Readings

For Today:

"All that is human must retrograde, if it do not advance." Edward Gibbon

"As a compulsive overeater, my failure to move ahead in terms of emotional growth meant falling back, constantly losing ground to my illness.
Moving ahead requires only awareness and willingness. Nothing complex. No figuring out, no master plan, only a desire to change.
Growth begins with acceptance of myself as I am. It is through looking at my pluses and minuses and accepting them as mine that the defects begin to loosen their grip and make room for change.

For today: Doing the best I can to be abstinent and to work my program is all the progress I need."

Voices of Recovery:

"How good it is to be free of fear of yourself." Before You Take That First Compulsive Bite, Remember . . .

"The stress of attempting to trust myself when my disease was rampant was like trying to push a rope up a tree - impossible. I'm grateful that today I have a Higher Power I can trust to guide me in honesty and truth.
I no longer have to depend on my own unsteady willpower. I now live in God's will, which I receive through the Step Eleven prayer, and I can rest in God's love through my fellow recovering OA members.
When fear strikes my heart, I remember that fear and faith cannot dwell in the same place at the same time. When I fear myself or other people, places, or things, it reminds me to concentrate on faith. For me, that means more surrender, more prayer, and more meditation. I consciously and gratefully receive more of God's love through family, friends, and the Fellowship.
I still make mistakes, but I no longer fear my thoughts, my actions, or my disease because I trust my higher Power.

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In This Moment:

"In This Moment, I am spiritual.

When my spirit is in harmony with life, I am renewed and refreshed with affirmation and wisdom. I have freedom to live without limitations and strength to bear all things. I am unique and precious. A surge of gladness travels throughout my being. I have hope for that which I once thought I could not accomplish. With grace. I find heaven within. I give thanks for the gifts of wonder, wholeness, and abundance."

Wow.

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The Language of Letting Go

"Letting Go of Sadness"

Gulp

"A block to joy and love can be unresolved sadness from the past.
In the past, we told ourselves many things to deny the pain: It doesn't hurt that much . . . Maybe if I just wait, things will change . . . It's no big deal. I can get through this . . . Maybe if I try to change the other person, I won't have to change myself.
We denied that it hurt because we didn't want to feel the pain.
Unfinished business doesn't go away. It keeps repeating itself, until it gets our attention, until we feel it, deal with it, and heal. That's one lesson we are learning in recovery from codependence and adult children issues.
Many of us didn't have the tools, support, or safety we needed to acknowledge and accept pain in our past. Its okay. We're safe now. Slowly, carefully, we can begin to open ourselves up to our feelings. We can begin the process of feeling what we have denied so long - not to blame, not to shame, but to heal ourselves in preparation for a better life.
It's okay to cry when we need to cry and feel the sadness many of us have stored within for so long. We can feel and release these feelings.
Grief is a cleansing process. It's an acceptance process. It moves us from our past, into today, and into a better future - a future free of sabotaging behaviors, a future that holds more options than our past.

God, as I move through this day, let me be open to my feelings. Today, help me know that I don't have to either force or repress the healing available to me in recovery. Help me trust that if I am open and available, the healing will happen naturally, in a manageable way."

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