Alcoholics Anonymous | March 31 2013 | Steps In Action | Step 3 "Your Higher Power" "we are going to know a new freedom…" If I am not the higher power, where does my freedom come from? The new freedom for me: freedom from extremes of fear, pride and ego. Letting go of fear, pride and ego opens the door… To ask for help when I don't know the answer, courage to change, faith in doing the next right thing and growing confidence that I can live with greater freedom of choice, one day at a time…
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Freedom from: "the slavery of addiction," "an old repetitive life" "having to be right, and look right" "old behaviour which was a liability," "hiding who I am from other people because the new person is much improved," "old feelings of inadequacy." New freedom: "to start life over," "to identify and be willing to make amends," "make amends without doing further harm and without reservation," "to take time out to improve, and to have gratitude," "to reflect and meditate and ask for help when needed, and seek clarity," "to let go the old way of life, continue to develop a new life, and share how when asked, and keep on learning better principles of living," one day at a time. Steps in action, progress not perfect, and we can always start again. Whatever happens!
Easter Sunday starts with a bright blue sky and yet the news in the UK is all about lies, damned lies and statistics from the government. According to four of the main churches, the economic difficulties in the UK are not caused by the poor. And these religious organisations as well as secular organisations suggest "the UK media," is spreading lies which the government is responsible for. Although it sits well with the government to criticise the poor for being a drain on the well-being of those in work, the poorest in work are those who really need the support that the government wishes to take away, as well as the unfortunates who cannot get a job and are excluded from employment. I mention this in passing because I feel the anger and misrepresentations of large numbers of the UK population is making our society more polarised and conflicted. Ruining the reputation of poor people is no way to improve the economic situation. Making people self-prejudiced and stigmatised causes horror and grief, and ultimately rebellion. The reason I say this is because the more people are stigmatised, the more they identify with their stigma and the prejudice against them. As ugly can be, especially on this particular religious festival for many millions around the world…
What makes the difference in recovery? I don't know the answer for you. And it would be a presumption if I did. And the reason why I am still alive is because people came together in fellowship and found a solution to how to restart life. The twelve steps work if we can work at them and all we need is the right encouragement. We don't need to be pushed into anything, we cannot be pushed into sobriety, all it takes is awareness and hopefully a desire to be sober for a day. The more I was told what to do with my life, the more I rebelled against it, partly in the beginning because I had no real clue what was going on. And then as life went on, I rebelled because life just seemed like an unending journey of misery, without the basic ingredient that every human needs, and that need is love…
Experience, strength and hope… To be redeemed and share how to restart life, even though we had become derelict, that by finding fellowship, with unity and recovery at the core and helping each other without conditions is a profound awakening. And especially today, although I am not a religious person, the spiritual awakening any human can have, is to be able to cope and live the reality of now. And when we cannot cope, we can ask for help. The experience, strength and hope of the many helping one person find their way back from hell. To be able to find useful endeavours which suit each of us and then we find happiness in new endeavours is in my opinion miraculous. And we can keep on changing to the good, keep on finding where the bad and ugly bits are, and hopefully let go, repeating the bad and ugly bits too often. Freedom to choose, freedom to strive for what is important to you and not to be enslaved or a martyr to other people's causes and conflicts today…
I feel very grateful to be alive and to be able to see the possibilities in life, and to have choices. Even when life is difficult, we can develop the freedom to find a new path. To other people our endeavour may not seem glamorous and that does not matter, what matters is the quality of our emotional and spiritual living. Living and experiencing our feelings in the moment of now, which informs us about what is right and wrong for each of us in the moment, and when we find ourselves going in the wrong direction, we can take action to change. All we need is courage to change, faith in doing the next right thing and confidence to be the person we are and happy to be so just for today… And when we cannot be the person we wish to be, we can make plans, not to trip ourselves up, simply, to make plans towards more freedom of choice and be active in making those choices and not stuck in the old life again…
Alcoholics Anonymous | March 31 2012 | Steps In Action | Step 3 "Your Higher Power" Alcoholics Anonymous Today's AA daily reflection: "no one denied me love…" Rock bottom, a place where nothing takes away the pain of day-to-day living. I'm thankful that tradition three, "a desire to stop drinking" opened the door to a new way of living no matter what else ailed me…
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On occasion in Fellowship groups, a person will speak out and say this Fellowship is only for the type of alcoholics described in the big book. First feelings when I hear it, "horror and dismay that the person has so much prejudice, self-prejudice and then a prejudice against "improper or less severe cases who have less of a problem, or more severe cases who have multi-addictions to substance and behaviour." And step one, makes it plain as do all the steps, that's none of my business…
In the AA daily reflections, the month of March is all about step three, letting go and letting good things come into our lives. Letting go the old attitudes and behaviour which kept us drinking, letting go being right about everything, letting go being wrong about everything. With the principles of open, honest and willing to change we find we can let go of something harmful today, and start something fresh which helps us develop a more healthy attitude and outlook in the moment of now…
Unconditional love… How to love without conditions, how to be loved back just as people can give their life experience and ability to develop their feelings. If a person has never learned how to love unconditionally, they cannot. I did not understand unconditional love until I began to experience it. And even now it can be so overwhelming I can break down. As a newcomer this happened to me and hurt a lot. It was part of the grieving process of letting go an old redundant life…
And although I wish it wasn't so, "pain is often a part of our spiritual progress" where our feelings are right sized for the experience we are having today. Contingent on being aware of what spiritual progress is, "the good, the bad and the ugly of life" in other words everything, having let go and made room for new living I may make some progress just for today…
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DonInLondon 2005-2011
Today I understand how the higher power works in my life. And have gratitude for everyone who has a higher power in their lives as they understand. Some call their higher power God, and some simply, the higher power. I cannot define God or Nature and Providence. I have learned that "truth," "love" and "wisdom" informs me what I can and cannot do today...
Rather than self-reliance on my own point of view, my own outlook and my own self-interest or personal opinion, asking for help to learn and understand what universal "truth," "love" and "wisdom" is on a daily basis. I have perspective, freedom of choice based on reality, life on life's terms, interdependent and equal, included in the possible. What more do I need today?
Inclusion, choice and fellowship, we learn how to be sober, recognise how to deal with life, know it can be at extremes sometimes, then return to a more balance outlook as we deal with life in the moment. As we learn the truth, develop friendships and loving relationships and gain wisdom from experience and others, life works. Always just for today…
Can we let go? When we and those we love, do the best possible, when best feels worst. We strive to do our best, yet it can feel like the worst cut of all to another .. How do we forgive, let go, and accept what is possible? Cherish reality and people we love ..
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AA Daily Reflection: NO ONE DENIED ME LOVE On the A.A. calendar it was Year Two . . . . A newcomer appeared at one of these groups . . . . He soon proved that his was a desperate case, and that above all he wanted to get well. . . . [He said], “Since I am the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism, you may not want me among you.” TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 141-42
I came to you - a wife, mother, woman who had walked out on her husband, children, family. I was a drunk, a pill-head, a nothing. Yet no one denied me love, caring, a sense of belonging. Today, by God’s grace and the love of a good sponsor and a home group, I can say that -through you in Alcoholics Anonymous - I am a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a woman. Sober. Free of pills. Responsible. Without a Higher Power I found in the Fellowship, my life would be meaningless. I am full of gratitude to be a member of good standing in Alcoholics Anonymous.
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As Bill Sees It ~ Foundation for Life... We discover that we receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms. In praying, we ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for the day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out. There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life. TWELVE AND TWELVE
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Alcoholics Anonymous, 12 Steps AA, Addiction And Recovery, DonInLondon, Don Oddy,
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Just For Today, and every day cherish always...
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AA Official Online Site: Daily Reflections
http://www.aa.org/lang/en/aareflections.cfm
AA Official Online Site: Big Book And Twelve And Twelve
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