I believe the movement from being a pain killer to becoming a pain healer is at the heart of recovery. This article helps us understand the crucial role forgiveness can play in this healing movement. It’s extracted from a recently published workbook specifically designed for integrating forgiveness with the Twelve Steps. The author, Dr. FredContinue reading “Forgiveness & Resenting The Painful Side Of Life – Forgive For Good Recovery Workbook By Fred Luskin”
Category Archives: Forgiveness
Those Other People – As Bill Sees It #268
Just like you, I have often thought myself the victim of what other people say and do. Yet every time I confessed the sins of such people, especially those whose sins did not correspond exactly with my own, I found that I only increased the total damage. My own resentment, my self-pity would often renderContinue reading “Those Other People – As Bill Sees It #268”
The Olive Branch – Grapevine Article September 2025 By Charlene P
Repairing relationships is an amazing thing. But the amends this mother experienced was to “dye” for Today I sit here at an AA women’s retreat full of gratitude. Sometimes, trying to find gratitude when you’re lonely and have no contact with family can be challenging. I have six years and almost eight months of sobriety,Continue reading “The Olive Branch – Grapevine Article September 2025 By Charlene P”
Finite & Infinite – Breath; Wake Up To Life By Prem Rawat
I love the reflections on breath from this book. When first sober and very defiant in my agnosticism, I was able to find a way of relating to a Power greater than myself as breath. I knew my breath was absolutely essential to my life yet something I was being given each moment of everyContinue reading “Finite & Infinite – Breath; Wake Up To Life By Prem Rawat”
Freeing Yourself From Your Mind – The Power of Now By Eckhart Tolle
Many years ago I found the book ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle an outstanding practical way to take my ‘monkey mind’ of endless thoughts of past and future and use it to discover a stillness, peace and power in the present moment … what I like to call ‘the Present of the present’.Continue reading “Freeing Yourself From Your Mind – The Power of Now By Eckhart Tolle”
Accepting Ourselves As Works In Progress – A Spiritual Principle A Day August 8th
“A spiritual understanding of self-acceptance is knowing that it is all right to find ourselves in pain, to have made mistakes, and to know that we are not perfect.” IP #19, Self-Acceptance, “The Twelve Steps are the solution” “Change is a process, not an event,” we often say–because we find it to be true! TheContinue reading “Accepting Ourselves As Works In Progress – A Spiritual Principle A Day August 8th”
Swimming With the Current – Grapevine Article August 2025 By John K.
To him, AA is a program of action, not belief. If we’re honest, kind and living in the love, we’re going the right way When I was a month or so sober, a fellow came up to me after a meeting and declared emphatically, “You’ll never stay sober if you don’t accept God in yourContinue reading “Swimming With the Current – Grapevine Article August 2025 By John K.”
Expectations – Just For Today Reflection July 29th
“As we realize our need to be forgiven, we tend to be more forgiving.” Basic Text, p. 39 ❖ Our behavior toward other people in our life is a mirror of our behavior toward ourselves. When we demand perfection of ourselves, we come to demand it from others around us, too. As we strive toContinue reading “Expectations – Just For Today Reflection July 29th”
Unacceptable – Grapevine Article October 2022 By Allen B.
Note – Allen B. is also Dr. Allen Berger the author of a number of articles in our Emotional Sobriety section of the website and the book ‘12 Essential Insights For Emotional Sobriety’. I stood there in line growing more and more impatient. After all, I had important things to do. I didn’t have theContinue reading “Unacceptable – Grapevine Article October 2022 By Allen B.”
Practicing Convey Not Convince – Reminders For Effective Conversations By Thom R.
In the 4th step of the Twelve & Twelve on page 53, we are presented with this assertion: “The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. Our egomania digs two disastrous pitfalls. Either we insist upon dominating the people we know, orContinue reading “Practicing Convey Not Convince – Reminders For Effective Conversations By Thom R.”