Saturday 7 April 2012

April 7 2012 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 4 "Inventory" | Alcoholics Anonymous

April 7 2012 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 4 "Inventory" | Alcoholics Anonymous Today's AA daily reflection: "a wide ARC of gratitude." My personal wide ARC of gratitude is continually growing as I encounter more people in sober living. Fellowship kicked off the understanding that I am equal to others and others are equal to me. And that experience strength and hope from any source can be the most wonderful gift, including as we say in the UK, "the man on the Clapham omnibus!"

Contingent on the day I remember to ask the help, my day is likely to run more smoothly by being inclusive and understanding the needs of the people around me. When I ask the help, it is a practice of humility, not being servile, simply asking myself to listen to other people around me who may have a clue when I have no clue what to do. Daily meditations, a reminder to me of steps 1 to 3 and the serenity prayer. And a reminder to myself that I'm responsible when anyone anywhere reaches out the help I want the hand of AA always to be there and for that I'm responsible…

When I remind myself of the AA pledge, "I'm responsible…" It does not mean I am the one with the answers, indeed often I don't know the answers and the responsibility is if I don't know maybe I know somebody who can help. The serenity prayer reminds me there are limits to what I can and cannot do on a daily basis, and when I don't know there is probably a man or woman who does. Fellowship is a goldmine of experience strength and hope, and developing wisdom day by day…

"What have I done to deserve this?" Something I often hear which is fed by unrealistic expectations of luck and good fortune at the expense of hard work and endeavour. Sometimes we need make the best of what we have and be grateful there is opportunity to keep living life. Not so easy when life is depressing and bleak. Every newcomer and every person in recovery knows there will be endarkenment as much as enlightenment in any day, and thank goodness it is one day at a time in sobriety…

DonInLondon 2005-2011 [ Full daily blog link: http://donoddylondon.blogspot.com/ ]

Emotional and Spiritual ~ How am I feeling? Why? What can I do? This is Assertive ~ How are we feeling? Why? What can we do? This is Empathy. I need to be assertive about being sober and knowing how I feel and what is good for me. And I need empathy to be included, find the truth of now, to love and be loved and learn wisdom. Freedom and informed choices today...

In our world we can become watchers of life, judging reality of others and forgetting we live our own reality passively or actively ~ Bebe Moore Campbell "As I grow older, part of my emotional survival plan must be to actively seek inspiration instead of passively waiting for it to find me" Like/Dislike, Voter/Doer, What am I actively going to do today?

Our feelings can be driven to extremes by: Real events, our own perceptions about people, places and things, "reality TV," theatre, movies, books all evoke our feelings. At times its hard to see what is real, our choices. Reactions at extremes have consequences, responses as we reflect and find balance, have consequences too, in recovery we have a chance to choose...
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AA Daily Reflection: A WIDE ARC OF GRATITUDE And, speaking for Dr. Bob and myself, I gratefully declare that had it not been for our wives, Anne and Lois, neither of us could have lived to see A.A.’s beginning. THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE, p. 67
Am I capable of such generous tribute and gratitude to my wife, parents and friends, without whose support I might never have survived to reach A.A.’s doors? I will work on this and try to see the plan my Higher Power is showing me which links our lives together.

As Bill Sees It ~ Debits and Credits Following a gossip binge, we can well ask ourselves these questions: "Why did we say what we did? Were we only trying to be helpful and informative? Or were we not trying to feel superior by confessing the other fellow's sins? Or, because of fear and dislike, were we not really aiming to damage him?" This would be an honest attempt to examine ourselves, rather than the other fellow. Inventory-taking is not always done in red ink. It's a poor day indeed when we haven't done something right. As a matter of fact, the eaking hours are usually well filled with things that are constructive. Good intentions, good thoughts, and good acts are there for us to see. Even when we have tried hard and failed, we may chalk that up as one of the greatest credits of all. 1. GRAPEVINE, AUGUST 1961 2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 93
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Step 4 "Fearless Inventory" Reading Video Link:

"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves"
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