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Post by majestyjo on Oct 22, 2014 15:11:24 GMT -5
October 21
Ready
“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.”
Ivan Turgenev
This was one of my biggest obstacles in recovery: I wanted everything to be perfect. This type of thinking kept me stuck for many years in the disease. Instead of my program being One Day At A Time, it was always "one day later and I will do your will God."
Now I know that today is all I have. I have no guarantees for tomorrow. So I let go and let God, and do the best I can. I have discovered that I do not have to work a perfect program. Not everything has to be just “right.”
One day at a time... One day at a time I do the footwork that is required of me and leave the results to God.
~ Terri __________________
So important, I just can't sit back and wait on my God to do it for me. I can't expect my God to grab me by the scruff of the neck and say "No" dummy, don't do that, do this! The Good Orderly Direction is there if I choose to listen and learn to trust that Inner Self, which takes practice, practice, practice, which takes patience, tolerance, and more practice, practice, practice.... mj
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 22, 2014 15:14:55 GMT -5
October 22
Scars
“Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.” Shirley MacLaine
I’ve lived most of my life filled with bitterness towards people, God and myself. My mind, soul, and body were consumed by hatred, self-pity, pain, hopelessness, and a complete sense of powerlessness. I focused my energy on reviewing my scars. I counted them, checked them, nurtured them, and flaunted them. They were proof of all the wrongs I’d endured. They were my source of energy. They were my identity. They were my badge of sorrow.
As I work my recovery, I am beginning to see everything from a new perspective. Gradually my head is lifted and my eyes are turned away from my once-beloved scars. The more I allow myself to accept that my powerlessness is not a prison of doom, the more I discover that it is my doorway to faith, surrender, and serenity.
My scars are still here. There is no magic potion to remove them. What is magical, however, is that I see them so differently. I find that I have a choice to make every day: I can cherish my scars as proof of the pain I have suffered, or I can be thankful for them as evidence of things I have survived. Scar tissue forms and creates a stronger, thicker skin in its place. I can either pick at it and make it bleed, or I can welcome the lessons and endurance it has built into my life.
One day at a time... I will choose to see my scars as proof of the difficulties I have survived. I will choose to appreciate them as evidence that God has brought me through suffering and has used all things to strengthen my faith in Him, my hope for tomorrow, and my serenity for today.
~ Lisa __________________
Scars have a tale to tell and often go deep. We often forget that just though the surface may appear to be healing, the wound is still raw underneath and we need to give it time and still needs extra balm for healing. mj
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 25, 2014 14:22:24 GMT -5
October 23
Pain
“People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous ... Pain is meant to wake us up ... You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.”
Jim Morrison
I am what some might call a “pain expert.” Inside, outside, stuffed, unavoidable ~ there are so many kinds of pain. I used to think that if I were really strong, I would never let pain effect me, regardless of its source. And there were plenty of sources. I walked around with this smile on my face and this wall built around me, trying to ward off the pain.
Then one day I cracked. I lost someone very close to me. When I actually accepted that, I just broke down. There was so much pain I had been avoiding for years. At that moment I was confronted by all of it!
That was when I started to realize that I couldn’t go through life avoiding pain. It was still there and it would come back. And it would be worse. Joining this program and reading the Big Book helped me to recognize my pain and feel it. I’m now able to not fear it, but to see it for what it is: a piece of me. I grow from what I feel, including pain. Without it I wouldn’t be me.
One day at a time... I will feel my pain and I will do what is necessary to accept it. Together we are bound by pain. Together we can see our strength.
~ Miranda G. __________________
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 25, 2014 14:23:04 GMT -5
October 24
FEAR
“Fear is not created by the world around us, but in the mind, by what we think is going to happen.”
Elizabeth Gawain
There are different kinds of fear. Certain fears are good, because they help preserve our lives. Babies, for example, have a fear of falling. It just seems to be a natural instinct. Any fear that protects us from harming ourselves is a good fear.
However, when fear becomes an obsession, it is getting out of hand. Why do we go looking for trouble? There is a saying, “Don’t let clouds of fear of the morrow hide today’s sunshine.” We can get so anxious about what’s going to happen in the future that we don’t enjoy living today.
Life is a precious gift to be lived one day at a time, and is to be shared with others.
One Day at a Time . . . This is how I will live my life: One day at a time, one moment at a time, sharing my precious gift with another through Twelve Step giving.
Lizzie __________________
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 25, 2014 14:24:57 GMT -5
October 25
Courage
“If you're going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill
Recovery work takes great courage. Everyone who tells you differently has not explored themselves in great depth.
It takes great courage for many of us to get up each morning to face a day of physical challenge. Others feel the pull of emotions, job, or family issues.
If but for today, reach inside and give yourself a big hug for being willing to hang on one minute longer. That minute will turn into moments, and before you know it, you will have lived out the Program message, “One day at a time."
One day at a time... I will honor and celebrate the courage shown in working this program.
~ January K. __________________
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 26, 2014 20:17:48 GMT -5
October 26
Paths
“I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost
As a compulsive overeater, I longed to find a solution to my problems. Like so many of us, I tried all the heavily traveled roads ~ the endless means to lose weight and to alleviate my indulgent eating behaviors. But at the end -- and there was always an end -- of every new "method of weight loss" I returned to walking my old path of destructive compulsive overeating. I always went back to the old eating behaviors as well as the consequences of those behaviors. I had heard of OA but did not know anyone who belonged to its groups. It seemed like the whole world was on the latest fad diet -- diets that I could never continue for more than a few days or weeks.
Since joining The Recovery Group, I now walk a new path and have abandoned the old roads and the diet of the week. I have been on this road nearly a year now, and it is a wonderfully pleasant trek. I indeed believe "I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence." I have found an incredible amount of recovery spiritually, emotionally and physically. I am traveling on “the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference!”
One day at a time... I will enjoy this road less taken...a path of acceptance and surrender. It is a path of spiritual, emotional and physical recovery!
~ Karen A. __________________
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 27, 2014 15:45:42 GMT -5
October 27
Living in the Present
“As long as you are seeking to find happiness somewhere, you are overlooking where true happiness is.” Gangaji
Happiness is always somewhere else, isn’t it? It is all too human to put off our happiness until a more appropriate or perfect time. Ideally, we know that happiness is not a matter of timing; it is a state of mind caused by even the smallest actions that we take (or fail to take) each day. However, I often used to remark to others that, “One day I will be happy when I get thin.” I got much thinner, but never thin enough, it seems. “One day I will take a night course.” I was so busy working, “on-call”, and doing things for others that I never managed to find the time.
“One day I will start this new food Plan,” I’d promised myself. It had worked for others. I truly wanted to give myself a chance to see if it could work for me too, yet I approached it haphazardly, at first. On paper, any food plan is just a diet, unless, you have a Sponsor, use the Tools, and work the Steps! I’d been told this over and over, and later--lived the actual experience of doing it my way. As long as I told myself, “One day I will find the time for me,” it didn’t come about!
One day at a time... I now realize that as long as I keep looking to the future in order to allot myself wonderful challenges and small joys, I am choosing to postpone my happiness until my life is perfect, which is never in the realm of reality. I believe that this is why those who have gone before us in recovery suggest that we live life on life’s terms to the best of our ability just “One day at a time.”
~ January K. __________________
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 28, 2014 14:13:58 GMT -5
October 28
Home
“My home is not a place, it is people.” Lois McMaster Bujold
I’ve spent most of my adult life feeling very alone in the world. My disease of compulsive overeating separated me from others due to my isolation, embarrassment and shame. I was always the outsider looking in at others.
It wasn't until I walked into a twelve step meeting that I found a home for myself. Here these people knew me, heck they WERE me. Whatever I thought, whatever I felt, and whatever I had done in my life, so had others in OA. I am accepted in my totality. OA is the only place where I feel truly safe and at home. I am not alone anymore. The entire twelve step fellowship is on my side ~ and what a great feeling that is!
One day at a time... I will make OA my home.
~ Cindi L. __________________
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 29, 2014 22:41:35 GMT -5
October 29
Trial and Error
“Anything worth doing at all is worth doing poorly.” Joachim de Posada
Imagine my shock the first time I heard this statement, which happened to be in a Twelve Step (OA) meeting. I had been reared in an environment in which anything worth doing at all was worth doing well. In fact, in my world this concept was practiced as if it had religious authority. It was perfectionism given flesh and bones.
Perhaps the idea that “anything worth doing at all is worth doing well” worked for some folks. For me, it was paralyzing. There were many things that I needed to do that I simply could not do well. These included things like trimming the hedge, praying, and making good investment choices. So how did my sick, obsessive-compulsive self respond? Predictably, of course: I just didn't do those things I felt I couldn’t do well. I was rarely willing to take the chance of acting and being wrong, so I did not act at all. Soon I was living a very restricted life -- a life hemmed in by the fear of messing up. I needed to be perfect or just not be at all.
Then I found the program. There I learned that I am human and that making mistakes is part of being human. I even learned that making mistakes is a good thing, because in doing so I have acted. This is a program of action. I learn by acting and by making mistakes. How liberating! How freeing. I can't tell you how much my constricted, warped life began to open up. I acted and did things poorly, and people responded warmly and in a helpful manner. I took their advice and I joined the human race. I now consider this simple concept -- act, even if it means doing a thing poorly -- as one of the greatest gifts of the program. My life is really my life now. Perfectionism occasionally rears its ugly head, but when it does, I simply remember where I came from and then I go ahead and make a mistake and set myself free again.
One day at a time... Today I will do what I need to do, and I will do it as well as I can. When I make a mistake I will not conclude that I am a mistake. I will accept that I am human and I will ask for help. Perfection has never been a goal of this program and it is not a goal for my life.
~ Pete M.
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 30, 2014 20:55:10 GMT -5
October 30
Truth
“The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” Herbert Agar
I spent thirty-five years of my adult life running from the truth. It wasn't until I came to OA and began to work through the Twelve Steps that I had enough emotional support to turn and face the truth. What is my truth? I am a food addict.
Once I was able to face and accept that truth, surrender to my Higher Power was immediate. At long last I was free of cravings, free of bingeing, and free of obsessive food thoughts. That freedom allowed me to work toward the goal of becoming the person I had always wanted to be.
The way I see it, I can be an addict in recovery or I can be an addict in hell. I choose recovery.
One day at a time... I will seek the truth in my life by working the program of recovery.
~ Cindi L. __________________
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Post by majestyjo on Oct 31, 2014 6:28:15 GMT -5
October 31
SERVICE
“Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth.”" Shirley Chisholm
Midway through my first fourth step someone asked me to sponsor her. I was thrilled and eager to share my experience, strength and hope. As my work with my sponsee progressed, something began to happen in my own program. All that I had learned and was sharing with my sponsee reminded me of where I came from and how far I had progressed. I found that my recovery was strengthened through this process of giving away my experiences in program. This service allowed me to keep what I had received.
It is vital for me that I serve the program of OA in all different manners: as a sponsor; as a leader of a step meeting; as treasurer of a local meeting; and by reaching out to newcomers, people in relapse, and others in the OA fellowship. The more I give, the more I receive.
One day at a time... I will give service to the OA fellowship so that I may remain in recovery.
~ Cindi L. __________________
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