Through our inability to accept personal responsibilities, we were actually creating our own problems.
Basic Text, p. 13
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When we refuse to take responsibility for our lives, we give away all of our personal power. We need to remember that we are powerless over our addiction, not our personal behavior.
Many of us have misused the concept of powerlessness to avoid making decisions or to hold onto things we had outgrown. We have claimed powerlessness over our own actions. We have blamed others for our circumstances rather than taking positive action to change those circumstances. If we continue to avoid responsibility by claiming that we are powerless, we set ourselves up for the same despair and misery we experienced in our active addiction. The potential for spending our recovery years feeling like victims is very real.
Instead of living our lives by default, we can learn how to make responsible choices and take risks. We may make mistakes, but we can learn from these mistakes. A heightened awareness of ourselves and an increased willingness to accept personal responsibility gives us the freedom to change, to make choices, and to grow.
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Just for today: My feelings, actions, and choices are mine. I will accept responsibility for them.
. ...I enjoy how these daily readings can be very topical to issues I currently am facing!
......I'm currently going through a couple of situations that relate to the 'powerless over chaos' thread I posted a couple of weeks ago,,
......I'm grateful to have a sponsor--in sharing with him my current challenges,,he showed me a new layer to the serenity prayer,,,, ............Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change(he reached his arms outward),, ..................the power to change the things I can....(he motioned inwards towards himself),, ...................and the wisdom to know the difference(a motion of prayer)
.....it's important for me to watch my part in these interactions,and see how I can -choose- to be amping up or smoothing-out these situations.....I could tell from my reaction to his guidance that I have a belief that I can change some of these situations,people around me,,,,need to look more closely at this!!
.......'Just for today',,I'll step back,,and review how I interact with the situations I'm involved in! My feelings, actions, and choices are mine. I will accept responsibility for them.
........Dave,,,.thanks for sharing the reading!
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...gawd,,,please don't let me -ever- forget why I came here in the first place!!(my 'senility' prayer)