As sick as our secrets......

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Welcome to Bill's Place.
A collection of Friends In Recovery.
Featuring a weekly Step Study from various 12 Step Recovery literature.
With the occasional inspirational message or message pertaining to a broad spectrum of varied spiritual practices.
An open forum for discussion of the aforementioned Step Study and inspirational/spiritual practice messages.
"Dance like there's no one watching and love like you've never been hurt."
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Just For Today
Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts
August 4
When is a secret not a secret?
"Addicts tend to live secret lives.... It is a great relief to get rid of all our secrets and to share the burden of our past."
Basic Text, p.32

We've heard it said that "we're as sick as our secrets" What do we keep secret, and why?

We keep secret those things that cause us shame. We may hold onto such things because we don't want to surrender them. Yet if they're causing us shame, wouldn't we live more easily with ourselves if we were rid of them?

Some of us hold onto the things that cause us shame for another reason. It's not that we don't want to be rid of them; we just don't believe we can be rid of them. They've plagued us for so long, and we've tried so many times to rid ourselves of them, that we've stopped hoping for relief. Yet still they shame us, and still we keep them secret.

We need to remember who we are: recovering addicts. We who tried so long to keep our drug use a secret have found freedom from the obsession and compulsion to use. Though many of us enjoyed using right to the end, we sought recovery anyway. We just couldn't stand the toll our using was taking on us. When we admitted our powerlessness and sought help from others, the burden of our secret was lifted from us.

The same principle applies to whatever secrets may burden us. Yes, we're as sick as our secrets. Only when our secrets stop being secret can we begin to find relief from those things that cause us shame.

Just for today: My secrets can make me sick only as long as they stay secret. Today, I will talk with my sponsor about my secrets.

Healing Heart and Mind
"Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."
~Step Five~

Since it is true that God comes to me through people, I can see that by keeping people at a distance I also keep God at a distance. God is nearer to me than I think and I can experience Him by loving people and allowing people to love me. But I can neither love nor be loved if I allow my secrets to get in the way.

It's the side of myself that I refuse to look at that rules me. I must be willing to look at the dark side in order to heal my mind and heart because that is the road to freedom. I must walk into darkness to find the light and walk into fear to find peace.

By revealing my secrets-and thereby ridding myself of guilt-I can actually change my thinking; by altering my thinking, I can change myself. My thoughts create my future. What I will be tomorrow is determined by what I think today.

Do not reveal your thoughts to everyone, lest you drive away your good luck.
--Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 8:19

We've had problems in our lives with limits. We have done some things to excess and others we have endlessly postponed. Sometimes we haven't had good judgment about what we ought to tell someone or whom we ought to tell. We may have kept secrets that made us lonely and sick. Other times we exposed too much in inappropriate situations and hurt someone else or ourselves. Developing these internal limits is a quiet change that comes with recovery. Gradually, we gain a stronger feeling of self-respect and become more intuitive about when to express something and when not to.

Secrets are links in our chains of bondage to isolation, addiction, and codependency. Yet, when we are compelled to tell everything, we lack the feeling of self-containment that comes from maturity. We need a sense of privacy which is the freedom to choose what and when to confide in a friend. What does our intuition tell us today about our privacy and our openness?

Today, I will listen to my inner messages about what I need to discuss with others and when I need to withhold.

The value of forgiveness
~Ralph Marston~

Forgiveness can indeed be difficult. Yet in the long run, it is far easier to forgive than to live with resentment or continuing retribution.

Through forgiveness, you can move away from the pains of the past. With forgiveness, you can achieve real freedom.

There are always opportunities to benefit from the value of forgiveness. You can forgive yourself, you can forgive others, and you can forgive even when you don't know exactly who to forgive.

Because forgiveness is not about who is to blame or who is at fault. Forgiveness is mostly about letting go, completely and permanently, within yourself.

Forgiveness is recognizing the reality that what has happened has happened, and that there's no point in allowing it to dominate your life. Forgiveness refreshingly clears the slate and enables you to move positively forward.

Carrying around a load of resentment can be an enormous and unnecessary burden. Forgive early and often, and you'll considerably lighten your load.

Waves of now
~Ralph Marston~

The problems may be great, yet your ability to successfully deal with them is greater. Each disappointment can be painful, and yet through that pain you are compelled to grow stronger and more capable.

Life goes on, and each moment brings new positive possibilities. You live, you learn, you experience, and through it all you become more fully alive than ever.

You have carried with you to this moment all the joy and beauty you've ever known. Now you are in a position to discover and to fulfill even more.

Seek not to fight against what is. For within what is, the very real opportunity exists for precisely what you wish to be.

In whatever may come your way, you can find the energy and substance to bring your own dreams to life. Run eagerly to greet each moment, for in each moment is the opportunity to fully live.

Life's sparkling treasure rolls in on endless waves of now. Appreciate the depth and the vastness of that treasure, and it is yours.

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The Message Is Hope, The Promise Is Freedom

Just for today, you never have to use again.

Alive and Free

Never Alone Never Again
(neveralone_neveragain)

"Dance like there's no one watching and love like you've never been hurt."

Jimmy K.

The message is hope. The promise is freedom. Just For Today, you never have to use again.

---
"I want to feel what Enoch felt as he walked with God."

Peace.
Bill

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