Daily Reflections: A Book of Reflections by A.A. Members for A.A. Members

Product Information

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)October 4, 2023Unnatural ActWhen men and women pour so much alcohol into themselves that they destroy their lives, they commit a most unnatural act. Defying their instinctive desire for self-preservation, they seem bent upon self-destruction. They work against their own deepest instinct. As they are humbled by the terrific beating administered by alcohol, the grace of God can enter them and expel their obsession.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Six) p. 64Thought to Every day I stand at turning points. My thoughts and actions can propel me toward growth or turn me down the road to old habits and to booze. Sometimes turning points are beginnings, as when I decide to start praising, instead of condemning someone. Or when I begin to ask for help instead of going it alone. At other times turning points are endings, such as when I see clearly the need to stop festering resentments or crippling self-seeking. Many shortcomings tempt me daily; therefore, I also have daily opportunities to become aware of them. In one form or another, many of my character defects appear daily: self-condemnation, anger, running away, being prideful, wanting to get even, or acting out of grandiosity. AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 14, 2023Misuse of WillpowerAll of the Twelve Steps require sustained and personal exertion to conform to their principles and so, we trust, to God's will. It is when we try to make our will conform with God's that we begin to use it rightly. To all of us, this was a most wonderful revelation. Our whole trouble had been the misuse of willpower. We had tried to bombard our problems with it instead of attempting to bring it into agreement with God's intention for us.- Twe AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 1, 2023The ParadoxSuch is the paradox of AA regeneration: strength arising out of complete defeat and weakness, the loss of one's old life as a condition for finding a new one. But we of AA do not have to understand this paradox, we have only to be grateful for it.- Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 46Thought to Ponder . . .Paradox: We surrender to win; we give away to keep; we suffer to get well; we die to live.AA-related 'Alconym'T H I N K = Thank He The AA-Alive Daily Thought is sent by request at no cost to those in recovery from alcoholism, and highlights AA Conference-approved literature along with shares and thoughts from actual AA members similar to life shares in the AA Grapevine.

Daily Reflections: Index | Alcoholics Anonymous

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 9, 2023True PartnershipBut it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Four) p. 53Thought to Ponder . . .We're not living just to be sober; we are living to learn, to serve, and to lo AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 25, 2023The Jumping-off PlaceInwardly he would give anything to take half a dozen drinks and get away with them. He will presently try the old game again, for he isn’t happy about his sobriety. He cannot picture life without alcohol. Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (A Vision For You) p. 152Thoug Our first woman alcoholic had been a patient of Dr. Harry Tiebout’s, and he had handed her a pre-publication manuscript copy of the Big Book. The first reading made her rebellious, but the second convinced her. Presently she came to a meeting held in our living room, and from there she returned to the sanitarium carrying this classic message to a fellow patient: “We aren’t alone any more.” AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)October 9, 2023The Right ThingAt this stage of our progress we are under heavy pressure to do the right thing. We are obliged to choose between the pains of trying and the certain penalties of failing to do so. These initial steps along the road are taken grudgingly, yet we do take them. We may still have no very high opinion of humility as a desirable personal virtue, but we do recognize it as a necessary aid to our survival.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)October 18, 2023People of FaithPeople of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception whatever. We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics)All history affords us the spectacle of striving nations and groups finally torn asunder because they were designed for, or tempted into, controversy. Others fell apart because of sheer self-righteousness while trying to enforce upon the rest of mankind some millennium of their own specification. I have more peace and contentment. Life has fallen into place. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have found their correct position. Life is whole, all of one piece. I am not cast hither and yon on every wind of circumstance or fancy. I am no longer a dry leaf cast up and away by the breeze. I have found my place of rest, my place where I belong. I am content. I do not vainly wish for things I cannot have. I have “the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” Have I found contentment in A.A.? The Alcoholics Anonymous Daily Reflections (DR) are taken from an eponymous collection published in the early 1990s by the Alcoholics Anonymous organization. The meditations themselves are derived from the central text of the Alcoholics Anonymous philosophy, “Alcoholics Anonymous: How Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered From Alcoholism” aka the Big Book. The Big Book is the text that focuses mainly on the 12 Steps, which is the primary recovery tool offered by the group.

Daily Reflections - Alcoholics Anonymous Ireland Daily Reflections - Alcoholics Anonymous Ireland

When I did my personal inventory I found that I had unhealthy relationships with most people in my life—my friends and family, for example. I always felt isolated and lonely. I drank to dull emotional pain. AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)September 24, 2023~ Scroll Down for Share ~Too Much TimeWe find it a waste of time to keep chasing a man who cannot or will not work with you. If you leave such a person alone, he may soon become convinced that he cannot recover by himself. To spend too much time on any one situation is to deny some other alcoholic an opportunity to live and be happy.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Working With Others) p. 96Thought to PonderIf you want to drink, that's your business. If you want to

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)October 14, 2023Happiness, Peace and UsefulnessHow dark it is before the dawn! In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch. I was soon to be catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 8Thought to Ponder . . .Happiness and peace of mind are always here, open and free to anyone.AA-related AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)September 21, 2023A Way Of LifeA.A.’s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Foreward) p. 15Thought to Ponder . . .Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal malady.AA-related 'Alconym'S T E P S = Solutions Through Each Powerful Step.To Unsub

Alcoholics Anonymous - Have a problem with alcohol? There is Alcoholics Anonymous - Have a problem with alcohol? There is

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)October 15, 2023~ Scroll Down for Share ~A Spiritual Awakening"It was only when I came fully to believe I was powerless over alcohol, only when I appealed to a God who just might exist, that I experienced a spiritual awakening. This freedom-giving experience came first, and then faith followed afterward -- a gift indeed!"- As Bill Sees It, (Miraculous Power) no. 152Thought to PonderHope leads to faith if you let it.AA-related 'Alconym'A A = Amazing Awake AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)July 27, 2023Trials and Low SpotsFaith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) pp AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)September 3, 2023~ Scroll Down for Share ~Higher PowerThey flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking. In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of direction flowed into tAA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 5, 2023Willing to BelieveCircumstances made him willing to believe. He humbly offered himself to his Maker—then he knew. Even so has God restored us all to our right minds. To this man, the revelation was sudden. Some of us grow into it more slowly. But He has come to all who have honestly sought Him. When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!- Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 57Thought to Ponder . . .Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)August 20, 2023~ Scroll Down for Share ~Worse, Never BetterAll of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals—usually brief—were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 30Thought to Po AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)October 22, 2023~ Scroll Down for Share ~No Middle Of The Road SolutionIf you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept