In our drinking time, we acted as if the money supply were inexhaustible, though between binges we’d sometimes go to the other extreme and become miserly. Without realizing it, we were just accumulating funds for the next spree. Money was the symbol of pleasure and self-importance. As our drinking became worse, money was only anContinue reading “Money – Before And After – As Bill Sees It #177”
Category Archives: Envy
Material Achievement – As Bill Sees It #40
No member of A.A. wants to deprecate material achievement. Nor do we enter into debate with the many who cling to the belief that to satisfy our basic natural desires is the main object of life. But we are sure that no class of people in the world ever made a worse mess of tryingContinue reading “Material Achievement – As Bill Sees It #40”
Self-Pity: A Barrier to Lasting Sobriety – A.A. District 2 Alabama June 2024 By Anonymous
Self-pity is one of the most insidious obstacles to lasting sobriety. Both Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson, the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), frequently discussed the detrimental effects of self-pity on alcoholics. In the pages of the Big Book, “Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers,” and various articles in the Grapevine, they highlighted howContinue reading “Self-Pity: A Barrier to Lasting Sobriety – A.A. District 2 Alabama June 2024 By Anonymous”
Fear Of Financial Insecurity Will Leave Us – Twelve & Twelve Pages 120 – 122
One of the 9th step promises can be especially elusive for many of us …”fear of economic insecurity will leave us”. I believe the Twelve & Twelve actually goes into a very useful review about how this fear leaves us. It’s important to note that the promise isn’t that economic insecurity leaves us but thatContinue reading “Fear Of Financial Insecurity Will Leave Us – Twelve & Twelve Pages 120 – 122”
Material And Spiritual Well Being – A.A. Daily Reflection March 21st
Fear . . . of economic insecurity will leave us. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84 Having fear reduced or eliminated and having economic circumstances improve, are two different things. When I was new in A.A., I had those two ideas confused. I thought fear would leave me only when I started making money. However, another lineContinue reading “Material And Spiritual Well Being – A.A. Daily Reflection March 21st”
Pain, Resistance & Suffering – Suffer Like A Marine By Arthur Brooks
His Holiness the Dalai Lama often talks to me about pain and suffering, but he doesn’t use the terms interchangeably. On the contrary, he teaches that they exist together in the following way: Suffering = pain x resistance Pain can be physical or mental, and happens to you because of an outside stimulus—you slam your hand inContinue reading “Pain, Resistance & Suffering – Suffer Like A Marine By Arthur Brooks”
Rigorous Honesty & Vulnerability In Accepting Life As It Is – Consolations By David Whyte
I found this short reflection on ‘Honesty’ by the outstanding poet and author David Whyte in his book Consolations very useful in helping understand the challenge of rigorous honesty which ‘How It Works’(BB p.58) identifies as a ‘demand’ for a sustainable recovery. His reflection also helps to connect us to the experience of the powerlessness, uncertainty andContinue reading “Rigorous Honesty & Vulnerability In Accepting Life As It Is – Consolations By David Whyte”
If You Spot It You Got It – How We Distort Reality With The ‘Blind Spot’ Of Our Projections
This article is a good follow up to a post I entitled ‘Changing The Way We See’. The articles ‘Revolutionary! How Step 10 Suggests A Novel Response Ability When We’re Disturbed’ as well as ‘Make A U-Turn As We Seek To Understand Our Part(s) In A Disturbance’ are also quite relevant to this topic ofContinue reading “If You Spot It You Got It – How We Distort Reality With The ‘Blind Spot’ Of Our Projections”
Reclaiming the Self: 12-Steps, a Higher Power, and Inner Healing By David G. Zacharias
I find this article quite helpful in exploring this possibility of how we can learn to ‘reparent’ parts of us that have been exiled or left behind. I’ve also added this article to the ‘Healing Our Jekyll/Hyde Divided Self’ section of the gugogs.org website. In my own journey , I have found it very helpfulContinue reading “Reclaiming the Self: 12-Steps, a Higher Power, and Inner Healing By David G. Zacharias”
An AA Doctor’s Prescription – Grapevine Article July 1963 By Dr. Hal S.
As a doctor I don’t claim to be an authority on alcoholism. In some phases of the illness, however, I have acquired a specialized knowledge that is not taught in medical schools or developed in actual medical practice. During my years of “research” into the subject, I drank myself out of my profession and intoContinue reading “An AA Doctor’s Prescription – Grapevine Article July 1963 By Dr. Hal S.”