Episode 186 -- January 24, 2022

Meditation Monday: Stay Positive

The selections for this Meditation Monday are late January entries from three popular resources: God Grant Me, In God's Care and Days of Healing, Days of Joy. These brief meditations are gathered around the theme of positivity and can help you look at the brighter side of things while in recovery.

God Grant Me

"It's the most unhappy people who most fear change"
- Mignon McLaughlin

It's an odd fact, isn't it? If we are unhappy, it seems like we would want change. The hitch is, when we are unhappy, we are also very often afraid. We may fear things will get worse, not better, if anything changes. We have good reason to fear change. Some of the changes we made in our life, such as starting to use alcohol and drugs, led to big trouble. When we were using, we made more bad choices about changes in our behavior—choices that could have killed us. The changes we make in recovery are different. They bring us happiness. We choose our changes with the help of our Higher Power and healthy people in recovery. Then we act out our changes with the same help—help we can trust.

Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me turn over my life and my will to your care. Help me remember that I can trust you.

Today's Action
Today I will be aware of my moments of fear. Then I will ask for help and move ahead in spite of my fear.

In God's Care

"If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet"
-Isaac B. Singer

We all know men and women who are too often critical and negative. Sometimes we, too, are these people. And when we fall into this trap of negativity, our life becomes unnecessarily complicated. Any behavior we commit to practicing regularly is strengthened, whether it's positive or negative. It benefits us then to practice developing and holding a positive outlook rather than a negative one. Making the decision, each day, to quiet our mind, clearing it of negative expectations, is not a mysterious or difficult undertaking. It is rather an opportunity to influence in meaningful ways the many experiences we're destined to have. We're empowered by claiming responsibility for how we perceive and respond to our opportunities, and thus for who we are becoming.

I will look at today as a day full of promise with hope and gladness in my heart.

Days of Healing, Days of Joy

As the twig is bent the tree inclines.
—Virgil

A positive self-image is critical to our recovery. Why? Because it is the glasses through which we look, the gloves with which we touch, the door by which we enter into a relationship with life. Self-image is not who we really are, but a combination of who we wish we were, who we're afraid we are, and who we imagine other people think we are. We act out in detail the role we've assigned ourselves in this world. That role, our self-image, works like a key that either fits or doesn't fit a world full of locked doors. Different keys open different doors. And some doors lead to bad places, as we all know. It isn't easy to change keys, but it is infinitely worth it. One reason is that we always pass our self-image on to our children; they know us too well to be fooled. If we want our children to walk tall, laugh happily, and sing joyously, we ourselves must do these things for them to see.

Today, I pray for the courage to challenge my tendency to discount myself. All my strong points will be very clear to me today

Hazelden meditation books offer a brief reading for every day of the year. Today's selections from God Grant Me and In God's Care are from January 25. The meditation from Days of Healing, Days of Joy is from January 30.

About the Author:
Grant Me was written anonymously
In God's Care was written by Karen Casey
Days of Healing, Days of Joy was written by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty

Grant Me © 2005 by Hazelden Foundation
In God's Care © 1991, Hazelden Foundation
Days of Healing, Days of Joy © 1987, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation
All rights reserved