Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations

by Jack Canfield

  NOVEMBER 28

  It took me a long time to understand what people meant when they said, “God speaks to me through other people.” I wondered why I wasn’t hearing any earth-shattering advice or wisdom from on high. Then I opened my mind, and my ears, to the experience, strength and hope all around me. My Higher Power was trying to speak to me, at meetings, through my sponsor, even through friends not in recovery, but I was refusing to listen. My willingness to see the divine in everyone is rewarded with precisely the wisdom and strength I seek. Today, may I be willing to open my heart to divine wisdom all around me.

  Amy Ellis

  Love truth, but pardon error.

  Voltaire

  Footnotes for Life

  NOVEMBER 29

  There is a new order in my life that allows me to fully experience love and excitement, peacefulness and harmony. I have important and worthwhile things to do. My life has meaning, even in the minutest details. My sense of purpose allows my energy and power to flow, and my purpose in life is to reveal the nature of my higher self in whatever I do. Within myself there exists all I need for this day, and every one that follows, to be one of fulfillment and success. As the sun sets, I can be content, knowing that I am deserving of rest and peaceful solitude to renew my spirit for the day to come.

  Rokelle Lerner

  There are many things we are capable of, that we could be or do. The possibilities are so great that we never are more than one-fourth fulfilled.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Footnotes for Life

  NOVEMBER 30

  Happiness is an inside job. It comes from within me–something that I express and share. And contrary to what I learned through most of my life, its presence is not dependent on things “out there.”

  So, as I learn to take full responsibility for the way I feel about, and react to, people and situations, I begin to consciously create my life experiences. In the process, I come to understand that in order for me to be happy no one has to behave himself, nothing has to go “right,” and no one has to love me–except me.

  Jeff McFarland

  People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 1

  R ecovery is not about getting well, it is about getting real. When I was active in my disease I couldn’t tell real from unreal. I was constantly swayed by lies, a void of truth within myself. When I pay attention to what I feel, what I perceive, what I know deep in my gut, I value my own being and I find that I can no longer be fooled. Here lies my strength. Here lies my freedom. I step confidently into my life.

  Anna Joy Grace

  Courage is the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.

  C.S. Lewis

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 2

  Strength: noun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spreading hope where there is doubt, love where there is hate, standing through trials, working through pain, getting up when you fall down, spreading joy where there is grief, and forgiving where forgiveness is absent.

  Sarah Boesing

  Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible–not to have run away.

  Dag Hammarskjold

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 3

  Push yourself like a machine and you will eventually run low on energy. Love your mind by allowing it spaces of silence and it will serve you tirelessly. Notice how your senses are connected to your mind. Anything negative they pick up or generate will disturb the mind’s workings. To maintain peace of mind, use your eyes, ears and mouths with care.

  Brahma Kumaris

  World Spiritual University

  Rather than become a judge of others, become an advocate of their dreams.

  Brahma Kumaris

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 4

  Iwas sitting in a meeting at a very low point in my life, not knowing where to turn. Despair occupied every fiber of my being when the room suddenly disappeared and I was floating in an all-encompassing white light. There was no fear, no sadness, only unconditional love flowing around and through me. Then a voice that was an incredibly comforting presence told me to take what I needed. I had no idea what that might be but I knew I would find it. When the room came back into focus I was left with a tiny speck of that white light in my heart and the word “hope” in my mind and soul.

  Anne Tiller Slates

  Hope can be miraculous!

  Michael Jordan Segal

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 5

  We as human beings are all in the same boat and are all on the same journey we know as life. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could join hands in this journey and help each other through the struggles and challenges and together as a whole enjoy our successes?

  Reach out your hand today and experience the peace and ecstasy of uniting with the human race as we collectively live together and help one another. The essence of spirituality is our connection with the world around us.

  Richard Singer

  I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now.

  Stephen Grellet

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 6

  There are strangers who live around me. People I work with every day. Neighbors who sleep each night in houses close by. A grandmother. My own children. What do they think? How do they feel? We live side by side but we know so little about each other. It’s time to look into the eyes of human beings who mow the lawn, use the office coffee pot or who sit on the other side of our own supper table. There is no greater tragedy than to live next to the treasure of another soul and never even look inside.

  Renee Hixson

  Life is too great of an adventure to live it indecisively. I’d rather step out in faith, take a risk and make a decision.

  Renee Hixson

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 7

  As a child, I was sometimes ignored–even abused. It was too risky to show myself to the world so I hid my true self and found safety–refuge in invisibility. Now as an adult, I’ve discovered that too often I am invisible to myself. I ignore my needs, deny my emotions and I don’t risk showing people who I really am. If I come out of hiding I can participate fully in life without fear of punishment or other negative consequences. I no longer have to be a victim of my biography.

  Rokelle Lerner

  The kindest way of helping yourself is to find a friend.

  Ann Kaiser Stearns

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 8

  As I began the wonderful journey into recovery, I realized the paradoxical beauty of my “powerlessness” over alcohol. I was unaware of the exacerbating factors that fueled my familial predisposition to alcoholism; my declaration of my “powerlessness” was replaced with a vigorous sense of responsibility to myself and my family generations to come. As I kept a daily journal, I developed a great deal of insight, which increased my desire to do my part in breaking the devastating cycle of addiction within my family. It was high time for me to become an advocate and leave behind the role of victim forever.

  Brenda L. Petite Ridgeway

  Sobriety and recovery are not just about abstaining from alcohol, but more importantly about taking responsibility.

  Brenda L. Petite Ridgeway

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 9

  It was a stress-filled time and I was happy to have a cup of tea with my friend George. Being ninety-five years of age, he held the answers to all my unspoken questions. Sculptor and artist, George had escaped the Russian Revolution, leaving behind a home of considerable wealth. His family had been murdered by the Bolsheviks and he had fled by foot across Europe, carrying only memories.

  Sensing my despair, George took my han
ds and, with deep emotion, boomed, “Look out another window! If you don’t like what you see in your life, then find another view!”

  Since that afternoon I have been looking through other windows, and I like what I see.

  Irene Budzynski

  Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

  Bhagavad-Gita

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 10

  Anger was fashionable in the seventies. Otherwise-normal people spent hours screaming at and punching pillows. Fortunately, encounter groups soon went the way of disco. Letting go of unhealthy behavior is difficult work. Getting a handle on anger, with its delicious rush of self-righteousness, is particularly hard. Many of us cling to a kind of quiet fury, and at its worst, it batters the heart, sullies the soul and is altogether enervating. I don’t know how much anger contributed to my own bad health, but it surely hurt my recovery. Practicing not getting angry a day at a time has been a tough job. I have found only two antidotes to anger: forgiveness and walking away.

  Nancy Burke

  I internalize everything. I can’t express anger; I grow a tumor instead.

  Woody Allen

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 11

  Sometimes when we’re scared, all we want to do is hide from the world. But when we do this, our fears just get bigger. Isolation doesn’t nurture recovery. Stay connected to people in simple ways; go to the mall, make light conversation with someone in a coffee shop, take a class or attend a free lecture at a bookstore. Come out of your shell so the world can show you love and how much you deserve happiness.

  Lisa Jo Barr

  When you are alone you are all your own.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 12

  Ibelieve in the dignity of every soul. Like a fine antique, addicts have a patina. They may be broken and need a bit of salvaging, but there is beauty under the surface, qualities that endure hardship and abuse, and a presence born of history and value. By showing compassion and kindness, by seeing the potential, not the past, I can make a difference in the life of every person I encounter.

  PeterVegso

  To laugh often andmuch; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived–this is to have succeeded.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 13

  The catharsis of laughter can be just as powerful and transforming as the catharsis of tears or anger. To laugh with my entire being–to really get the joke and the joy of it all–is an unforgettable experience, one that leaves me forever a little different. Laughter is a symphony to the soul, and those we truly laugh with become special kinds of friends. When I cannot laugh, I cannot be. It means that I am so rigidly locked within myself that no air can get in. When I laugh, everything sort of loosens up inside, flies around and settles back down in an easier place. I remind myself that it is important to cry and equally so to laugh.

  Tian Dayton

  No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 14

  Ikeep wishing and hoping that someone I know and love will change. Whatever I want them to do, I have no power over their choices. I cannot change anyone but myself. Only by taking care of my own “stuff” can I make a difference in my world thus becoming a happier, healthier person. Just for today, God, I’ll try to keep my side of the street clean; they’ll have to sweep theirs all by themselves.

  Sallie A. Rodman

  The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.

  John F. Kennedy

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 15

  Self-respect is not a matter of what you are doing in your life, but rather of how you are doing it. It requires that you bring quality and virtue into each action, whatever that action may be. Sometimes you must burrow to find the good qualities in your nature that have gone underground and then coax them to the surface. Stopping for a moment and being silent can bring the steadiness you need for this task.

  Brahma Kumaris

  World Spiritual University

  The world is your garden from which you remove weeds of doubt and replace them with seeds of hope.

  Brahma Kumaris

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 16

  Iwill imagine a dream fulfilled right now, this moment. I will see the table prepared before me. Life means to support me in the realization of my desires. It will move in and help if I can truly allow myself to see and feel that what I wish for is possible and indeed ready to be. Over and over again, I will visualize the circumstance that I wish to have in my life. I will mentally interact with it as if it were real. I will accept it as possible for me as if it were actually happening right now. Then I will let it go. I will see in my mind what I wish to see manifest in my life.

  Tian Dayton

  Only those who have, receive.

  Joseph Roux

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 17

  If I am to grow into the awesome promise of my life, I must embrace the truth that I am not a victim, except by my own choosing. Yes, painful things have happened in my life, but there is a big difference between feeling the pain and wallowing in it.

  In fact, if I listen to my pain it will tell me where I have beliefs that no longer serve me, where I need to set healthy limits and boundaries, and where I have given away the power to decide how I will feel about the events, relationships and circumstances of my life.

  Jeff McFarland

  Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

  Blaise Pascal

  Footnotes for Life

  MDECEMBER 18

  Money isn’t something to fear. It isn’t the root of all evil. With a good attitude, money improves living. In recovery, we change our attitudes and find joy in money. As we prosper, we can help those around us prosper as well. Ideas and creative thoughts flow from us as we direct our energies toward specific goals. Money can be one of those goals. It is a powerful source of success when that wheel of fortune starts spinning around in our favor. It is a magnificent feeling and a divine right. Being comfortable with money helps us be confident, have fun, affect and infect those around us with positive attitudes.

  Yvonne Kaye

  Wine maketh merry; but money assureth all things.

  Ecclesiastes 10:19

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 19

  For this alcoholic there is great irony in the choice of words when we talk about choosing to look at the glass half empty or half full. But choosing the optimistic approach makes all of the difference in every day of my recovery. A good day starts out with me remembering how far I’ve come and how strong I am. It is easy for me to get wrapped up in any problem du jour but then I see someone on the street, down and out, panhandling, drunk, and I am reminded that my problems today are luxurious compared to those I struggled with as an active alcoholic. I have a new lease on life, a second chance. I am forever grateful!

  Dorri Olds

  Perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

  Stonewall Jackson

  Footnotes for Life

  DECEMBER 20

  Today I will open myself to healing in my relationships. So much of life depends on the quality of intimacy with myself and so much of the quality of my intimacy is the quality of my relationships. It is synergistic. As my relationship with myself and my Higher Power gets better, my other relationships grow. Deep healing with people I care about has much more significance than might appear; it is soul and life-transforming. I experience moments of quiet expansion when my heart and mind actually feel as if they are widening in all directions. I am willing to grow a step at
a time and heal little by little.

  Tian Dayton