Daily Reflections & Daily Readings

[MandiH]

June 30~Daily Reflections

SACRIFICE = UNITY = SURVIVAL

The unity, the effectiveness, and even the survival of A.A. will always depend upon our continued willingness to give up some of our personal ambitions and desires for the common safety and welfare. Just as sacrifice means survival for the individual alcoholic, so does sacrifice mean unity and survival for the group and for A.A.'s entire Fellowship.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 220

I have learned that I must sacrifice some of my personality traits for the good of A.A. and, as a result, I have been rewarded with many gifts. False pride can be inflated through prestige but, by living Tradition Six, I receive the gift of humility instead. Cooperation without affiliation is often deceiving. If I remain unrelated to outside interests, I am free to keep A.A. autonomous. Then the Fellowship will be here, healthy and strong for generations to come.

From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

[MandiH]

June 30~Language Of Letting Go

Accepting Change

One day, my mother and I were working together in the garden. We were transplanting some plants for the third time. Grown from seed in a small container, the plants had been transferred to a larger container; then transplanted into the garden. Now, because I was moving, we were transplanting them again.

Inexperienced as a gardener, I turned to my green-thumbed mother. “Isn’t this bad for them?” I asked, as we dug them up and shook the dirt from their roots. “Won’t it hurt these plants, being uprooted and transplanted so many times?”

“Oh, no,” my mother replied. “Transplanting doesn’t hurt them. In fact, it’s good for the ones that survive. That’s how their roots grow strong. Their roots will grow deep, and they’ll make strong plants.”

Often, I’ve felt like those small plants—uprooted and turned upside down. Sometimes, I’ve endured the change willingly, sometimes reluctantly, but usually my reaction has been a combination.

Won’t this be hard on me? I ask. Wouldn’t it be better if things remained the same? That’s when I remember my mother’s words: That’s how the roots grow deep and strong.

Today, God, help me remember that during times of transition, my faith and my self are being strengthened.

[MandiH]

I sure needed this one today.

[MandiH]

June 30~Journey To The Heart

Cherish Your Connection to the Universe

My relationship with the universe used to be different. I felt separate, apart, disconnected from the rest of the world. My vision of God used to be different,too. I used to see God as sitting on a throne, separate and apart from this world. I still see God as the supreme creative force, but the separateness is melting, changing, transforming into something new.

Now I see God, the energy of God, and Divine love as a part of all that is, the breath of life in every living thing. I used to see the world as made up of individual and separate components. I used to see people as disconnected and essentially powerless in a world separated from God. Each thing, person, and action a distinctly different operation or event from any other, from the whole. Now I see a planet full of people connected to the Divine. Now I see a universe connected by a Divine thread that weaves throughout all that is, was, and will be. A living universe that is alive, magical, connected by universal love. Connected by Divine love.

Enter into a relationship with the universe, a relationship as alive, as active, as vital as any other
relationship. Then know that you are connected to the world and everything in it. Know that universal
love, Divine love, is real and you are an important part of it.

[MandiH]

June 30~Walk In Dry Places

Making all things new

Releasing the Past

A 12 Step program should give us a new way of life, our friends often say. We should have new attitudes,
new experiences, new opportunities.

If we’re to grasp this new way of life, we must let go of the old habits of the past. No alcoholic can recover, for example, by choosing to remain in the old drinking environment.

We must also “recover” from other relationships and patterns that were destructive or kept us from our highest good.

“Behold, I make all things new,” is the ancient promise. As our thoughts and beliefs change, the old patterns drop away and the new life reveals itself to us.

Today I’ll drop the negative or outworn relics from the past and press on to find the things that are for my greatest good.

[MandiH]

July 1~Daily Reflections

THE BEST FOR TODAY

The principles we have set down are guides to progress.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 60

Just as a sculptor will use different tools to achieve desired effects in creating a work of art, in Alcoholics Anonymous the Twelve Steps are used to bring about results in my own life. I do not overwhelm myself with life’s problems, and how much more work needs to be done. I let myself be comforted in knowing that my life is now in the hands of my Higher Power, a master craftsman who is shaping each part of my life into a unique work of art. By working my program I can be satisfied, knowing that “in doing the best that we can for today, we are doing all that God asks of us.”

From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

[MandiH]

July 1~Language Of Letting Go

Receiving

Here is an exercise:

Today, let someone give to you. Let someone do something nice for you. Let someone give you a compliment or tell you something good about yourself. Let someone help you.

Then, stand there and take it. Take it in. Feel it. Know that you are worthy and deserving. Do not apologize. Do not say, “You shouldn’t have.” Do not feel guilty, afraid, ashamed, and panicky. Do not immediately try to give something back.

Just say, “Thank you.”

Today, I will let myself receive one thing from someone else, and I will let myself be comfortable with that.

[MandiH]

July 2~Daily Reflections

THE HEART OF TRUE SOBRIETY

We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 568

Am I honest enough to accept myself as I am and let this be the “me” that I let others see? Do I have the willingness to go to any length, to do whatever is necessary to stay sober? Do I have the open-mindedness to hear what I have to hear, to think what I have to think, and to feel what I have to feel?

If my answer to these questions is “Yes,” I know enough about the spirituality of the program to stay sober. As I continue to work the Twelve Steps, I move on to the heart of true sobriety: serenity with myself, with others, and with God as I understand Him.

From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

[MandiH]

July 2~Language Of Letting Go

Who Knows Best?

Others do not know what’s best for us.

We do not know what’s best for others.

It is our job to determine what’s best for ourselves.

“I know what you need.”. . . “I know what you should do.” . . . “Now listen, this is what I think you should be working on right now.”

These are audacious statements, beliefs that take us away from how we operate on a spiritual plane of life. Each of us is given the ability to be able to discern and detect our own path, on a daily basis. This is not always easy. We may have to struggle to reach that quiet, still place.

Giving advice, making decisions for others, mapping out their strategy, is not our job. Nor is it their job to direct us. Even if we have a clean contract with someone to help us—such as in a sponsorship relationship—we cannot trust that others always know what is best for us. We are responsible for listening to the information that comes to us. We are responsible for asking for guidance and direction. But it is our responsibility to sift and sort through information, and then listen to ourselves about what is best for us. Nobody can know that but ourselves.

A great gift we can give to others is to be able to trust in them—that they have their own source of guidance and wisdom, that they have the ability to discern what is best for them and the right to find that path by making mistakes and learning.

To trust ourselves to be able to discover—through that same imperfect process of struggle, trial, and error—is a great gift we can give ourselves.

Today, I will remember that we are each given the gift of being able to discover what is best for ourselves. God, help me trust that gift.

[MandiH]

July 2~More Language Of Letting Go

It’s good for your heart

“I know I’ve got some emotions up, just brewing right beneath the surface,” Jake said one day. “I’m edgy,
irritable, and definitely not centered. But I don’t want to look. I don’t want to go into the emotions. I don’t like feelings. Whenever I give into them. I end up feeling like a piece of cooked spagetti- for days.”

Emotions can take a lot out of us. Feeling them, whether it’s anger, fear, or sadness, can leave us
exhausted and drained.

Not feeling our emotions, however, can keep us edgy, irritable, and off-balance. Not feeling our feelings for an extended time can drive us to acting out, whether that means overeating, obsessing, staying in bed and hiding from the world, or staring at the television every night until we pass out.

Be gentle with yourself. Don’t force it. But don’t run away from your feelings, either. You might feel like
cooked spagetti for a while, but what’s really softening up is your heart.

God, help me face and feel any feelings.

[MandiH]

I needed this one in a big way today. I can feel how much my body is suffering by me trying to keep it all together. What I’m actually doing is stuffing my emotions down and my body is keeping score. My logical mind and my heart are in disagreement. My mind says they don’t serve the situation or others best right now. My heart wants to feel everything deeply and pour it all out. It’s a battle for sure right now.

[LAB]

This is a tough one for me too.

I want to do all the work of resolving my anger and getting to the place of peace. My problem is I want to do it very “quickly and efficiently “, only that’s not how it works.

Finding peace is a steady and careful process I think. Finding the patience is one of my challenges.

One day at a time.

[MandiH]

July 3~Daily Reflections

EXPERIENCE: THE BEST TEACHER

Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 87

Some say that experience is the best teacher, but I believe that experience is the only teacher. I have been able to learn of God’s love for me only by the experience of my dependence on that love. At first I could not be sure of His direction in my life, but now I see that if I am to be bold enough to ask for His guidance, I must act as if He has provided it. I frequently ask God to help me remember that He has a path for me.

From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

[MandiH]

July 3~Language Of Letting Go

Directness

So much of our communication can reflect our need to control. We say what we think others want to hear. We try to keep others from getting angry, feeling afraid, going away, or disliking us. But our need to control traps us into feeling like victims and martyrs.

Freedom is just a few words away. Those words are our truths. We can say what we need to say. We can gently, but assertively, speak our mind.

Let go of your need to control. We do not need to be judgmental, tactless, blaming, or cruel when we speak our truths. Neither do we need to hide our light. Let go, and freely be who you are.

Today, I will be honest with myself and others, knowing that if I don’t, my truth will come out some other way.

[MandiH]

July 3~Today’s Gift

You are here for a purpose. There is not a duplicate of you in the whole wide world; there never has been,
there never will be. You were brought here now to fill a certain need. Take time to think that over. --Lou
Austin

No other person is exactly like you or me. No one can do exactly what we can, or touch another person in exactly the way we can. Out of all the people who could have been created, we were chosen to be a part of this time and place.

We are needed to fulfill a plan, in our families as well as in our relationships. Knowing we have unique
abilities, we will spend less time feeling jealous of what others can do.

Through our dreams and yearnings, God shows us who we can be. It is up to us to have the courage to
follow that dream with action.

What unique gift can I offer the world today?

[LAB]

Oh yea that truth will come out another way.

I need to think about that and find the pathways to let that truth out while still being kind and acting with dignity with those around me and those I love.

I have a lot of work and learning to do on that.

My best friend tells me she sees me use what she calls the 2x4 method. I give and give and teach and model and love. And then, when I have “had it” with that person, I metaphorically whack them.

Unfortunately that has been fairly effective for me, but not so kind for them. And in the end I feel guilt and anger at myself for following this path.

And I know it comes from an unhealthy and unkind model in my life. Probably need to seek some better models from whom to learn.

I wish you all peace today.

[MandiH]

Oh I do understand that bottling up until I explode! I can see now I get that from my mom. We’ve had a tendency to say nothing until we blow up from all the pressure.

I have learned to do much more release valve work along the way to help that, but it’s progress over perfection. Just last night my sponsor was talking to me about my emotions & my body currently building up pressure from all the things I have going on and we worked through some ways I can relieve that pressure now so I don’t get to the place of exploding as it could happen for me when life gets super life-y. And it’s definitely life-y right now.

Boundaries, open conversations, letting myself feel things and processing those emotions, being authentic and doing things like self care, releasing things on many levels and replenishing my soul are all an important part of this path for me. It’s helping to keep my side of the street clean. Each of those things are like the brush strokes that keep the dirt from building up.

I keep my sponsor especially close during these times to make sure I’m continuing to do things in a new way and it really helps me to keep myself more on the middle of the beam so I don’t fall off.

[MandiH]

July 4~Daily Reflections

A NATURAL FAITH

. . . deep down in every man, woman and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 55

I have seen the workings of the unseen God in A.A. rooms around the country. Miracles of recovery are everywhere in evidence. I now believe that God is in these rooms and in my heart. Today faith is as natural to me, a former agnostic, as breathing, eating and sleeping. The Twelve Steps have helped to change my life in many ways, but none is more effective than the acquisition of a Higher Power.

From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

[MandiH]

July 4~Language of Letting Go

Celebrate

Take time to celebrate.

Celebrate your successes, your growth, your accomplishments. Celebrate you and who you are.

For too long you have been too hard on yourself. Others have spilled their negative energy—their attitudes, beliefs, pain—on you. It had nothing to do with you! All along, you have been a gift to yourself and to the Universe.

You are a child of God. Beautiful, a delight, a joy. You do not have to try harder, be better, be perfect, or be anything you are not. Your beauty is in you, just as you are each moment.

Celebrate that.

When you have a success, when you accomplish something, enjoy it. Pause, reflect, rejoice. Too long you have listened to admonitions not to feel good about what you have done, lest you travel the downward road to arrogance.

Celebration is a high form of praise, of gratitude to the Creator for the beauty of God’s creation. To enjoy and celebrate the good does not mean that it will be taken from you. To celebrate is to delight in the gift, to show gratitude.

Celebrate your relationships! Celebrate the lessons from the past and the love and warmth that is there today. Enjoy the beauty of others and their connection to you.

Celebrate all that is in your life. Celebrate all that is good. Celebrate you!

Today, I will indulge in the joy of celebrating.

[MandiH]

July 4~NA Just For Today

NA Just For Today

Conflict

“We learn that conflicts are a part of reality, and we learn new ways to resolve them instead of running
from them.”

Basic Text, p.87

From time to time, we all experience conflicts. It may be that we just can’t get along with that new coworker. Maybe our friends are driving us crazy. Or perhaps our partner isn’t living up to our expectations.

Dealing with any conflict is difficult for recovering addicts.

When tempers rise, it is often a good idea to back away from the situation until cooler minds prevail. We can always return for further discussion when we have calmed down. We can’t avoid troubling situations, but we can use time and distance to find perspective.

Conflict is a part of life. We can’t go through our entire recovery without encountering disagreements and differences of opinion. Sometimes we can back away from these situations, taking time to reflect on them, but there always comes a time when conflict must be resolved. When that time comes, we take a deep breath, say a prayer, and apply the principles our program has given us: honesty, openness, responsibility, forgiveness, trust, and all the rest.

We didn’t get clean to keep running from life-and in recovery, we don’t have to run anymore.

Just For Today: The principles my program has given me are sufficient to guide me through any situation.
I will strive to confront conflict in a healthy way.