PART ONE | Humility Humility is the spiritual foundation of recovery. In order to feel worthy, we do not need to be unique. People who do best in recovery are those who surrender and follow suggestions. A common first response to the requirements of recovery is to negotiate, to pick and choose what we thinkContinue reading “Feeling Special and Unique – 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery By Dr. Allen Berger”
Category Archives: Paradox
Living With Hope – Reflection By Henri Nouwen With An Anonymous Mediation
I think this reflection and the meditation that follows captures how powerful the principle of hope can be when we’re facing life’s PUH’s …the pain,uncertainty and hard work that Phil Stutz describes in this article. I love the distinctions Henri makes between optimism and hope … which, to me, is very consistent with the realityContinue reading “Living With Hope – Reflection By Henri Nouwen With An Anonymous Mediation”
Step 3 From Right Dependence We Gain True Freedom – Practice These Principles By Ray A
On page 552 of the Big Book, we find this provocative assertion “The only real freedom a human being can ever know is doing what you ought to do because you want to do it.” For me , my often unconscious, unquestioned belief is in freedom through my self will and the delusion that “IContinue reading “Step 3 From Right Dependence We Gain True Freedom – Practice These Principles By Ray A”
Origin Of The Twelve Steps – Grapevine Article July 1953 By Bill W
This post on December 23rd 2024 is post #1000 on the gugogs.org website. Our first post took place as the pandemic began on April 26th 2020. Our Get Up, Get Out, Get Sober Group (GUGOGS) was attempting to figure out if and how we would function. The group evolved from a physical meeting to aContinue reading “Origin Of The Twelve Steps – Grapevine Article July 1953 By Bill W”
Boundaries & Healthy Tolerance – Language Of Letting Go By Melody Beattie December 3rd
Many of us are skilled at denying and discounting what hurts us. We may endure a particular situation, telling ourselves repeatedly it’s not that bad; we shouldn’t be so demanding; it’ll change any day; we should be able to live with it; it doesn’t annoy us; the other person didn’t really mean it; it doesn’tContinue reading “Boundaries & Healthy Tolerance – Language Of Letting Go By Melody Beattie December 3rd”
What Is Priceless About Our Struggles – Poem You, Too, Must Weep By Anonymous
I recently attended the funeral of a friend who lived a life filled with giving unconditionally to those in need, often in desperate situations. His family found many copies of this poem in his home. I had never heard it before and found its message piercing, moving, powerful. It offers a perspective on the valueContinue reading “What Is Priceless About Our Struggles – Poem You, Too, Must Weep By Anonymous”
The Fellowship Of The Weak – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation November 7th
Many of us have an experience of finding how the weakness of our alcoholism becomes a gateway to a profound belonging in the A.A. Fellowship. In this fellowship, we find fellow sufferers who are committed, one day at a time, to sobriety , healing and wholeness. We find that our weakness, which before had separatedContinue reading “The Fellowship Of The Weak – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation November 7th”
Anxiety, Worry, Avoidance, Excitement, Dread, Fear, Vulnerability – Places We Go When Things Are Uncertain – Chapter 1 Extract From ‘The Atlas Of The Heart’ By Brené Brown
I love the quote below that begins the section on anxiety. It reminds me of how much of my alcoholism relates to my delusion of control. This short article from the book ‘Not God’ by Ernst Kurtz does a good job of exploring this along with the corresponding denial of the spiritual. Kurtz writes “RealityContinue reading “Anxiety, Worry, Avoidance, Excitement, Dread, Fear, Vulnerability – Places We Go When Things Are Uncertain – Chapter 1 Extract From ‘The Atlas Of The Heart’ By Brené Brown”
Live Your Wounds & Befriend Your Pain – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation October 9th, 10th
I love these two short daily meditations from Henri Nouwen. I see so much of what drives my addiction as an unhealthy response and relationship to pain. I have been a pain killer and am now learning, with the help of a Higher Power and my A.A. community, to be a pain healer. That transformingContinue reading “Live Your Wounds & Befriend Your Pain – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation October 9th, 10th”
Shame And The Meaning Of Being Human – Shame & Guilt By Ernest Kurtz
AA teaches that there is a wholeness in limitation. This understanding echoes an ancient tradition of wisdom, which saw being human as being caught in the middle, containing a contradiction. To be human, according to this tradition, means to sustain the tension of always being pulled in two opposite directions: to be more than humanContinue reading “Shame And The Meaning Of Being Human – Shame & Guilt By Ernest Kurtz”