The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
The author of today's page in Hope for Today describes how they have changed from trying to plan their whole life, to focusing on one day at a time. Instead of dreaming about tomorrow, or a lifetime of accomplishments, they shape it with the choices they make today. Slogans like One Day At a Time, Keep It Simple, Just for Today, and How Important Is It? -- seem designed to help in staying aware of the present moment.
It's amazing how some of the words on this page are true to my own experience:
Slogans give me the means to let go of yesterday and tomorrow in order to focus on that small window of miracles called today.
When I apply the slogans I feel myself slow down -- my breath flows through me, my muscles relax, my mind and heart open, and finally I am resting in the only place my spirit will ever know -- the present moment.
Thought for the Day: The slogans help make me aware of the present moment, where God and I are more likely to meet one another.
Quote from Survival to Recovery: "The first tools of the program I grabbed were the slogans. They helped me begin to learn how to live in the moment."
I can't say that I grabbed onto the slogans as my first thing. I think I wanted the program to be more complicated. And that's just one more thing I was wrong about. Today the slogans are some of my most valuable tools, and I too find that they help me slow down and let go of things that don't serve me.
One of ny meditation teachers said that coping with the current COVID crisis is not something anyone could have planned for. We knew there might be a recession.
Planning is a good thing. However when plans go awry as they have now a different approach is needed
I left the qualifier one day at a time. I had no money, no job and very few resources.
I made a real rudimentary plan b. I took it one day at a time
Today I am surrounded by boxes. I can only so much each day. I am making progress but it is hard going
I will be at this moving until the end of the month
My plans to get a lot of medical tests done have had to be postponed. I will get to them. I went to the hospital yesterday (to an out patient clinic). The place is deserted. They have to be losing a grear deal of money with telemedicine
The besr laid plans have to be out aside sometimes. I am not good with change which is ironic because I see myself as resilient.
There is no time better than now to take it one day at a time
'Morning, Freetime! Thank you for your service and the daily.
I took away quite a lot from this share today! I loved this: "...and finally I am resting in the only place my spirit will ever know -- the present moment."
Through this program, I have found that I lived most of my live in either planning for the future (which - don't get me wrong - can be constructive), or looking back in what I should've or could've done. I wasn't really enjoying my "right now!" I believe that made for a very unhappy person.
I must say, the slogans were probably the LAST thing I wanted to embrace. I thought they were so simple and well, for lack of a better word --hokey! LOL!
I am not too proud to say that I was wrong... oh, so wrong about that! Today, my favorite slogan is PRACTICE THE PAUSE. The other slogans are all good, but it seems that if I employ The Pause, I can then move my way to, and through, the other slogans as well.
Thank you MIP, and stay safe!
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"The wolf that thrives, is the one you feed." - Cherokee legend
"Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields... Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness." Mary Oliver
Thanks FT for your service and for all above shares. I love the reading and ODAT has become a strong voice in my mind. I also love Let go and let God, Live and let live, and progress not perfection. I need to slow myself down often to avoid becoming anxious. Right now I wanted to get to the board before taking my dogs out, because rain is coming soon. My coping skills are not as good as they were prior to the virus, but I have my toolbox to help me breathe and calm down. How important is it is also a favorite of mine. Our entire program gives me life skills I had never been taught. I also spent years bemoaning the past and scared about the future. My life is much improved. Grateful member always, Lyne
GOOD morning to you, Freetime and thanks you for your service.
I needed to see this gem of a post this morning as I caught me, earlier, projecting about tomorrow
and the next week when all I got is TODAY!!! staying in the moment, present is hard for me as when I was
a child the present was so unbearable, but I have to work every day, telling me that it is not only safe to be in the
present and now, but it is essential......yea, i look ahead, but I am working on keeping a very loose rein on it
as stuff happens and plans change...
Thanks (((freetime))) I love that this reading emphasizes living odaat. I especially like Just for Today. I find if I use the suggestions on our Just for Today bookmark, it busies me with life affirming tools that keep me moving forward with my recovery. I really didn't like the slogans as a newcomer. I didn't have a program or understand what each slogan meant or how to apply the slogans or when to apply them. Hope for Today August 5 gives a good example of misinterpretation of a line on the Just for Today bookmark that states "I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime." Essentially, it gives an example of rationalization for staying stuck day after day, year after year in a situation that felt intolerable for that person. Early in my program I used the slogan Let Go and Let God in the same way. Let Go and Let God was a great excuse for inaction. I resisted working the steps and getting a Alanon sponsor. Ya know that would mean a lot of work. I thought let my alcoholic works steps, he's the one with the problem. When he straightens himself out; things can go back to "normal." When that didn't go so well, it was easy to come here particularly to the chat room and get answers, free advice and then try to apply it to my situation. The problem with that was my Alanon toolbox filled up with just free advice from other people and no Alanon tools specially tailored by my higher power for my own life from working the Alanon steps. I'm glad with time and experience I began to see the importance of working the program. It certainly gave more clarity to the meaning of our slogans and how to apply them to my own life. Up until then, chanting a slogan to myself at a difficult moment was like putting a pinky finger band aid on a big open wound. It was a quick fix but not fit for the size of the problem. I'm grateful for this lifesaving program. TT
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Surround yourself with people and elements that support your destiny, not just your history.
For me the paradox of the program is we come in with these huge problems. Then we have to learn tools really quickly in order to just make it through the day
I am moving out of a situation living with an alcoholic for a few months. It is a really remived relationship. However it is apparent to.me that exoecting someone who is thoroughly self absobed to be mindful of someone else is totally unreasonable. I work to be on cordial terms with him but it is very difficult and requires huge constraint. Constraint is not necessarily available to you when you are exhausted and sick
It is a whole different propisition to deal with someone when you do not live under the same roof. There is a lot to be said for personal space.
There is also a lot to be said to be willing to put aside resentment. That is really hard to do. In fact for me it felt like I was giving up.something
In recent years certain people (my ex husband and two boyfriends died). Overnight I was willing to give up my resentment against them. I knew they were not going to make amends. Really every addict/alcoholic I have ever known never made any effort to make amends even when they were in recovery. So why hold onto.and even nurse the resentment?
What an unreasonable expectation.
I am so grateful to be in this program because it allows me to pick myself up one day at a time. That is what I have always needed.
Maresie
The answer to the question, for me, in the C2C depends where are are on the journey. I thought is impossible getting into the present. I was all over the place and numbed. And lost and brain-fogged into ancient trauma.
I hoped and dreamed for "one day at a time". One hour at a time- and one moment at a time.
I found that our higher power was much more available, and effective at this time.
But the differences, for me, with the reading- it that i have goals and plans, and dreams. I have seen some dreams through to fruition:- so I now now that it can happen! I can see into the past a lot more. My memory improves, day by day, it seems.
Sometimes I take time out meditate and reflect- on connections I had not seen before.
Getting different perspectives is healing for me...
...I have said before- that at my first meeting I thought the sloganising was "corny". I did go through a stage of denying their important. Being in Alanon so long did not give me a culture I could cling to- long term. It gave me a culture where i felt safe, and included. A culture where I got to play a part- to draw on, and to contribute to.
So "one day at a time" gets a big tick, from me, today... ...
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and y'all... 
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