Readings

For Today:

"Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers." Victor Hugo

"Before finding OA, I could not have imagined entering a room full of strangers and telling them ho it feels to be a compulsive overeater. Feelings may be freely expressed in group therapy, for example, bur id i am the only compulsive overeater in the room, I am a stranger to the others. The great peril I face is something they do not share and can never understand.
that is why, in their divinely inspired wisdom, the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous struggled to keep AA for alcoholics. As Bill W. pointed out, all we have to share is our experience; what we have not experienced, we cannot share.

For today: The great peril of compulsive overeating makes sisters and brothers of all of us in Overeaters Anonymous."

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Voices of Recovery:

"Getting out of my own way gives me the freedom to rise to the highest level of which i am capable." For Today, p. 280

"I see the details and fret over them; my Higher Power sees the big picture. This is my Higher Power's plan for me:
To be free of fear;
To march after every single dream;
To recognize where my passion is;
To let my passion loose;
To be strong of mind, body, and spirit;
To grasp for all the good things that could be mine;
To love unreservedly;
To keep the real priorities in front of me;
To experience joy without limits.
When I am able to accept that this is my Higher Power's will for me, I see the need to stay out of the picture. My plan wasn't nearly as good."

Yay! Beautiful! On so many levels!

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In This Moment:

"In This Moment, I see and believe.

I attended a retreat this year in a beautiful lodge nestled on a mountaintop. Although people around me talked about the wonderful view, I was unable to see it because of the foggy weather. My recovery was like that at first. People told their stories of recovery. I heard how my view of life would change by working the Steps. i couldn't use it at first; all I could see was the fog. I slowly began to recognize the obvious recovery of others in my group. I worked the Steps and slowly but steadily, the fog lifted. Now, I reverse the old saying, 'seeing is believing' into 'believing leads to seeing.'"

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The Language of Letting Go

"Letting Go of Being a Victim

It's okay to have a good day. Really.
It's okay to be doing okay and to feel like our life is manageable and on track.
Many of us have learned, as part of our survival behaviors, that the way to get the attention and approval we want to be victims. if life is awful, too difficult, unmanageable, too hard, unfair, then others will accept, like, and approve of us, we think.
We may have learned this from living and associating with people who also learned to survive by being a victim.
We are not victims. We do not need to be victimized. We do not need to be helpless and out of control to get the attention and love we desire. in fact, the kind of love we are seeking cannot be obtained that way.
We can get the love we really want and need by only owning our power. We learn that we can stand on our own two feet, even though it sometimes feels good to lean a little. We learn that the people we ARE leaning on are not holding us up. They are standing next to us.
We all have bad days - days when things are not going the way we'd like, days when we have feelings of sadness and fear. But we can deal with our bad days and darker feelings in ways that reflect self-responsibility rather than victimization.
It's okay to have a good day too. We might not have as much to talk about, but we'll have more to enjoy.

God, help me let go of my need to be a victim. Help me let go of my belief that to be loved and get attention i need to be a victim. Surround me with people who love me when I own my power. Help me start having good days and enjoying them."

Good!

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