“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

                                                   Joseph Campbell

“To find in ourselves what makes life worth living is risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it.  It also means that without it, life will be valueless.”

                                                 Marsha Sinetar

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier.  They way it actually works is the reverse.  You must be who you are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.”

                                                 Margaret Young

“To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing it’s best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle with any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”

                                              e.e. cummings

“The winds of Grace are always blowing, but it is you who must raise the sails.”

                                                     Rabindranath Tagore

“When I was enlightened, all were enlightened, even the rocks and the trees.”

                                                      The Buddha

“The most terrifying thing in the world is to accept oneself totally.”

                                                    Carl Jung

“If you want to try and protect your feel, don’t try to cover the whole world with leather; cover your feet with shoes.”

                                                    The Buddha

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

                                                         Michelangelo

Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening?  No, sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first awakening.  If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on.  As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life- the one that did not work- for a new life that can and does work under any conditions what so ever.

                                                             --Bill W.

~~The Twelve Rewards~~

Hope instead of desperation.

Faith instead of despair.

Courage instead of fear.

Peace of mind instead of confusion.

Self-respect instead of self-contempt.

Self-confidence instead of helplessness.

The respect of others instead of pity and contempt.

A clean conscience instead of a sense of guilt.

Real friendships instead of loneliness.

A clean pattern of life instead of a purposeless existence.

The love and understanding of our families instead of their doubts and fears.

The freedom of a happy life instead of the bondage of an alcoholic obsession.

Abandonment

Activity

Anonymity

Confession

Courage

Faith

Good Nature

High Mindedness

Humility

Kindness

Moderation

Optimism

Perseverance

Recovery

Restitution

Spirituality

Willingness

Self-Forgetfullness

Selflessness

Simplicity

Straightforwardness

Tolerance

Understanding

Abstinence

Altruism

Clean Thinking

Consideration

Discovery

Forgiveness

Health

Honesty

Tactfulness

Integrity

Love

Modesty

Patience

Positive Thinking

Reflection

Self-Control

Self-Sacrifice

Sensibility

Sobriety

Surrender

Trust

Unity

Acceptance

Amendment

Trustfulness

Compassion

Constructiveness

Energy

Generosity

Helpfulness

Hope

Justice

Meditation

Open-mindedness

Prayerful

Promptness

Responsibility

Self-Discovery

Self-Validation

Service

                             And In All Things, GRATITUDE!

“I practice these principles in all my affairs…”

Step 1—Honesty

-I practice honesty in all my affairs

-I admit that I am a compulsive overeater and that I need daily help

Step  2—Hope

-I believe that a power greater than myself can restore me to sanity

-Even in my loneliest hours I can remind myself that I am not alone

-In my weakest moments I will find the strength I need if I but believe it is available to      me and I ask

Step 3—Faith

-The most important decision I made was to trust God

-I no longer go through life acting however I feel like acting

-I look to my Higher Power for guidance and strength to face each decision I make

Step 4—Courage

-I am no longer ruled by the fear of admitting my mistakes

-I have courage to face up to my mistakes and test my strengths in the challenges of my life

Step 5—Integrity

-I have integrity to show my true self

-I no longer need to appear to the world as perfect—I can live more fully

Step 6—Willingness

-I am entirely ready to let go of my shortcomings

-I have learned the difference between self-will and the willingness to cooperate with   guidance from my Higher Power

Step 7—Humility

-I continue to let go of status seeking and thoughts and actions which I belittle myself and others

-I humbly trust God for the removal of my shortcomings

Step 8—Self-Discipline

-I am less likely to hurt other people and quicker to make amends

Step 9—Brotherly Love

-I accept others as they are not as I would have them—I let go of my expectations of others

-I am establishing the best possible relationships with no only other OAs but with all people in my life

Step 10—Perseverance

-I continue to do the things that bring me healing—even though sometimes I wonder if I still need to

-Perseverance brings me the reward of continuing permanent recovery

Step 11—Spiritual Awareness

-I practice prayer and meditation on a daily basis to nurture my spiritual awareness

-I practice this principle seeking a closer relationship with the God of my understanding

Step 12—Service

-My actions inside and outside the program are guided by the principle of service

-I experience the great truth that when I let go of my need to control people, places, and things and simply allow my Higher Power to serve others through me, I receive an abundance of joy and strength.

Adapted from The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, pgs. 103-106

AA Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pgs. 111-112

“Now comes the biggest question yet.  What about the practice of these principles in all our affairs?  Can we love the whole pattern of living as eagerly as we do the small segment of it we discover when we try to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety?  Can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our A.A. group?  Can we have the same kind of confidence and faith in these people who have been infected and sometimes crippled by our own illness that we have in our sponsors?  Can we actually carry the A.A. spirit into our daily work?  Can we meet our newly recognized responsibilities to the world at large?  And can we bring new purpose and devotion to the religion of our choice?  Can we find a new joy of living in trying to do something about all these things?

Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming failure or success?  Can we now accept and adjust to either without despair or pride?  Can we accept poverty, sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity?  Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when the brighter, more glittering achievements are denied us?”

Walk in the rain,

Smell flowers,

Stop along the way,

Build Sandcastles,

Go on field trips,

Find out how things work,

Tell stories,

Say magic words,

Trust the Universe.

--Bruce Williamson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.   Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most.  We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us.  And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

--Marianne Williamson

                                             A Three Fold-Model of Abstinence

Physical:

A sound food and exercise plan

Pre-plan meals

Do not count calories

Stay off the bathroom scale

Limit binge foods

Abstain from dieting of any kind

Abstain from eating between meals

Abstain from a sedentary lifestyle

Emotional

Abstain from negative self-talk and self-deprecating thoughts

Abstain from pleasing others at the expense of your own needs and feelings

Abstain from shutting off feelings or minimizing feelings

Abstain from isolating from others

Abstain from relationships that diminish your self-worth

Spiritual

Live life according to a personal value system

Abstain from the belief that all things in life must be dealt with alone

Develop a relationship with a Higher Power

Let go of control and realize that being in control does not guarantee a life of safety and freedom from pain

Elayne’s Suggested Action Plan for Recovery While Working the Steps

                                    (aka What Has Worked for Me)

Be honest with yourself about your addiction, your motives, your character defects and shortcomings and your assets.

Accept your powerlessness over your addiction

Trust and believe that a power greater than yourself can set you free from chaos and despair of active addiction, and remove from you the paralysis of hopelessness and insanity.

Surrender to your Higher Power, and allow Him to guide your way, and show you the truth and the light of your essence.

Embrace both your shadow side and your inner light as gifts that make you whole.

Act with humility, so that your mind will be open to embrace the truth.

Live in hopeful expectancy, and never give up on the new serenity you have experienced and will continue to experience through God’s Grace and your own actions.

Hope for only the best, while surmounting all difficulties ahead, believing that nothing is unattainable under the partnership of you and your Higher Power.

Acquire a strong, solid, lasting faith in Your Higher Power, and in your aptitude to make sound decisions together.

Breathe positive changes into your recovery when it starts to feel stale, and never confuse the words “wanting” and “willing.”  Willingness is always the key to your actions.  You don’t have to want to do something to be willing to do it.

Develop Faith in the unknown, trusting that God will put aside your perceived limitations, and allow you to accomplish your goals.  Faith is knowing that if you continue to be responsible to yourself in the journey, God will provide for you all the power, courage, and strength necessary to live life on life’s terms without turning to excess food.

Be Happy!                                                                                                          Be Free!

RE-posted from http://behindthismaskeatingdisorders.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/success-getting-back-up-again/

Posted by smcutts on March 22, 2008

I am privileged to travel quite a bit during this season of each year to share my story of recovery with college students. I never leave an event without fielding at least one question on the topic of ‘what does recovery really mean?’

My definition of humanity – of being a human being – of the human condition – is that we all have something. Behind our masks, underneath our strategically chosen clothing and in the shadows of our carefully selected words, we all struggle. We all have something that, without which, we imagine we could be bigger, better, brighter. I used to walk around secretly convinced that there was a much more wonderful me struggling to get out, and that I was blocking her way!

I didn’t know then what I know now, which is that recovery means nothing more nor less than getting back up again each time we suffer a setback. This is how it is done. This is how everybody does it. There is no one person who gets a secret ‘how to’ manual for living a successful life that the rest of us are denied. We are all in the same boat – all learning and growing by trial and error together.

True recovery looks like this - we get knocked down, like a fighter in the ring, and refuse to accept temporary defeat as life’s final answer. We retreat to a safe corner to strategize, acknowledge our learning curve, discover from our weaknesses how to get stronger, and then return to the ring to do battle again. With true recovery, not only do we refuse to accept the agony of a temporary so-called ‘defeat’, but we also train ourselves to perpetually look forward to the exultation of eventual true victory, IF WE DO NOT GIVE UP.

Success = GETTING BACK UP AGAIN. Period, the End.

Yes, I still struggle. Like my hero John Nash (for more on Nash check out the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’), I too still see visions – of a smaller me, in a more allegedly ‘perfect’ form – and voices – of a past thinner me, chastising the fully-real me for making healthy, life-affirming nutritional choices. I still have to choose EVERY DAY, just like Nash, to ‘refuse to indulge my mind’s love for patterns’ in order to retain access to the REAL life I lost once and never want to lose again.

Every day, I make a new choice to continue to commit to and maintain my own recovery. I accept that I, too, have something – my something is not worse nor better than the something of the person standing next to me. It is just my own. It is the personal tempering fire that gives me the opportunity to refine my preferences and evolve into the human being that I have the potential to be in this lifetime. It is my experience that our struggles not only make us strong, but they illumine us from the inside out with the reflected glow of that inner struggle and make us luminously BEAUTIFUL.

So the next time you are tempted to let life get you down, or to get down on yourself for having challenges in life that take you more than one hour, one day or one year of life to overcome, remember that this is what being a human being is all about. This is the human condition. You, too, are a human being, having a human experience, confronting the unique challenge and choice to discover for yourself what TRUE beauty looks, feels, acts and lives like.

Recovery is worth it. YOU are worth it. Whatever happens, remember – JUST GET BACK UP AGAIN. This is your ‘key to life’ for recovery success. Remember, we all have something. You are NOT alone – in fact, you are in very good, and BEAUTIFUL company!

Warmly and with HOPE,

Shannon Cutts