Latest / Sober Readings / A Daily Tune-Up
Transcript
- 10 17Reading: Welcome back to Sober Readings everyone. Today is Saturday, the seventeenth of October. My name is Scott. I'm glad you're here with me today. We're gonna read from Daily Reflections twenty four hours and a third reading from Living Sober. And since we're in the tenth month, we're gonna read chapter ten from Living Sober. So if you want to take a minute and grab your Living Sober book and read along with me, that would be great. Before we get to any of that, let's get started like we always do with the Serenity Prayer. God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. Today's reading from Daily Reflections, a Daily Tuneup. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. And that is a line from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. How do I maintain my spiritual condition? For me, it's quite simple. On a daily basis I ask my higher power to grant me the gift of sobriety for that day. I have talked to many alcoholics who have gone back to drinking, and I always ask them, Did you pray for sobriety the day you took that first drink? Not one of them said yes. And what this reading brings up for me is one of the most important lessons I've learned in recovery is that maintaining my spiritual condition isn't something I can do once in a while and expect lasting results. The big book reminds us that we're granted a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. And those words carry a lot of weight for me because I've experienced what happens when I stop doing the things that keep me spiritually fit. Through daily prayer, meditation, self examination or reflection, attending meetings, and being of service to others, I strengthen my relationship with God and stay grounded in the principles of the program. I've learned the hard way that when I begin neglecting these simple practices, I slowly drift away from my recovery, often without even realizing it's happening until it's too late. Maintaining my spiritual condition doesn't mean I have to be perfect. But it does mean I have to be willing to put in the work every day, because my alcoholism doesn't take a day off, and yesterday's spiritual fitness won't necessarily keep me sober today. Today's reading from 24 hours a day. The AA thought for the day. What am I going to do today for AA? Is there someone I should call, or someone I should go see, or someone I should text? And the reading goes on to talk about procrastination and how tomorrow may be too late. And then the last line says, How about getting out of my easy chair and getting going? And then the question for the AA thought for the day, do I feel that AA depends partly on me today? The meditation for the day. Today, look upward toward God, not downward toward yourself. Look away from unpleasant surroundings and From lack of beauty, from the imperfections in yourself and in those around you. Looking upward toward God, your spirit will begin to grow. Then others will see something in you that they also want. And today's prayer for the day asks that I may keep my eyes trained above the horizon of myself, that I may see infinite possibilities for spiritual growth. And the part in this reading that stood out to me, actually one word, was procrastination. And that can be a dangerous habit in recovery because the things I put off today often become the problems I struggle with tomorrow. Whether it's making an amends, calling another alcoholic, attending a meeting, or simply taking the time to pray, or journal, or do a quick meditation, I've learned that putting these things off can slowly weaken my spiritual condition. It's easy to convince myself that I'll get around to something tomorrow, but tomorrow has a way of turning into next week or next month or sometimes never. I've experienced firsthand how neglecting the little things in my recovery can eventually lead to much bigger problems, and how procrastination can become an excuse for avoiding the work I know I need to do. Sobriety requires action, not just good intentions. And I've learned that the best time to do the next right thing is right now. And now let's move on to today's final reading, which is from Living Sober. And again, we're going to read chapter 10, because we're in the 10th month. And this is called Making Use of Telephone Therapy. When we were first trying to achieve sobriety, many of us found ourselves taking a drink without planning to. Sometimes it seemed to happen practically without our knowing it. There was no conscious decision to drink, and there was no real thought about possible consequences. We had not intended to set off an entire drinking episode. Now we have learned that simply postponing that first drink, putting something else in its place. Provides us with a chance to think about our drinking history, to think about the disease of alcoholism, and to think about the probable results of starting to drink. Fortunately, we can do more than just think about it, and we do. We telephone someone. When we stopped drinking, we were told repeatedly to get AA people's phone numbers, and instead of drinking, to phone these people. At first, the thought of telephoning a new acquaintance. Someone we barely knew, seemed strange, and most of us were reluctant. But the AAs, those with more non drinking days behind them than we had, kept suggesting it. They said they understood why we hesitated, because they had felt the same way. Nevertheless, they said just try it, at least once. And so finally, thousands and thousands of us have. To our relief, it turned out to be an easy, pleasant experience. Best of all, it worked. Maybe the quickest way to understand this before you try it, is to put yourself mentally in the place of the person being called. It is a rewarding and gratifying thing to be trusted that much. So the person receiving the call is almost invariably nice, even charming about it, not at all surprised, and even glad to hear from us. There's more. Lots of us have found that when we wanted to drink, we We could telephone someone more experienced in sobriety than we were, and it was not even necessary to mention that we were thinking of drinking. That was often understood, without a word. And it really did not matter what time we called, day or nights. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, we found ourselves suddenly, inexplicably, undergoing an onslaught of anxiety, fear, terror, even panic, which made no sense. This happens to lots of human beings, of course, not just to alcoholics. When we told the truth about the way we really felt, what we were doing and what we wanted to do, we found we were perfectly understood. We got total empathy, not sympathy. Everyone we called, remember, had been in exactly the same boat sometime or other, and they all remembered vividly. More frequently than not, only a few moments of conversation made our thought of a drink disappear. Sometimes we got practical eye opening information, or gentle indirect guidance, or tough, direct heart to heart advice. Sometimes we found ourselves laughing. Observers of recovered alcoholics have noticed the extensive network of informal social contacts among AA members, even when we're not at AA meetings, and often the When no one is thinking or talking of drinking, we found we can have about as much social life with each other as we want, doing together the usual things friends do, listening to music, chatting, going to plays and movies, eating together, camping and fishing, sightseeing, or just visiting, in person or by note or telephone, all without the necessity of a single drink. Such acquaintances and friendships have a unique value for Those of us who choose not to drink. We are free to be ourselves among people who share our own concern for the maintenance of a happy sobriety, without being fanatically against all drinking. It is possible, of course, to remain sober among people who are not recovered alcoholics, and even among those who drink a lot, though we will probably feel some social discomfort in their company. But among other sober alcoholics, We can be sure that our recovery from alcoholism is highly prized and deeply understood. It means a lot to these friends, just as their health is cherished by us. The transition to enjoyment of sobriety sometimes begins when, newly sober, we keep in touch with others equally new at the game. At first, it often seems a little awkward to strike up friendships with people who have been sober for years. We're usually more at ease with those who, like ourselves, Are just setting out toward recovery. That's why many of us make our first telephone calls about not drinking to our AA contemporaries. Telephone therapy works even when we don't know any individual to call. Since a number for AA is listed in practically every telephone directory in the US and Canada, and in many other countries, it is easy simply to dial that number and instantly be in touch with someone who honestly understands at gut level. It may be a person we have never met, but the same genuine empathy is there. Reaching out through the internet can also help, making a connection with another alcoholic in your own hometown or perhaps halfway around the world. Once the first call is made, it is much, much easier to make another when it is needed. Finally, the need to talk away the desire for a drink virtually disappears for most of us. When it does, many of us find, however, that That we have established the beneficial habit of occasionally friendly telephone visits, so we keep them up because we enjoy them. But that usually comes later. At first, telephone therapy is primarily for helping us stay sober. We reach for the phone instead of a drink, even when we don't think it'll work, even when we don't want to. And so that was chapter ten out of Living Sober. Some of the literature that we read in recovery is Maybe decades old and some of the language and examples might seem a little outdated, but the message is just as relevant today as it was when it was written. What we used to call telephone therapy might now be a phone call or a text message or even a video chat. But the important thing hasn't changed. Reaching out, staying connected, and helping another alcoholic. It's not how we communicate that matters, but that we make the effort to connect. Because sometimes a simple text message can make all the difference in someone's recovery, including our own. And so that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you heard something today that helps you. If you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, soberreadings.com, click the support page, and find the button that says drop a dollar in the basket. Thanks for spending a few minutes of your day with me. Be good to yourselves and others and remember we only have to do this one day at a time. So just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting, and keep coming back. Have a great day everyone, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.