49 there were no men around to blame my problems on, other than the ones in the past, but they were long gone and I had to face me in today.

Many times I was the victim of other people's choices, and hurt because of choices I made which put me in a position to be hurt.

Thanks to recovery I have been able to let a lot of that pain go, but I didn't get sick overnight and it takes time. I am not who I was in active addiction. My disease took over, and I got left behind or I gave away myself looking for the love, affirmation, and the courage to live. I had to morn my loss of self, and make an amend to myself for abusing me.

I try not to keep anything a secret today, as I remember I deal with it. I can't afford to keep it there because it just festers and grows and shows itself in ways that are not condusive to serenity, peace and love.

What brought me here will take me back. If I don't break the cycle, it will keep repeating itself. Feeling the feelings, allows me to let go, it is part of the grief and even in today one of the hardest things for me to do is cry. It is only when I sit in meditation and ask for healing and spend time with God and ask for that healing that I have sat alone and in the dark and have had tears just roll down my cheeks. I haven't had a clue as to what the origin of them are, but it is just like a cleansing of my soul.

So much nicer when we have tears of joy.

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MajestyJo

07-16-2016, 08:16 PM

Practice makes progress.

- "Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

That makes more sense than what I heard all my life, "Practice makes perfect." I was always looking for that perfection. Always in competition, with myself and others, trying to out think and out do what I always did. Then when I failed, even though I tried to do the work of three people, it gave me reason, to my way of thinking to use. I used alcohol and dried-up alcohol (pills) which ever was available, often using both.

If you had my boss, if you had to work for the people I do, if you had a husband like I have, you would drink too. Perfection is part of my disease, not a healthy part of recovery.

My sponsor has told me from day one, "This is a program of practice, practice, practice...."

For me, it is one day at a time. All I can do is the best I can do in today. I practice the principles each day. I apply the steps as needed. Some days I fall short of my expectations, yet I know my Higher Power loves me unconditionally. I really don't think He has too many expectations of me, although He has kept me around this long, He must have plans for me, or I just haven't figured things out yet, so I have to keep practicing until I get it right.

Posted on another site in 2011

I practice the principles each day to the best of my ability. Some days I fall short and then I need to do a Step Seven. For me Step Six is the thought, Step Seven is following through the thought with action. More often it is acting out than acting on a thought that I need to be watchful of, which is what I did today.

So glad that each day is a beginning, so I can practice again tomorrow.

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MajestyJo

07-22-2016, 07:43 AM

Choice

from: "A Day's Plan"

"Every day I ask God to kindle within me the fire of His love, so that love, burning bright and clear, will illuminate my thinking and permit me to better do His will. Throughout the day, as I allow outside circumstances to dampen my spirits, I ask God to sear my consciousness with the awareness that I can start my day over any time I choose; a hundred times, if necessary."

© 1990, Daily Reflections, page 80

This is a solution that has worked many times for me over the years. A day can start any time, each day is a new beginning, so have a great one.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can make the decision to stay stuck, to continue acting out in old patterns, and allow themselves to slip into depression and self-pity and not take action before it gets to the wollowing stage. This program is one of freedom. I don't have to live that way anymore.
So many people don't know they have choices.

I know I didn't know how to have fun. I didn't know how to "lighten' up" and not take life so seriously as it says in Tradition Four. I didn't know how to let my inner child come out and play, let alone anything about giving her permission to do so.

I didn't know I could choose the reactions, the actions and the moods, etc. that I had to people, places and things.

posted in 2004

Each day I am faced with a choice. Do I stay clean and sober in today? For me, there is no one without the other. I can choose whether I have a good day or a bad day. I can choose to make the best of each day as it comes. I don't have to do it alone.

I have been blessed to have had continued contact with the newcomer that I met a few weeks ago. I saw her yesterday at my group. Last week she made it to my group and I didn't.

MajestyJo

07-24-2016, 08:21 PM

Feelings come and go. If we are not afraid to let them have their moment, we will not be afraid to express them.

Have shared this many times before; it was such a freeing statement for me. "Just because you have a feeling you don't have to act on it."

It seemed like I was acting out on them for most of my life. Either I kept them inside or I blurted them out often at the wrong moment or in a way that was good for me or the people around me.

So many feelings were stuffed and became a jumble and I didn't know what was going to come out. I often labeled it fear and anger. Later to learn that there was sadness, hurt, rejection, abandonment, resentments, etc. I had to learn how to deal with these feelings by letting them out in a healthy way.

The best way for me was sharing with a sponsor or friend. I also did a lot of journaling.

Learning to identify a feeling and labelling it can still be an issue for me in today. I just pray and ask for help, I don't have to know what it is, I just have to let it go if it is hurting me. I have to acknowledge it before I can let it go.

As I have shared many times, I shut down my feeling since a child when I saw my brother killed when I was 3. I have had a lifetime of stuffing, and I have to be ever watchful that I don't do it in today. I am so grateful for this program.

Thank you for being a part of my recovery. This site has been my home group for years. As my sponsor said, "You can learn two things. How to work your program and how NOT to work your program." Length of time in the program means nothing if you don't live and use it in today.

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MajestyJo

08-07-2016, 03:32 PM

What I said never changed anybody; what they understood did.

--Paul. P.

How often have we given our all to change somebody else? How frantically have we tried to force a loved one to see the light? How hopelessly have we watched a destructive pattern - perhaps a pattern we know well from personal experience - bring terrible pain to someone who is dear to us?

All of us have.

We would do anything to save the people we love. In our desperation, we imagine that if we say just the right words in just the right way, our loved ones will understand.

If change happens, we think our efforts have succeeded.

If change doesn't happen, we think our efforts have failed. But neither is true. Even our best efforts don't have the power to change someone else. Nor do we have that responsibility. People are only persuaded by what they understand. And they, as we, can understand a deeper truth only when it is their time to grow toward deeper understanding. Not before.

Today, I will focus on changing myself and entrust those I love to the Higher Power who loves them even more than I do.

You are reading from the book:

Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty

Such a good reminder, I am not the Power. My God works through me, and hopefully what I say helps others. I just pass on to others what was given to me. This is from my site "The Five As."

The heart below reminds me of how I felt when I came into recovery. I felt very fragmented and the program helped me to become whole. The fellowships loved me until I could love myself.

https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.Mce0951655dce2e184d94a61e83aee471o0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=300&h=300

Nothing changes, if nothing changes. I try to embrace change today, although lately, my feet have been lagging.

MajestyJo

08-10-2016, 06:53 PM

Someone put this together and they sure worked hard.
I really enjoyed this I hope you do as well.

AA = Absolute Abstinence
AA = Attitude Adjustment
AA = Altered Attitudes
AA's -R-Us = Alcoholics Anonymous-Recovery -Unity -Service
ABC = Acceptance Belief Change
ACTION = Any Change To Improve Our Nature
ACTION = Any Change Toward Improving One's Nature
ALCOHOLICS = A Life Centered On Helping Others Live In Complete Sobriety
ASK = Ass Saving Kit
BIG BOOK = Believing In God, Beats Our Old Knowledge

BUT = Being Unconvinced Totally
CALM = Can Anger Leave Me
Care = Comforting And Reassuring Eachother
CHANGE = Choosing Honesty Allows New Growth Every Day
COURAGE = Cause Of Using Recovery As Great Effort
DENIAL = Don't Even Know I Am Lying
DETACH = Don't Even Think About Changing Him (or Her)
DRY= Doing Recovery Yourself
DUES = Desperately Using Everything But Sobriety
EDI not DIE = Easy Does It NOT Does It Easy
EGO = Easing God Out
FAITH = Fantastic Adventure In Trusting Him
FAITH = For All I Trust Him
FAITH = Facing An Inner Truth Heals
FEAR = Face Everything And Recover
FEAR = Failure Expected And Received.
FEAR = Forgetting Everything (is) All Right
FEAR = Feelings Expressed Allows Relief
FEAR = Frantic Efforts to Appear Recovered
FEAR = False Evidence Appearing real
FINE = Frantic, Insane, Nuts & Egotistical
FINE = Free, Independent, New, & Energetic
GIFT = God Is Forever There
GIFTS = Getting It From The Steps
GOD = Give Others Dignity
GUT = God's Undeniable Truth
HALT = Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
HELP = His Ever Loving Presence
HELP = Hope Encouragement Love & Patience
HOPE = Happy Our Program Exists
HOPE = Hearing Other People's Experience
HOPE = Hang On Peace Exists
HOPE = Honest Open Positive Environment
HOW = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness
KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid {Sweetheart}
KISS = Keep It Simple Spiritually
LOVE = Living Our Victories Everyday
NUTS = Not Using The Steps
PMS = Poor Me Syndrome
PROGRAM = People Relying On God, Relaying A Message
PUSH = Pray Until Something Happens.
RAGE = Real Angry Gut- level Ego.
RID = Restless Irritable Discontent.
SLIP = Sobriety Losing Its Priority
SLIP = Still Living In the Past
SOBER = Son Ofa pregnant dog Everything's Real
SOBER = Staying Off Booze Enjoying Recovery.
SPONSOR = Sober Person Offering Newcomers Suggestions On Recovery
STEPS = Solutions To Every Problem In Sobriety
STOP = Sicker Than Other People
SWAT = Surrender Willingness Acceptance & Trust
THINK = Today Happiness I Now Know
TIME = Things I Must Earn
TRUST = Try Relying Upon The Steps
WILLING = When I Live Life I Need God
YET = You're Eligible Too

Love this, some things get lost, buried, not only in our home but in our mind, and it is good to be able to reference them and have them to go back to.

There are a lot more in between. I just love the ABCs of Recovery.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qkzE5rr3-es/Tah8Y438H9I/AAAAAAAAALU/BwU7eU3qAS8/s1600/roses-and-butterfly2.gif

MajestyJo

08-19-2016, 11:46 PM

“How come you don’t drink anymore?” a renewed acquaintance from long ago asked the other day.

“Anymore than who?” I asked.

“I mean any longer. How come you don’t drink anything these days.?”

“Drink? I drink…coffee, milk, tea, soda pop, water, fruit juices…”

“I mean drink,” he said, “you know booze.”

“Oh, booze. No, I don’t drink booze anymore, you’re right” I said. “I couldn’t trust it anymore. It turned on me. Once my friend, it became my enemy.”

“Maybe you got a bad batch,” he said.

“No the sauce is the same, I changed. Because I have this illness of alcoholism, my tolerance weakened. Alcoholism doesn’t come in bottles, it comes in people.”

“Sounds pretty confusing,” the fellow said.

“You think you’re confused,” I said, “You should have seen me. I drank for happiness and became unhappy…I drank for joy and became miserable…I drank to became outgoing and became self centered…I drank for sociability and became argumentative and lonely.”

I drank for sophistication and became crude and obnoxious…I drank for friendship and made enemies...I drank to soften sorrow and wallowed in self pity…I drank for sleep and wakened without rest.”

I drank for strength and felt weak...I drank medicinally and got sick… I drank because I thought my job called for it and I lost my job… I drank for relaxation and got the shakes… I drank for confidence and became uncertain…I rank for courage and became afraid… I drank for assurance and became doubtful… I drank to stimulate thought and blacked out… I drank to make conversation and it tied my tongue. I drank for warmth and lost my cool. I drank for coolness and lost my warmth… I drank to feel heaven and came to know hell…I drank to forget and became haunted… I drank for freedom and became a slave… I drank for power and became powerless…. I drank to erase problems and saw them multiply… I drank to cope with life and invited death…or worse… I drank because I had the right and everything turned out wrong.”

“Gosh!” my friend exclaimed, “That must have taken a bunch of booze to get you in that shape.”

“Just one.” I told him. “the first one… For me one is too many and a thousand is not enough.”

“So that’s why you don’t drink anymore”

“Yep, I make it a rule, I DON’T DRINK WHILE I’M SOBER!”

Posted by BW on another site. Original author unknown.

MajestyJo

08-19-2016, 11:47 PM

My idea of social drinking was: "If you are going to have a drink, SO SHALL I!"

Never had a concept of one or two. I was quite shocked to find that we don't metabolize the alcohol like other people do. They drink and it disappears, we drink and hang onto it. Sounds like most things in my life.

Love this, briing it back up as a good reminder that it is the first one that get me. It is the engine that kills you, not the caboose. As someone shared not long ago, "I didn't know it was the first one, I kept saying, "I shouldn't have had that last one." I think this applies to all substances. The substance is but a symptom of our disease, the problem was always me. It is a disease. It is a drug that is cunning, baffling and powerful, and I too, can't drink safely. I don't know where it is going to take me.

In today, I like those natural highs in life. Those priceless gifts that come when I look for them.

http://angelwinks.ca/iq/qcdog543.jpg

MajestyJo

08-21-2016, 05:40 AM

So when I remember to live in today, do the best I can, then things will unfold as they should.

haven't been able to be on the computer much now because of swollen feet and they get worse when I sit for very long.

It is the last line of this post that is important for me in today. I have to live in the moment, taking life as it comes, one day at a time.

It is ironic, tomorrow I go to see my doctor about the swelling of my feet and I got up this morning with no signs of swelling and I don't have much pain. It is very likely that they won't stay that way, but if they do, I will sure be grateful to have some of my pain taken away, even if it is just today.

I think it is Bugs Bunny or Porky the Pig who use to say, "That's what it is folks, have a great day, or something close to that.

http://toons.artie.com/gifs/arg-leafy-trucking-med-url.gif

MajestyJo

08-22-2016, 08:50 PM

It is only the women whose eyes have been washed clear with tears who get the broad vision that makes them little sisters to all the world. —Dorothy Dix

The storms of our lives benefit us like the storms that hit our towns and homes and wash clean the air we breathe. Our storms bring to the surface the issues that plague us. Perhaps we still fear a job with responsibilities. Perhaps we still struggle with the significant other persons in our lives. Possessiveness is a particular storm that often haunts our progress. Storms force us to acknowledge these liabilities that continue to stand in our way, and acknowledgment is the step necessary to letting go.

Recovery is a whole series of storms, storms that help to sprout new growth; storms that flush clean our own clogged drains. The peace that comes after a storm is worth singing about.

Each storm can be likened to a rung on the ladder to wholeness, the ladder to full membership in the healthy human race. The storms make climbing tough, but we get
strength with each step. The next storm will be more easily weathered.

If today is a stormy day, let me remember it will freshen the air I breathe.

From the book: Each Day a New Beginning by Karen Casey

For many years, I didn't allow myself tears. My ex-husband told me to turn them off because I used them as a weapon, so I did. I didn't realize how much I was hurting myself. Tears cleanse the soul, they are very healing. I didn't properly grieve things as a result of shutting down and not allowing myself to feel.

I need to remember to breathe in a new day.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/thoughtpod/thoughtpod1075.jpg

MajestyJo

08-26-2016, 05:17 PM

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Some people are so successful in AA they turn out almost as good as they used to think they were when they were drinking.

So true, but the ego can follow them into recovery. I can remember thinking and saying, "I've forgotten more than you'll ever know about AA. I went to two meetings a day for 2 years." It didn't mean I was an authority, it just meant that I was one of the really sick ones.

I use to say about my ex-husband, "If he was half as smart as he thinks he is, he would be a smart man."

So grateful that my God's Love is unconditional.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/versepod/versepod1078.jpg

MajestyJo

09-04-2016, 12:23 PM

One night at my old group, we discussed Tradition Four. Ego and chaos is comfortable and not always easy to recognize when we are in it. Personally, I need to remember that it is part of my disease not my recovery.

I know I had ego when I came in. I enjoyed getting to read the longest Step or Tradition when they were passed around the room. I liked to put my 2 cents in and then I learned I wasn't suppose to cross talk. I had people disagree with me and I would say, "How can you disagree, you were not there, you didn't walk in my shoes." I learned people have a right to their opinion and just possibly, he had been in the same situations and he had some kind of enlightenment that I didn't receive.

There was a guy who always started his share with, "Keep an open mind." In truth it was an ego thing. He relapsed at 22 years sober after being in a relationship with a girl half his age. She stayed sober to the best of my knowledge.

We don't have a right to play God with someone else's life.

MajestyJo

09-18-2016, 11:38 AM

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .

S I T = Stay In Today.

It is much easier to stay in today when I realize that I don't quit forever and ever and that all I have to do is stay sober for 24 hours. My day can start any time and this is especially true, when I have such a disruptive sleep pattern. Some days are short while others are long. Some days up four hours, down four hours. Other times, up from 26-36 hours with a couple of hours sleep in between. Each time I wake up, it is a new day.

During those long hours of no sleep, I have often had to surrender, ask for help and surrender my day. With fibromyalgia, polymyalgia, and osteo it was difficult to find acceptance. Yet when I acknolwdge the problem, ask for help, I can deal with things know that they are subject to change. Take an inventory as to what brought me to that particular space, change th things a can, and turn over the rest.

We can do what I can't do alone. Coming here and sharing my experience, strength, and hope, helps me to get out of my pain and if I look for them, the words of wisdom are there. Sometimes my fingers walk on the keyboard and I have to read what I tyed when they are finished.

So glad this is a one day at a time program.

MajestyJo

09-23-2016, 05:42 PM

The Ten Points
(The Ten Points are a summary of the lifesaving directions given in chapter five of Alcoholics Anonymous – the AA Big Book)

1. Completely give yourself to this simple Program.
2. Practice rigorous honesty.
3. Be willing to go to any lengths to recover.
4. Be fearless and thorough in your practice of the principles.
5. Realize that there is no easier, softer way.
6. Let go of your old ideas absolutely.
7. Recognize that half measures will not work.
8. Ask God’s protection and care with complete abandon.
9. Be willing to grow along spiritual lines.
10. Accept the following pertinent ideas as proved by All Addicts Anonymous experience:
(a) that you cannot manage your own life;
(b) that probably no human power can restore
you to sanity;
(c) that God can and will if sought.

24-communications.com/092011/092011.pdf

So many people say, "I tried that fellowship and it didn't work for me." Other people would say, "I went there and I ended up relapsing."

Many people think that relapse is a recovery tool. It can be used as a symptom of our disease and is part of our disease, not a part of our recovery.

There are some suggestions to follow, things I often call 'darn well betters' or you will relapse. IMHO it is whether you want recovery and whether you are willing to do the do thngs in order to obtain it. The program works if you WORK for the program.

The program works when you work for it. It isn't a quick fix program to life's solutions. We are works in progress. Each day is a new beginning.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/iq/qccat496.jpg

MajestyJo

09-27-2016, 11:33 PM

DAILY OM

Conscious Creation
The First Moments Of The Day

The moment during the day when we very first open our eyes and come into consciousness is a precious opportunity. It sets the tone for all that comes after it, like the opening scene in a film or novel. At this moment, our ability to create the day is at its most powerful, and we can offer ourselves fully to the creative process by filling this moment with whatever inspires us most. It may be that we want to be more generous, or it may be that we want to be more open to beauty in our daily lives. Whatever the case, if we bring this vision into our minds at this very fertile moment, we empower it to be the guiding principle of our day.

Sometimes we wake up with a mood already seemingly in place, and it’s important to give this feeling its due. It can inform us and deepen our awareness to what’s going on inside us, as well as around us. As long as we are conscious, we can honor this feeling and also introduce our new affirmation or vision, our conscious offering to the day. We may want to decide before we go to sleep what we want to bring to the next day of our lives. It could be that we simply want to be more open to whatever comes our way. Or we may want to summon a particular quality such as confidence. Then again, we may simply call up a feeling that perfectly captures the texture we want our day to have.

We can reaffirm our vision or affirmation as we shower and eat breakfast, as well as recalling it at various times throughout the day. We can write it down and carry it with us on a little slip of paper if this helps. Simply by being aware of those first moments, we set the stage for a more conscious, enlivened experience, and we become active participants in the creation of our lives.

I like this. I don't do mornings well. Perhaps it is because I have been arguing about going to sleep, and I get my nights and days turned around. Often pain wakes me up, and I am more apt to have feelings of resentment instead of gratitude.

At this moment, our ability to create the day is at its most powerful, and we can offer ourselves fully to the creative process by filling this moment with whatever inspires us most.

Looks like I need to pray and ask for a new attitude. I do often pray for new clarity and awareness through out the day. I know I can stay clean and sober if I turn my day over to my Higher Power. By surrendering my day, I am empowered to do what I need to do for today. I have gotten away from daily affirmations. Must try to remember to start doing them again.

http://www.angelwinks.ca/images/mot6.jpg

MajestyJo

10-04-2016, 08:49 AM

There was a time I thought it all grand,
To get high right out of hand.

'Cause I doing doing harm,
Setting off no alarms.

And the folks thought of me as some what peculiar.

But at some point it got out of hand.
And despite promises of "never again,"
I found myself drinking over and over on end.

And the folks said, "you may have a problem."

I kept up the rationale:
"It's still my life, even for just a while. . ."

The "while" got busted,
And the disease I had entrusted

Led me straight to the road of
RECOVERY!!!!!!!!!

Written by Knothead

Love it! I am always grateful when someone share, especially when it is their own personal experience, strength, and hope.

http://www.animateit.net/data/media/june2010/WE.gif

MajestyJo

10-11-2016, 01:13 AM

"I think that one of the main differences between an
active alcoholic and a recovering alcoholic can be
expressed as a matter of tense. The active alcoholic
tends to live in the future or in the past. The sober
alcoholic, using part of the philosophy he learns in
his A.A. experience, lives or strives to live in the present."

Came to Believe, pg. 113

For so many years, I carried baggage from my past, and even in recovery, until I had done a second honest Step Four, was I able to get rid of a lot of my past. When anything from my past comes into today, I need to do apply the Steps to it again. Not just Four, but Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Nine.

All I have to do is quit this twenty-four hours, deal with today's thoughts, actions, perceptions, incidents, etc. and let go of the fears and phobias that I projected about the tomorrows and the unknown.

Living in today in God's Care frees me from the bondage of my past and the fear of the future.

Posted on another site in 2008

Here I am 8 years later, waiting to see my heart specialist. I think it is my medication for my heart that is causing my problems.

Life happens, you never know what it is going to hand us. I am so grateful that this is a one day at a time program.

I am so grateful this is a spiritual program. Don't leave anyone outside the circle. There is love and healing for everyone.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/thoughtpod/thoughtpod1125.jpg

MajestyJo

10-15-2016, 08:32 PM

This may be a duplicate. It is something I posted on another site in 2010.

Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be
accomplished.

Big Book, p. 18

So many times, we compare instead of identify. We look or hear someone and say, "Well I didn't do that, perhaps I am not an alcoholic." Until we can identify for ourselves, nothing anyone can say or do, can really help us. We will always have that doubt which will generally lead back to a drink. I know for me, it was a door I didn't want to shut. I wanted that out!

I was unable to look at the whole picture. I didn't have the same results a lot of people had with alcohol but I did with prescription pills which the Big Book refers to as dried-up alcohol.

What I had was the thinking behind the drinking. I was a functioning alcoholic who thought because she could walk a straight line, she was just fine! Frustrated, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional is the polite way of saying it! I didn't want to think about the fact that I had matched my partner drink for drink and in some cases, had a few extra. In my mind, when I got angry, I got sober. It was like I drank myself sober many times and I know others have shared the same thing.

When I was about 27, I went with a guy who drank a lot and you didn't know he had been drinking, or I should say, I didn't know he had been drinking. He drank a 26 an evening when with me and I later realized he often had at least a mickey before he connected with me. My thinking was, "I wonder if I can drink fast enough to keep up with him." Yet this is the person who didn't think she was an alcoholic. At 26, I was alwasy looking forward to pay day because it meant Chinese food and Whiskey Sours. The thought was often there, even when the alchol was not.

In other words, I qualified for AA, long before I got there.

The last line is so true. I can remember being upset that I stayed in denial for so long and missed out on so much of my life.

I also know that no one could have told me I was an alcoholic. The program didn't begin to really work for me until I could get past the denial and quit comparing my journey to that of others. I had to get in touch with my feelings and then I could identify with others.

http://s14052.storage.proboards.com/374052/t/X1K01QqLH_4oOJ5f75Ft.gif

MajestyJo

11-12-2016, 01:05 PM

What Is Acceptance?

www.barefootsworld.net/aaacceptance.html

By Bill W.
-- AA Grapevine - March 1962 --

I certainly know that the Serenity Prayer is about acceptance. For me, it is about knowing the difference about what I can change or what I can't. I find that I could have made it much easier on myself by quitting the debating society.

Have to accept where they are at in their program. As my sponsor use to say to me, be grateful that you aren't in the same place. There is always someone who 'knows' how it is done. I may know something but in the moment, it flies out the window and comes back later to bite me in the butt and I think, now why didn't I do that before.

Accepting ourselves and others is not easy. We can say the words but it is an altogether different thing when it comes to feeling it. Even more difficult to let it go.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/animated/animated125.gif

MajestyJo

11-23-2016, 06:25 AM

Most alcoholics would rather die than get sober.
And they do. - Anon.

From Alkiespeaks

How true this is. I have had people tell me they spilled more than I drank. Another person said, "If I drank like you, I would still be drinking."

Well I no longer wanted to drink like me. It wasn't fun any more. It stopped working, and I kept needing more. I couldn't afford to keep me in the style I would like to become accustomed. I didn't want to do what I would have had to do to maintain my habit.

For so many years, it was, "Don't tell me what to do!" I'll show them, and I would have another drink, generally another bottle. I drank to their health, yet it was hurting me and I couldn't see it.

My program does not work in principle. It only works in practice.

Pocket Sponsor

I practice the principles in all my affairs. It works when I work it. My sponsor always said, "Practice, practice, practice."

One day I just might get it right from beginning to end.

Something I think was on the old site.

Love the quote here, they are so true in my life. From the time I found AA 25 years ago, using was not an option. For me, it was to die and I chose to live.

Thanksgiving is an all year found thing for me even though I lag behind expressing it each day. Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday because I love the Fall and all the trimmings to a Thanksgiving dinner.

http://gifgifs.com/animations/holidays/thanksgiving/happy-turkey-day2.gif

dwmoeller

11-23-2016, 09:19 AM

There are a couple of people that live in Grand Forks, ND who come down to Mayville almost every Thursday for our AA meeting here. Well, On Friday, Nov 25th, they are going to get their 2 year chip at an AA meeting in Grand Forks. I am going to surprise them and come up to the meeting. I want to support them and celebrate their sobriety with them. It is what we do...we are there for each other in good times and in bad, share in laughter and in tears.

MajestyJo

11-29-2016, 11:37 PM

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."

-- Sir John Lubbock

This struck me, because we are all addicts and alcoholics, but we are all different ages, we all have different skills, different levels of education, different ways of doing things because of experience and opportunity, and when we come into recovery, we either want the sun, the moon and the stars, or we just want back what we lost, or we just want our own little space and have some peace and serenity.

I took courses and went back to school and all it did was make me realize that I had done my time and I had absolutely no desire to go back into the rat race and compete in the big old world for big bucks and live on the edge out there now that I had some peace and serenity. I didn't need much to live on, never had it, so why should I need it now. People just didn't understand this, they told me I should go out and be a working and useful member of society. Well I did go out and volunteer, I had no problem with that as long as it was recovery related, and went into jails, detox, recovery houses, and into the Community with the Literacy Council and Hamilton Housing Computer Access Program. There was service with in AA and NA as well and that had to come first. It is because of service that I have long term recovery. AA works if you work for AA. NA works if you work for NA.

What do I look for. One day of sobriety, this 24 hours with out using people, places and things. It isn't about alcohol and drugs and hasn't been for 21 years. I don't abuse my medication. It is about my thinking, my actions during the day when it comes to my medication, my food, how I inter-act with other people, how I speak to others, what kind of message I carry to others, carrying the message on the internet, and maintaining my emotional sobriety, one day at a time. It is my thinking that is the root of my dis-ease. I try not to have hissy fits any more. I try not to curse someone and run them down or put them down. A person may come to mind and I may try to figure them out, but then I try to turn them over to my God and He generally lets me know if I am suppose to detach from the person and gives me the good orderly direction I need. Detachment doesn't mean I don't love the person, it just means I don't always allow them in my space.

I can still turn a blind eye. I can still look at things with tunnel vision and have to ask for a wider perspective. That is when I try to remember to ask for my own knowingness about something, my own view of a situation rather than take someone else's word. If I didn't see or hear it, it is gossip, so I try to figure it out for myself and what it means to me.

Today I try to step back before I act. I try not to react, I pray that I will be given the pause to stop and think. As an Aires, we are often reactive people. My definition of an Aires is "The left foot is moving forward and the right foot doesn't know it has to move yet."

I forgot to say, this took a long time and a lot of practice. This is a program of practice, practice, practice. This is my 25 year anniversary and there are days, when I still don't get it right. That doesn't mean I pick up a drink, it just means I have to make an amend to my God, to myself, or another suffering addict or an Earthling that my cross may path.

MajestyJo

11-29-2016, 11:41 PM

Shared this on another site in 2012, and while reading it, I thought how narrow minded people can be about the "addict" just like the stigma attached to alcoholics.

People see the guy on Skid Row, with his/her brown paper bag and bottle and they are all type cast and many stay in denial and die. They don't even recognize that the problem isn't what is in the bottle, it is but a symptom of their disease.

The same with the addict, it doesn't matter what substance he/she uses, it all leads to the same soul sickness. There are drugs that call attention to themselves and then there are those that people tend to overlook, and think that they don't have a problem. All those other 12 Step programs out there that seldom get mentioned: Gambling, sex, work, religion, food, computers, codependency, relationships, and the list goes on and on.

I am so glad that the 12 Steps are applicable to all areas of my life. Substitution doesn't work. I tried it, and all I did was have more addictions to deal with on a daily basis.

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk316/Page7613/bth_1Haveagreatday.jpg

MajestyJo

11-29-2016, 11:42 PM

Just had the thought, when we do something wrong, or what we perceive to be wrong because of old tapes, how often do we blame our parents instead of taking responsibility for our own decisions.

When I surrender and put my day and ME in my God's Care, then I under His/Her care and direction and it is up to me as to how I follow direction, because I am granted freedom of choice.

Just for today, I choose not to use. I choose not to use my parents as a scapegoat and take responsibility for my own disease. I am powerless over them, and they are powerless over me, unless I give them the power.

With the holidays coming on, I have to look at each day as another 24 hours. If I am in today, worrying about Christmas, I have to ask myself, "Why are you doing that?" Christmas isn't here yet. Even when it gets here, I need to turn my will and my life into the hands of my Higher Power and ask for help to get through the day. When my life is in my God's hands, I am given that pause to stop and think and ask myself, "Why are you doing that." My sobriety comes first, everything else is secondary, including my family and friends. Without my sobriety, I have nothing. Certainly nothing worth celebrating, and for me to use is to die, so why would I be doing something that would jeoprodize my life.

http://www.animated-gifs.eu/holidays-seasons-greetings/75.gif

MajestyJo

11-29-2016, 11:43 PM

Why?
Why do I feel this way?
Why do I feel so alone
So different,
So separate.
I know I am not different
Unique in my own journey,
Yet not so unique in my differences
From others who have traveled this journey.
Today I feel alone.
Is it my own separateness.
Am I isolating my spirit as well as my body?
I share with others
Yet seem apart.
No one close
Am I looking for acceptance
Validation for who I am?
Is it my right?
I am comfortable with me
Or so I thought.
Yet why this feeling of being alone.
No one caring...
No one sharing...
No one showing any interest in what I do.
Is it the ego?
Is it the pride?
Why have all the words dried up inside?
How do I get them out?
Express all the pain and the sorrow
Letting you know how much I hurt
To heal, to let go, to live and to dare to dream
Of a better tomorrow
A better day with hope
Someone to love
Someone I who loves
Someone who knows
Someone who shares
Someone who cares.

Something I wrote in February 14, 2005 that I found posted on another site. I think it was probably posted here and copied to another site, and I then copied it to another site, and now back on here. LOL!

http://www.animated-gifs.eu/holidays-seasons-greetings/79.gif

MajestyJo

11-29-2016, 11:47 PM

Don't Let Anyone Walk Around In Your Head with their Dirty Shoes On

We tend to let others control our lives. We allow people to rob us of our dreams. Just when we think we've got it together, someone will make a statement or remark about how we should act or what we should be and we allow those remarks to make us question and doubt ourselves. We give these people power over us. No one else should control our lives. We are in control of our own lives and destiny with the help of our Higher Power. We cannot live our lives through other people's thoughts or action. We don't have to allow ourselves or our thoughts to be controlled by someone else's judgement.

- Original Source Unknown

How often we allow others to rent space in our head. We don't even charge them rent. Most times, they don't even know they are there.

http://img5.dreamies.de/img/484/b/9vo9fdo9tw.gif

MajestyJo

11-29-2016, 11:49 PM

Need help?

"Asking for help doesn’t mean that we are weak or incompetent. It usually indicates an advanced level of honesty and intelligence."

-- Anne Wilson Schaef

The path of healing begins with awareness that things can be different. We must be willing to open to the potential, the possibility for change.

We also need to acknowledge that we are not in this experience alone, without support. The divine power of love is here for us, if we are willing to open to receive it. Sincerely ask for help and loving support will manifest in both mundane and magical ways.

"The healthy, the strong individual, is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he has an abscess on his knee or in his soul."

-- Rona Barrett

From Higher Awareness - Used with permission

From my site Star Choices

In the beginning, I didn't have a problem with asking for phone numbers, my little black book was my life line. I misplaced it and thought my world had come to a end. My friend who I was sharing a house with had most of my numbers in her own book, and I was able to start up a new telephone book.

I have more problems now picking up the phone in today, my computer has been more of a lifeline in today. I didn't have a computer at the beginning and that was a good thing I think, because I was able to go out to meetings. You just can't beat f2f meetings, the energy can't be duplicated.

It is important to get those phone numbers and use them. They connect your soul and my God speaks through others. When I am talking to myself, I don't get enough food for my soul and it dries up and I can't receive or give.

Reach out and share with another. I know it helped me as well as the other person. Recovery is a two way street.

The holidays are one day at a time. Christmas day is just another 24 hours. Just for today, I choose not to use.

We can do what I can't do alone.

https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M92e03c3174d4a3b01dee6c073ee6427eH0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=183&h=152

MajestyJo

12-10-2016, 12:45 PM

If I was at your house, I'd ask to use the bathroom and I'd go through the medicine cabinet and take whatever there. I don't need to know what it is. Sometimes I'd be up for days, saying the same thing over and over, chewing my tongue. Other times I'd be falling down, bouncing off the walls. Sometimes I'd get real 'regular'. And I probably took enough pills out of those wheels that there's no chance I'm going to get pregnant this century. - Bob D. (Alkie speaks)

Because I was raised to be a good little Christian girl, stealing didn't come easy for me, even when I was using. I would often try to justify it or talk you out of it but generally did it to your face.

I didn't think I was an alcoholic because I didn't have black outs, I could walk a straight line and had people tell me they never saw me drunk. All things that affirmed that I didn't have a problem.

When I got sober, I didn't realize how stoned I really was, especially when I drank and took the pills too. I would say, "Well I only had 5 drinks, that is nothing, I can't be drunk forgetting that I had a belly full of pills prior to drinking.

Even in my 'drinking' days, before I tried ti quit my way (substituting pills), I took two 222s before going to bed to prevent a hang over or so I said, not sure if I believed it.

I had black outs with the pills. Things I didn't remember doing or saying. I was taking medication that had a street name so it couldn't have been good. I heard people tell there drinking stories and I would think I didn't do that. Then when I got honest, I realized I had those same symptoms when taking the pills. As my drinking decreased, my pill intake increased. I had never heard about AA. When I got there, I found the solution. Don't drink and don't drug! Substitution doesn't work.

Posted on another site in 2011

Many people take exception if you talk about drugs, whether it is street drugs or prescription drugs. The thing is, substituion doesn't work, and if you try to fill that void with other things, you end up addicted to another substance.

Alohol was like dried up alcohol. I knew I was an addict, but don't call me an alcoholic. Then there were people in the program who tried to tell me I wasn't an alkie, telling me they spilled more than I drank. Then I would go to that other Fellowship, and they told me that I didn't qualify as an addict because I only tried pot and hash once and didn't use other street drugs. It isn't the substance, the problem was always me, especially me and my attitude.

There are very few 'pure' alcoholics in today. I find that most addicts started with beer and when it quit working for them, they looked for more.

http://www.angelwinks.ca/iq/chqc21.jpg

MajestyJo

12-17-2016, 10:29 AM

Being humiliated is not the same as having humility.

We have all suffered humiliation. Perhaps a spouse ridiculed us in public or a parent's disorderly conduct shamed us in front of our friends. Perhaps a boss criticized us in front of co-workers.

However, we could have refused to let our egos be injured. Had we then the tools we have now, we could have felt compassion for the perpetrator. No healthy person heaps injury of any kind on another struggling soul. The program taught us this.

We have learned about true humility. To be humble is to surrender, to give up trying to change people or circumstances, to give up trying to force our will upon others. Humility is being quiet, being at rest, and being confident that God is present in every situation. Humility is being at peace, always.

No one can humiliate me today unless I accept that condition.

You are reading from the book: A Life of My Own by Karen Casey

Humility is about saying, "I don't know, I need help and being open to receiving it, to my way of thinking. In the past, I thought it was humiliating to admit that I didn't know, because I thought it made me stupid. In recovery, I learned "How can you know if you haven't been taught."

I was told that humility, meant to become teachable. The longer I am in the program, the more I realized that I knew nothing. This is a one day at a time program and I have to be open to each lesson and experience that comes my way. I don't take the credit, this is a we program. That we can be a lot of people, places, and things. Like a sponsor, a counselor, a minister, a God of our understanding, our parents, going out in nature and getting in touch with the Creator, go to church, going to a meeting, etc. This is a spiritual program that makes room for all religious beliefs.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7DphUJwqM5s/UqsP4U_PByI/AAAAAAAAPro/jWbXsA7fJrk/s1600/3.gif

MajestyJo

01-02-2017, 11:46 PM

Bringing this forward again. So glad the link still works.

A Manual for
Alcoholics Anonymous

From AA Group No. 1, Akron, Ohio, 1940
Dr. Bob's Home Group

http://www.barefootsworld.net/aamanual.html

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MajestyJo

01-31-2017, 12:49 PM

...A borrowed understanding of God may do on a short haul. But in the long run, we must come to our own understanding of a Higher Power, for it is that Power which will carry us through our recovery.

Just for today: I seek a Power greater than myself that can help me grow spiritually. Today, I will examine my beliefs honestly and come to my own understanding of God.

pg. 46

The great thing for me was learning that my belief could be ever changing. My God is as He/She/It is revealed in today.

My God is Love. I need to come from a place of love for myself and others.

Written on another site in 2010

Remember people saying, "You can borrow my God until such a time as you find your own." It is okay to borrow, but you need to get back.

I also had to tell people that they could relapse if they depended on my God, because my God was personal to me.

I had a sponsee who said he wanted what I had. I co-sponsored him for three months until he found a sponsor. His sponsor relapsed, but I haven't heard from the young man from Montreal. He was a professional trained chef. I hope he is still cooking and still clean and sober. I know that he became a very firm believer in Buddhism and other oriental beliefs. He said he found them more spiritual than the teaching of the Roman Catholic religion he was raised in.

I was raised in the Gospel Halls, and found great comfort from Osho as well as Native teachings.

This is a spiritual program that makes room for all religious beliefs.

MajestyJo

02-01-2017, 11:57 AM

"Perhaps the best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations. The higher my expectations of other people are, the lower is my serenity. I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations.

I have to discard my 'rights', as well as my expectations, by asking myself, "How important is it, really? How important is it compared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety?"

~~"Big Book" Page 449 Third Edition~~
~~"Big Book" Page 417 Fourth Edition~~

A big awakening for me was realizing that I was projecting something onto someone they were not capable of giving or willing to acknowledge. It was about not putting such high expectations on myself that was important. I use to make them so high that I seldom reached them and as a result, I always felt less than and beat myself up.

When I lower the bar, it is easier to reach. When I reach it, I can always raise it again.

"The higher the expectation, the deeper the resentment. Both are an illusion created by you." - - unknown

Had problems with fibromyalgia, I had to realize that I just couldn't do what I use to do and had to learn to accept it. As it says in Big Book, the lower my expectations and the higher my acceptance, the greater my serenity. My expectations were to do it perfect, do it right, and anything less than my expectation wasn't acceptable. That lead to a lot of self abuse, which I try not to do in today.

MajestyJo

02-10-2017, 05:57 PM

Practice makes progress.

- "Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

That makes more sense than what I heard all my life, "Practice makes perfect." I was always looking for that perfection. Always in competition, with myself and others, trying to out think and out do what I always did. Then when I failed, even though I tried to do the work of three people, it gave me reason, to my way of thinking to use. I used alcohol and dried-up alcohol (pills) which ever was available, often using both.

If you had my boss, if you had to work for the people I do, if you had a husband like I have, you would drink too. Perfection is part of my disease, not a healthy part of recovery.

My sponsor has told me from day one, "This is a program of practice, practice, practice...."

For me, it is one day at a time. All I can do is the best I can do in today. I practice the principles each day. I apply the steps as needed. Some days I fall short of my expectations, yet I know my Higher Power loves me unconditionally. I really don't think He has too many expectations of me, although He has kept me around this long, He must have plans for me, or I just haven't figured things out yet, so I have to keep practicing until I get it right.

We are works in progress. I practice the program to the best of my ability each day. It is a 24 hour program, not a 2-4 hours a day program.

MajestyJo

02-23-2017, 07:09 PM

When I was posting today, I thought "Where did the time go?"

For most of my life, I used to make time disappear. The day was too long. I never seemed to be able to get through a day, an event or an experience, without picking up something to take me out of myself.

I used to make time disappear.

In recovery, there are not enough hours in a day. I think some days I don't sleep because I want to do and don't want the day to go by without accomplishing what I have started.

Prior to recovery, IF I did manage to start something, I seldom finished it. I lost focus and concentration and was often off to the next thing. I was a good instigator but didn't make a good finisher, unless it was a fight and I wanted the last word.

Recovery has given me back a life. It has allowed me to stay in today, and when I slide back into yesterday and project into tomorrow, I am given the tools to ground myself, and bring me back into the moment.

I live one day at a time. Imagine, not enough hours in a day. Who would every have thought it would come to this? In the past I would get caught up in busy, trying to make time go away because I couldn't be by myself. Whether I picked up a person, place or thing, it all helped me to escape me and my reality. I couldn't be be alone with me.

So grateful for the freedom of recovery! It is nice to be able to me alone with me, although sometimes me alone with my thoughts is not good. It use to be bad company. In today, I am aware that I have a disease of perception. Some times, that perception is off and I need to check it out with a sponsor, a friend or a counselor.

Originally posted by me in 2011 on another site.

Have had two busy days. I had a couple of signs today to put some gratitude into my attitude. This is one day at a time, no more, no less.

This is just because I love it. When I was about 14, I took piano lessons, but they didn't stick.

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MajestyJo

03-04-2017, 12:29 AM

"All I had to do was ask myself a simple question: 'Am I or am I not powerless over alcohol?' I didn't have to compare myself or my experience with anyone, just answer a simple question."

From: "Slow Learner"
Step By Step

From the GV book

In early recovery, I was told that I had to take the first half of Step One 100%, I often wondered why they didn't say the whole of Step One.

Then I had a big awakening, my life is unmanageable when managed by me. There are still times that my life can be unmanageable, but thanks to the program, I can pick up the tools, get honest, surrender, accept, open my mind and let my thought out and another's in, and be willing to do what it takes to recover.

I AM NOT THE POWER. My best thinking got me to the doors of recovery. My way doesn't work. I am powerless over my disease, and that of others, whatever their disease might be. Some times we don't see them as such, and we think because we have our own disease, they might be right and we are wrong. They just might have their own disease, even if their dis-ease, is to fix me.

MajestyJo

03-04-2017, 12:33 AM

When I am forgiving myself and others, I realize that the only person I can change is me. I don't have the power to change another. I can forgive them, set a boundary, make suggestions according to my own experience, strength and hope, but I can't make them do anything. All I can do is pray for them, and ask for what is good for them, according to THEIR God's Will, not mine. I am not the power. I can't be their HP.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/generalpod/generalpod1110.jpg

MajestyJo

03-30-2017, 11:26 PM

12 Steps and the 12 Principles

1. We admitted we were powerless over the effects of addiction — that our lives had become unmanageable.

1. Honesty, acceptance and surrender.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

2. Hope, Trust

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

3. Faith, willingness

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

4. Courage.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.

5. Integrity.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

6. Willingness, self-honesty

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

7. Humility.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

8. Justice and brotherly love.

9. Made direct amends to such people, wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

9. Self-discipline and good judgment.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

10. Perseverance and open mindedness.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

11. Awareness.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other codependents, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

12. Love and service.

These very depending on who you are talking to. Many say the only principle for Step One is Honesty, but I am a firm believer in all three as listed here. It says we are to do Step One 100% and in order to do that, we need to find surrender and acceptance to go with the self-honesty.

This could be a duplicate, but at the end, I have further thoughts.

MajestyJo

03-30-2017, 11:27 PM

They say it is principles before personalities and to practice these principles in all our affairs. NA quotes this at the end of their meetings here. A newcomer asked me why it was repeated so often. I said it was probably because it was something people needed to be reminded about. It isn't about not using. It is about using without abusing ourselves and others.

It isn't about drugs and alcohol, it is about living with our fellow man and becoming a better person. A person who is no longer acting out in their disease. A person who has become healthy and learning a new way of living. A person who walks their talk.

I can't go wrong when I practice these principles and apply the Steps to my life on a daily basis. It is about living the program. Not just putting the plug in the jug, not just acting out in my old patterns and behaviors; it is about getting along in the community and being useful and helpful members of society. No more putting others down to make me feel good, no more self-centeredness and disregard for others, no more thinking I am the great I am.

It is about taking an honest look at myself. Hopefully, giving hope to others and sharing my experience and strength too. Letting others be themselves, there is no right way or wrong way to work the program. It is what is good for each individual. It is the God of my understanding and yet I try to keep an open mind and accept you and your God too.

We hear all the time about the Steps. We hear too little about the principles behind them.

Something I posted on another site.

MajestyJo

03-30-2017, 11:29 PM

There is very little talk about the principles of the program. This is a spiritual program. Everyone knows how to drink and have there individual horror stories, but how are you stay clean and sober in today. How are you applying the principles of the program to your life in today?

Do you walk your talk?

I try to the best of my ability. The closer I am to my God, the better I do.

Practice these principles in all our affairs. I need to take my program out of the rooms of recovery and apply them to my life at home, at work, and in the community.

As my sponsor said to me many years ago, "Do people look at you and see recovery."

http://angelwinks.ca/images/animated/animated253.gif

MajestyJo

04-09-2017, 09:57 PM

From: "Foreword to Second Edition"

The spark that was to flare into the first AA group was struck
at Akron, Ohio in June 1935, during a talk between a New
York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier,
the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a
sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an
alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford
Groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the
late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in
alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical
saint by AA members, and whose story of the early days
of our Society appears in the next pages. From this doctor,
the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism.
Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford
Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory,
confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed,
helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and
dependence upon God.

Alcoholics Anonymous, pages xv-xvi

Love things about the early days of recovery. So glad they followed thought with action.

MajestyJo

08-12-2017, 11:22 PM

Complete the Housecleaning, p. 213

Time after time, newcomers have tried to keep to themselves
shoddy facts about their lives. Trying to avoid the humbling
experience of the Fifth Step, they have turned to easier methods.
Almost invariably they got drunk. Having persevered with the rest
of the program, they wondered why they fell.

We think the reason is that they never completed their housecleaning.
They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst
items in stock. They only thought they had lost their egoism and
fear; they only thought they had humbled themselves. But they had
not learned enough of humility, fearlessness, and honesty, in the
sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else their
entire life story.

Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 72-73

We are only as sick as our secrets. If we don't deal with what brought us to the doors of recover, it will take us back. We NEED to clean house and make things right with the God of our understanding. He is loving, caring, and forgiving.

F.R.O.G. FULLY RELYING ON GOD!

MajestyJo

08-27-2017, 01:06 PM

August 24
More language of letting go

Celebrate who you are

Today, celebrate who you are. Yes, you have much in common with other people. But you're also uniquely you.

Grab a piece of paper and something to write with. Now write down:

1. A lesson that you have learned in life.

2. A talent that you have, no matter how quirky.

3. Your favorite meal.

4. The name of a friend who respects and likes you for who you are.

5. An activity that you enjoy.

Now, pick up the phone and call your friend. Invite him or her to a celebration with you. Do the activity that you enjoy-- go for a walk, go to a ballgame, sit at home and watch videos, whatever you like to do. Then prepare your favorite meal or go to a restaurant and have them prepare it. Show your friend your talent-- remember this person likes and respects you for who you are. So if you can balance a Ping-Pong ball on the tip of your nose, go ahead and do that. Show him or her how good you are. Talk to your friend about the lessons you have learned, and invite him or her to share a lesson learned from you.

Instead of fussing and worrying about how different you are, be grateful that you're unique.

Celebrate being you.

God, thanks for me,too.

Like the last line. I was so fragmented when I came into recovery. The program put me back together and made me whole.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/iq/qc2puppiesyellowflowers.jpg

MajestyJo

09-02-2017, 10:27 PM

Walk In Dry Places

Going with the Flow

Problem solving.

It's surprising how many problems solve themselves when we're willing to turn them over to our Higher

Power. This isn't a self-fulfilling prophecy brought about by suspicious beliefs we can actually find proof of this seemingly providential activity in our lives.

We don't have to convince anybody except ourselves that this process works. What we can prove is that some of our best opportunities come about by what we would call chance or coincidence. Indeed, the first meeting of two AA founders could be called such a chance event.

We need to believe that our Higher Power is working ceaselessly for the upward development of the human race, and Twelve Step programs can be essential forces in this upward development. In our own lives, we can go with this flow of ever-increasing good, as we continue to feel ourselves a part of it.

I will not wrestle with every problem today. Some problems will be

dealt with later and some will seem to solve themselves. I will

know that I am part of an upward development that is continuing.

This spoke to me again of turning my speech over as well as my thoughts and my actions. Another way of saying, "Hesitate and Meditate." Think before you speak. Helps to take away the fear of putting the wrong foot forward and take away the fear of saying the wrong thing.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/faithpod/faithpod55.jpg

MajestyJo

09-07-2017, 08:57 PM

One of the things that stood out for me this weekend was a person who shared, when you take away the alcohol, the 'ics' are still there.

The alcohol was but a symptom of my disease. It was the thinking and behaviors behind the drinking that I needed to change and let go of.

I haven't had a drink in 18 years and yet I can still slip back into old patterns and behaviors. The good thing is it doesn't happen as often and I can recognize where I am at and I can make a decision to pick up the tools to change.

Just for this day, I will try to be the best me that I can be today.

Well this needs an up date, this was typed 5 years ago. It is a one day at a time program. I haven't had a drink for 23 years ago, and I can still slip back into old behaviors. I was just thinking at my Al-Anon meeting this week, I seldom pull a hissy fit and do the stomping of the feet and don't do the yelling and screaming like a banshee thing, yet the old me can still put in an appearance.

I was having a little chuckle today while walking in the mall downstairs. A sponsee of mine once told me that I was the only person she knew who could wear red and black and not look like a hooker. I think it was a compliment. I was wearing black tights and a long red top with black print and the thought came to mind, I certainly hope so seeing as I am 73. ;) I don't even want to look like a retired one, yet I don't want to look put out to pasture and over the hill either. LOL!

So many times we look at judge. Hopefully there is enough goodness inside that it shines through and makes itself known in today. AA tamed the shrew a long time ago.

MajestyJo

09-07-2017, 09:00 PM

Well this is another update, I celebrated 26 years on the 21st and picked up my black key tag at NA last night. I will be celebrating at my home group on Friday.

This is a one day at a time program, and just for today, I choose not to use. I will celebrate at my AA home group Four Directions on the 31st of August. It is about being clean and sober.

I was talking to a friend who I have known since I came into the rooms of recovery. We go way back, so it is always good to connect with another alcoholic, someone who was there when I came in. He came to my group, and has been before, and it is good that he chose our group, when he felt like he needed a meeting. I am in agreement with him, the newcomer is important for sure, but old timers can hurt too.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/thoughtpod/thoughtpod1075.jpg

MajestyJo

09-10-2017, 01:05 AM

Lie down and listen to the crabgrass grow, the faucet leak, and learn to leave them so.

– Marya Mannes

Sometimes we are driven by a need to get everything done. We have an inner sense of what we should be, and we work toward meeting that expectation. But we may strive beyond those goals because of what we believe our friends, our coworkers, and even the advertising media expect of us.

Only we decide which expectations to satisfy. But first, we must be sure that the things we strive for are really our needs and goals. If an alphabetized spice rack or an organized workbench gives us no satisfaction, why should we alphabetize or organize? If an imperfect lawn doesn’t bother us, we can let go of our concern and let the crabgrass grow.

Today, I will hold on only to my goals and expectations. I will let go of those which give me no joy.

This was a reading on Expectations posted on another site on September 7.

The following are three replies I made after reading the quote. I can't believe how different and yet the same they are.

#1
Liked the quote. You can't be in too big of a hurry if you are watching grass grow. Sometimes we don't change that much, it is hard to see it in ourselves, and we are generally the last ones to know. There is no race to be run. There is no need to rush, just face things as they appear in today, don't look at the whole picture, you can become over whelmed. When the time is right you will know, if you turn your day over and put it in the care of your Higher Power

#2

Crab grass reminds me of my disease. It invades everything and spreads into every nook and cranny of my life.

Nothing is more frustrating to me than to hear a tap dripping. It drives me crazy. I do everything I can to stop it, it becomes a major emergency. It can be something so simple, which is generally the last straw, and I lose it. Thanks to the tools of recovery, I don't have to act out in my disease.

The promises say I will know a new freedom and a new happiness. I no longer have to live that way, I have nothing to fear, I have my God with me.

#3
So true, it isn't just about the drinking, it is about the thinking. It is about living my life, not just existing and marking time. People look at me funny when I say that there are not enough hours in a day.

I do not do patience well. I can see the perception was off when it was posted and I got a different view of what was written. Sometimes that is how we live life, just sitting there waiting for it to happen and when it catches up to us, we are overwhelmed and we wonder what to do with it.

MajestyJo

09-17-2017, 12:57 AM

September 17
One More Day

Fight one more round. When your feet are so tired you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round.

– James J. Corbett

One of the problems we most frequently hear about when a person is ill, whether it be mentally or physically, is exhaustion. We tell our doctors, our friends, anyone who will lend a willing ear, “I’m just so very tired.”

To live in the fullest sense of the word, we have to, first of all, take care of ourselves. If what we feel is physical exhaustion, then we must allow ourselves the needed rest. We don’t have to take on additional projects or commitments to prove ourselves. If, however, our tiredness has an emotional base, we may have to push ourselves — for just one more hour, for just one more day — trusting that the energy will come.

I will take care of myself this day. I am getting stronger, emotionally and spiritually.

This is how I have been feeling lately. Needed to read this today.

MajestyJo

09-25-2017, 11:51 PM

Walk In Dry Places

What do We Deserve?

Good Expectations

We hear about people who snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Some of us do that even in sobriety, experiencing failure just as success seems imminent.

At times, we may just be suffering from a bad situation that is all around us. But if we do seem to be having one bad break after another, we should look more carefully within ourselves for causes. We may be punishing ourselves, or pushing away our good simply because we do not feel worth of it.

If we discover that this process is working in our lives, we must begin
changing these false patterns immediately. Having forgiven ourselves and
others, and having made amends, we need no punishment. We will work to
succeed in all of our activities, with a reasonable expectation of success most of the time. We will expect and deserve the best.

I'll carry with me today a belief that I deserve to succeed and will take all necessary action to earn my success.

Remember that I sabotaged good things in early recovery. It was too much of a good thing.

There are times when we want that good feeling or the ultimate high we use to get from using, and don't want to wait until we experience the natural highs of recover, which are so much more rewarding to me.

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MajestyJo

10-12-2017, 08:25 PM

October 12

Walk In Dry Places

A fatal Feature of alcoholism

Admitting defeat

Part of alcoholism's deadliness lies in its peculiar tendency to blind the victim to the hopelessness of the situation. Time and again, AA members meet people who are in the final stages of their disease, yet are still clinging to the fallacy that things are not as bad as they seem. Indeed, many alcoholics who have engineered their own ruin still believe they are either victims of bad luck or of malevolent action by others.

Let's remember, however, that others might not be so fortunate. We must not criticize them for not being able to accept the hopelessness of their condition. We should also look for our own blind spots about others problems in our lives.

I'll remember today that only the 12 Step program arrested my fatal disease and keeps it at bay. I'll feel kndly toward others who are having trouble admitting defeat; maybe this is the day it will happen for them.

This was hard for me. I had a lot of self-justification and rationalization. I didn't drink beer. I didn't like the taste or the smell. I didn't drink my booze straight. That was because Coca-Cola became my first addiction. For me, it was everybody else's problem, they were the falling down drunk. I later realized I could match them drink for drink, so I couldn't be sober no matter how much I told myself I was okay. I could walk a straight line. I drove my dad and my ex-husband home and didn't get pulled over. One night I had a broken signal light, but I didn't get pulled over. My God was working in my life and I turned a blind eye and wondered how comes things were so bad. I forgot to be grateful.

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MajestyJo

10-28-2017, 08:04 PM

Daily Reflections

LEST WE BECOME COMPLACENT

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85

When I am in pain it is easy to stay close to the friends I have found in the programs. Relief from that pain is provided in the solutions contained in A.A.'s Twelve Steps. But when I am feeling
good and things are going well, I can become complacent. To put it simply, I become lazy and turn into the problem instead of the solution. I need to get into action, to take stock: where am I and
where am I going? A daily inventory will tell me what I must change to regain spiritual balance. Admitting what I find within myself, to God and to another human being, keeps me honest and humble.

Complacency can be comfortable. I was told if and when I felt comfortable and content where I was, then it was time to move on.

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MajestyJo

10-28-2017, 08:07 PM

Not sure that picture applies to recovery. If we do the do things in today, we have hope for a better tomorrow.

If I become complacent, I might not have a tomorrow. As the saying goes, "Tomorrow never comes." It is about today, doing the best we can in the moment. When we stay in the moment, we don't lose that spiritual defense we need against that first drink or drug.

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MajestyJo

11-04-2017, 09:40 PM

November 4

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Gratitude In Action

The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944.

I was all alone in Quebec at the time. The Toronto Group had been in operation since the previous fall, and there was a member in Windsor who attended meetings across the river in Detroit. That was A.A. in its entirety in this country.
p. 197

We complain about the distance we have to go to a meeting. It isn't in the right place or at the right time for our convenience. So grateful for those who went before me.

MajestyJo

11-23-2017, 06:40 PM

Keep It Simple

Let me listen to me and not to them. ---Gertrude Stein

Often we try to please everyone around us. But this may not make us happy, and so we get angry.

We feel taken advantage of.

We may be kind to others, but first we must love ourselves. How? By learning to listen to ourselves. To our dreams. To our higher power. By doing this we’ll be more happy. And those around us will probably be more happy too.

As our AA medallions say, “To Thine Own Self Be True.”

Prayer for the Day: I pray that I’ll listen to that gentle, loving voice inside me. Higher Power, help me make me make my “conscious contact” with You better.

Action for the Day: I will write down why I need to be true to myself.

It took a long time to trust that inner voice. For so many years I was discounted and told I was stupid. As my ex-husband said, "Who are you to know? What makes you think your opinion counts." My sponsor told me, "If you doubt yourself, you are doubting your God."

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MajestyJo

11-28-2017, 12:08 AM

As Bill Sees It
Do It Our Way?, p. 329
In praying, our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific
solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people
as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we
are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider
each request carefully to see what its real merit is.
Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each
one of them this qualification: ". . . if it be Thy will."
12 & 12, p. 102
Tried my way for eight years and it didn't work. I replaced alcohol with pills, and in the end, I was doing both. I didn't even consider my eating disorder into the equations at that time.

Everyone else had the problem. My dad, my ex-husband(s), my son who made me feel like they were the ones who made me drink. I didn't know they didn't have the power. I didn't know I was powerless.

It wasn't until I surrendered my disease over to my God, that I was able to quit. I had to stop play 'god' with other people's lives.

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MajestyJo

12-04-2017, 06:50 PM

Each Day a New Beginning

I want to feel myself part of things, of the great drift and swirl; not cut off, missing things, like being sent to bed early as a child. --Joanna Field

Feeling apart from the action and always looking on; wanting attention, and yet afraid of being noticed; no doubt these are familiar memories to most of us. We may still struggle with our self-perception, but we can celebrate that we no longer drown our moods. Connecting with the people next to us, though difficult, is no longer impossible when we rely on the program.

There is a way to be a part of the action, a way that never fails. It takes only a small effort, really. We can simply look, with love, at someone nearby today and extend our hearts in honest attention. When we make someone else feel special, we'll become special too.

Recovery can help each of us move beyond the boundaries of our own ego. Trusting that our lives are in the loving care of God, however we understand God, relieves us of the need for self-centeredness. We can let go of ourselves now that God is in charge, and we'll discover that we have joined the action.

I will open my heart, and I'll be joined to all that's around me.

All my life, I looked to belong. People pleasing and looking for attention, kept me sick and trying to belong, with no thoughts of what I wanted or needed for myself.

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MajestyJo

12-24-2017, 07:38 AM

~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~

HOLIDAYS

Keep your recovery First to make it Last.

~ Anonymous ~

We all encounter places, people, and times of the year which trigger memories of our old lifestyle, pleasant or painful events. Holidays and family gatherings may be especially stressful times for us.

There have always been a lot of expectations associated with holidays. Many of us may feel pressured to fulfill those expectations. We need to remember that it is a naturally stressful time and we may feel more nervous than usual. We can avoid forcing moods or events on ourselves or those around us.

In recovery, we are given tips that have helped many members during the holidays. We plan extra Program activities and keep our phone list handy. We skip any slippery occasions that make us uneasy. We attend special Program events. We take a fellow member with us to a possibly slippery party if we feel uncomfortable going alone.

When I keep my recovery Number One in my mind, the holidays, with the help of my friends, will be enjoyable and less stressful.

First things first, is my recovery. I have to put my recovery first, even before my family if need be. This year I promised some young people to be their to support them instead of going out to my sister's on Christmas Eve for church. NA is my church today. I will be going there tomorrow with a niece. One of my nieces has to work, so I am not the only one.

MajestyJo

12-28-2017, 02:28 PM

Alkiespeaks:

When I slide over from being 'On the Program' to 'Self Will Run Riot' it's seamless. There's no bump, no warning, I'm just there. That's why I need Step 1O. - Trip S.

Never heard this concept before. I was told, whenever I felt comfortable, it was time to move on or take a look at where I was because I might be in an old behavior that no longer serves me in recovery.

I always need Step 10, the biggest lesson I learned was to work it all day long, not just morning and night. It saved me a lot of detours and helped me over a lot of roadblocks.

Will have to give this more thought. I feel that I am in God's will when I turn my day over each morning. When I go with the flow, things unfold as they should. If I fight it and debate as to what I should do or not do, there is a good chance, I am say, "I hear you but I am not willing to do that right now, later!" A sure sign for me, is to go downtown and not see one person I know when I am there. I is a sure sign and indicator, that I am running away from home, and I should have stayed home and did the dishes or the laundry.

It doesn't have to be recovery people, but when it is, it is bonus!

In means to be involved. On can mean your there, but a lot depends on how you are involved as to whether you are sober or whether you are looking for sobriety.

I was told to bring the body and the mind will follow. It was a long process. My eyes were on the program, at first I wasn't even sure what the program was. I just kept coming back.

Have heard a couple of long-timers stressing how much we need to find our own program. I can only be in my program, working it one day at a time. If I am on a program, that gives me an option to quit, change my mind, get new direction, involve other things or ignore the parts I don't like. That does sound like self-will run riot.

I was told to find what worked for me. I found out I was a many faceted woman, who needed many things in order to find recovery. It wasn't just about alcohol and prescription drugs. It is a lot about why I used them in the first place. I had an eating disorder, I wanted to get rich quick and looked for that winning ticket. So much of me was gung ho! get out of my way, I am coming through.

MajestyJo

01-12-2018, 08:32 AM

Keep It Simple

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol...--First part of Step One.
In Step One, we accept our powerlessness over alcohol and other drugs. But we are powerless over many parts of life. We are powerless over other people. We are powerless over what our HP has planned for us. Before recovery, we only believed in control. We tried to control everything. We fought against a basic truth, the truth that we are powerless over much of life. When we accept this truth, we begin to see what power we do have. We have the power to make choices. When we're lonely, we have the power to reach out to others. We have power over how we live our own lives.
PRAYER: HP, help me to know that it's You who is running my life. Help me to know that power comes from accepting I am powerless.
ACTION: I am powerless over much of life. Today, I'll look to see how this is true. I'll look to see what I really have control over and what I don't.

Many people say that they are not powerless over themselves. I have learned that in order to have some power, I needed to surrender my life into the care of my God. It is only then, that I am empowered to live out my day.

Surrender isn't giving up, it is giving over to the God of my understanding.

MajestyJo

02-24-2018, 07:08 PM

Each Day a New Beginning

We can never go back again, that much is certain. --Daphne DuMaurier

Yesterday is gone, but its experiences will be reflected in those of today. We learned from both the good and the bad situations of yesterday. Where we travel today, likewise, will influence our direction tomorrow. We can't do over what has gone before, but we can positively incorporate all that life is offering us from this moment forth.

We are moving toward greater understanding of life's mysteries with each experience. As today unfolds, we can be moved by the adventures. What we experience is ours alone and will contribute to the unfolding of our special destiny. We move forward, only forward. The doors behind us are closed forever.

Facing what comes to us, with strength, is a gift from this program we share. Letting go of the yesterdays and the last years is another gift offered by this program. And trust that what we face along with what we let go will weave the pattern of our rightful unfolding--that is the ultimate gift given to us by this program.

I need never go back again. I am spared that. My destiny lies in the future. And I can be certain it will bring me all that I desire, and more.

We tend to look at only the bad and not see the good. In other times, we look at the good and forget about the bad. We need to remember the bad to remind us to not go back to where we came from. Play the tape to the end.

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MajestyJo

03-02-2018, 11:49 AM

As Bill Sees It

A Different Swinging Door, p. 62

When a drunk shows up among us and says that he doesn't like the .A. principles, people, or service management, when he declares that he can do better somewhere else--we are not worried. We simply say, "Maybe your case really is different. Why don't you try something else?"

If an A.A. member says he doesn't like his own group, we are not
disturbed. We simply say, "Why don't you try another one? Or start one of your own."

To those who wish to secede from A.A. altogether, we extend a cheerful invitation to do just that. If they can do better by other means, we are glad. If after trial they cannot do better, we know they face a choice:
They can go mad or die or they can return to A.A. The decision is
wholly theirs. (As a matter of fact, most of them do come back.)

Twelve Conceptions, p. 72

My sponsor told me many years ago, "The quickest way to start a new group is with a resentment and a coffee pot.

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MajestyJo

04-13-2018, 03:53 AM

Thought for the Day

Friday, APRIL 13

From the book: Today's Gift

Nobody can be in good health if he does not have all the time fresh air, sunshine, and good water.

—Chief Flying Hawk

Before this part of the world was colonized by Europeans, native Americans thrived here, living in wigwams and teepees, spending their time in the fresh air and sun, and drinking pure, fresh water from springs, streams, and rivers. They lived long, healthy lives and almost never were sick--precisely because they knew how important the natural elements were.

When we feel depressed or nervous, nature is a good listener. We can take a walk in the sun, listen to the small birds, or twigs cracking under our feet, or simply the sound of our shoes on the pavement. We don't need to live in teepees to follow the Indians' example today. But getting out in the sunshine and fresh air every day, even on really cold days, rejuvenates us. Sunlight is healing, fresh air cleanses our lungs and brings more oxygen to the blood and brain. When we think enough of ourselves to take a walk when we need it, even that small amount of self-consideration is also healing.

Have I given myself time to live outside today?

I was to walk on the grass instead of the cement wherever possible.

MajestyJo

04-19-2018, 03:15 AM

As Bill Sees It

The "Slipper" Needs Understanding, p. 99

"Slips can often be charged to rebellion; some of us are more rebellious

than others. Slips may be due to the illusion that one can be 'cured' of

alcoholism. Slips can also be charged to carelessness and

complacency. Many of us fail to ride out these periods sober. Things

go fine for two or three years--then the member is seen no more. Some

of us suffer extreme guilt because of vices or practices that we can't or

won't let go of. Too little self-forgiveness and too little prayer--well,

this combination adds up to slips.

"Then some of us are far more alcohol-damaged than others. Still

others encounter a series of calamities and cannot seem to find the

spiritual resources to meet them. There are those of us who are

physically ill. Others are subject to more or less continuous exhaustion,

anxiety, and depression. These conditions often play a part in

slips--sometimes they are utterly controlling."

Talk, 1960

SLIP - Sobriety Loses It's Priority. You can't lose what you never had.

MajestyJo

04-19-2018, 03:18 AM

SEEK THE INNER CAUSE OF PROBLEMS

"When you arrive at your future, will you blame your past?"
-- Robert Half

What holds you back from being and doing more? In your journal, list what you believe is holding you back.

Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself? It's important to understand that ALL problems are rooted inside us. Even the blocks that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back an issue we have inside that we have not yet owned. Once we address our inner issue, the outer situation no longer troubles us.

The buck always stops with us. We step into our power when we accept responsibility for our lives. "The most self-destructive thought that any person can have is thinking that he or she is not in total control of his or her life. That's when, ‘Why me?’ becomes a theme song."
-- Roger Dawson

"...look at that word blame. It's just a coincidence that the last two letters spell the word me. But that coincidence is worth thinking about. Other people or unfortunate circumstances may have caused you to feel pain, but only you control whether you allow that pain to go on. If you want those feelings to go away, you have to say: ‘It's up to me.’"
-- Arthur Freeman

"Don't make excuses -- make good."
-- Elbert Hubbard

Used with permission from Higher Awareness.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

This reminds me of a time at a meeting when a newcomer was sharing how he had such a difficult time of letting go of blame and shame. I told him, "If you take the word 'me' out of those to words what do you have left. I call it the "bla and sham" game. Told him not to buy into it, and to realize that it was his disease that had done the talking and the action, and he was responsible, but the best way to heal it was to heal himself and take himself out of the equation so he wouldn't have to be a continuing participant.

A long-timer told me a long time ago, one of the biggest contributiong factors leading to relapse is guilt, follwed by blame and shame. He thought that guilt was just as much a factor or more so than resentment. I found that a lot of it was projected onto people by their family and friends where had their own anger and issues and it was easier to point the finger than to deal with their own issues. It is amazing how many people sabatoge people in recovery because of their own denial and guilt, and as a result they play the blame and shame game. More spouses and friends are responsible for relapse than most addicts who are already feeling low self-esteem and self-worth, and they don't like the fact that their spouses find recovery in the rooms and do for others what they won't do for them, not realizing that they don't have the power. The power for recovery is in the rooms of recovery, not in the home or church. They can help if there is support there and understanding, but seldom is that the case.

My brother-in-law never knew where to put his face if I mentioned the fact that I was leaving a family function to go to a meeting.

It is always good to get affirmations and remember whens.

I can still go into the old guilt when it comes to my son and my abusive marriages. The abused often becomes the abuser, and I found myself hitting back in anger, resentment, and that old adage, "It is all your fault!" Looking at the alcoholic and addict instead of looking at myself. When I looked at me, I realized that I needed the 12 Steps for myself and I fit in and qualified for just about any 12 Step room of recovery I walked into.

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MajestyJo

04-19-2018, 03:19 AM

Over the years, I have found that I have had a lot of guilt, but a lot of false feelings that were not mine to take on. It seemed like I was upset because something happened to you, and I would take it on. I would get angry just because I was your friend, I had to stand by your side. I can be supportive, but that doesn't mean the fight is mine. It doesn't help the other person, just because I feel for them. We have to go through this to get to the other side. I stuffed feelings for years. it took a long time for some of them to surface because I kept pushing them down because I didn't want them to surface.

My little pig lost his animation when I posted, he was bussy eating and is wolfing his treat down. We are not always able to stop of our own accord, no matter what the substance is.

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MajestyJo

04-19-2018, 03:54 AM

Thought for the Day

Thursday, APRIL 19

From the book: Today's Gift

Inch by inch, row by row

Someone bless these seeds I sow...

'Til the rain comes tumblin' down.

—David Mallett

We plant a garden with faith, never knowing exactly what the harvest will bring. We attend to those aspects of gardening, which we have some control over, planting good seeds in rich soil, in straight rows, the right distance apart. We weed and fertilize, and we tie up our tomato plants.

We may pray for rain, but we never know if we'll get too much or too little. We can't control the wind or rabbits or bugs or the strongest strains of weeds. Yet most of us don't let these things keep us from planting.

With this same sort of faith we can tend to ourselves. Though we don't know what each day will bring, we can plant the seeds in ourselves to meet most anything. We can rise each morning determined to give what we have. We can't plant the seeds for others, and we can't keep the storms from coming. The beauty is, we don't have to.

What seeds of joy can I plant today?

I was told to sew my seeds in good soil and not waste my tim on ground that won't grow. I often take exception to that because we find a patch that doesn't come up to snuff, we bring in things to help it, then we ccan sew those seeds and hopefully the will take root. To be those are the special seeds, which bring joy to me.

MajestyJo

04-24-2018, 05:28 PM

Thought for the Day
Tuesday, APRIL 24

From the book: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thought for the Day

It's been proved that we alcoholics can't get sober by our willpower. We've failed again and again. Therefore I believe there must be a Higher Power, which helps me. I think of that power as the grace of God. And I pray to God every morning for the strength to stay sober today. I know that Power is there because it never fails to help me. Do I believe that A.A. works through the grace of God?

Meditation for the Day

Once I am "born of the spirit," that is my life's breath. Within me is the life of life, so that I can never perish. The life that down the ages has kept God's children through peril, adversity, and sorrow. I must try never to doubt or worry, but follow where the life of the spirit leads. How often, when little I know it, God goes before me to prepare the way, to soften a heart, or to overrule a resentment. As the life of the spirit grows, natural wants become less important.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that my life may become centered in God more than in self. I pray that my will may be directed towards doing His will.

I was told that I didn't have any will power. I replied, "What I didn't have was won't power." I didn't have the power, I was powerless. When I surrendered to my Higher Power, I was empowered to do what I needed to do to stay clean and sober in today.

MajestyJo

05-19-2018, 09:16 PM

It’s all in the attitude!

~ Eileen Fehlen ~

We are learning from this program that we are in charge of our attitude. No other person or no situation can force us into a negative frame of mind. And if we have intentionally, though perhaps mindlessly, chosen to feel negative, we can instantly feel positive instead. A gentle reminder is all that’s necessary.

Most of us got so used to negativity that we failed to see that we could feel otherwise. We resented women who always seemed happy and up. Now we understand, but understanding how our attitude is developed and taking charge of it are separate acts.

Being consciously and actively in charge of a positive attitude takes lots of practice, but every time we succeed in changing a bad attitude to a favorable one makes change easier the next time. We will soon discover that we are just as happy as we want to be. The power rests solely with each one of us.

I will be a happy woman today if that is my choice. No one can make me feel otherwise!

It takes one to know one. Didn't like to hear that, but it is true. Recovery begins with me, I am the only one who can change it.

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MajestyJo

05-23-2018, 08:52 PM

Fear and Faith, they can not occupy the same space. We think we have faith and yet there is often that twinge of fear that creeps up on us. It is often masked by another emotion. Often our fears turn out to be unfounded. If my God leads me to it, He will see me through it.

Often how we perceive things, isn`t in fact reality. I may be our reality in the moment, but that doesn`t necessarily make it real.

Classic Chinese Dragon

The Dragon has always served me well as a symbol of self-confidence and courage. Dragons can make the heart beat stronger instill fire within, and may enable you to stand taller both physically and spiritually speaking.

What I bring from my past is my old tapes, my old behaviors and beliefs, and that is what I need to change in today.

If I want a peaceful and serene life, then if I work on my recovery today, it will make for a better tomorrow.

If I keep looking over my shoulder at my past, then I miss out on today. It can also cause me to trip up in today because I am not watchful of the direction I am taking. The decision I make in today are based on yesterday's experiences instead of the good orderly direction from my Higher Power, if I am not focused and spiritual connected in the moment.

There is no right way or wrong way, all we are asked to do is try.

It is a program of practice, and for me application. I can only do what I can do in today. I can't go into those coulda, shoulda, if onlys, not that I don't, but I try to bring myself back when I am aware that is where I am at.

Really, all we do have is the moment. When you think of it, even an hour ago is old news. The day can start in the moment, just for today, I choose not to use.

I need to let go of the fear to make room for the faith. All I can do is try to be the best me I can be in today. When I stay clean and sober, I have the option.

How I handle each situation is between me and God; if I let Him in and ask for His Care and Direction.

Alcohol is a drug.

MajestyJo

06-06-2018, 08:35 AM

June 4

Daily Reflections

LETTING GO OF OUR OLD SELVES

Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a free man at last. . . . Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable?

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 75, 76

The Sixth Step is the last "preparation" Step. Although I have
already used prayer extensively, I have made no formal request of my Higher Power in the first Six Steps. I have identified my problem, come to believe that there is a solution, made a decision to seek this solution, and have "cleaned house." I now ask: Am I willing to live a life of sobriety, of change, to let go of my old self? I must determine if I am truly ready to change. I review what I have done and become willing for God to remove all my defects of character; for in the next Step, I will tell my Creator I am willing and will ask for help. If I have been thorough in the preparation of my foundation and feel that I am willing to change, I am then ready to continue with the next Step. "If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing."

(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 76)

We need to build a firm foundation so our program won't crash when things are stressful.

I am reminded of the old hymn "How firm a foundation.''

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MajestyJo

06-29-2018, 10:53 PM

Thought for the Day

Tuesday, JUNE 5

From the book: Touchstones

Where there is no strife there is decay: "The mixture which is not shaken decomposes."

—Heraclitus

Transitions and changes are often painful, sometimes frightening. Often the most troubled lives are those most unyielding to change. When we become so committed to stability that we cannot flow with the never- ending river of life, we wither and die spiritually. Every one of us has changes moving within our lives. Some changes are beneath the surface and we only vaguely sense them. Others are obvious and we are dealing with their effects. When we see change only as a problem or as pain, we have a harder time getting on with our lives

Looking back, we can see other changes we would never have chosen or planned for ourselves. We can see now that we grew with them. Change forced us into new realms, and we found sides of ourselves we hadn't known before. Through whatever strife and difficulty of change we face today, we have a stable program to fall back on. And we have our relationship with our Higher Power, which is with us through all times.

I will try to have a lighter grip upon life today so that as the river of change flows, I can flow with it.

i was told if there wasn't strife, we wouldn't appreciate the good times when they came, we would take them for granted. We need to strive for our recovery. We have to be willing to do what ever it takes in order to recover.

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MajestyJo

07-14-2018, 06:56 PM

You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.

God as We Understand God

God is subtle, but he is not malicious. --Albert Einstein

Recovery is an intensely spiritual process that asks us to grow in our understanding of God. Our understanding may have been shaped by early religious experiences or the beliefs of those around us. We may wonder if God is as shaming and frightening as people can be. We may feel as victimized or abandoned by God as we have by people from our past.

Trying to understand God may boggle our mind because of what we have learned and experienced so far in our life.

We can learn to trust God, anyway.

I have grown and changed in my understanding of this Power greater than myself. My understanding has not grown on an intellectual level, but because of what I have experienced since I turned my life and my will over to the care of God, as I understood, or rather didn't understand, God.

God is real. Loving. Good. Caring. God wants to give us all the good we can handle. The more we turn our mind and heart toward a positive understanding of God, the more God validates us.

The more we thank God for who God is, who we are, and the exact nature of our present circumstances, the more God acts in our behalf.

In fact, all along, God planned to act in our behalf.

God is Creator, Benefactor, and Source. God has shown me, beyond all else, that how I come to understand God is not nearly as important as knowing that God understand me.

Today, I will be open to growing in my understanding of my Higher Power. I will be open to letting go of old, limiting, and negative beliefs about God. No matter how I understand God, I will be grateful that God understands me.

I can go through anything a day at a time, a moment at a time with the faith and the knowledge that my Higher Power is guiding me to peace and security. --Ruth Fishel

When I came into recovery. I said I know who God is. I was raised in the church, taught Sunday School, sang in the choir and did church 3 times on Sunday. When I got to my first year, I didn't know who God was, I went on a Spiritual Quest and found out that my Gd was so much bigger than I knew Him to be, and I had to make my relationship with my God personal, not what other people had told me He was to them. God was an old tape. He was too big to fit in church. God is evrywhere. my God is as He revels Himself to me in today.

MajestyJo

08-04-2018, 09:25 PM

From "How It Works:"

"Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to
the agnostic, and our personal adventures before
and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

(a) That we were alcoholic and could not
manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have
relieved our alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He were sought."

c. 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 60

Love this, Steps 1, 2, and 3 Waltz. I came, I came to, and I came to believe.

As a dear friend reminded me, it says 'could' doesn't say 'would' restore me to sanity. i prayed for my sense of humour to be healed and he wanted his to remain the same.

MajestyJo

08-15-2018, 07:43 PM

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, AUGUST 15

From the book: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thought for the Day

"Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are, in a short time, as bad as ever. If we have admitted we are alcoholics, we must have no reservations of any kind, nor any lurking notion that some day we will be immune to alcohol. What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of the first drink? Parallel with sound reasoning, there inevitably runs some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. There is little thought of what the terrific consequences may be." Have I given up all excuses for taking a drink?

Meditation for the Day

"Where two or three are banded together, I will be there in the midst of them." When God finds two or three people in union, who only want His will to be done, who want only to serve Him, He has a plan that can be revealed to them. The grace of God can come to people who are together in one place with one accord. A union like this is miracle-working. God is able to use such people. Only good can come through such consecrated people, brought together in unified groups for a single purpose and of a single mind.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be part of a unified group. I pray that I may contribute my share to its consecrated purpose.

I can't forget where I came from. My disease is just waiting for a week spot, an opening of any kind, be it mental, emotional, spiritual or physical to job in and catch us at a weak moment and we end up talking OURSELVES into a drink.

Sd need meeting to remind us. It is good when we get neawcomers to remind us, that could be me.

MajestyJo

12-15-2018, 10:05 PM

During the sixties the old-timers referred to a prayer as the "Seven Magic Words of AA"

And now the story behind the story:

It was the Saturday before Mother's Day 1935. A gentleman from NY named Bill Wilson was staying at the Mayflower Hotel in Akron, Ohio. He had come to town for a business deal that had gone sour.

He was in the lobby of the hotel feeling angry and depressed as he heard the tinkling of glasses and music coming from the hotel's bar.

*He wanted to drink* after being sober for six months.

He prayed "God, don't let me think this way" as he went to the phones, found Dr. Bob.............................and the rest is history.

Over the decades, in the history of AA, this story has gotten lost.

During 1974 while in Akron, Ohio (not on Founder's Day), myself, my wife and my sponsor (Papa Frank) met one of the first 100 members of AA He verified the authenticity of the above story.

Boy, talk about ammunition (bullets).................God, Don't Let Me Think This Way!

Tiger

My drug of choice in the moment, be it people, places, or things, is but a symptom of my disease. The problem is me. I don't have a drinking problem, I have a thinking problem.

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MajestyJo

01-08-2019, 11:04 PM

"Disease and Choice"

We try never to lose sight of the unchangeable fact of our alcoholism, but we learn not to brood or feel sorry for ourselves or talk about it all the time. We accept it as a characteristic of our body---like our height or our need for glasses, or like any allergies we may have.

Then we can figure out how to live comfortably---not bitterly---with that knowledge as long as we start out by simply avoiding that first drink (remember?) just for today.

A blind member of A.A. said his alcoholism was quite similar to his blindness. "Once I accepted the loss of my sight," he explained, "and took the rehabilitation training available to me, I discovered I really can, with the aid of my cane or my dog, go anywhere I want to go quite safely, just as long as I don't forget or ignore the fact that I am blind. But when I do not act within the knowledge that I cannot see, it is then I get hurt, or in trouble."

"If you want to get well," one A.A. woman said, "you just take your treatment and follow directions and go on living. It's easy as long as you remember the new facts about your health. Who has time to feel 'deprived' or self-pitying when you find there are so many delights connected with living happily unafraid of your illness?"

To summarize: We remember we have an incurable, potentially fatal ailment called alcoholism. And instead of persisting in drinking, we prefer to figure out, and use, enjoyable ways of living without alcohol.

We need not be ashamed that we have a disease. It is no disgrace. No one knows exactly why some people become alcoholics while others don't. It is not our fault. We did not want to become alcoholics. We did not try to get this illness.

We did not suffer alcoholism just because we enjoyed it, after all. We did not deliberately, maliciously set out to do the things we were later ashamed of. We did them against our better judgment and instinct because we were really sick, and didn't even know it.

We learned that no good comes of useless regret and worry about how we got this way. The first step toward feeling better, and getting over our sickness, is quite simply not drinking.

... Anyone who wants it is welcome to a "free trial period" of this new concept of self. Afterward, anyone who wants the old days again is perfectly free to start them all over. It is your right to take back your misery if you want it.

On the other hand, you can also keep the new picture of yourself, if you'd rather. It, too, is yours by right.

---From Living Sober, page 9-10

MajestyJo

01-08-2019, 11:11 PM

do not have a drinking or drugging problem in today, I have a thinking problem. A thought that can take me to either the right or wrong action for me in today. What worked for eons and eons, no longer serves it's purpose in my life.

MajestyJo

01-31-2019, 08:10 PM

January 2

"All I had to do was ask myself a simple question: 'Am I or am I not powerless over alcohol?' I didn't have to compare myself or my experience with anyone, just answer a simple question."

From: "Slow Learner"
Step By Step

From the GV book

In early recovery, I was told that I had to take the first half of Step One 100%, I often wondered why they didn't say the whole of Step One.

Then I had a big awakening, my life is unmanageable when managed by me. There are still times that my life can be unmanageable, but thanks to the program, I can pick up the tools, get honest, surrender, accept, open my mind and let my thought out and another's in, and be willing to do what it takes to recover.

I AM NOT THE POWER. My best thinking got me to the doors of recovery. My way doesn't work. I am powerless over my disease, and that of others, whatever their disease might be. Some times we don't see them as such, and we think because we have our own disease, they might be right and we are wrong. They just might have their own disease, even if their dis-ease, is to fix me.

MajestyJo

01-31-2019, 08:16 PM

I qualify for both sides of the street. Alcohol is a drug. My son is my present qualifier, in the past are my mom, dad, and ex-husband, along with 2 sponsees who died from their disease, and a sponsee and an old boyfriend who died sober.

I no I am an addict, my drug of choice was more. I used alcohol like I used prescription drugs (dried-up alcohol), food, work/busy, an OPs (relationships, family, and sponsees). I was in denial for a long time before I could admit to being an alcoholic. I am an alcoholic and I am powerless over alcohol and food just like Snoopy.

One is too many, a thousand isn't enough.

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MajestyJo

02-15-2019, 10:40 PM

How Alcohol Causes Depression

It has been proven that alcohol causes depression. Depression is ongoing feelings of hopelessness, sadness, unhappiness, and causes a bleak outlook on life. And when you are suffering from depression you can't be at the top of your game. It is hard to function in high gear when you are fatigued and are experiencing a general lack of interest, also caused by depression. It may also be important to point out here that depression causes anxiety. So many who suffer from depression will also have episodes of anxiety.

Since alcohol is a known depressant, it stands to reason people with depression shouldn't drink. This applies to people suffering from manic depression as well. Studies have shown that doctors miss diagnosing correctly roughly 65% of people who are depressed.

The depression caused by alcohol actually starts with your physical body. First, alcohol lowers the serotonin and norepinephrine levels in your brain. These chemicals are the chemicals that give you your good feelings - a feeling of well being, and they help you to feel normal. The anti-depressant drugs were designed build these chemicals back up. After a long drinking career, since alcohol can take these brain chemicals down to ground zero, it can take a long time for the anti-depressants to bring these brain chemical levels back to where they need to be.

Alcohol also temporarily nullifies the effects of stress hormones. This is why after drinking you feel worse than ever, because alcohol depresses your nervous system and your brain. A study was done that followed people who were only drinking one drink a day and after these people stopped drinking for 3 months, their depression scores improved. And that is only at one drink a day, so it is easy to imagine the impact the kind of volume an alcoholic takes in every day can have.

Alcohol all but wipes out every vitamin in your system after a drinking session. A folic acid deficiency will contribute the brain aging and in older people, dementia. The folic acid deficiency also contributes to overall depression. Further, the alcohol in your system also breaks down and speeds the elimination of antioxidants in your blood. Antioxidants are critically important to our health because antioxidants fight free radicals and free radical damage causes diseases and aging. Our immune system actually creates the antioxidants which then neutralize the free radicals.

Alcohol can activate a gene that has been linked to depression and other mental issues. The result of this activation can cause not only depression, but seizures, and manic depressive episodes as well.

Although the majority of problem drinkers associate depression with their mental and emotional states, the fact is this kind of depression originates in your physical body's response to drinking alcohol.

ezinearticles.com/?How-Alcoho...ion&id=1294741

This probably came from here, but found it on another site. Good for a reread.

When you think it is the winter time blues, it could be your disease raising it's ugly head. Could be some of both. Always a good time to go back to basics.

When you find yourself grousing someone else out or your beating up on yourself, it is time to go to a meeting and pick up the phone and talk to your sponsor and complain to him/her. A sure sign for me is when I find myself cussing in what my mother use to call French. When a good Christian lady says, "Pardon my French, you know it is bad."

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MajestyJo

03-03-2019, 02:48 AM

Choice

from: "A Day's Plan"

"Every day I ask God to kindle within me the fire of His love, so that love, burning bright and clear, will illuminate my thinking and permit me to better do His will. Throughout the day, as I allow outside circumstances to dampen my spirits, I ask God to sear my consciousness with the awareness that I can start my day over any time I choose; a hundred times, if necessary."

© 1990, Daily Reflections, page 80

This is a solution that has worked many times for me over the years. A day can start any time, each day is a new beginning, so have a great one.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can make the decision to stay stuck, to continue acting out in old patterns, and allow themselves to slip into depression and self-pity and not take action before it gets to the wallowing stage. This program is one of freedom. I don't have to live that way anymore.

So many people don't know they have choices, sometimes ignorance is not bliss. Yet I have found myself back there lately, at least I am able to recognize it and have the tools that I can pick up and help myself get out, and a God to not only to show me the way, but give me the courage, strength and wisdom as to what I need to do.

I know I didn't know how to have fun. I didn't know how to "lighten' up" and not take life so seriously as it says in Tradition Four. I didn't know how to let my inner child come out and play, let alone anything about giving her permission to do so. Life is for living and enjoying it. I was asked in early recovery, what makes you happy and I didn't know.

I didn't know I could choose the reactions, the actions and the moods, etc. that I had toward people, places and things.

Written in part in 2004.

This may be a duplicate but the thought spoke to me.

MajestyJo

03-03-2019, 03:02 AM

We are granted freedom of choice. It took me a long time to choose recovery. I was so busy blaming others for my problems, that I had no idea, until I had pushed everyone away, that the problem was me. I had no one left to point a finger at.

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Who would want to choose, which one you wanted amongst these adorable critters? Making decisions are not one of our strong points. It is something we never had to do before. Our drug of choice always made our choices for us.

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

- John Dewey

The relationship builds after we make the choice. It wouldn't matter which one we chose, the love is found as the connection grows and more choices are made.

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.

- Robert Fritz

We can limit ourselves by our choices. When we ask for God's will, all things are possible. Many times over the years, I have asked, "Are You sure about this?" It was me that was unsure. I had to learn to utilize the gifts that He bestowed on me. I am so grateful for the people He put in my path that taught me and guided me on my journey, who directed me towards making healthy choices, things that were good for my body, mind and spirit.