Daily Motivation 6-11-2013

Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Today's Gift

Let your conscience be your guide.—Jiminy Cricket

Crickets sing on summer nights because it's their nature to do so. They don't think about whistling or trumpeting or sleeping or changing the world. They've figured out their role on earth, and they do it.

We are a bit more complex than crickets, and most of the time that's lucky. In most of our affairs it's our conscience more than sheer instinct that helps us choose those thoughts and acts and feelings that are right for us.

Each of us has that little voice inside, relentless as a chirping cricket, telling us what to do. Even in the middle of our toughest decisions, we always have within us the solution that is right for us. All we have to do is listen-and trust.

What does my inner voice say about today's decisions?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

 

One receives only that which is given. The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words, return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy. --Florence Scovel Shin

Each of us can attest to the truth of this passage. During the difficult times, however, it is not uppermost in our minds that "what goes around, comes around." It feels all too easy to be justifiably resentful or to gossip, or to ignore another's presence. And the repercussions are seldom immediate. They will come, though.

Goodness is likewise repaid. Giving love, attention, respect to the individuals who share our lives and to the people who cross our paths by chance, will smooth our own passage day by day. The effects of our goodness will often be felt quickly. A smile elicits a smile. Kind thoughts bless us as well as the receiver. Life events do come full circle.

Action for the Day: With a bit of effort, I can smile at someone today, even though I'm frowning inside. Both will be better for it.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Hope
At first it was a shock to realize I was an alcoholic,
but the realization that there was hope made it easier.
The baffling problem of getting drunk
when I had every intention of staying sober was simplified.
It was a great relief to know I didn't have to drink any more.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 354

Thought to Ponder . . .
If I don't drink today, I have the hope of a tomorrow.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O P E = Heart Open; Please Enter.

 

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Daily Motivation

Live what you are

Don’t just advocate and argue for what you value. Live it.

Don’t just wish for and talk about your dreams. Live them.

Devote each individual moment of your life to what you sincerely care about. Bring your hopes, dreams and values to life by consistently living them.

No matter what situation you’re in, you can live it with a focus on what truly matters to you. Every day, there are countless ways to put the beauty of your unique perspective into meaningful action.

There is no need to wait for your dreams to come true. Today is when you can make them true with the way you live your life.

You are overflowing with amazing possibilities. Today, and every day, live what you are.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 6-17-2013

Monday, June 17, 2013
Today's Gift

To stop behaving in a certain way is to risk the unfamiliar. --Jan Lloyd

Old patterns grip us so tightly! Even when the behavior pinches us painfully, we are loathe to give it up. Its familiarity makes it tolerable, knowable, somewhat manageable, and far less scary than trying something new. However, we are truly the luckiest people alive because now we have a training ground where it is safe to try new behaviors. We can discard old, self-defeating patterns in the safe environment of your support system.

We are on this rediscovery path because each of us wants a new life. We have grown sick and tired of the old ways that no longer work. And we have come to believe that change is possible if we look for it in the right place. This is the right place! Every day we can see others who, like us, are trying on new behaviors and meeting with success. We are role models for one another, and every time one of us tries a new response to an old situation, we are all heartened and stretched a bit. We know that what another can do, we can do too.

I am in the right place today to let go of the old and try the new. My support is all around me. I will not fear.

From the book A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Each day provides its own gifts. ---Ruth D. Freedman

Life is full of wonderful gifts. Recovery is life's greatest gift to us. If we're not excited about being sober, we need to check ourselves. Are we keeping something secret? Is there a sadness we need to talk about? Are we stuffing anger? These things eat away at our excitement for life.

Many addicts never get the gift of recovery. Those of us in recovery are special. We've been given a new life. There will be hard times. But the joy of getting a second chance will be stronger. Am I grateful that I've been given recovery?

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see recovery as a gift. I deserve this gift because I'm human. Help me to always accept this gift.

Action for the Day: At the end of the day, I'll list three gifts that this day has given me.

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One Day At A Time

Faith
We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Higher Power.
We can laugh at those who think spirituality is the way of weakness.
Paradoxically, it is the way of strength.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 68

Thought to Ponder . . .
Faith dares the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F A I T H = Fear And Insecurity? Trust Him/Her!

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Daily Motivation

Be fully alive

This is a great day to be alive. So use this day to be one hundred percent, completely, fully alive.

Don’t settle from less than the best from yourself. In every moment of this day, you can choose to live with purpose, passion, richness and joy.

Take a moment to count your blessings, and then get busy making those blessings count. Just by virtue of being you, there is so much you have and so much good you can do.

Sure, there are plenty of perfectly valid reasons to be negative. But that doesn’t mean you have to embrace those reasons.

Choose instead to be positively inspired by everything you see and hear and experience. Let that inspiration push you gently and joyfully forward as you find ways to make a difference for your world, yourself, and the people around you.

Life on this day is a priceless gift, so enthusiastically open the gift and jump all the way into it. Make the most of the opportunity you have to create great, meaningful value.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 6-14-2013

Friday, June 14, 2013

Today's Gift

Fear not that life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. --J. H. Newman

Our fears lock us up if we let them. They can prevent us from tasting adventure, from experiencing new wonders. We are often terrified of unknowns and fret about what might happen if we try something new. We worry if new people will like us - if we'll fit in.

It is natural to be cautious about the unknown, and anything new is just that. But we can keep our caution from becoming fear by taking action, with the faith that we never encounter anything we can't handle in some way.

Unknowns are merely joys we haven't met. We hold the keys to our own cages and can free ourselves when we use our courage and inner strength to overcome our fears.

What new joy can I discover beneath my fear today?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Keep It Simple

 

Letting go to save our lives

 

I crouched in the doorway of the airplane next to my skydiving coach. I held on to the doorway with my right hand for balance. With my left hand, I firmly grasped my coach's gripper, a padded piece of cloth on his jumpsuit.

 

It was up to me to give the count. "Ready, set. . ." I heard a snicker. "Get out of the plane," someone hollered. "Go!" I released my grip on the door, closed my eyes, and dived headfirst into the air with my left hand firmly attached to my jump master's gripper. I was falling stable and holding on with both hands. He nodded, giving me my cue to let go.

 

I shook my head no. He looked confused, then nodded again. I shook my head again, clinging more tightly.

 

It was almost time to pull. I released my grips. I just let go. It was time to save my own life. My coach backed away.

 

I signaled and then pulled my ripcord. My parachute made that sweet whooshing sound, the one I had come to identify as the sound it makes when it opens correctly and fills with air, slowing my fall into a float.

 

Wow! I thought. This is really fun!

 

Sometimes we're so scared, all we can think to do is hang on. Hanging on in this case was a silly illusion. We were both falling through the air. Holding on to a relationship that's not working, a negative self-image, a job that isn't working, moments and times that have passed, or emotions such as fear and hurt can be silly illusion, too.

 

To save our own lives, sometimes we have to let go first.

 

Action for the Day: Hiigher Power, show me what I need to let go of, and when it's time to do that.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Self-pity

Poor little old me. I had the Ploms and almost died from them.
Sober, I would probably have survived with a few new scars
on an already badly dented ego, and my life would have been a different one.
Yet I had survived many a maudlin drinking bout
without resorting to suicide attempts.
It was alcohol plus the Ploms that almost did me in.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 1], p. 27

Thought to Ponder . . .
Self-pity is followed by isolation is followed by a drink.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
P L O M = Poor Little Old Me.

 

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Daily Motivation

Life is opportunity

In everything in life, there is opportunity. On this day, wherever you are, whatever has happened, there is great opportunity to add value, meaning and richness to life.

When you see grand examples of life’s beauty and wonder, there is opportunity. When you see tragedy, injustice, and dismay, there is opportunity to make a genuine and lasting positive difference in the world.

One of the most powerful aspects of life is the opportunity that exists in every situation. Life is good, and it gets even better when you seize the opportunities and bring them to fulfillment.

Focus your heart and your mind on what you can do to add more real goodness and beauty to the world. Wherever you are, you’ll always find a way to enrich all of life.

Life is opportunity. Among all the things you see in front of you, zero in on the opportunity and commit yourself to bringing the value of that opportunity into being.

Within this day is great opportunity. Embrace it, follow it, and make it into something truly beautiful.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 6-13-2013

Thursday, June 13, 2013
Today's Gift

If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet. --Isaac B. Singer

We all know men and women who are too often critical and negative. Sometimes we, too, are these people. And when we fall into this trap of negativity, our life becomes unnecessarily complicated.

Any behavior we commit to practicing regularly is strengthened, whether it's positive or negative. It benefits us then to practice developing and holding a positive outlook rather than a negative one. Making the decision, each day, to quiet our mind, clearing it of negative expectations, is not a mysterious or difficult undertaking. It is rather an opportunity to influence in meaningful ways the many experiences we're destined to have.

We're empowered by claiming responsibility for how we perceive and respond to our opportunities, and thus for whom we are becoming.

I will look at today as a day full of promise with hope and gladness in my heart.

From the book: In God's Care by Karen Casey

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

You must fight off a "bad luck" way of thinking as if you were dealing with an invasion of hostile forces - for that is precisely what you are dealing with. —Maxwell Maltz

Life is an ongoing experience with two opposing forces. One force is constantly building up, and the other is constantly tearing down. We have successes and accomplishments, and we have failures and defeats. We finally get our house in order, and it immediately begins to become disordered again.

There are forces supporting our self-esteem and forces tearing us down. Friends who wish us well, good will and generosity among people, and the momentum of our healthy actions are constructive forces in our lives. Destructive forces are the pull of old habits, bad luck, accidents, and negative thoughts. We must choose on which side we will put our energies. Are we men who hate ourselves, believe in bad luck and despair, and thereby join the forces that would tear us down? Or will we choose to be on the side that builds us up?

Action for the Day: Today, by the grace of my Higher Power, I will join the forces that are on my side. I will stand up for myself and my worth.

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One Day At A Time

A Simple Contrast
The simple contrast between active alcoholism and active sobriety
has helped me to seek, to listen, and to apply the good principles of living,
and I am rewarded with much more excitement and joy
than was mine before AA sobriety.
By accepting this sobriety gratefully, as a gift, and using it willingly,
I have become aware of other gifts available to me as a human being.
To get the benefits, I need only to ask and then use.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 4

Thought to Ponder . . .
What have I been given today?
Am I willing to reach out and grasp it?

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H J F = Happy, Joyous, Free.

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Daily Motivation

Creative genius

There was a time when you knew you could do anything, and you did. There was a time when you were not afraid of your own possibilities, and you acted on them, and brought those possibilities to life.

There was a time when you created purely for the joy of it. There was a time when you learned just because you were curious.

You still can do all those things and more. Your capabilities extend far beyond anything you’ve ever done with them.

Instead of living with mediocrity, or worse, you can live with passion, purpose, joy and fulfillment. Instead of giving in to the fear that you’ll be looked at as weird for following your dreams, you can truly celebrate and live those dreams.

When it comes to living your own life and fulfilling your own purpose, you are the world’s most creative genius. Imagine how great it can be to put that genius to work.

Imagine, and then live all the good things you imagine. Imagine, and then put your imagination into fulfilling, joyous action.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 6-12-2013

Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Today's Gift

If people only knew the healing power of laughter and joy, many of our fine doctors would be out of business. Joy is one of nature's greatest medicines. Joy is always healthy. A pleasant state of mind tends to bring abnormal conditions back to normal. —Catherine Ponder

Feeling joyful may not come naturally to us most of the time. We may, in fact, have to "act as if" with great effort. We may not even recognize genuine joy in the beginning. A technique for finding it is living fully in the present and with gratitude for all we can see, touch, and feel.

The open and honest expression of gratitude for the presence of the ones closest to us now creates a rush within our breasts, a rush that will be shared by our friends, too. Joy is contagious. Joy is freeing. Joy brings into focus our distorted perceptions. Greeting life with joy alters every experience for us and for those we share it with.

I will bring joy wherever I go today. I will give the gift of joy to everyone I meet.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk in Dry Places

Serenity

 

Do I feel uneasy?
When facing difficult situations, we can expect to feel a certain amount of discomfort. What's more often a problem for compulsive people is being tense and apprehensive even when things seem to be going well.

Although many explanations are offered for this unpleasant feeling, the solution is to be found in the 12 Steps. The more secure we feel in our program, the less apprehension we'll have in facing the problems of living. With the program as our foundation, we will continue to develop more self-assurance as we go along.

We may not immediately find this self-assurance, yet we should not hold back from normal duties and responsibilities. Most of the world's work and accomplishments are undertaken by people who do not necessarily feel confident and self-assured all the time. Why should it be any different for us?

Action for the Day: Whether I feel confident or not, I'll do my best today. I know that my fellowship, my program, and my Higher Power are fully supporting me.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Courage
The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage.
All men of faith have courage. They trust their Higher Power.
Instead we let them demonstrate, through us, what They can do.
We ask Them to remove our fear
and direct our attention to what They would have us be.
At once, we commence to outgrow fear.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 68

Thought to Ponder . . .
Courage is fear in action.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F A I T H = Finding Answers In The Heart

 

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Daily Motivation

The way to persist

If you want your actions to have a powerful effect, repeat them. Breakthroughs come much more often from persistence than from brilliance.

The way to persist is to remind yourself of this. It’s not what has already happened that matters most, but rather what you do next.

The way to persist is to focus on your purpose, on what you have chosen to achieve, and on what you can do about it right now. Look not at the past disappointments, but at the current possibilities.

Persistence isn’t complicated, or even difficult for that matter. All you have to do to persist, is to keep making the effort, and that’s something you can do no matter what may have happened.

You owe it to yourself to look forward rather than backward. You owe it to yourself to get where you’ve chosen to go, so keep going.

There is something positive you can do at this time and in this situation. Get it done, and get the sure and steadfast power of persistence on your side.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 6-11-2013

Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Today's Gift

My lifetime listens to yours. —Muriel Rukeyser

Our experiences educate us to help show each other the way. Others' experiences, likewise, will help still others. We need to share our histories. There is no greater honor we can give one another than rapt attention. We each want to be heard, to be special, to be acknowledged. And recognition may will be the balm that will heal someone's hurt today.

A new day faces us, a day filled with opportunities to really listen to someone who needs to be heard. And the surprise is that we will hear a message just right for us, where we are now. A message that may well point us in a new, better direction. Guidance is always at hand, if only we listen for it. But when we are trapped in our own narrow world of problems and confusion, we scramble whatever messages are trying to reach us. And we miss the many opportunities to make another person feel special and necessary to our lives.

My growth is enhanced every time I give my attention fully to another person. And this process is multiplied over and over and over. I will be there for someone today.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

 

It's not enough to talk to plants, you also have to listen.---David Bergman

Sometimes, we find ourselves doing all the talking. When this happens, we need to stop, think, and listen.

When we do all the talking, we're trying to control what happens. But when we listen, we get better results. No one has to be in control. What a relief!

And we're learning to listen better every day. It's great---the care, love, and help we find---just by listening.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me learn the "give-and-take" of talking and listening.

 

Action for the Day: Today, I'll focus on listening, not only to other people but to my Higher Power's voice.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Belonging
We discover -- but can hardly dare to believe right at first -- that we are not alone.
We are not totally unlike everybody, after all.
The brittle shell of protective and fearful egocentricity we have dwelled in so long
is cracked open by the honesty of other recovered alcoholics and addicts.
We sense, almost before we can articulate it, that we do belong somewhere,
and the loneliness starts rapidly leaking away.
- Living Sober, p. 34

Thought to Ponder . . .
I'm not alone anymore.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Y A N A = You Are Not Alone.

 

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Daily Motivation

Give substance

Losers are always obsessed with what they can get, and end up with very little. Winners constantly look for new ways to give, and enjoy lives filled with richness and abundance.

Give, not because you have to or are supposed to or because you seek something in return. Give because you realize how much it sincerely fulfills you and strengthens you.

Give the best of who you are, the best of what you know, the best of what you can do. Give in ways that are creative, joyful, memorable, valuable and just plain fun.

When you sincerely enjoy giving, you’ll fully enjoy living. Every moment is an opportunity to add value to your life and your world by giving of yourself.

Give substance, not just tokens. Give from the heart, and you’ll continue to feel like giving more.

Your life is valuable beyond all measure. Give, and experience that value every moment to its fullest extent.

— Ralph Marston