Accepting Life

[MajestyJo]

...each individual makes the decision to change....not be criticized into change.

For many years, I didn't know the wisdom to know the difference. I still hung onto the controlling ways of my past and still wanted to fix things or do things, finding it hard to wait for God or to allow others to do for me or give them a chance to grow and do for themselves.

I know when everyone told me to quit smoking, I dug in my heels and continued to smoke. I told them, "If you are going to pray for me, do it quietly so I don't hear. If I hear you, I just get more determined to continue doing." I get the old attitude, "Don't tell me I can't or shouldn't, watch me!"

Criticism and being told what I should do really got my dander up. In today, I embrace change. I don't mind criticism if it is done with a kind heart and said in a non-intrusive way.

Again, I could accept the fact that I needed to quit smoking but unless I followed it up with action, and changing my attitude, I couldn't quit.

Acceptance is part of the process of change: awareness, admittance, acceptance, attitude, action. It is a big part of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Until I find that acceptance, I can't let go.

Grieving is just not about death, it is about loss, change due to circumstance in our life and they are all the same process.

Posted on another site.

This affirms my thought I had yesterday, the new year brings about change and we go through the grieving process.

[MajestyJo]

It is sad that we can¨t accept our alcoholism. Yet it was me who was the one who needed acceptance. Acceptance of my disease, the acceptance of my son's, my father's, my ex-husband's, and all the friends I met in AA who relapsed.

My life is unmanageable when managed by me. That is why I need to do the Step l, 2, 3 Waltz each morning. I can't, God can, and just for today, I choose to let Him. I put my life in His care, and He will lead, guide, direct me in the way He would have me go. He gives me the strength, courage, and good orderly direction, that I need in today.

[MajestyJo]

Had feared love, didn't think I was lovable and worthy of it as a result of all the abuse in my past. Not only by others but to myself.

I had to accept love and learn to like myself, that was the really hard part.

[MajestyJo]

Principles For Better Living

Keep it simple.
Stop trying to please everybody.
Start pleasing yourself.
Cultivate gratitude.
Carve out an hour a day for solitude.
Don't be afraid of your passion.
Cherish your dreams.
Express love every day.
Keep your house picked up.
Don't over schedule.
Strive for realistic deadlines.
Never make a promise you can't keep.
Allow an extra half hour for everything you do.
Create quiet surroundings at home and at work.
Go to bed at nine o'clock twice a week.
Always carry something interesting to read.
Breathe -deeply and often.
Move -walk, dance, run, find a sport you enjoy.
Drink pure spring water. Lots of it.
Eat only when you are hungry.
It it's not delicious, don't eat it.
Be instead of do.
Set aside one day a week for rest and renewal.
Laugh more often.
Luxuriate in your senses.
Always opt for comfort.
Let Mother Nature nurture.
Don't answer the telephone during dinner.
Stay away from negative people.
Don't squander precious resources: time, creative energy, emotion.
Nurture friendships.
Approach problems as challenges.
Honor your aspirations.
Set achievable goals.
Surrender expectations.
Savor beauty.
Create boundaries.
Don't worry, be happy.
Remember: happiness is a living emotion.
Care for your soul.
Search for your authentic self until you find him/her.
Begin and end each day with prayer, meditation, or reflection.

Author Unknown

[MajestyJo]

The Ten Points

(The Ten Points are a summary of the lifesaving directions given in chapter five of Alcoholics Anonymous – the AA Big Book)

1. Completely give yourself to this simple Program.
2. Practice rigorous honesty.
3. Be willing to go to any lengths to recover.
4. Be fearless and thorough in your practice of the principles.
5. Realize that there is no easier, softer way.
6. Let go of your old ideas absolutely.
7. Recognize that half measures will not work.
8. Ask God’s protection and care with complete abandon.
9. Be willing to grow along spiritual lines.
10. Accept the following pertinent ideas as proved by All Addicts Anonymous experience:
(a) that you cannot manage your own life;
(b) that probably no human power can restore
you to sanity;
(c) that God can and will if sought.

From AA's Big Book, yet I feel it is applicable to all fellowships.

[MajestyJo]

Today's thought is: May 2004

One comes, finally, to believe whatever one repeats to one's self, whether the statement is true or false.

--Napoleon Hill

Our inner dialogue can have awesome power. It often determines the behavior that defines who we are. We do, of course, have some choice as to the direction this inner dialogue will take. It's as easy to affirm our self-worth with positive messages as it is to tear ourselves down with negative ones. And yet, many of us fall so easily into negative patterns of thought.

As with so many aspects of our life, we become proficient at what we regularly practice. The regular, preferably daily, use of positive affirmations can make such a profound contribution to our well-being and willingness to grow and learn, that it can change the course of our life. All we have to do is develop the discipline to make these positive messages habitual. In so doing, we bring our vision of ourselves in line with God's, Who accepts us completely as we are.

The messages I give myself today will remind me that I am a capable and lovable child of God.


You are reading from the book:

In God's Care by Karen Casey

Love this thought. I am what I feed myself. If I am feeding myself negative things, then I am forgetting that I am a Child of God and worthy of good things.

If I feed myself positive things, I am affirming my worth.

As the saying goes, "If you say you can't, you won't" and "If you say you can, you will!

This is a spiritual program not a religious one. It may bring you back to the religion you left behind or lead you to one you never knew before.

A Higher Power is Universal. He/She/It is all things to me. He is what I need Him to be.

www.andiesisle.com/He-Will-Be.html

[MajestyJo]

Accepting life on life's terms. This past week has not been a good one. Have my own pain, and it was difficult to see my son in so much pain. He went to a dentist who tried to pull the tooth, and it split and he needs a neurosurgeon to get out the roots.

When I got my call today to go to the Holistic Center, I wanted him to go with me, to get help to open up the nerve endings so the poison could get out, because the antibiotics don't seem to be working. He saw the dentist today and they gave him another antibiotic.

His idea is to find a pill, a quick fix to make it all go away.

I look for ways to help me to not pick up a pill for my pain.

Living life on life's terms. Often we can blame life, but we need to look at our life and our choices as to what brought us to where we are in today.

Sometimes, life just happens.

Life doesn't change, but I can, especially my attitude toward it.