Daily Reflections reading
September 1st
Willingness To Grow
If more gifts are to be
received, our awakening has to go on. As
Bill Sees It, p.8
Sobriety fills the painful “hole in the soul” that my alcoholism created. Often I feel so physically well that I believe my work is done. However, joy is not just the absence of pain; it is the gift of continued spiritual awakening. Joy comes from ongoing and active study, as well as application of the principles of recovery in my everyday life, and from sharing that experience with others. My Higher Power presents many opportunities for deeper spiritual awakening. I need only to bring into my recovery the willingness to grow. Today I am ready to grow.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on September 1st
Reading
I learned about life and myself from the
reactions of the adults around me I had some ideas about who I was but this was
the adults opinions of me, about how life should be lived in their eyes What I
choose to believe in today can expand and enrich my world and the lives around
me
I grow up with people who were unhappy,
frightened, guilty, and angry, I learned a lot of negative things from my peers
I was encourage not to blame others we are all victims, they couldn't teach me
something that they didn't know.
I have come to AA to learn lessons that
will enrich my spiritual experiences dealing with a thought, and a thought can
be changed no matter what the problem are, my experiences effects of inner
thoughts. Self-hatred is only a thought you have about yourself producing a
feeling I can buy into
However, if I don’t have the thought, I
won't have the feeling, change the thought, and the feeling most go, our pasts
has no power over us it doesn't matter how long we've been negative We can be
free in this moment we do choose how we think We may think the same thought
over and over so that it doesn't seem as if we're choosing how we are thinking
But we did make the original choice. We
can refuse to think certain thoughts. How often have you refused to think a
positive thought about yourself? You can also refuse to think a negative
thought about yourself. The innermost belief for everyone I've worked with is
always, "I'm not good enough!"
Everyone I know or have worked with is
suffering from self-hatred or guilt to one degree or an other. "I'm not
good enough, I don't do enough, or I don't deserve this," are common
complaints. But for whom are you not good enough? And by whose standards? I
find that resentment, criticism,
guilt, and fear cause most of the
problems in ourselves and in our lives. These feelings come from blaming others
and not taking responsibility for our own experiences. If we're all responsible
for everything in our lives, then there's no one to blame. Whatever is
happening "out there" is only a mirror of our own inner thinking. I
do not condone other people's
poor behavior, but it's our own belief
system that attracts this behavior to us. We can change our attitudes toward
the past. It's over and done and can't be changed. Yet we can change our thoughts about the past. How
foolish for us to punish ourselves in the present moment because someone hurt
us long ago.
If we choose to believe that we're
helpless victims and that it's all hopeless, then the Universe will support us
in that belief. Our worst opinions of ourselves will be confirmed. If we choose
to believe that we're responsible for our experiences, the good and the
so-called bad, then I outgrow the effects
We can change. We can be free. The road
to freedom is through the doorway to forgiveness. We may not know how to
forgive, and we may not want to forgive; but if we're willing to forgive, we
may begin the healing process. It's imperative for our own healing that we
release the past and forgive everyone.
I'm not saying that it's all right that
someone behaved in a misguided way. However, we must be aware that the past is
over. We only carry the hurt and the memory in our mind. This is what we want
to let go of -- the pain we're continuing to cause ourselves because we won't
forgive.
Forgiveness means giving up, letting go.
We understand our own pain so well, yet it's hard for most of us to understand
the pain of someone who treated us badly. That person we need to forgive was
also in pain. And they're only mirroring what we believed about ourselves.
They were doing the best they could,
given the knowledge, understanding, and awareness they possessed at the time. I
find that when we really love, accept, and approve of ourselves exactly as we
are, everything in life flows. Joyous self-approval and self-acceptance in the
here and now are the keys to positive change in every area of our lives.
To me, loving the self means never, ever
criticizing ourselves for anything. Criticism locks us into the very pattern
we're trying to change. Try approving of yourself and see what happens. You've
been criticizing yourself for years. Has it worked?
