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=====TABLE OF CONTENTS=====
=====EDITOR'S COMMENTS
=====RECOVERY THOUGHT
=====READERS' COMMENTS
=====RECOVERY TALK
=====SPONSORS
=====EASTERN PERSPECTIVES
=====FEATURED LINK
=====PURE BOLOGNA
=====SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE
=====EDITOR'S COMMENTS=====
PRIVACY: I will never publish, give, loan, or sell your email address to anyone. Never - No way - No how.
DISTRIBUTION: God willing, Principles hits cyberspace once a week--sometime between Thursday evening and Friday morning. Find
Subscribe & Unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of this page.
CONTRIBUTE: I'd love to hear your comments, questions, & ideas. I don't answer every email, but I do read every one, and I answer
many. Email me at:
<a href="mailto:Newsletter-Principles-owner@egroups.com"> AOL
Click Here </a>
Thanks...Charles Roper
=====RECOVERY THOUGHT=====
Recovery is not just something you do. Recovery is who you become within the context of your significant relationships--those with
yourself, others, your environment, and your higher power.
Read more below...in RECOVERY TALK
=====READERS' COMMENTS=====
It's definitely important to not place the ability to think above any other physical ability. Thinking isn't spiritual, its
physical. But if we don't bother to challenge that which we think in the first place (like ill defined words that we hold as truth
because Webster's says so), then we are destined to be imprisoned by our thinking and we might as well throw away the key.
--LB
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Just finished Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke (who is obviously one of us). Great quote from that book: "I've got a
case of 12-step PMS today, you know, piss, moan, and snivel." Totally cracked me up!
--D
=====
Please email your ideas & issues to:
<a href="mailto:Principles-Newsletter-owner@egroups.com"> AOL
Click Here </a>
=====RECOVERY TALK=====
Recovery gives us the opportunity to rewrite and recreate an honest life - a life lived from the heart, consistent with the
will of a power greater than our own egos.
Becoming able to honestly live from the heart in recovery requires at least the following three ingredients:
1. Simplicity. Simplicity is a state of being wherein we can behold the beauty of a cloud, a blade of grass, or a drop of
falling rain. Simplicity is slowing down, relaxing, breathing, meditating, and smiling. When our hearts are filled with
simplicity, we no longer feel compelled to fill our existence with more physical possessions, status symbols, or stress-inducing situations. Simplicity is attained when our hearts
surrender need (addiction) and settle into the deep, abiding peace of each moment.
2. Patience. The compulsion to move quickly, drive quickly, eat quickly, and exist at break-neck speed is so ingrained in us that
it is oftentimes difficult not to be swept along in this current. But our lives become hell when we can't slow down and relax.
Patience is the ultimate exercise of power and self-control. Giving the gift of patience to our partners, children, neighbors,
and co-workers is living Step 12. Giving the gift of patience to ourselves is the experience of true serenity.
3. Compassion. Compassion is the ability to look deeper than the surface issues of a situation or a relationship. It is opening
our eyes to see the very core of reality. Our hearts are instruments designed for compassion, yet we must consciously
practice compassion every minute of every day. Practicing compassion includes opening our hearts to an awareness of the
masks that we and our loved ones hide behind. A heart of compassion sees beyond the immediate situation, beyond the
facades and walls and survival mechanisms to the person whose heart is longing and searching for love, just as we are.
For us - alcoholics, addicts, and codependents - it is only in recovery that we can begin to cultivate a heart that lives in
simplicity, grows in the strength of patience, and extends
compassion to ourselves and others.
Thanks to Serendipity-Web.Com for these thoughts.
=====PRIMARY SPONSOR=====
"This book changed my life." --T.
High Bottom Drunk: A Novel...and the Truth about Addiction & Recovery, by Charles N. Roper, PhD.
Order High Bottom Drunk directly from the publisher, through the http://www.highbottomdrunk.com
website, and receive two free gifts (modest but useful) with each copy.
http://www.highbottomdrunk.com
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=====AN EASTERN PERSPECTIVE ON RECOVERY=====
The Five Remembrances of the Buddha
1. I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
2. I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape having ill health.
3. I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
4. All that is dear to me and to everyone I love is of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
5. My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I
stand.
The Buddha taught that peace and happiness are impossible unless we remember and accept these five principles.
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=====LINK OF THE WEEK=====
=====PURE BOLOGNA & HOGWASH=====
Mrs. Jones asked her doctor for something to increase her husband's stamina. The doctor gave her some pills and told her to
have Mr. Jones take one pill a day along with one shot of whiskey.
A month later, when Mrs. Jones saw her doctor again, he asked her, "How's your husband doing with the pills and the whiskey?"
Mrs. Jones answered, "Well, he's a little behind with the pills, but he's a good six months ahead with the whiskey."
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==========================
Till next week, do us all a favor and keep it simple.
Charles Roper, Editor
Principles: Addiction & Recovery Tips & Talks
Alcohol & Drug Abuse - The Addiction & Recovery Information & Resources Web site:
<a href="http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com">
http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com
</a>
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