=====TABLE OF CONTENTS=====
=====NOTES
=====EDITOR'S COMMENTS
=====TIP & TALK FEATURED ARTICLE
=====SPONSOR'S SPOT
=====WHAT WOULD BUDDHA DO?
=====GUEST SPOT
=====SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE/COMMENT


=====NOTES

Principles: Addiction & Recovery Tips & Talks is published every Friday morning by the folks at Alcohol & Drug Abuse--The Addiction & Recovery Information & Resources Website:
http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com

Principles is distributed only to subscribers. If you have received this newsletter by mistake, please accept our apologies and find UNSUBSCRIBE instructions at the bottom of this page.
 
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=====EDITOR'S COMMENTS
 
Thanks for taking the time to breeze through this week's issue
of Principles.
 
This week's TIP & TALK FEATURED ARTICLE is inspired by my personal continuing quest to lighten up. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it holds some value for you.
 
If you have comments about and/or suggestions for Principles, or if you would like to submit a TIP & TALK article or story, please contact me through the newsletter address listed at the bottom of this page.
 
Charles N. Roper, Editor
 
 
=====FEATURED ARTICLE
 
RECOVERY TIP: Don't take yourself (and others) so darn seriously.
 
RECOVERY TIP TALK: Are you old enough to remember the AA scene toward the end of the wonderful old film "Days of Wine & Roses?" What a bunch of sad sacks!
 
When I got clean and sober 17 years ago, I took the quest
for "recovery" so seriously that I drove friends and family
absolutely nuts. When I was about six months sober, an old friend informed me that he "liked me better the way I used to be." I angrily attributed his comment to his obvious jealousy of my new-found life of spiritual bliss. Turns out I was very wrong.
 
My intense dedication to achieving "spiritual growth and change" through "working the steps" and "walking the walk," had drained me of my sense of humor. I was so focused on doing the right thing that I forgot to enjoy myself.
 
Fortunately, I survived my intense early sobriety period. A good
friend helped by giving me two mantras that I still utilize today.
Those mantras are: "So what?" and "Oh, well..."
 
In the spirit of not taking ourselves too seriously, I offer the
following 12 Steps. I wish I knew who to credit for their creation.
 
1. We admitted that we were powerless over seriousness--that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that only by lightening up could we achieve a state of non-seriousness.

3. Made a decision to turn our constant self-criticism over to our
sense of humor and to learn to "lovingly and wholeheartedly" laugh at ourselves.

4. Decided to give ourselves a break once in a while instead of
constantly doing searching and fearless moral inventories of
ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being that our wrongs were often in our heads.

6. Were entirely ready to accept that our characters were as good as anybody else's and possibly better than most.

7. Quit harping on our shortcomings.

8. Made of list of all persons we thought we had harmed and saw that they had forgotten all the crap we'd blown out of proportion.

9. Quit making amends for breathing air and taking up a few square feet of the planet's surface.

10. Resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to criticize ourselves at times but that we would try to stick to our guns when we knew we were right.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to calm down and realize we're not responsible for everything.

12. Having experienced immense relief from these steps, we would try to carry this message to other over-serious people and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.
 
Author unknown.
 
 
=====SPONSOR'S SPOT
 
High Bottom Drunk: A Novel...and the Truth about Addiction &
Recovery, by Charles N. Roper, PhD
 
Within the context of an immensely powerful story populated with fascinating characters, High Bottom Drunk offers the key to understanding the true nature of addiction and recovery.
 
"...if you want to get lost in someone else's story and understand what transformation is all about, (High Bottom Drunk) is a good read." --Shelly Marshall, author of Day-by-Day, Young, Sober, & Free, and other books on addiction, codependency, and recovery.
 
Review High Bottom Drunk: A Novel... at the Website:
http://www.highbottomdrunk.com
 
 
=====WHAT WOULD BUDDHA DO?
 
What would Buddha do about dieting?
 
"Buddha, having emaciated himself for no reason in cruel abuse, realized...that this was not the way to peace, or knowledge, or liberation....One who ruins his or her body can never gain awakening." --Buddhacharita 12.97-99.
 
It may seem odd to compare the two, but Buddha's striving for
awakening and the modern-day compulsion to "fit in" that leads people to starve themselves in the name of beauty are not so far apart.
 
Before becoming awakened, Buddha spent six years starving himself, trying to fit in with the other renunciants and to break away from the impurities--the grossness--of his body.
 
Finally, after all those years, he realized that his self-punishment was only making him weak and confused. If Buddha was this confused, imagine how confused a modern teenager or dieter might be.
 
Self-abuse in the name of perfection takes enormous discipline and strength. In some convoluted ways it stands as a measure of our greatness of spirit. But we need to remind ourselves and our loved ones that this is the wrong way to express such greatness.
 
Buddha was awakened soon after he began again to eat and to love his body. We must embrace and support our bodies, with all their faults. With that renewed strength, we can embrace and support each other.
 
From: What Would Buddha Do? 101 Answers to Life's Daily Dilemmas by Franz Metcalf.
 
 
=====GUEST SPOT (ANYTHING GOES)
 
A drunk goes into a bar and asks for a shot of Jim Beam. The
bartender pours it, and the drunk pushes it aside and asks for
another shot of Jim Beam. The bartender pours it, and the drunk drinks it.
 
The bartender says, "Why the hell did you push the first shot away and then drink the second one."

The drunk answered, "I've been going to those AA Meetings, and they said, 'WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T TAKE THAT FIRST DRINK!'"
 
Contributed by: Who knows? & Who cares?
 
 
=====LINK OF THE WEEK
 
This week's featured link is: Day-by-Day
 
Shelly Marshall's Day-by-Day Website is an outstanding resource for professionals, parents, and people who are involved with adolescent recovery from addiction to mind-affecting chemicals.
 
Visit the Day-by-Day Website:
http://www.day-by-day.org
 

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=========================================
 
Till next week...keep it simple.
 
Charles Roper, Editor
Principles: Addiction & Recovery Tips & Talks
  
http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com