February 10 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily: "I don't run the show" helps me understand that much of what I was taught is not going to keep me sober one day at a time. Standing on my own two feet: never showing weakness, putting on a brave face and relying on my ego to cover up my lack of confidence, courage and faith.

Being self-reliant; it can be a good trait and resilience and determination are all part of making good in life. Overreliance on our desire to be self-sufficient can be part of a stubborn and defiant approach to dealing with addiction. We still feel we are at fault and can judge ourselves so harshly as failures, we can drink ourselves to death…

In our alcoholism, a self-inflicted wound leads to the toughest love regime we apply to ourselves. Tough love applied, every time we fail, we do more self-harm and lose sight of the twelve steps. The twelve steps are all about progress not perfection, tolerance and love. How to be open honest and willing to change and be open to help and support in fellowship. We do not run the whole show…

"Let go and let God?" Whatever you perceive he, she or it to be, the proposition that we can let go and ask the help feels right for me. And I cannot speak for anyone else, at the same time I am happy to ask for help and have the humility to accept support, love and tolerance, try new ways to live with support and stop going it alone today…

I'm very happy to be on the world stage as a part player, not being an Oracle, not knowing the answers to even the most basic ways to live. Living with humility and openness means I can listen, and learn from others how to be sober, and especially learn how to love, be loved back without conditions and simply useful in some way today…

It can be a wonderful world again, and because we live and it is difficult some of life will be quite horrible and most often our true source of learning. Learning to be happy, learning to be sad, learning to love and understanding why sometimes we can hate what people do including ourselves…

Letter to a friend struggling with the word God: I feel the good news is that there are over 7 billion people on the planet now and each one has a definition of God inside us. And all these definitions are right for each individual, be they atheist, agnostic or believer or any combination of these over the years of living.

I too struggled with the word God. And probably still do from time to time. What makes it all work for me is understanding that there are higher powers all around me all the time.

And so the debate about God is not really an issue, just for me I don’t mind what definition anybody else has. I am happy that I can let go being self sufficient and the source of knowledge and next actions. The whole reading of the chapter on acceptance being the key and the whole world being stage and we are merely players, brings into sharp focus that there are many ways to simply letting in "the good" around us.

And of course I will have problems with the word God and what other people anticipate and expect him, she or it to be able to do for us… All the steps, acceptance and can do, can’t do and knowing the wisdom resides in life, experience and asking for help.

I don’t edge good out, I ask for good to come in, by conscience inside me and the inner voice that always talks to me, the good conscience of those around me and the collective conscience of where mankind may be headed…

I don’t know the answers, at the same time the question of god is a good one, because if we are thinking about it, we are feeling the whole impact of a new way of life and it keeps us on track.

I love the word humility and I am so pleased to be a learner each and every day. I may know a little bit more about me and life by the time I get to bed tonight. The gift of no certainty and acceptance and challenge make everything worthwhile one day at a time…

DonInLondon 2005-2011

Yesterday, a chair from an old timer celebrating 35 years sober, and several more around the same time! The theme was living reality, AA for sober, outside help for other emotional and physical. Several newcomers appreciated the “reality check,” that AA keeps us sober and we get freedom to work on everything else. Real experience, really helpful and no denials …

Needs met wants forgotten...

Stephen Covey "Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change." Insanity caused by addiction produces extremes of behaviour, what I would describe as the thin edge of experience. Extremes of feeling, unaturally sustained, always elusive and never as powerful as the first time... The deep of experience built on time...

AA Daily: I DON'T RUN THE SHOW ~ FEBRUARY 10, When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be? ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p.53

Today my choice is God. He is everything. For this I am truly grateful. When I think I am running the show I am blocking God from my life. I pray I can remember this when I allow myself to get caught up into self. The most important thing is that today I am willing to grow along spiritual lines, and that God is everything. When I was trying to quit drinking on my own, it never worked; with God and A.A., it is working. This seems to be a simple thought for a complicated alcoholic.

-/-

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February 9 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily reflection: "looking for the spiritual angle" is always difficult because if we are looking for the spiritual angle we are missing it in the moment of now. In my living, living in the moment means my mind, body and breath are complementary to what is happening, where my feelings fit with what is going on. And if I know my feelings, I recognise how I am thinking and what actions are influenced by the "spiritual angle of now"…

Looking for the spiritual angle is almost like or probably is like looking for the holy Grail. The more we search for it, the more we miss the point what is going on right now. I guess after all these years of trying to control everything, the holy Grail and the spiritual angle is always with me in the moment. The range and depth and richness in this moment is as good as it gets based on anything and everything that has happened and is happening around me and inside me. And I realise today, past and present is and always has been spiritual, I just didn't know it back then and now today I do…

Spiritual can be good, bad or indifferent. Happy joyous and free is a state of being in the moment and similarly, unhappy without joy and constrained is also spiritual. Every experience of life is enriching and as I have heard "nothing goes to waste in God's economy" and although the God of my understanding is not likely to be exactly the same as anybody else's, the understanding that nothing is wasted if we understand how we learn from nature and providence…

Everything seems to be connected in some way or other, how we live and interact with everything we encounter. The ability to keep on learning, is the very essence of humility for me and not knowing is an opportunity to find out more. Letting go the fear of the unknown, and letting everything possible into my living today means I find more truth in the moment and this seems to be at the heart of spiritual just for today…

DonInLondon 2005-2011

Spiritual Angle? Living spiritual is living reality, open honest and willing. Ever present, in the imperfectly perfect moment, happy or sad, exhilerating to excoriating ~ Stephen Covey "We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey." -/-

Spiritual is not some thing we can pick or choose, like serenity we develop our ability to live in the moment, where spiritual is constant change in real time.. ~ Mohandas Gandhi "Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul." Truth is now..

Spiritual understanding for me is explicit in the serenity prayer, can do, cannot do, wisdom in the moment, and then choices.. ~ Similarly Oprah Winfrey "It isn't until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are - not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within - that you can begin to take control." Working what works for us.. 

AA Daily: GETTING THE "SPIRITUAL ANGLE" ~ FEBRUARY 9, How often do we sit in AA meetings and hear the speaker declare, “But I haven’t yet got the spiritual angle.” Prior to this statement, he had described a miracle of transformation which had occurred in him –not only his release from alcohol, but a complete change in his whole attitude toward life and the living of it. It is apparent to nearly everyone else present that he has received a great gift; ” . . . except that he doesn’t seem to know it yet!” We well know that this questioning individual will tell us six months or a year hence that he has found faith in God. LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 275

A spiritual experience can be the realization that a life which once seemed empty and devoid of meaning is now joyous and full. In my life today, daily prayer and meditation, coupled with living the Twelve Steps, has brought about an inner peace and feeling of belonging which was missing when I was drinking.

-/-

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February 8 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily reflection: "all about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." We could also say, "Mr Wright and Mr Wrong, Ms Wright and Ms Wrong." And yet we know there is no right and wrong in recovery, simply endeavouring to be open honest and willing to change. Dr Jekyll, the good in us, Mr Hyde the bad in us. Mr Hyde with all natural instincts distorted and confounding! Even those of us who are good have a little bit of bad depending on the situation. And those who are bad have a little bit of good depending on our situation…

When I understand I can be restored to sanity by higher power, I try to keep it in the context of now and what is happening today. I can be restored to sanity as my situation and circumstances allow and help me. Contingent on asking for help at the beginning of the day, the process can be less painful and less chaotic. Because in the moment when Mr Hyde comes out to play, I can recognise it and ask the help, and in my case it is usually a telephone call or face-to-face discussion or getting to a meeting where I can share what is happening today…

And that inner voice which can be hostile to the outer world we live in. When we are hurt, we can hurt people… Hurt people, hurt other people in retaliation and upset. When we are not loved, we cannot feel love for other people. When we are able to hate, we can hate other people. I need my morning meditations, of checking how I feel, why and what to do. And always remind myself of step one, powerless and unmanageable, step two that I can be restored to sanity and step three, let go and let good into my life today…

And when things are going well, be grateful because there will be times of equal measure when things do not go my way. And unlike the past, where I would say to myself "my way or the highway" I can respond looking at the big picture, "where are my choices and why my freedoms right now?" There are always choices to good outcomes when I look for them, and bad choices when my expectations are far beyond reality…

"Expectations are resentments under construction"

DonInLondon 2005-2011

We are a complete package when we are born and we don't have an instruction book attached... If we can open up to learning without feelings of shame and guilt and laugh at what we do not know, every day we have a chance to let go and let in the good there is for today...

School of Hard Knocks becomes the University of Living Now ~ Pete Seeger "Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't." -/- And the Wisdom to know the the difference? Just For Today!

AA Daily: CONVINCING "MR. HYDE" ~ FEBRUARY 8, Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy will still elude us. That’s the place so many of us A.A. oldsters have come to. And it’s a hell of a spot, literally. How shall our unconscious–from which so many of our fears, compulsions and phony aspirations still stream–be brought into line with what we actually believe, know and want! How to convince our dumb, raging and hidden “Mr. Hyde” becomes our main task. THE BEST OF BILL, pp. 42-43

Regular attendance at meetings, service and helping others is the recipe that many have tried and found to be successful. Whenever I stray from these basic principles, my old habits resurface and my old self also comes back with all its fears and defects. The ultimate goal of each A.A. member is permanent sobriety, achieved One Day at a Time.

-/-

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February 7 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily reflection: "humility can lead us to faith." All my life I was a learner, not necessarily learning life too well, more survival skills than anything else. Humility is being able to keep on learning how to live well for me these days. Humility offers release from having to know the answers and having to know the questions. And the question of faith? Faith in whatever you choose to be a higher power will work. The essence of faith today for me does reside in humility and being open, honest and willing to change…

It may seem so simple to many, "a higher power moment," and to me it was a revelation. When it came to addiction and what to do, my higher power moment was simply "I cannot do this on my own." I picked up the phone, made a call and asked for help. It was a bittersweet moment, realising I needed help and at the same time still feeling resistance inside me to needing help. After the call, still churning about what to do I'm grateful the decision made, I was able to reach out, listen and make a choice towards freedom and not back into the malady…

Restored to sanity is really difficult, I was looking for "the fix" because the fix would fix me and I would never have to think about it again. I would be cured and with the sure knowledge of knowing the answer, I would overcome my battle and my fight with addiction. Another bittersweet moment, being restored to sanity is a daily ask, simply because there is no fix beyond the moment of now. I cannot predict my circumstances or the challenges I may face and so there is no fix and I'm very pleased there isn't… It’s all about learning life in the moment and asking for help daily from anyone, anywhere and anything is key to a life with serenity as part of the equation…

I start my day asking myself the questions, "how am I feeling, why and what can I do?" If I know what my feelings are, I know where my thinking may go and likely actions which follow. And as a meditation, remind myself of steps one, two and three, powerless and unmanageable, restored to sanity contingent on the day I ask and let go knowing, and let in the world to help me life can be bittersweet. Whether it is bitter or sweet, the serenity prayer will help me understand what I can and cannot do today…

DonInLondon 2005-2011

True humility, the ability to learn with an open mind can lead us to our personal faith, and every A.A. meeting is about sharing experience, strength and hope with an assurance that the wisdom paves the way to restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to the world as it is today

William Faulkner "All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible." -/- Progress is delicious...

Fellowship restores our faith in our courage to change ~ Mohandas Gandhi "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." -/- Every human being is a miracle...  And fellowship helps restore us to sanity daily!

Step 2 "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"

We find it amazing that the newcomer can start the A.A. program without any specific beliefs or, for that matter, without any beliefs whatsoever. All a person needs is the open-mindedness and the willingness to believe that WE BELIEVE this program works...

True humility, the ability to learn with an open mind can lead us to our personal faith, and every A.A. meeting is about sharing experience, strength and hope with an assurance that the wisdom paves the way to restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to the world as it is today

William Faulkner "All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible." -/- Progress is delicious...

Fellowship restores our faith in our courage to change ~ Mohandas Gandhi "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." -/- Every human being is a miracle...  And fellowship helps restore us to sanity daily!

AA Daily: AA Daily: A PATH TO FAITH ~ FEBRUARY 7, true humility and an open mind can lead us to faith, and every A.A. meeting is an assurance that God will restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to Him. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 33

My last drunk had landed me in the hospital, totally broken. It was then that I was able to see my past float in front of me. I realized that, through drinking, I had lived every nightmare I had ever had. My own self-will and obsession to drink had driven me into a dark pit of hallucinations, blackouts and despair. Finally beaten, I asked for God’s help. His presence told me to believe. My obsession for alcohol was taken away and my paranoia has since been lifted. I am no longer afraid. I know my life is healthy and sane.

-/-

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February 6 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily reflection all about: "unity, service and recovery." Together in unity we share experience strength and hope, a common language of recovery. And knowing when we do service, simply by attending a meeting, being part of the service committee, putting out chairs, greeting, making tea… We work and believe in helping each other one day at a time.

My home group meeting: and a brilliant chair all about dealing with the wreckage of the past and emerging into a new way of life. "Not one of us is a failure!" I had never heard that before at the start of the meeting nor in my years in recovery. Many shared back exactly on that point, that life had been blighted by our own judgements about our own failures. Indeed in recovery we do learn that all experiences have great value if we understand the experience we are having. Forgiveness for oneself leads to forgiveness of others. Even at their worst, other people and ourselves are doing the best they can be in the moment of now…

"Don't do my thinking for me." A real reminder to me when I make suggestions to others not to judge them in what they might do next. If I try judge what another person thinks or feels, before finding out I can be very judgemental in any suggestion I might make them. Better to check out their thinking in relation to helping or simply being with them. The old adage "judge not lest you be judged" is key in recovery or we tread hard on the toes of our fellows…

The AA big book: written by people in recovery and restored to sanity on a daily basis. The big book, a starting point and a daily guide for anyone "under construction" today. It struck me last night that the AA big book is a work written by mad people for mad people, being restored to sanity and emotional and spiritual well-being just for a day. So easy to forget that sanity is restored on a daily basis with the help of powers greater than me…

Step 2 Reading Video Link:

"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"

DonInLondon 2005-2011

Kathleen Casey Theisen "Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you're going to do about it."

Bob Marley Born Today June 6 1945 "Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you’re riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts; put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!" "Bob Marley isn't my name. I don't even know my name yet."

Fellowship restores our faith in our courage to change ~ Mohandas Gandhi "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." -/- Every human being is a miracle…

A good day, learning simple small things, absorbed and happy in solitude, a meeting tonight felt good, all possible and sober today ~ William Faulkner "All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible." -/- Progress is delicious…

AA Daily: A RALLYING POINT ~ FEBRUARY 6, Therefore, Step Two is the rallying point for all of us. “Whether agnostic, atheist, or former believer, we can stand together on this Step. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 33

I feel that A.A. is a God-inspired program and that God is at every A.A. meeting. I see, believe, and have come to know that A.A. works, because I have stayed sober today. I am turning my life over to A.A. and to God by going to an A.A. meeting. If God is in my heart and He speaks to me through other people, then I must be a channel of God to other people. I should seek to do His will by living spiritual principles and my reward will be sanity and emotional sobriety.

-/-

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February 5 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily: "a glorious release" was the beginning of freedom on a daily basis from the slavery of addiction to alcohol. In my early days, it did not feel glorious at all. I will still full of old beliefs, attitudes and behaviour which were not bad in balance simply complete blocks in my recovery. The old ideas: standing on my own two feet and being strong, resilient and stubborn and not a quitter. The glorious release, becoming open honest and willing to change, yes resilient but not stubborn in trying to be my old self…

Learning to have courage faith and confidence to listen to others and to new ways of living is not easy. What had seemed to work perfectly well have driven me into addiction, not only to alcohol, it made me stubborn and stuck. Striving for perfection, ignoring and covering up the pain of life, life could only be seen in terms of success. The right career, right girl, right house and all the trimmings of the things which demonstrated life was good. All I really needed to know in recovery was how to cherish people places and things just the way they are and are today…

Released from having to be right, from having to be someone based on values which really had no value except to mask what was missing in me. The glorious release, of not having to be right, not knowing the questions and not knowing the answers became a joyful feeling within me. If I don't have to be right, powerful and dominate anything or anyone, I'm making progress today…

Living in the moment of now, I do ask myself each morning how am I feeling? Why? And what may I do? In the context of step one I am powerless over alcohol, people places and things and if I try to control anything I know I will narrow my choices to my blinkered outlook. And of course as a result life will often get unmanageable. Better to know how others feel, why and what we can do together. Interdependent we are and we work it out together making free choices based on how life is and coping with our real life right now… The glorious release and freedom from self, sharing and understanding how life may be today…

DonInLondon 2005-2011

Sober today I become more authentic, more able to learn... When I am truthful, the result is humility and learning. Fake it to make it? If I pretend it is bravado, slows my progress, keeping myself distant and others in ignorance. Deceiving me and others is denial. Open honest and willing, progress is more constant ~ Jean-Paul Sartre "Acting is happy agony." -/- Been there done that. Truth helps life work now..

AA Daily: A GLORIOUS RELEASE ~ FEBRUARY 5, The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and feel. Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I can’t say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had to stop fighting and practice the rest of A.A.’s program as enthusiastically as I could. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.27

After years of indulging in a “self-will run riot,” Step Two became for me a glorious release from being all alone. Nothing is so painful or insurmountable in my journey now. Someone is always there to share life’s burdens with me. Step Two became reinforcement with God, and I now realize that my insanity and ego were curiously linked. To rid myself of the former, I must give up the latter to One with far broader shoulders than my own.

-/-

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February 4 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily: "when faith is missing." Faith was certainly missing from my life from the very beginning. No understanding of God, or simply mistrust of anything religious. And an understanding driven home by real-life that hard work, doing the right thing and standing on my own two feet would lead to success. Coming into recovery, I had no blame attached to anyone but me for my predicament. In early days, the evidence that sobriety was possible started a process of developing a faith of my own understanding. And I began to trust in others in recovery…

 [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEnOYNybG0k[/url] 

Courage and confidence took a while to develop in my early days. Paranoid and fearful and always looking over my shoulder kept me wanting and completely unnerved day by day. Trusting other people, who were on the same journey one day at a time, to remain sober and participate started me on the road with faith. Faith in people and learning to trust was key. And I also needed to realise that as I was fallible so others were fallible too, prone to make mistakes and at the same time learn from them. Progress in learning and having enough courage and confidence helped me start to understand what faith can be for me…

I know the notion of faith is laden with personal beliefs, usually of a religious nature. The nature of personal religious beliefs is what it is for each individual and to be respected in my opinion. Today I have faith to be a learner about all aspects of life including religion, living day by day in a practical way and developing an understanding of how to live and cope one day at a time. I have faith in people, and faith that doing the next right thing if I know it will improve my situation. If I don't know the answer, I have faith that others may and if none of us know the answer, working together we may discover the best path available wherever it may lead. And of course we learn and we can change direction learning what we can and cannot do today…

All the steps in our programme are about being open, honest and willing to change. And change is part of the bedrock of living one day at a time. It is okay not to know the answers and it is okay to be learning life every day. And if I become fearful, hide behind a brave face and try and tough out situations my faith, courage and confidence is undermined by me. Better people know when I need help and asking for help is key at any time in any day…

Many people say, "God works through people" and after years of being a sceptic, I find no argument with this understanding today…

 [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkS55ZKHZ40[/url]

DonInLondon 2005-2011

"I gotta have faith?" I had no faith at all in the final days of my drinking. And in AA it took a while for me to believe and trust that people in fellowship were really sober one day at a time. Today I trust the majority in fellowship, have learned to share my truth. Secrets kept me stuck, truth sets me free. Faith in truth and the majority of good people keep me sober. And tolerance for those who are still stuck most of the time...

"And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in our world by mistake. Until I could accept my humanity, I could not be complete in living; unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes."

AA Daily: WHEN FAITH IS MISSING ~ FEBRUARY 4, Sometimes A.A. comes harder to those who have lost or rejected faith than to those who never had any faith at all, for they think they have faith and found it wanting. They have tried the way of faith and the way of no faith. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 28

I was so sure God had failed me that I became ultimately defiant, though I knew better, and plunged into a final drinking binge. My faith turned bitter and that was no coincidence. Those who once had great faith hit bottom harder. It took time to rekindle my faith, though I came to A.A. I was grateful intellectually to have survived such a great fall, but my heart felt callous. Still, I stuck with the A.A. program; the alternatives were too bleak! I kept coming back and gradually my faith was resurrected.

-/-

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February 3 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily reflections: "filling the void" strikes me on many levels in recovery. The amount of time I spent drinking in those last dark days left no room for me let alone anyone else. I became a 24 seven drinker. When I stopped, the immense gap and emptiness felt like a minute was an hour, an hour felt like a day and a week felt like a year-long. As time has passed, I never seem to have enough time to do all the things that are possible today. From the dark and loneliness and isolation and emptiness, to a life full of possibilities and simply to be lived one day at a time…

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCQtV1EdBHg 210x172]

Another question raised, "do I now believe or am I willing to believe that there is a power greater than me?" And I can answer honestly on two levels, the first is simply there are many powers greater than me in the real world today. And higher power comes in the form of wisdom from any human source on the planet about anything and everything. And with regard to a metaphysical higher power, some call "God" is whatever anyone chooses to believe. No one needs to be challenged on their faith and belief. I for one am happy with the word God and see a connection to a collective higher consciousness we can access together or as individuals through our own conscience. I learn more just for today…

How am I feeling today? Why? What can I do? Questions I ask myself at any time of day, and in particular when I wake up in the morning. Asking myself first thing in the morning, "how am I feeling?" Knowing my mood and how I wake up influences how I start to think and act for the rest of the day. If I wake up happy, I'm likely to think happy and behave happily. If I wake up feeling fearful, I'm likely to think and act fearfully. Sometimes I wake up excited, happy and fearful in the moment and when that happens I usually ask for help from whatever source is handy. I can appeal to God, conscience and then most likely make a call, get in touch with another human being for support and encouragement to start my day…

Step two is all about opening up to asking the help from any source where there is wisdom. Support comes in the form of learning that others will take the time and be supportive if we ask. And in asking it is a request and not a demand. And the beauty of asking for help is that others will ask us for help too. We become part of something bigger than us, opening the door to fellowship: Unity, service and recovery and then the same in our community and living. These steps work if we work at living them in the moment of now and just for today…

Step 2 Reading Video Link:

 [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkS55ZKHZ40 210x172]

"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"

DonInLondon 2005-2011

Newcomers "Joys Of Recovery" I was there! Seeing newcomers and chips, I am amazed for each sober day a newcomer lives. Reminds me I need never take the gift of "sober today" for granted. Freedom to choose sanity, make best choices and madness an arm’s length away, cherish always

When we can stop the cycle of harming ourselves and blaming, we stop harming and blaming others, peace in the moment is freedom ~ Wayne Dyer "A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe." -/- Sanity restored daily as experience develops...

AA Daily: FILLING THE VOID ~ FEBRUARY 3, We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. “Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?” As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47

I was always fascinated with the study of scientific principles. I was emotionally and physically distant from people while I pursued Absolute Knowledge. God and spirituality were meaningless academic exercises. I was a modern man of science, knowledge was my Higher Power. Given the right set of equations, life was merely another problem to solve. Yet my inner self was dying from my outer man’s solution to life’s problems and the solution was alcohol. In spite of my intelligence, alcohol became my Higher Power. It was through the unconditional love which emanated from A.A. people and meetings that I was able to discard alcohol as my Higher Power. The great void was filled. I was no longer lonely and apart from life. I had found a true power greater than myself, I had found God’s love. There is only one equation which really matters to me now: God is in A.A.

-/-

Email | don@doninlondon.com

Music | "music for airports" By Brian Eno | http://www.enoshop.co.uk/ |

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February 2 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | today's AA daily reflection: "rescued by surrendering" was very difficult for me, to be rescued from myself. All my life taught to be strong and independent in thinking and action. Standing on my own two feet with a "stiff upper lip" and "a brave face" I would face anything and everything. The idea of being vulnerable and unable to sort myself out meant I isolated and drank because I could not stop. Saved by a simple understanding, "I cannot do this on my own" opened the door to me asking for help from anyone, anywhere and at any time…

Insanity is often described as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That was me for a long time, doing my utmost to be in control and resolve any issue or problem I faced in life. And all the problems piled up, and my will to live and left me. Emotionally broken and unable to cope with life at all I had reached "the jumping off point" where many people simply fade away or worse not only ending their own existence, harming many others in the process. From step one, powerless and unmanageable to step two, driven mad on my own, I'm thankful I could ask for help and see strength in vulnerability…

The idea of being restored to sanity by a higher power was something I wondered about for a long time. All I needed to do in the end was accept that I have no clue how to do many things, and especially I did not know how to deal with addiction in me. The whole idea of admission and acceptance is key one day at a time, and I am grateful that step two is now a daily reminder, asking for help at any time is the greatest strength we have…

Not knowing the answers is good news for me today. Accepting that I don't know, and it's perfectly okay to be a learner in life whatever our age, removes the pressure and insanity of trying to be right, "be in the know" that anything. And all I need do is ask the help, research and find out. Ignorance is not bliss. But not knowing and saying so is perfectly acceptable and finding out is the solution…

 DonInLondon 2005-2011

Arthur Gordon "Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there's all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will-to-action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens."

Courage to be ourselves ~ "That quality of mind which enables one to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, aware of our fear, resolve of heart; valour; boldness; resolution; fortitude." Progress not Perfection..

Fear of anything we may imagine is often greater than fear in reality, leaning on fellowship, we develop courage as we learn and share our truth ~ Maya Angelou "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived  again." -/- Fear is part of living..

Courage to change sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, with help from our friends ~ John Wooden "Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts." Live in destiny, destiny and choice is here right now!

Mark Twain "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."

Faith in action we change our attitudes and behaviour ~ C. S. Lewis "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."

AA Daily: RESCUED BY SURRENDERING ~ FEBRUARY 2, Characteristic of the so-called typical alcoholic is a narcissistic egocentric core, dominated by feelings of omnipotence, intent on maintaining at all costs its inner integrity…. Inwardly the alcoholic brooks no  control from man or God. He, the alcoholic, is and must be the master of his destiny. He will fight to the end to preserve that position. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p.311

The great mystery is: “Why do some of us die alcoholic deaths, fighting to preserve the ‘independence’ of our ego, while others seem to sober up effortlessly in A.A.?” Help from a Higher Power, the gift of sobriety, came to me when an otherwise unexplained desire  to stop drinking coincided with my willingness to accept the suggestions of the men and women of A.A. I had to surrender, for only by reaching out to God and my fellows could I be rescued.

-/-

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February 1 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Step 2 "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity" Admitting and accepting that I am powerless over alcohol and if I drink again life will be unmanageable. That is step one, and I remind myself of this choice every day. Our whole program of recovery is simply one day long. If I do not remind myself, I can be very forgetful and find myself in a problem, rather than living in the solution today…

And step two, I now realise that just for today a higher power can restore me to sanity. How so? When I have a problem, usually it happens when I cannot see a solution or there are so many blocks to resolution I get angry, frustrated and depressed. A surge of anger is not helpful. My higher power: another person, a group of people, a source of knowledge and wisdom…

I do believe that there are powers greater than me, "higher power wisdom" all around me and better I find help rather than drive myself mad trying to work it out alone. However you describe your higher power, it is what works for you in the moment and just for today…

We all use the word God, as believers, as atheists and agnostics. And wherever you fit in the spectrum of belief, non-belief or simply don't know, we all have an inner voice of conscious conscience. That inner voice: of conscience and disturbance and even serenity is a lifelong companion. Usually and most often the inner voice is all about our emotional state, how we are feeling in the moment of now…

Our "fellowship" is not religious by nature; many in fellowship have religious beliefs and choose God as their higher power. And many simply follow what works for them. There is a phrase, "we don't know what we don't know" and we can only find out as we continue to live sober just for today…

Always "just for today" means we keep on learning who we are, what we are and where we are in the moment of now. There is no need for rigorous certainty, we learn our freedoms and choices as we live, what we can do and cannot do, the wisdom comes as life evolves…

DonInLondon 2005-2011

Fear of anything we may imagine is often greater than fear in reality, leaning on fellowship, we develop courage as we learn and share our truth ~ Maya Angelou "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived

again." -/- Fear is part of living...

AA Daily: GOAL: SANITY FEBRUARY 1, step two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I can’t say upon what occasion or on what day I came to believe in a power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 27

“Came to believe!” I gave lip service to my belief when I felt like it or when I thought it would look good. I didn’t really trust God. I didn’t believe He cared for me. I kept trying to change things I couldn’t change. Gradually, in disgust, I began to turn it all over, saying: “You’re so omnipotent, you take care of it.” He did. I began to receive answers to my deepest problems, sometimes at the most unusual times: driving to work, eating lunch, or when I was sound asleep. I realized that I hadn’t thought of those solutions–a Power greater than myself had given them to me. I came to believe.

-/-

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