Just for Today: I won't be afraid of my feelings. Just for today, we can continue in our recovery.

Our Higher Power cares for us by giving us the help we need to work the rest of the Twelve Steps. We can again turn our will and our lives over, through the Third Step, to the care of the God of our understanding. We can recall the hope for release the Second Step gave us. If we hurt from the pain of our defects, we can remind ourselves of the nightmare of addiction, a nightmare from which we've now awakened. The Twelve Steps help us deal with the misery caused by our defects by dealing directly with the defects themselves. Refusing to acknowledge the source of our anguish doesn't make it go away denial protects the pain and makes it stronger. A power outside of myself had picked me up off my bed, guided me to. It is a bar to all spiritual progress and can cut off all effective communication with our fellows because of its inordinate demands for attention and sympathy. Self-pity is one of the most unhappy and consuming defects that we know. Defeated, and knowing it, I arrived at the doors of A.A., alone and afraid of the unknown. Daily Reflections April 13 THE FALSE COMFORT OF SELF-PITY. Now that the drugs are gone, we feel that pain. The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole Society has sprung and flowered. When we were using, all we felt was the drugs we could ignore the suffering our defects were causing us. It's not the awareness of our defects that causes the most agony-it's the defects themselves. Through surrender and acceptance, we can find the resources we need to keep working the steps. We may be tempted to falter in our program of recovery. ' We may fear that being in touch with our feelings will trigger an overwhelming chain reaction of pain and panic.'Ī common complaint about the Fourth Step is that it makes us painfully conscious of our defects of character. Just for Today Meditation September 25, 2023

Aa daily reflection april 26 2019