Essentials Of Recovery

Father Leo’s - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sun, 17 May 2026 03:00:00 +0000

TOLERANCE

“Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another’s beliefs, practices and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them.”

–Joshua Liebman

Today I am able to tolerate people, listen to what they are saying and if I do not agree with them, it is okay! I do not have to agree with a person to tolerate or befriend him.

This is a new attitude for me and is part of my spiritual program. When I was drinking, I would not listen to people who had ideas different to mine. I would not tolerate people who had a different philosophy on life. Other religions were discounted as being cultish, crude or superstitious. I have learned that my disease of alcoholism made me very arrogant and narrow in my attitude to life – I rejected two-thirds of the world as being heretical!

Today I can tolerate and learn from people who view God, the world and morality differently from me. Spirituality is teaching me to be open and accepting.

Lord, may I find traces of Your love in different philosophies and religions.

Daily Reflections - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:30:00 +0000

. . . . AND FORGIVE

Under very trying conditions I have had, again and again, to forgive others–also myself.

AS BILL SEE IT p. 268

Forgiveness of self and forgiveness of others are just two currents in the same river, both hindered or shut off completely by the dam of resentment. Once that dam is lifted, both currents can flow. The Steps of A.A. allow me to see how resentment has built up and subsequently blocked off this flow in my life. The Steps provide a way by which my resentments may – by the grace of God as I understand Him – be lifted. It is as a result of this solution that I can find the necessary grace which enables me to forgive myself and others.

Just For Today - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:28:00 +0000

“Defects”

“We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.”

Step Six
After taking the Fifth Step, many of us spend some time considering “the exact nature of our wrongs” and the part they’d played in making us who we were. What would our lives be like without, say, our arrogance?

Sure, arrogance had kept us apart from our fellows, preventing us from enjoying and learning from them. But arrogance had also served us well, propping up our ego in the face of critically low self-esteem. What advantage would be gained if our arrogance were removed, and what support would we be left with?

With arrogance gone, we would be one step closer to being restored to our proper place among others. We would become capable of appreciating their company and their wisdom and their challenges as their equals. Our support and guidance would come, if we chose, from the care offered us by our Higher Power; “low self-esteem” would cease to be an issue.

One by one, we examined our character defects this way, and found them all defective—after all, that’s why they’re called defects. And were we entirely ready to have God remove all of them? Yes.

Just for today: I will thoroughly consider all my defects of character to discover whether I am ready to have the God of my understanding remove them.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:26:00 +0000

A.A. Thought For The Day

A lot of well-meaning people treat alcoholics like the priest and the Levite. They pass by on the other side by scorning them and telling them what low people they are, with no willpower. Whereas, they really have fallen for alcohol, in the same way as the man in the story fell among robbers. And the member of A.A. who is working with others is like the Good Samaritan. Am I moved with compassion? Do I take care of another alcoholic whenever I can?

Meditation For The Day

I must constantly live in preparation for something better to come. All of life is a preparation for something better. I must anticipate the morning to come. I must feel, in the night of sorrow, that understanding joy that tells of confident expectation of better things to come. “Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Know that God has something better in store for you, as long as you are making yourself ready for it. All your existence in this world is a training for a better life to come.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that when life is over, I will return to an eternal, space-less life with God. I pray that I may make this life a preparation for a better life to come.

As Bill Sees It - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:24:00 +0000

Domination and Demand, p. 176

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 people we know, or we depend upon them far too much.

If we lean too heavily on people, they will sooner or later fail us, for they are human, too, and cannot possibly meet our incessant demands. In this way our insecurity grows and festers.

When we habitually try to manipulate others to our own willful desires, they revolt, and resist us heavily. Then we develop hurt feelings, a sense of persecution, and a desire to retaliate.

My dependency meant demand — a demand for the possession and control of other people and the conditions surrounding me.

1. 12 & 12, p. 53
2. Grapevine, January 1958

Walk in Dry Places - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:20:00 +0000

Rehearsing Outcomes
Serenity
Imagination is undeniably a human faculty that accounts for much progress. Compulsive people, however, can use imagination in a most destructive way.

One destructive practice is that of rehearsing i our minds the outcome of some treat or problem, usually expecting the worst. While we should not avoid facing real problems, it’s wrong to assume that the worst will always happen. This tendency to anticipate the worst possible outcome can actually produce the very outcome we’d like to avoid, thus making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We can deal with such pessimistic thinking by reminding ourselves that God is in charge and will bring our good to pass in just the right way. If we’re going to rehearse anything, let it be an outcome that includes the best for everybody, including ourselves.

I’ll expect the best today, knowing that all outcomes and results are in God’s hands.

Keep It Simple - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:20:00 +0000

Each day provides its own gifts.

—Ruth P. Freedman

Spiritual growth is the greatest gift we can receive. And we earn it through taking risks. There is much risk involved in working the Steps: The risk of admitting that we’re out of control. The risk of turning our will and lives over to a Power greater than ourselves. The risk of letting go of character defects. The risk of making amends to people we’ve harmed. The risk of admitting our wrongs. The risk of telling our stories as we carry the message of hope. To grow spiritually, we need these adventures. These challenges. These risk.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to take the risks that I need in order to grow.

Action for the Day: I will look at today as an adventure with my Higher Power. I will list the fears I’ll need to let go of.

A Day At A Time - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:16:00 +0000

Reflection For The Day

If we felt guilty, degraded or ashamed or either our addiction itself or the things we did while “under the influence,” that served to magnify our feelings of being outcasts. On occasion, we secretly feared or actually believed that we deserved every painful feeling: we thought, at times, that we truly were outsiders. The dark tunnel of our lives seemed formidable and unending. We couldn’t even voice our feelings and could hardly bear to think about them. So we soon drank or used again. Do I remember well what it used to be like?

Today I Pray

May I remember how often, during my days of using chemicals, I felt alone with my shame and guilt. The phony jollity of a drinking party or the shallow relationships struck up at a bar could not keep me from feeling like an outsider. May I appreciate the chance to make new friends through the fellowship of the group. May I know that my relationships now will be saner, less dependent, more mature.

Today I Will Remember

Thank God for new Friends.

One Day At A Time - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:14:00 +0000

The Human Spirit

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.
–Unknown

I spent most years of my life feeling like a damaged person, one who was permanently and irreparably defective. I am the survivor of abuse, and had been a practicing compulsive overeater since early childhood. The only way I knew myself was broken, hopeless, and damaged beyond repair. On the days when I could manage to have a goal, my goal was to make the best of it … and to simply survive the remainder of my days on this earth.

Recovery has transformed my view of myself and my experience of life. In receiving the love, support and guidance of my friends on this journey I began to see a glimmer of hope. With the loving care of my sponsors I began to take the Steps, and I learned to live them out … one day at a time.

In taking the Steps and living them out, I found my buried spirit, and I found that it was alive and well! In recovery I became reacquainted with the spiritual part of myself that I thought was lost forever. In this connection, I learned to live, laugh, and hope again. My spiritual connection is stronger than anything that can happen to me. This is the truth in my life today, and it transforms me to peace, joy, and love greater than I had ever dreamed.

One Day at a Time . . .
I will practice Step Eleven, and improve my conscious contact with God. I will choose to live in connection with my inner spirit.

~ Cate

Elder's Meditation - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:12:00 +0000

“If the Great Spirit wanted men to stay in one place He would make the world stand still; but He made it to always change…”

–Chief Flying Hawk, OGLALA SIOUX

The Elders tell us change occurs in two directions. They say, “That which is built is constantly being destroyed; that which is loose is being used to build the new.” In other words, change is constantly going on. Many times we hear people say, “I hate change.” Does it make sense that the Great Spirit would design people to hate it? The Great Spirit designed people with change abilities such as visioning, imagery and imagination. Maybe we need to learn to use these tools and then we’ll look forward to change.

Great Spirit, today, let me see the harmony of Yours, truly changing world.

Today’s GIft - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:10:00 +0000

Nice guys finish last.

— Leo Durocher

Some of us are habitually victims, doormats, and “poor things.” No matter what, we never say no. The more we practice being nice guys the less able we are to cope creatively. We place the blame, along with the responsibility, elsewhere.

Darlene modeled this for all of us at a recent meeting. She is well past fifty and has been divorced for twenty years. Yet she is still seeking sympathy for what her husband – and God -did to her. Twenty-five years ago she inherited fifty thousand dollars from her parents’ estate. Bit by bit, as she said, her alcoholic husband spent it all. It wasn’t that she gave it to him or failed to manage it herself, she explained. What happened was that he “just spent it all up. How could he do that?” The obvious, healthier question never occurred to her: How could she allow a sick person to eat up a small fortune?

The moral of the story is that being “too nice” isn’t our problem.

Today, I will search my conscience for evidence of irresponsibility that I may have been filing under other names.

From the book:

Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty

Step by Step - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:09:00 +0000

“He was drinking to hold on to his job, to hold on to his wife, to hold on to his sanity. Finally, he was drinking to keep away those little men, and those strange voices, and the organ music that came out of the walls.”

– Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 8, p 512.

Today, grant me the understanding that the reasons and excuses I used to justify drinking are now the reasons I cannot drink. If I drank out of fear of losing a job, let me not drink to keep it; if I drank with uncertainty that I might lose a spouse or loved one, let me not drink to have a chance at salvaging the relationship; if I drank to stop for a while the hallucinations that were not real, let me not drink to extinguish them forever. The desperate excuses I used to drink can now, ironically, become the reasons not to drink. In the end, as the Big Book repeats time and again, I am only drying out and not sobering up if I hinge my recovery on something other than for myself. Today, I choose not to drink for myself and not to avoid a pending consequence; by becoming sober for myself, I am given greater strength and courage to deal effectively with whatever consequences of my alcoholism await me. And our common journey continues.

Step by step. – Chris M., 2014

The Eye Opener - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:06:00 +0000

Our great triumph was not because of our victory over alcohol, but because of our complete defeat. It was only when we were beaten to our knees that we sought the only help that could save us. So we came into AA, not as boastful conquerers but as cringing and bloody casualties of an unequal fight. We were whipped; we knew it; we gave not a damn who else knew it. For us, it was unconditional surrender. There were and could be no reservations.

Hazelden Foundation

Daily TAO - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:04:00 +0000

VULNERABILITIES

A warrior takes every person as an adversary.
He sees all their vulnerable points,
And trains to eliminate his own.
A sage has no vulnerable points.

A warrior takes everyone as a potential adversary. He assesses each person that he meets for their strengths and weaknesses, and he places himself strategically. No confrontation is ever a surprise. Protection, competition, honor, and righteousness are his principles.

He is the weapon. Therefore, a warrior trains body and mind to perfection. He knows that the average person has hundreds of points where death can enter. For himself, he seeks to eliminate as many of his own vulnerabilities as possible. In combat, he defends one or two points, and the rest of his attention is devoted to strategy and offense. Yet no warrior can eliminate all vulnerable points. Even for a champion, there is always at least one. Only the way of the sage eliminates all weaknesses.

It is said that the sage has no points for death to enter. This makes the sage, who is perfect in Tao, superior to the warrior, who is merely skilled in Tao. The warrior accepts death, but does not go beyond it. The sage goes beyond concepts of protection, competition, honor, and righteousness, and has no fear of death. The sage knows that nothing dies, that life is mere illusion : Life is but one dream flowing into another.

Daily Zen - May 17 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:02:00 +0000

Who would have expected that
Self nature is fundamentally
Complete in itself?
Who would have expected that
Self nature is fundamentally
Immutable?
Who would have expected that
Self nature can create all things?

- Altar Sutra

Angie P. - "Strength in Sobriety for Women"

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Daily Reflections - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:30:00 +0000

WE FORGIVE . . .

Often it was while working on this Step with our sponsors or spiritual adviser that we first felt truly able to forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged us. Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-round forgiveness was desirable, but it was only when we resolutely tackled Step Five that we inwardly knew we’d be able to receive forgiveness and give it, too.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 58

What a great feeling forgiveness is! What a revelation about my emotional, psychological and spiritual nature. All it takes is willingness to forgive; God will do the rest.

Just For Today - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:28:00 +0000

Our Higher Power’s Will

“God’s will for us becomes our own true will for ourselves.”

Basic Text, p. 46

The Twelve Steps are a path to spiritual awakening. This awakening takes the form of a developing relationship with a loving Higher Power. Each succeeding step strengthens that relationship. As we continue to work the steps, the relationship grows, becoming ever more important in our lives.

In the course of working the steps, we make a personal decision to allow a loving Higher Power to direct us. That guidance is always available; we need only the patience to seek it. Often, that guidance manifests itself in the inner wisdom we call our conscience.

When we open our hearts wide enough to sense our Higher Power’s guidance, we feel a calm serenity. This peace is the beacon that guides us through our troubled feelings, providing clear direction when our minds are busy and confused. When we seek and follow God’s will in our lives, we find the contentment and joy that often elude us when we strike out on our own. Fear or doubt may plague us when we attempt to carry out our Higher Power’s will, but we’ve learned to trust the moment of clarity. Our greatest happiness lies in following the will of our loving God.

Just for today: I will seek to strengthen my relationship with my Higher Power. I know from experience that knowledge of my Higher Power’s will provides a sense of clarity, direction, and peace.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:26:00 +0000

A.A. Thought For The Day

In the story of the Good Samaritan, the wayfarer fell among robbers and was left lying in the gutter, half dead. And a priest and a Levite both passed by on the other side of the road. But the Good Samaritan was moved with compassion and came to him and bound up his wounds and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Do I treat another alcoholic like the priest and the Levite or like the Good Samaritan?

Meditation For The Day

Never weary in prayer. When one day you see how unexpectedly your prayer has been answered, then you will deeply regret that you have prayed so little. Prayer changes things for you. Practice praying until your trust in God has become strong. And then pray on, because it has become so much a habit that you need it daily. Keep praying until prayer seems to become communion with God. That is the note on which true times of prayer should end.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may form the habit of daily prayer. I pray that I may find the strength I need, as a result of this communion.

As Bill Sees It - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:24:00 +0000

Money–Before and After, p. 177

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 an urgent requirement which could supply us with the next drink and the temporary comfort of oblivion it brought.

Although financial recovery is on the way for many of us, we find we cannot place money first. For us, material well-being always follows spiritual progress; it never precedes.

1. 12 & 12, p. 120
2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 127

Walk in Dry Places - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:22:00 +0000

Trees Don’t grow to the sky
Progress

Release from a compulsion can be a dramatic experience. It may also mean immediate release from vexing problems caused by the compulsion. This time can bring such a sense of well-being that it’s sometimes called the HONEYMOON or CLOUD NINE period.

In any growth process, however, we must remember that a law of diminishing returns sets in. This is expressed in the saying that trees don’t grow to the sky. At some point, we will discover that our joyous feeling of pleasure has cooled down to an ordinary state of feeling well, that we are not becoming increasingly joyous by the day.

There’s nothing wrong with such a mental plateau. If we’re practicing the Twelve Step program, we’re still moving forward, onward, and upward. Diminishing returns must still be counted as returns.

I’ll accept today’s progress with gratitude and humility. I won’t expect more than a reasonable feeling of well-being and contentment, but that is considerable.

Keep It Simple - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:20:00 +0000

The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.

—Sydney J. Harris

Relaxing is one of the little joys of life. We can learn to take time from our busy day to chat with a friend, take a hot bath, or spend a few moments sitting alone under a tree. The busier we are, the more we need to take time to relax.

When we rest, we stop fussing about the outside world. We find out how we’re doing inside. While relaxing, we can best listen to our Higher Power. Our minds calm down. We put busy thoughts aside. Sometimes, we can almost hear our Higher Power say, “Stay quiet and listen! I have something to tell you!”

Father Leo’s - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:18:00 +0000

LIBERTY

“Liberty means responsibility.That is why most men dread it.”

–George Bernard Shaw

The fellowship of recovering addicts and their families rejoice in the freedom of life; the exchange of slavery to a drug or person for liberty; a life of choice, rather than meaningless compulsion.

But with the gift of liberty comes the weight of responsibility. Today I am responsible for my life. No longer can I say I do not know; no longer can I blame others for my disease; no longer can I manipulate in the “playground of denial”.

The spiritual program requires a maturity of lifestyle that involves responsibility – but the joys are immense.

O Master of liberty and responsibility, let me not forget to laugh.

A Day At A Time - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:16:00 +0000

Reflection For The Day

Many of us in The Program share the memory that we originally drank or used other chemicals to “belong,” to “fit in,” or to “be a part of the crowd.” Others of us fueled our addictions to “get in” — to feel, at least for a short time, that we fitted in with the rest of the human race. Sometimes, the chemicals had desired effect, temporarily assuaging our feelings of apartness. But when the chemicals’ effects wore off, we were left feeling more alone, more left out, more “different” than ever. Do I still sometimes feel that “my case is different?”

Today I Pray

God, may I get over my feeling of being “different” or in some way unique, of not belonging. It was this feeling that led me to my chemical use in the first place. It also kept me from seeing the seriousness of my addiction, since I thought “I am different. I cna handle it.” May I now be aware that I do belong, to a vast fellowship of people like me. With every shared experience, my “uniqueness” is disappearing.

Today I Will Remember

I am not unique.

One Day At A Time - May 16 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Essentialsofrecovery) — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:14:00 +0000

LOOKING AT THE STARS

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Oscar Wilde

Before I made the Twelve Steps part of my life, I considered myself to have been in the gutter. My weight had doubled, I was in a major depression, and I was going through the motions of life. Those looking at me from afar saw only a perfect marriage, a perfect career, a perfect home, and perfect children. Although I was blessed, the disease I suffered from day in and day out made it quite obvious to anyone who truly knew me that I was not “looking at the stars.” It took my first sponsor to start the healing process for me.

As I began to work Steps One, Two and Three, I felt “different.” Nothing had changed . . . everything had changed. It’s hard to describe because outwardly I looked the same … but my entire being opened up. Weight began to come off because I was able to focus on a plan of eating. I found my feelings returned … the ability to love and accept love came back. My spirituality blossomed once again. I truly felt alive.

One day at a time…
I want to remember each time I find myself in the gutter and giving up hope … to look at the stars … and remember that my program works if I will just work it.

~ Mari