Category Archives: Spirit on the A’s

A.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

AA Promises

What Are the AA Promises?
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has a set of principles to help alcoholics in recovery become productive members of society. These AA promises derive from Alcoholics Anonymous twelve steps and twelve traditions. Let’s break the AA promises out so they are easier to digest.

The AA Promises:

1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.

2. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.

3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.

4. No matter how far down the scale we have gone

5. We will see how our experience can benefit others.

6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.

7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.

8. Self-seeking will slip away.

9. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.

10. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.

11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.

12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

AA Promises
AA Promises

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us -sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. – Alcoholics Anonymous p. 83-84.

What do the AA Promises mean?

The AA Promises are meant to be a promise for recovery. The AA promises usually begin to come true after an alcoholic has worked through the steps thoroughly and begins to apply them in their life. When it says that they will be “fulfilled among us-sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly” it means that the AA Promises will happen, but the time frame in which they present themselves are different for everyone. The AA promises will always materialize if the alcoholic works for them. This means that if you are working the twelve steps to the best of your ability and are as honest as you can be while working them, you will receive a spiritual awakening or experience, which then leads to a total personality change.

– WaterShed Treatment Programs.
The Promise
David Grover
performed by When in Rome

If you need a friend, don’t look to a stranger,
You know in the end, I’ll always be there.
But when you’re in doubt, and when you’re in danger,
Take a look all around, and I’ll be there.

 

N.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Acceptance and Change

Acceptance and Change

“Freedom to change seems to come after acceptance of ourselves.” Page 371.

Basic Text, p.58. Fear and denial are the opposites of acceptance. None of us are perfect, even in our own eyes; all of us have certain traits that, given the chance, we would like to change. We sometimes become overwhelmed when contemplating how far short we fall of our ideals, so overwhelmed that we fear there’s no chance of becoming the people we’d like to be. That’s when our defense mechanism of denial kicks in, taking us to the opposite extreme: nothing about ourselves needs changing, we tell ourselves, so why worry? Neither extreme gives us the freedom to change.

Acceptance
Acceptance

Whether we are longtime NA members or new to recovery, the freedom to change is acquired by working the Twelve Steps. When we admit our powerlessness and the unmanageability of our lives, we counteract the lie that says we don’t have to change. In coming to believe that a Power greater than we are can help us, we lose our fear that we are damaged beyond repair; we come to believe we can change. We turn ourselves over to the care of the God of our understanding and tap the strength we need to make a thorough, honest examination of ourselves. We admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being what we’ve found. We accept the good and the bad in ourselves; with this acceptance, we become free to change.

Just for Today: I want to change. By working the steps, I will counter fear and denial and find the acceptance needed to change.
– (c) 2016 NA World Services

Changes
David Bowie

 

A.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Rewards of Giving

Rewards of Giving

This is indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him. Then he discovers that by the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether his brother has yet received anything or not. – TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 109.

Through experience with Twelfth Step work, I came to understand the rewards of giving that demands nothing in return. At first I expected recovery in others, but I soon learned that this did not happen. Once I acquired the humility to accept the fact that every Twelfth Step call was not going to result in a success, then I was open to receive the rewards of selfless giving. – Daily Reflections © 1990. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.

A.A. Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Soul Music
Soul Music

The Benedictine Monks suggest that meditating, reflecting, and chanting will make one’s life more complete and assist with the Twelve Steps.

Gregorian Chant
Benedictine Monks

Let’s Learn Gregorian Chant

With or Without You
Gregorian Monks joined by Benedictine Monks

 

A.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Understanding the Malady

Understanding the Malady

When dealing with an alcoholic, there may be a natural annoyance that a man could be so weak, stupid and irresponsible. Even when you understand the malady better, you may feel this feeling rising. – ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 139.

Understanding
Understanding

Having suffered from alcoholism, I should understand the illness, but sometimes I feel annoyance, even contempt, toward a person who cannot make it in A.A. When I feel that way, I am satisfying my false sense of superiority and I must remember, but for the grace of God, there go I. – Daily Reflections. © 1990. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.
People Help the People
Birdy

God knows what is hiding in those weak and drunken hearts
Guess he kissed the girls and made them cry
Those hard-faced queens of misadventure
God knows what is hiding in those weak and sunken lives
Fiery throngs of muted angels
Giving love but getting nothing back, oh.

Annoying Song

N.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Walking the Way We Talk

Walking the Way We Talk
“Words mean nothing until we put them into action.” Page 369.

Basic Text, p.58. The Twelfth Step reminds us “to practice these principles in all our affairs.” In NA, we see living examples of this suggestion all around us. The more experienced members, who seem to have an aura of peace surrounding them, demonstrate the rewards of applying this bit of wisdom in their lives.

To receive the rewards of the Twelfth Step, it is vital that we practice the spiritual principles of recovery even when no one is looking. If we talk about recovery at meetings but continue to live as we did in active addiction, our fellow members may suspect that we are doing nothing more than quoting bumper stickers.

What we pass on to newer members comes more from how we live than what we say. If we advise someone to “turn it over” without having experienced the miracle of the Third Step, chances are the message will fail to reach the ears of the newcomer for whom it’s intended. On the other hand, if we “walk what we talk” and share our genuine experience in recovery, the message will surely be evident to all.

Just for Today: I will practice the principles of recovery, even when I’m the only one who knows. – (c) 2016 NA World Services.

N.A. Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Walk the Walk
Jakes Power of 3

 

A.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Partners in Recovery

Partners in Recovery
Nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.

Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress … Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances! – ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 89, 100.

Faith
Faith

Doing the right things for the right reasons; this is my way of controlling my selfishness and selfcenteredness. I realize that my dependency on a Higher Power clears the way for peace of mind, happiness and sobriety. I pray each day that I will avoid my previous actions, so that I will be helpful to others. – Daily Reflections. © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.

Sober
Pink

 

N.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Membership

Membership

“There is only one requirement for membership, the desire to stop using.” Page 363.

Good
Good

Basic Text, p. 9. We all know people who could benefit from NA. Narcotics Anonymous. Many people we encounter from all walks of life-our family members, old friends, and co-workers-could really use a program of recovery in their lives. Sadly, those who need us do not always find their way to our rooms.

NA is a program of attraction, not promotion. We are only members when we say we are. We can bring our friends and loved ones to a meeting if they are willing, but we cannot force them to embrace the way of life that has given us freedom from active addiction.

Membership in Narcotics Anonymous is a highly personal decision. The choice to become a member is made in the heart of each individual addict. In the long run, coerced meeting attendance doesn’t keep too many addicts in our rooms. Only addicts who are still suffering, if given the opportunity, can decide if they are powerless over their addiction. We can carry the message, but we can not carry the addict.

Just for Today: I am grateful for my decision to become a member of Narcotics Anonymous.
(c) 2016 NA World Services.

Don’t Stop Believing
Journey (1981).

Do You Believe We Can Do This
Open Road Film (Little Boy) 2015.

Do You Believe
Do You Believe
N.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Addiction

Addiction, Drugs, and Recovery
“Addiction is a physical, mental, and spiritual disease that affects every area of our lives.”

Addiction We Can Help
Addiction We Can Help

Basic Text, p. 20.
Before we started using, most of us had a stereotype, a mental image of what addicts were supposed to look like. Some of us pictured a junkie robbing convenience markets for drug money. Others imagined a paranoid recluse peering at life from behind perpetually drawn drapes and locked doors. As long as we didn’t fit any of the stereotypes, we thought, we could not be addicts.

As our using progressed, we discarded those misconceptions about addiction, only to come up with another: the idea that addiction was about drugs. We may have thought addiction meant a physical habit, believing any drug that didn’t produce physical habituation was not “addictive.” Or we thought the drugs we took were causing all our problems. We thought that merely getting rid of the drugs would restore sanity to our lives.

One of the most important lessons we learn in Narcotics Anonymous is that addiction is much more than the drugs we used. Addiction is a part of us; Addiction is an illness that involves every area of our lives, with or without drugs. We can see its effects on our thoughts, our feelings, and our behavior, even after we stop using. Because of this, we need a solution that works to repair every area of our lives: the Twelve Steps.

Just for Today: Addiction is not a simple disease, but it has a simple solution. Today, I will live in that solution: the Twelve Steps of recovery. – (c) 2016 NA World Services.

Addiction
Medina

Should I drink another drink
Say another lie
I know that you may think
That I’m a broken little bird in my mind

Cause I’m falling on the floor
I’m climbing up the walls
And everytime I get a grip
I seem to lose myself just a little more

A.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Thinking of Others

THINKING OF OTHERS
Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs. – ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 20.

Humility
Humility

Thinking of others has never come easily to me. Even when I try to work the A.A. program, I’m prone to thinking, “How do I feel today, Am I happy, joyous and free?”
The program tells me that my thoughts must reach out to those around me: “Would that newcomer welcome someone to talk to?” “That person looks a little unhappy today, maybe I could cheer him up.” It is only when I forget my problems, and reach out to contribute something to others that I can begin to attain the serenity and God-consciousness I seek. – Daily Reflections. © 1990. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.

Happiness Is Helping Others

 

N.A., Reflection, Spirit on the A's

Fear of Change

Fear Of Change

“By working the steps, we come to accept a Higher Power’s will … We lose our fear of the unknown. We are set free.” Pg. 362.

Basic Text, p. 16. Life is a series of changes, both large and small. Although we may know and accept this fact intellectually, chances are that our initial emotional reaction to change is fear. For some reason, we assume that each and every change is going to hurt, causing us to be miserable.

Do Not Fear Change!
Do Not Fear Change!

If we look back on the changes that have happened in our lives, we’ll find that most of them have been for the best. We were probably very frightened at the prospect of life without drugs, yet it is the best thing that’s ever happened to us. Perhaps we’ve lost a job that we thought we’d die without, but later on we found greater challenge and personal fulfillment in a new career. As we venture forth in our recovery, we’re likely to experience more changes. We will outgrow old situations and become ready for new ones.

With all sorts of changes taking place, it is only natural to grab hold of something, anything familiar and try to hold on. Solace can be found in a Power greater than ourselves. The more we allow changes to happen at the direction of our Higher Power, the more we’ll trust that those changes are for the best. Faith will replace fear, and we’ll know in our hearts that all will be well.

Serenity Prayer
Serenity Prayer

Just for Today: When I am afraid of a change in my life, I will take comfort from knowing that God’s will for me is good.
– (c) 2016. NA World Services.

Turn, Turn, Turn.
Pete Seeger. Book of Ecclesiastes.
The Byrds (1960’s).

To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap.
A time to kill, a time to heal.
A time to laugh, a time to weep.