DAILY
CONTEMPLATIONS FOR MEMBERS OF
ACTIVE
ADDICTIONS ANONYMOUS
THE
WILD LIFE
DAILY
CONTEMPLATIONS FOR THE MEMBERS OF
ACTIVE ADDICTIONS ANONYMOUS - THE WILD LIFE
is created and manifested by
Harishchandra Sharma TuTu and Solvejg Sharma TuTu
TRANSLATED FROM DANISH
Fourth
Edition begun January 1st 2026
Published
by: The Active Addictions Anonymous World Service Office
Free
Copyright
Art on front cover – The Wild Life Day
Art on back cover – The Wild Life Night
Courtesy:
Harishchandra TuTu
The
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions reprinted for adaptation by
permission of AA World Services, Inc.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Program of Active Addictions
Anonymous was originally suggested in the book The
TuTu Doctrine – The New World Order,
published by ToTos Solfond (Danish for TuTu’s Sun Foundation) as a
pathway that the individual human being can use to move
from his/her addiction to chronic dissatisfaction to contentment in
his/her life irrespective of circumstances.
The Program has come into being with permission
from ToTos Solfond without any obligations to or affiliations with
ToTos Solfond otherwise.
The Program has been created and manifested as
an adaptation of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics
Anonymous with permission from the World Service Office of AA. inc
without any obligations to or affiliations with Alcoholics Anonymous
otherwise.
CONTENT
JANUARY FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
JANUARY
January
01: Feeling
Small
However,
when we came to AcAdAn, we discovered we could learn to live a
content life with the help of the Program of Active Addictions
Anonymous whether our active addiction was mild, moderate or severe.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, Page 7
Our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction had been with
us for as long as we could remember, but as we worked with the AcAdAn
Program, we discovered that we had made a big dissatisfied decision as
children.
We promised ourselves that as adults we would not feel as small as we did
when we felt limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal/changeable, but as
adults we still felt small, for the same reason.
As adults, we had an underlying sense that we were breaking our promise to
ourselves as children, and this led to our becoming chronically
dissatisfied with our humanness.
Little by little, we learned how we could come to feel content with our
human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability,
with the help of our AcAdAn Program.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will accept my limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability so that I can be content with
myself and my life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
January
02:
Active Addiction
Those
of us who, even if we want to, cannot liberate our self from our
obsession over alcohol, drugs, nicotine, food, our body, compulsive
spending, sex, relationships, codependency, destructive thoughts and
emotions, character defects, work, money, power, prestige, fame,
material or spiritual ambitions, or any other obsession that drives
us to act compulsively, suffer from an active addiction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, Page
Our lack of capacity to accept ourselves as we are settled within us as a
constant, low-lying, nagging pain, which stemmed from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction.
In AcAdAn meetings, we heard that we were not alone about experiencing
this pain even though other members spoke of their dissatisfaction for
reasons that were not necessarily the same as ours.
Although we and the other members might have different reasons for being
chronically dissatisfied, we all had in common the constant, nagging,
low-lying pain from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
It was only when we came to AcAdAn that we discovered the constant,
nagging, low-lying pain, and that it stemmed from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, which AcAdAn promised we could recover from.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will remember that the constant, low lying nagging pain in my
solar plexus I experience daily is due to my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
January
03:
Being unique
Each
of us in AcAdAn have our own unique way of understanding and working
the Steps, and that is what makes our Fellowship so diverse and
interesting.
Active
Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life, Page 85
When we came to AcAdAn, many of us suffered under the perception that we
had to adjust to the Fellowships we were a part of, whether it was one of
two in our coupleship or in our family or at our workplace.
Little by little, as our work with the Rings of Joy and Pain in the AcAdAn
Program evolved, we became acquainted with the Small Ring of Arrogance
with its superiority, inferiority, overcrowding and isolation.
When we paired that with the Small Ring of Truth with its humility,
honesty, individuality, and fellowship, which is the antidote to the Small
Ring of Arrogance, we learned that our individuality mean we are unique.
Thereby we understood that our individuality was our unique gift, not only
to ourselves, but to everything and everyone around us, and that we could
give ourselves and others this gift by standing by our individual
uniqueness.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will give my individuality's unique gift from my Higher Power
to myself and others and thereby enrich my own and their life.
JANUARY FEBRUARY
MARCH APRIL MAY
JUNE JULY
AUGUST SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
January
04:
Isolation
Those
of us who tried to achieve contentment on our own realized that it
was together with others that many undiscovered points of our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction surfaced.
Active
Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life, Page 23
Some of us chose to try to liberate ourselves from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction on our own, because it was especially together
with others that we experienced the pain that is characteristic of our
character defects.
However, after coming to AcAdAn, we discovered that we could use our
painful active defects of character from interactions with others to come
closer to ourselves as human being and to grow spiritually.
In the Tenth Step, we examined one of the defects of character we had used
in our social life during the day and by admitting our use of it, we came
closer to ourselves as human beings.
When we paired our character defect with its corresponding virtue, we
transformed our thinking mind, our Ego, who in that way grew in
enlightenment and wisdom, and thus came closer to ourselves as Spirit.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my Tenth Step to pair one of my defects of character
that I used in a social interaction with the corresponding virtue in my
Sixth Step in order to come closer to myself as a human being and as a
Spirit.
JANUARY FEBRUARY
MARCH APRIL MAY
JUNE JULY
AUGUST SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
January
05:
To Follow the heart
The
principle of Step Three is Surrender. Slogan: Follow your heart.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Before we came to AcAdAn, many of us did not know what it meant to follow
our hearts, but little by little it became clear to us that we followed
our hearts when we did what we felt like in the now.
In Step Two, most of us had chosen a Higher Power who was unconditionally
loving, and that made us realize that our Higher Power would love us no
matter how many mistakes we made.
We also understood that our desires would not be judged by our Higher
Power as worthy or unworthy, so the only thing preventing us from having
all our desires fulfilled was our own judgements.
When we fulfilled one of our desires, we might not like the consequence,
and this could make us mistakingly believe that there was something wrong
about our desire that God was now punishing us for.
Today's Contemplation
Today I choose to work on fulfilling all my desires regardless of the
consequences they might lead to in the future and without judging them
as worthy or unworthy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
06: Addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction
We we
began studying our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction in Step One,
we discovered that it sprang from the fact that we had difficulties
accepting our four basic attributes as human beings - our
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, Page 15
By the help of the concepts of Active Addictions Anonymous, we
investigated if it was true for us that we were addicted to chronic
dissatisfaction, and we discovered that it was indeed the case.
We realized that we compulsively used dissatisfaction with ourselves,
others, life, or the World at large many times a day despite the
devastating effect it had on our and their joy of living.
We had made it a daily habit to be dissatisfied with ourselves, others,
life, or the World hoping that it would be so unpleasant for
ourselves and others, that it would give us or them that little push
in the right direction.
We learned this as children because our parents sometimes criticized us
and showed dissatisfaction with us being the way we were, and we took it
as an expression of care, and passed it on as adults to ourselves and
others.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will acknowledge that my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
is a mental illness that I wish to recover from.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
07:
What is Active
Addiction Anonymous?
Active
Addictions Anonymous is a non-profit Fellowship of men and women,
for whom addiction to dissatisfaction with our self, others, life
and the World at large had become a problem.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
Before we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, most of us had done our
utmost to become content with ourselves, others, our life and the World at
large without success.
We were dissatisfied with that all our efforts had been to no avail, and
even when we came to AcAdAn it was hard for many of us to face that we
were addicted to use chronic dissatisfaction.
It was also hard for some of us to face that we were powerless over our
addiction, and it took many of us several years of struggle with our
addiction to dissatisfaction before we were ready to receive help.
When we finally admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, we
discovered that the Fellowship of AcAdAn was ready to give us the help we
needed no matter how long it had taken us to become ready.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will participate in the Fellowship of Active Addictions
Anonymous to have my desire fulfilled to be lead to contentment with
myself, others, my life and the World at large.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
08:
Self-respect
Instead
of thinking that we had to sacrifice our time, energy, money and
interests for others to be able to feel good about our self, we
accepted that we needed to take care of our own needs first by the
help of the time, energy, money and interests we had at our
disposal.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 48
Most of us thought we were selfish if we wanted to
spend our time, energy, money, and interest on taking care of our own
needs and desires instead of others’ when we came to Active Addictions
Anonymous.
When we learned about the Ring of Codependency with its savior sole,
seducer role, victim role, and offender role, we understood that our
codependency was causing us emotional pain that led to physical illness.
The Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its deattachment, integrity, respect
for self, and respect for others opened a door for us that allowed us to
let go of our codependency.
We understood that our self-respect was respect for our individuality, and
we understood that our self-respect gave others the opportunity to get to
know us, and our respect for others gave us a harmonious social life.
Today's Contemplation
Today, I will use my resources to take care of my own needs and desires
before I give the money, time, energy, and interest to others to whom I
wish to give some of my resources.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
09: My
Truth
The
principle of Tradition Eleven is Truth.
Slogan: My truth is not the whole truth.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
Little by
little, as our work with the AcAdAn Program progressed, we realized
that there were as many perspectives on AcAdAn’s Steps and Traditions
as there were members of our Fellowship.
When we realized this, we clearly understood that although we had our
Program, our Traditions, our meetings and a sponsorships in common, we
had our own unique perspective on them.
This realization gave us the freedom to express our perspective,
knowing very well that our perspective is unique so we do not need to
seek others' approval of what we perceive to be true.
In the same way, we gave others the freedom to express their
perspective, knowing very well that their perspective was also unique
and we did not have to agree with them in what was true for them.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will express my personal truth without trying to overwhelm
others with it, and I will listen to their truth and take to heart
what I can use and leave the rest
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
10: Fear
Before
we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, many of us felt that we
could not be fully understood by anyone, and we kept that a secret,
which we perceived to be our failures out of fear of the
condemnation of others, and we kept that a secret that we perceived
to be our successes out of fear of the envy of others.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 43
When we began working with the Program in AcAdAn, we
discovered that our life had been dominated by fear, and in the material
field, it came to expression as fear of not getting what the material
things we wanted.
In the physical area we were afraid of illness, weakness, discomfort, pain
and death, and in the energetical area we were afraid of not having the
energy to carry out our chores for the day.
On the mental-emotional plane we feared the thoughts that came to us,
which were followed by painful emotions of avarice, envy, arrogance and
hatred like it comes to expression in the Big Ring of Pain.
We also feared the judgements of others of our thoughts, emotions, actions
and appearance, and we used the Rings of Social Interaction from Step
Eight in Step Six, to transform our fears into enlightenment and wisdom.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use Step Six to transform my fears to enlightenment and
wisdom.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
11: To
seek help
We
admitted we were powerless over our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction – that our life had become unmanageable.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
We
needed to admit that we were suffering from the disease of addiction
because we were actively using our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction many times a day, even though we wanted to be content.
Therefore, we began our recovery in Step One by admitting that we were
suffering from an illness over which we were powerless, and how the
illness made our life unmanageable.
For most of us, it had been a long process trying to recover from our
compulsive use of dissatisfaction on our own before we were ready to
admit that we needed help to recover.
Having admitted that we were powerless over our illness and how it
made our lives unmanageable, we were ready to begin our recovery in
Step Two, where we enlisted the help of our chosen Higher Power.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Fellowship to get the help I need to
let go of my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction instead of
struggling with it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
12: Step
Three
We
made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of
our Higher Power, as we understood that Power.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 27
In our
work on Step Three, we investigated our chronic dissatisfaction, and
to our surprise, we discovered that our Higher Power had been quietly
fulfilling most of our desires from our childhood to the present.
We understood that our chronic dissatisfaction was an illness that
blinded us to the gifts of our Higher Power, because we could only use
it if we used dissatisfaction and denied Reality.
These realizations finally enabled us to give ourselves permission to
let go of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, as the illness it
is, but from which we could recover in AcAdAn.
At the same time, our trust in our Higher Power’s unconditional love,
care, compassion, and mercy grew, and this gave us the courage to
surrender our will and our life to the care of our chosen Higher
Power.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will surrender my will and my life to my chosen Higher Power's
care.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
13: The
Group Conscience
When we address an issue
or suggestion at our Group-Conscience meetings, each of us take our
turn to express our individual conscience regarding the issue that
is being discussed, and we listen attentively to what each of the
group members have to contribute until all, who want to express
something about this issue have spoken.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 87
In
our Step Work in Active Addictions Anonymous, we learned to surrender
to our chosen Higher Power, and in our service work we learned to
surrender to a Higher Power at group level.
If we wanted to debate a topic that was important to our group in
Active
Addictions Anonymous, it took place in a business meeting after our
recovery meeting.
When we participated in our business meetings, we both became
acquainted with our Twelve Traditions and with the Group Conscience
that we perceive to be our Higher Power on a group level.
When each member, who wanted to had expressed his/her conscience about
a solution to the topic/s that were up for debate, we perceived it to
be our Group conscience that had spoken.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will surrender to my Higher Power in my groups by
surrendering to the Group Conscience, whether my group consists of
to or many.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
14: Discernment
When
we began to seek our Higher Power’s guidance on a daily basis, we
discovered that our ability to distinguish the voice of our Higher
Power from our own began to develop, and thus Step Eleven began
working for us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 69
In the course of our Step Work in AcAdAn we had
become more aware of the difference between purely physical feelings and
feelings that sprang from our thoughts and expressed themselves as
emotional feelings.
We realized that feelings such as hunger, thirst, tiredness, touch are
purely physical, and feelings arising from our thoughts can settle in
different areas in our physical body as lightness or tension.
In the Tenth Step we further developed our discernment, so that it became
easier for us to distinguish between our physical and our emotional
feelings, and thus we got to know our Ego's dualistic thought system.
When we discerned between thoughts that came from our Ego, and impulses
that came from our Higher Power, we became better at finding our Higher
Power's will for us in Step Eleven.
Today's contemplation
Today I will use my discernment to know the difference between what
comes from my Ego and what comes from my chosen Higher Power when I seek
guidance about my Higher Power's will for me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
15:
Easy does it!
It
is also important to remind our self that we did not develop our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction in one day and we do not
recover in one day either, so remember – EASY DOES IT!
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
It It took us so long
time to realize that we suffered from an addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction because we had come to believe that dissatisfaction on a
daily basis was a natural state of mind.
When it dawned on us that it was not a natural state of mind, and that the
Fellowship and the Program of AcAdAn could help us to become content, we
wanted to recover from our addiction as soon as possible.
Our friends in AcAdAn, however, explained to us that our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction began with the use of dissatisfaction that, on
repeated use, grew into chronic dissatisfaction that grew into addiction.
We had become accustomed to our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, so
when we began to let go of it, we could feel empty and insecure, so we
accepted that it took time to recover and took it easy
.
Today's contemplation
Today,
I will work with my AcAdAn Program and thus take another small step
forward in my recovery from my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
16: Step
Twelve
Having
had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we practiced
these principles in all our affairs, and carried the message of
AcAdAn to others suffering from addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 82
When we came to Step
Twelve in our Stepwork, our perception of ourself, others, life, and the
World at large had changed dramatically from chronic dissatisfaction to
contentment in many areas of our lives.
In a Twelve Step inventory, we investigated a situation where we used our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, but using all the principles of the
Steps from Step One to Step Twelve to recover from the situation.
Thereby, we became aware of the suffering that sprang from our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction in the situation we investigated and how we
could recover from it by the help of our AcAdAn Program.
In a meeting, we shared our Twelfth Step work on how we had recovered from
the situation so that others could use our experiences in a similar
situation and thus be spared to go through the pain themselves.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my healing experiences to share my healing with others
who still suffer from addiction to chronic dissatisfaction if they wish
to recover.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
17: Fellowship
Thereby,
we became aware that we could seek and receive consolation,
understanding and fellowship with others if we were brave and honest
about our thoughts and our emotions, irrespective of the reasons we
had to think and feel the way we did.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 44
When
we thought of our AcAdAn Fellowship, many of us often remembered a
story that circulates in our Fellowship about a Red Indian mother, who
wanted to show her son the importance of the Fellowship.
She took out an arrow from the arrow quiver and said that it was
supposed to illustrate a person, and then she asked her son to break
the arrow, and he did so easily.
Then she took out a bundle of arrows from the arrow quiver and said
that they were to illustrate the Fellowship, and then she asked him to
break the bundle, but he could not do it.
This story showed us how important it was for us to seek Fellowship
with others, because when we were alone our pains could break us, but
together with others we could recover from them.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will seek consolation and release of my life’s pains in my
AcAdAn Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January 18:
Death
We
also stopped fleeing from death in all its forms, which could
actually be perceived in one word
as
‘change’.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 18
For
many of us, death was a scary and difficult area of life until we came
to Active Addictions Anonymous and began working with the AcAdAn
Program.
By the help of our Program, we became aware that we experienced death
every moment of every day and not only when we separated from our
physical form.
We realized that each
NOW has a form, which consists in everything that NOW contained, only to
disintegrate into the next NOW, and the NOW that was before has thus
passed into death by changing form.
We realized that death in Reality merely is change, and that change is
what made our life vibrant and interesting so we needed to let go of our
fear and anger about change.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will embrace both my limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
changeability as an inevitable part of being human.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
January
19:
Addiction
Our
active addiction can be of a mild, moderate or severe nature, just
as it is the case with any other physical or psychological illness.
Today many are found who suffer from a severe case of active
addiction, and many more that have a mild or moderate form of this
disease.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
Most of us had difficulties perceiving ourselves as an addict, because we
thought of addiction as being addicted to drugs, but in AcAdAn, we present
ourselves as people, who suffer from an active addiction.
This disease means that we become possessed by a dissatisfied thought
pattern that could overwhelm us to feel compelled to act on our
dissatisfied thoughts in spite of not wanting to.
As a result we became chronically dissatisfied with ourselves, others, our
life and the World at large, and eventually, we were dissatisfied on a
daily basis in spite of all the benefits that life had given us.
We had sought many solutions to recover from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, but only when we came to AcAdAn, we found the solution we
had been looking for.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will work on recovering from my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction by the help of my AcAdAn Fellowship and the AcAdAn
Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
20: Simplicity
There
are no restrictions for us as individuals to participate in other
enterprises of a related nature, but an Active Addictions Anonymous
Group strives to keep everything simple by maintaining that which is
characteristic for an AcAdAn Group in its place and our other
activities of a similar nature in their place.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 92
As we learned the principles of the Traditions in AcAdAn, we discovered
that it became easier for us to live a life of contentment when we
followed Tradition Seven’s principle of simplicity.
We created and manifested simplicity in our material possessions by
finding a place for each thing and putting each thing back in its place
when we were finished using it.
We created and manifested simplicity in our activities by setting aside a
time for each of the activities we wanted to prioritize, and we followed
our plan as best as we could.
In our mental-emotional lives, we created and manifested simplicity by
taking care of our thoughts and emotions, and in our social lives, we
created and manifested simplicity by taking out time to integrate them.
Today’s Contemplation
Today
I will keep everything simple by consciously creating and manifesting
a place for everything I want to prioritize today
.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
21:
Group Readings
The
group readings can be read in the following order:
|
(at the
beginning of the meeting:)
Who has the disease of active addiction?
What is Active Addictions Anonymous?
Why are we here?
The program of Active Addictions Anonymous
Easy Does It!
|
(at the end of
the meeting:)
The Twelve Traditions of Active Addictions Anonymous
What Can I do?
Just For Today
|
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, pages 120, 121 &
122
Most
of us used the meeting format suggested at the end of our book Active
Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life when conducting an AcAdAn meeting
because it covered what we wanted to include.
Our meeting format included the group readings from the beginning of our
book, Active Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life, and we found these
group readings desirable to hear again and again in our meetings.
The group readings reminded us that our addiction is a disease and not a
moral failing, as many seem to think, and the group readings also
reminded us of our goals and means as members of AcAdAn.
Group readings also helped us introduce the AcAdAn Program to newcomers,
thereby making it easier for them to decide whether the AcAdAn Program
could help them at this point in their lives.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will listen attentively to the group readings in my AcAdAn
meeting or read them myself if I cannot attand a meeing today to
reaffirm my healing in AcAdAn.
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
22: Freedom
from guilt and shame
By
applying these Steps in our daily life, we became able to keep our
path free of guilt and shame.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 66
In many
situations from our childhood to the present, we did not feel accepted
when our way of being in the World was in conflict with others’
perceptions of the right thing.
The natural impulse for all of us was to adjust to our surroundings in
order to survive, and when it was not possible for us to adjust, we
felt guilty and ashamed of ourselves.
In Step Eight we brought out all that we felt guilty and ashamed of
out in the open, and we decided how we would make amends to ourselves
and others in these areas.
In Step Nine, we made the amends we had decided to make in Step Eight,
and in doing so, we liberated ourselves from the guilt and shame that
we had carried from childhood to the present.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will remember that my feelings of guilt and shame because of
being who I am are the deadliest poisons for my spiritual life, and
therefore, I will liberate myself from these feelings by the help of
Step Eight and Nine.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
23: Mutual
wisdom
We
need that fountain of mutual wisdom which is found in our group.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 85
In many
situations from our childhood to the present, we did not feel accepted
when our way of being in the World was in conflict with others’
perceptions of the right thing.
The natural impulse for all of us was to adjust to our surroundings in
order to survive, and when it was not possible for us to adjust, we
felt guilty and ashamed of ourselves.
In Step Eight we brought out all that we felt guilty and ashamed of
out in the open, and we decided how we would make amends to ourselves
and others in these areas.
In Step Nine, we made the amends we had decided to make in Step Eight,
and in doing so, we liberated ourselves from the guilt and shame that
we had carried from childhood to the present.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will seek solutions to one of my problems in my AcAdAn Fellowship
either by sharing at an AcAdAn meeting or by reaching out to another
member, who had found a way out of the problem that I need to solve.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
24: The
Fruit of the Right Action
We
have come to realize that the right action is the sweet fruit
itself, which means that the joyful consequences of our virtues are
sufficient on their own; likewise, the painful
consequences of our defects of character are sufficient on their
own, and both have theirs to give.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 24
When we
came to AcAdAn, many of us had the idea that the joy we experienced
when we did the right action was a reward from our Higher Power,
because we had been 'good'.
In the same way, we had the idea that the pain we experienced when we
used our character defects was a punishment from our Higher Power,
because we had been 'bad'.
After working with the Steps in AcAdAn for a while, we realized that
it was not the case, and thereby we became able to take the slogan of
AcAdAn to heart, which says that the right action is the sweet fruit
itself.
Thus we realized that our pain
over using our character flaws was not a punishment from our Higher
Power, but an opportunity for us to grow in enlightenment and wisdom by
using Step Six of AcAdAn.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my Sixth Step to pair one of my character flaws with
one of my virtues and thus achieve enlightenment and wisdom.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
25:
Self-importance
Some
of us used a prayer that covers most of our defects of character,
and we used this prayer for our Seventh Step work at adequate
moments in the course of the day, thinking or saying, “God, liberate
me from this self-important seriousness.”
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
Before we came to AcAdAn, we had taken our thoughts
very seriously because we knew innermost that our Higher Power often
used our thinking mind, our Ego as a sounding board for impulses
that our thinking mind, our Ego translated into thoughts.
Little by little as our Step Work in AcAdAn progressed, we realized
that most of our thoughts revolved around the past or the future
that we thought negatively or positively about, and thus they did
not spring from our Higher Power.
These negative or positive thoughts were merely 'stories' that we
told our self, and we could change these 'stories' to our advantage
anytime we wanted to, and with that purpose in mind we worked daily
with the Tenth Step in AcAdAn.
Therefore, it was important for us to use our Seventh Step in the
course of the day to liberate ourselves from our self-important
seriousness by applying the various Seventh Step in the course of
the day on our painful thoughts.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will use my Seventh Step Prayers every time I discover that a
painful thought about the past or the future dominates my mode of
thinking.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
26:
The Small Ring of Hope
When
The Small Ring of Hope became active in us, we had faith that our
needs and desires would be met if we worked for it (Belief), and
that our Higher Power would show us the way ahead
(Enlightenment).
Therefore, we listened attentively to the guidance of our Higher
Power (Discernment) before moving ahead along the shown path, one
step at a time (Serenity).
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 35
In
many areas of our lives we had given up hope that what we wanted could
come to us, even though we worked for it, and therefore we had often
given up even beginning to fulfill our desires.
In our work with the Small Ring of Hope, we realized that the Small
Ring of Hope was set into vibration the moment we opened our mind to
have faith in that we could have our desires fulfilled if we worked
for it.
We began to seek information about what we needed to do to fulfill our
desires and tried out some of the solutions to find out what worked
for us, and thereby we developed our discernment.
Little by little we came closer to the goal of our desires, and as we
saw the effect of applying the Small Ring of Hope in different areas
of our lives, we gained peace of mind about the fulfillment of all our
desires.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will use my knowledge of the Small Ring of Hope to work on
fulfilling my desires.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
27: Poverty
We always felt that something was lacking in our life, and we believed
that if only we used our addiction to dissatisfaction to force our
self and others to work more, change enough, think, feel and act
differently or became better in some areas, we would become able to
accept our self and others as we and they are; and if only others
treated us better, were more understanding, loving and caring, we
would be able to accept our self, them, life and the World at large as
everything is.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page
9
When we felt lack in our lives, we felt poor, and if others would
just spend some of their time, energy, interest, and money to help us
get what we wanted, our feeling of poverty would disappear.
In the Small Ring of Avarice with its stinginess, greed, poverty, and
gluttony, we discovered that our feeling of poverty had got nothing to
do with how much we owned or with the help others were willing to give
us.
Realizing this, we began to pair the Small Ring of Avarice with the
Small Ring of Faith with its generosity, trust, prosperity, and
accountability, and thus we grew in enlightenment and wisdom, and our
pain disappeared.
Instead of paining from feeling poor, we could now begin to rejoice in
that we were prosperous enough to be able to share our material goods
and wisdom with others.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will investigate the pain in the Small Ring of Avarice and
pair it with the Small Ring of Joy, so that I may grow in
enlightenment and wisdom.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
28:
From self-centeredness to God-centeredness
We
investigated how our self-criticism had brought about depression and
how our self-praise had brought about euphoria in us, and how this
had impacted our life from childhood till today.
We
also investigated how our open-mindedness had brought about help
from unexpected sources, how this had empowered us to solve our
issues, and how this had brought about gratitude and joy in us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 31
In Step Four, we began working with the Rings of Joy and Pain to
study how our stay in these energy fields had affected us from childhood
to the present.
We discovered that when we were in the Ring of Self-Centering, we
suffered from a bipolar swing from depression to euphoria, stemming from
self-critical or euphoric thoughts, and so we felt emotionally unstable.
When we were in the Ring of God-Centeredness, we were open to new
thoughts and were empowered, which made us glad and grateful, so we
preferred to use the Ring of God-Centeredness.
In Step Six, we paired the two Rings, and thus we were able to transform
the swing from pain to joy to enlightenment and wisdom, and thus we
achieved serenity in connection with what we were thinking about.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my Sixth Step to pair a Ring of Pain with a Ring of
Joy so I can attain enlightenment and wisdom as well as serenity.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
29:
The Gratitude Prayer
|
The ‘I’ Version:
God,
You know what this, Your child, needs today.
|
The ‘We’ Version:
God,
You know what these, Your children, need today.
|
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 77
When
we used the AcAdAn Gratitude Prayer, we acknowledged that we were
not necessarily aware of that, which we needed in the course of our
day.
In particular, we had difficulty imagining that we might need
physical illness, weakness, discomfort and pain, but nevertheless we
needed it.
We needed these energies, because we needed contrast to achieve the
experience of life, so we needed a contrast to health, strength,
well-being and joy.
If we did not experience contrasts, our life experience would be
like looking at a white canvas instead of a canvas that held all the
colors of the rainbow, as well as the black and the white.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use the
Gratitude Prayer to remind myself that my Higher Power knows what
I need today both of pain and joy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
30:
The For Free Principle
Active
Addictions Anonymous is a non-profit Fellowship, and hence, we pass
on our literature to anyone who wants to read it by making it
available for free.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 92
The building blocks of our earthly life are money, time, energy and
interest, and we can use our time, energy and interest to make money,
and we can buy the time, energy and interest of others for our projects.
If we receive something for free time from a stranger, we often become
suspicious because we find it difficult to imagine that others would
give us this gift simply because they want our well-being.
Since the purpose of AcAdAn is of a spiritual nature, we do not want to
mix worldly means with our purpose, and therefore we do not want to take
payment in any form for passing on our knowledge to anyone who wants it.
In AcAdAn, we mark that we are interested in the well-being of members
rather than in their material situation by giving everyone who wants it
access to everything we possess, without asking for money in return.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use the for free principle of AcAdAn to further my own
and others' well-being by making use of AcAdAn's literature, sponsors,
healing partners, and meetings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
January
31:
Sharing in AcAdAn
Meetings
In
AcAdAn meetings, each member shares how far he&she has come in
this work with the help of the AcAdAn Program.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 90
The
building blocks of our earthly life are money, time, energy and
interest, and we can use our time, energy and interest to make money,
and we can buy the time, energy and interest of others for our
projects.
If we receive something for free from a stranger, we often become
suspicious because we find it difficult to imagine that others would
give us this gift simply because they want us to do well.
Since the purpose of AcAdAn is of a spiritual nature, we do not want
to mix worldly means with our purpose, and therefore we do not want to
take payment in any form for passing on our knowledge to anyone who
wants it.
In AcAdAn, we show that we are interested in the well-being of members
rather than in their material situation by giving everyone who wants
it access to everything we possess, without asking for money in
return.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use the for free principle of AcAdAn to promote my own
and others' well-being by making use of AcAdAn's literature,
sponsors, recovery buddies, and meetings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
FEBRUARY
February
01: New
perspectives
JUST
FOR Today through AcAdAn, I will try to get a better perspective on
myself and my life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 14
When we
began working with our Active Addictions Anonymous Program, we
discovered many opportunities to gain the new perspectives on
ourselves, our lives, others and the World as a whole that we needed.
At our disposal we had the Fellowship's four books from which we could
pick up new information, and we also had our recovery buddyships,
sponsorships and our meetings to our aid.
The four AcAdAn books contain a detailed description of our Program,
each in its own way, and they enabled us to be inspired in our
recovery on a daily basis.
In meetings we listened to others and talked about our own recovery
process and in our sponsorships and recovery buddyships, we talked to
another person about it in a more private setting.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will choose to use my membership of AcAdAn to get a better
perspective on myself and my life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
02: Service
Each
of us serves the group by
being part of our meetings.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 86
When we began working with our Active Addictions Anonymous Program,
we discovered many opportunities to gain the new perspectives on
ourselves, our lives, others and the World as a whole that we needed.
At our disposal we had the Fellowship's four books from which we could
pick up new information, and we also had our recovery buddyships,
sponsorships and our meetings to our aid.
The four AcAdAn books contain a detailed description of our Program,
each in its own way, and they enabled us to be inspired in our recovery
on a daily basis.
In meetings we listened to others and talked about our own recovery
process and in our sponsorships and recovery buddyships, we talked to
another person about it in a more private setting.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will attend an AcAdAn meeting and thus serve both myself, others,
Active Addictions Anonymous and the World at large.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
03: The
Ring of Emotional Sobriety
We
also took a look at how we could move from the pain of our
codependency to the joy of our Emotional Sobriety, by looking at how
we could move from the attributes of the Ring of codependency to
their corresponding attributes in the Ring of Emotional Sobriety.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 47
Instead
of remaining in the savior role of the Ring of Codependency with its
savior role, seducer role, victim role and offender role by trying to
save another from the pain of his&her life, we let go of the role.
Instead we used the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its detachment,
integrity, respect for ourselves and respect for the other and gave
the other time and space to find a solution to their problem.
In doing so, we liberated ourselves from the idea that it was our job
to solve his&her problem, which was in reality his&her choice
before he&she came to Earth.
In this way, he&she could grow in wisdom and compassion, which is
the whole purpose of being on the spiritual path, so we let go of
attaching ourselves to his&her problem as if it were our own.
Today’s
contemplation
Today,
I will use my AcAdAn Program to move into the joy of the Ring of
Emotional Sobriety in a situation, if I observe that the pain of the
Ring of Codependency has taken over my thinking.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
04: The
Serenity Prayer
|
The ‘I’ Version:
God,
grant me the serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference
|
The ‘We’ Version:
God,
grant us the serenity
to accept the things
we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can
and the wisdom to know the difference.
|
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 52
For us, serenity meant that we
could look at a situation without judgment, and it became possible
because we had no desire for a particular outcome as we had surrendered
our will and our life to our Higher Power´s care.
It could happen that we were still dissatisfied with how a situation was
developing, and in such circumstances we used the Serenity Prayer to
calm down instead of projecting our dissatisfaction into the world.
However, many situations that we would prefer were different, we could
change, so that they were more in line with our desires, and we also
used the Serenity Prayer to remind ourselves of this.
If we were in doubt, we used the Serenity Prayer to examine whether we
were in a situation we could not change or in a situation we could
change, and if we could change it, we acted accordingly.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will practice the Serenity Prayer by accepting what I cannot
change, changing what I can and by using my wisdom to see the
difference.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
05:
Creating and manifesting a Group Conscience
Active
Addictions Anonymous is a Fellowship, which is governed by our Group
Conscience, and the Group Conscience comes to expression, when each
individual member’s voice is heard and taken into consideration
before the group makes a decision.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 95
When we entered into a Fellowship with others, we wanted our point of
view to be heard and considered, and we knew that others wanted the
same, so we wanted to develop a Group Conscience as it is in AcAdAn.
To fulfill this desire, we developed a Group Conscience in each of our
Fellowships by ensuring that each member was given time and space to
express themselves on the subject.
There could be many perspectives that needed to be heard and
considered, so we gave each member one voice so that he&she could
express his&her perspectives once if there were many of us.
In our coupleship Fellowship, we used time limits on each partner’s
speaking time, giving both partners the time they needed to express
their perspectives on a given topic more than once.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will honestly express my thoughts and emotions to the other
members of those Fellowships I am a part of and I will listen
attentively and respectfully to what others have to share about their
thoughts and emotions.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
06:
Tradition One to Four
1:
Our
common welfare should come first; our personal recovery depends on
the unity of our group and the survival of the group depends on
each individual member’s sense of
belonging to the group.
2: For
our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority, a loving
Higher Power, as that Power
comes to expression through our Group Conscience.
Our leaders are trusted servants; they do not govern.
3:
The only requirement for
membership in Active Addictions Anonymous is a desire to stop
using dissatisfaction.
4: Each
AcAdAn group is autonomous except in matters affecting AcAdAn as a
whole; similarly, each member of the group has the right to be
autonomous except in matters affecting the group or AcAdAn as a
whole.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 12
In the beginning
of our membership in AcAdAn, we were consumed by doing our Step work
and going to meetings, but after some time we spotted the Traditions
that are the foundation our Fellowship is built on.
The Steps taught us to take care of our inner lives, and the
Traditions taught us to take care of our outer lives, and how we best
could relate to our outer lives, and thus we developed our social
skills.
The Traditions showed us that it was important that both we and the
other members of our groups thrived in order for us to achieve what we
participated in group settings to achieve.
To this end we used the Principle of the Second Step, which is
Openmindedness, and the accompanying Slogan, which is: Listening
attentively and respectfully to another is the first expression of
emotional sobriety.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will surrender to the Group Conscience in all the groups I
become a part of in the course of my day, whether the group consists
of two people or two hundred.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
07:
The origin of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
We
felt chronically dissatisfied with self, others and our lives.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Already in our First Step, we discovered
that our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction stemmed from our
dissatisfaction with our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness, and
mortality/changeability.
When we were dissatisfied with our limitation, we rebelled against the
natural limitations of our Mother Earth body, against the time a task
takes, against our emotions and thoughts, against our social life, and
against our spiritual life.
When we were dissatisfied with our ignorance, we tried to deny it or
pretend that we knew something about everything, and when we were
dissatisfied with being powerless over something, we became dissatisfied
with it.
Our dissatisfaction with our mortality/changeability, when our Mother
Earth body changed, even though it changed from day to day, we became
dissatisfied with it, even though we could do nothing about it.
Today's Contemplation
Today I want to explore how I can give myself permission to be
content with my own humanity and that of others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
08:
Membership of AcAdAn
You
are a member if you say you are.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 119
In Active Addictions Anonymous we learn from our
Traditions that we have no leaders; we have trusted servants who are
members who have committed themselves to serving the Fellowship in various
ways.
Members can serve the Fellowship by coming to meetings and sharing their
experiences, they can take on the role of meeting leaders, treasurers,
coffee people, or group service representatives.
Since we had no leaders, we did not need to approach anyone to apply for
membership, because we were members if we said we were.
It was only we, ourselves, who knew if we had a desire to give up our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and this is the only requirement for
membership.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will make use of what AcAdAn has to offer me, if yet another
time I have come to acknowledge that I need help to recover from my
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
09:
Tradition Four
The
principle of Tradition Four is Serenity.
Slogan: To meet and to separate and to meet again is the life
condition of all manifested creatures.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
Our free-flowing Spirit is the guiding energy just beneath the
brittle surface behind any of our forms, whether that form is from the
Earth's mineral, plant, or animal realms.
It didn't matter if it was the form of our movement through space over
time, the form of our emotional feelings, our thought forms, or our
social interaction’s form.
Thus, when we interacted with others, it was always the Spirit behind
the form that we interacted with, and thus we began to see through all
the illusions of form to the Spirit behind the forms.
The awareness of this was a revolution in our lives that completely
changed how we dealt with our physical lives, our movement lives, our
emotional lives, our thought lives, and our social lives.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will remember that it is the Spirit behind the form that is
coming to meet me in all the forms I meet.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
10: From
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction to contentment
If
you become consumed by a thought that springs from
your addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, then put
yourself on a ‘5 minutes at a time’ basis to abstain from taking
your addiction to dissatisfaction
into use.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 13
Before
we came to Active Addictions Anonymous many of us believed that we
could get control of our dissatisfaction, if we only used it
occasionally as a driving force for change, but when we came to
AcAdAn we discovered that this was not how it was.
When we came to AcAdAn we discovered that our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction would take our power away from us, if we used
dissatisfaction in any way, so we had to abstain from using it.
To be able to liberate ourselves from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, we had to refrain from using dissatisfaction
although we were scared of loosing this driving force to improve
ourself and our life.
However, we gradually discovered that we actually became better and
better at improving what we wanted to improve without being under
the pressure from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use contentment with myself, my life, others and the
World at large – if needed, five minutes at a time.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
11: From
emotional pain to emotional joy
Gradually,
as we investigated The Big Ring of Pain and The Big Ring of Joy this
way, we understood that these rings were named so, because our
defects of character brought us pain and our virtues brought us joy.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 31
In AcAdAn we
looked at different thought patterns as energy forms and we looked at
the outflow of energy from these thought patterns as our emotional
feelings.
Through our experiences with our work with our AcAdAn Program, we
discovered that some energy patterns brought us emotional pain, and
others brought us emotional joy.
We investigated our personal use of these patterns by the help of the
Rings of Pain and the Rings of Joy and thus we became aware of where
we were at in our psychological landscape in the here and now.
Little by little, as our discernment developed, we discovered that we
could pair the Rings of Pain with the Rings of Joy in many situations,
and thus create and manifest enlightenment and wisdom in our thinking
mind.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to work on pairing a Ring of
Pain with a Ring of Joy so as to create and manifest enlightenment
and wisdom in my thinking mind, my Ego, so my Ego would be content.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
12: Guilt
We
also knew that we were limited, ignorant, powerless and
mortal/changeable, and thus fallible, and as such, we knew that we
would make mistakes in the future too.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 77
In
our Eighth Step in Active Addictions Anonymous, we investigated
those areas we felt guilty about from our childhood to the present
day in order to use this in our Ninth Step.
Our Ninth Step we used to make amends to our self and others for our
mistakes and thus we purified our consciousness of guilt, which is
the deadliest poison for our spiritual life.
Sometimes we were reluctant to make amends to another, because we
thought that the other created and manifested the situation, so we
thought that we needed the other to make amends to us first.
In our Eighth and Ninth Step however, we exclusively dealt with
purifying our own consciousness of guilt, and therefore we were not
dealing with the guilt of others.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will focus on how I can liberate my mind from guilt without
putting hindrances in my way by demanding that first, others must
make amends to me for those mistakes they did to me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
13:
To let go of dissatisfaction
This
is a Program of complete abstinence from using dissatisfaction with
our self, others and life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
For many of us,
it had become a habit to use dissatisfaction in any area that we
wanted to improve, whether it was our physical or our spiritual life.
Until we came to AcAdAn, it had not occurred to us to examine how our
dissatisfaction affected us, our relationships with others, our lives,
and the World at large, or that we were using dissatisfaction daily,
many times a day.
It had not occurred to us that we were addicted to chronic
dissatisfaction, that we were obsessed with thoughts of
dissatisfaction followed by compulsive actions, and that our
dissatisfaction was not giving us the results we had envisioned.
When we used our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, we became sick
in mind and body, and as a result of this discovery, we became willing
to let go of our use of dissatisfaction in any circumstances, no
matter what they were.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Program to learn how to let go of my
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
14:
Growth
Some
of us were angry about our ignorance and that of others, until we
realized that no matter how wise we are Today we will always be
wiser tomorrow.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 20
Many of
us had great difficulty admitting our human ignorance because we had
often experienced others mocking or ridiculing us if they knew
something we did not know.
We had also experienced being perceived as stupid if we were ignorant
of something others thought was common knowledge, but our most painful
experiences happened when we were perceived as evil for the same
reason.
After we came to AcAdAn and realized that ignorance was a natural part
of our humanness, and realized it had its advantages, because our
ignorance allowed us to discover new things about everything on a
daily basis.
This allowed us to stop pretending that we knew something about
everything, and thus we became ready to explore our lives as humans on
this Earth, and that made our life more interesting.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will even accept my ignorance in the areas that I have most
knowledge about, and in this way I will open my mind to new
knowledge, new inspiration and new growth in all areas.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
15:
Prayer and meditation
Some
perceived our approach to our Higher Power as prayer and our Higher
Power’s answer to be meditation.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 69
In the
Eleventh Step, we expanded our conscious contact with our chosen
Higher Power by the help of prayer and meditation, and most of us
chose to use the prayers of our Eleventh Step for this purpose, in
particular the Two-Way Prayer.
Already in Step Two, we chose a Higher Power, in Step Three, we worked
on surrendering ourselves to Higher Power’s intention, and in Step
Seven, vi began our cooperating with our Higher Power.
Our chosen Higher Power often used our thinking mind, our Ego as a
sounding board to give us impulses, which our thinking mind, our Ego
translated into thoughts that we could understand.
It could be difficult for many of us to discern the voice of our Ego
from the voice of our Higher Power, but we used the Two Way Prayer and
became better at discerning our Higher Power’s for those of our Ego.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will to expand my conscious contact with my Higher Power by the
help of the Two Way Prayer from Step Eleven.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
16:
Expansion of
consciousness
The
principle of Step Eleven is Expansion of Consciousness.
Slogan: God, Your will be done.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
By the time we
reached Step Twelve in our Step work, our perception of ourselves,
others, life, and the world as a whole had changed dramatically from
chronic dissatisfaction to contentment in many areas of our lives.
In a Twelve Step inventory, we investigated a situation where we were
using our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, by the help of all the
principles of the Steps from Step One through Step Twelve to recover
from the situation.
In doing so, we became aware of the suffering that arose from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction in the situation we were
inventorying, and how we could recover from it by the help of our
AcAdAn Program.
In a meeting, we shared our Twelfth Step work on how we had recovered
from the situation so that others could use our experiences in a
similar situation and thus be spared from going through the pain
themselves.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my recovery experiences to share my recovery with
others who still suffer from addiction to chronic dissatisfaction if
they wish to recover.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
17: Passing
it on
If
somebody outside the Fellowship expressed a desire to know what we
were up to, we readily shared about our experiences with the AcAdAn
Program, and thereby, we passed on the message of AcAdAn to them.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 82
In
AcAdAn we work with our deepest and most frightening existential
sufferings; our fear of and our dissatisfaction with our human
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability.
Our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, which is the result of our
lack of acceptance of our humanness, had led to big sufferings both for
ourselves, our life, others and the World at large.
When we began to achieve recovery from these sufferings by the help of
the AcAdAn Program and came to see the advantages that entailed, we also
wanted that our discoveries should benefit others.
Therefore, when others expressed a desire to hear about it, we readily
told them, what liberating ourselves from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, and in that way we eased the pains of humankind.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will pass on my discoveries and experiences from my work
with my AcAdAn Program in a meeting or with others, who express a
desire to hear about it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
18:
Acceptance of the process of sorrow
Over
time, after having consciously gone through the
process of
sorrow a few times, we became more accepting and patient, both
with our self and with others, whether it was our own grief of
having lost a loved one or our having to deal with a child who had
just lost his or her favorite plaything.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 41
We learned that the grieving process consists of five stages,
expressed in different orders as denial, anger, bargaining, resentment
and acceptance, and it could come to expression in our everyday lives.
Usually, our daily grieving processes consisted in us getting upset that
we ourselves or others did not live up to our expectations, and the long
grieving processes consisted in us rebelling against Reality.
As we consciously observed ourselves going through the grieving process
several times, we became more and more calm, because it became clear to
us that the process had a beginning, a peak and an end.
Consciously experiencing a grieving process as suggested in AcAdAn meant
that we could come out on the other side of the grieving process with
acceptance and a greater knowledge of our existence as humans.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will accept my grieving processes because I know that I will
come out the other side of them a more enlightened, wise, and
compassionate person.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
19:
Surrender
No
matter how we chose to perceive our Higher Power, we needed to
surrender our will and our life to the care of our chosen Higher
Power in Step Three, because we by our self alone were powerless
over our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 27
In
Step One, it had been difficult for most of us to come face to face
with how it made our life unmanageable that we were addicted to
chronic dissatisfaction with our humanness.
Therefore, it was a big relief for us to come to Step Two, where we
came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could help us to
recover from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Having developed faith in that a Power greater than ourself could
help us, we gained trust in that we could surrender our will to
recover from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction to the care of
our Higher Power in Step Three.
Thus, it became possible for us to let go of our struggle with our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction in order to be led to
contentment by the help of the rest of the Steps from Steps Four
through Twelve.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will let myself be led to contentment with myself, my life,
others and the World at large by surrendering to the Program of
Active Addictions Anonymous.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
20:
The victim role of Codependency
When
others failed to give us the praise we sought from them, we felt
victimized, and this brought about a state of anger and disrespect
for others in us, as the feeling of being a victim is accompanied by
feelings of hostility.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 32
In
AcAdAn, we began to examine our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
and discovered that many of us had felt that there was something
wrong with us due to the criticism we had received from our
childhood to now.
In our desire to be who we thought we should be, we tried to please
others, and we took it as a sign that we had succeeded if others
praised us, so we became addicted to praise.
If others failed to praise us, we felt like victims because we had
spent our money, time, energy, and interest on their well-being
instead of our own without them praising us.
However, in the Ring of Emotional Sobriety, we discovered that it
was not our task to save them from solving their own problems, but
that it was our task to simply solve our own problems.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will work on moving from my victim role by moving from the
Ring of Codependency into the Ring of Emotional Sobriety.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
21:
Progress rather than perfection
Thus,
we became aware that we would continue to make mistakes, and we
would still need our Program and continue to need guidance, help and
consolation from everything and everyone around us, so as to get
empowered to find solutions and move on instead of getting stuck in
various
dysfunctional patterns.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 58
When
we came to AcAdAn, many of us hoped that we could achieve perfection
with the help of the Program, until we realized that we were still
making mistakes and still needed support and guidance from others.
We were disheartened because there was always room for improvement in
our well-being in all areas, but as our disappointment wore off, we
realized that this was precisely the fact that made our lives
interesting.
When we thought that we could not improve a project further, we were
indeed finished with the development of that project, but that did not
mean that we would not face other challenges in our lives.
The empty space left by the completed project was soon filled by a new
challenge, so that we could continue to develop our talents without
ever reaching a point where our talents could not be developed
further.
Today's contemplation
Today I rejoice in my progress in the many small things that I
improved in my life today and I will gratefully think of all the
help and guidance I have received that made these little advances
possible.
February
22: Conscious
contact with a Higher Power
The
most important thing was that it worked for us to interact with our
Higher Power.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 74
In Step
Eleven, we learned that this Step gave us the opportunity to further
develop our work with Steps Two, Three, and Seven in creating and
manifesting an interaction that worked for us with our Higher Power.
With this purpose in mind, we began to investigate, how we could learn
to use prayer, meditation and Constant Remembrance like it has been
suggested in our Eleventh Step.
Many of us used the Two Way Prayer to learn to expand our conscious
contact with our Higher Power and moreover we used meditation to come
into oneness with our true Self, our Spirit.
Little by little we learned to discern between those impulses that
came to us from our thinking mind, our Ego and those that came to us
from our true Self, our Spirit, and thus our Eleventh Step began to
work for us.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use Constant Remembrance to return to the
meditative state of mind that I achieved during my morning
meditation so as to maintain my conscious contact with my Higher
Power’s guidance throughout the day.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
23:
Forgiveness
In
the end, we set aside a day that we called the Sacred Day of
Forgiveness, where we went through our list point-by-point and
forgave our self for the mistakes we had made in the past, and thus,
we were ready to move on to Step Nine.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 64
We
discovered in the course of our work with our AcAdAn Program that
forgiveness could not be given as a decision, but had to spring from
the heart however much we wanted to forgive ourselves or others.
We faced that what we thought others had done against us, which we
felt that they should be ashamed of, we ourselves could have done
under similar circumstances.
By the help of this realization, we became better able to understand
the actions of others, and the understanding of the actions of
others made it easier for us to forgive them.
When it concerned forgiving ourselves for the mistakes we had done
to ourselves or others, we could make it possible for us to forgive
ourselves by making amends for our mistakes.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will ask my Higher Power for the capacity to forgive
myself for those mistakes I have done to myself and others for the
mistakes I think they have done to me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
24:
Honesty
We
strived to be as honest and thorough with our Fifth Step as we could
be, because we
realized that it was decisive for our progress in our recovery.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 44
Most of us tried to be as honest with ourselves as we able to, so we
had not asked ourselves whether it was possible for us to tell the
truth about anything before we came to AcAdAn.
After we came to AcAdAn and investigated the matter, we discovered
that we were actually incapable of telling the truth about even a
single event in our daily experiences, no matter how honest we
wanted to be.
For example, if we walked a short distance outside, it would not be
possible for us to tell about all the sensory impressions, emotions,
and thoughts that passed through us on the way.
Therefore, our honesty in our Fifth Step consisted in telling about
our discoveries in the limited areas we had chosen to focus on in
our Fourth Step, whether they put us in a more or less flattering
light.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will be honest to
my self both about a side of me that I find less flattering and
about a side of me that I find more flattering.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
25:
The newcomer
The
newcomer is the most important person in AcAdAn as
he/she is the source of growth for us
and our Fellowship, giving us an opportunity
to keep what we have received from AcAdAn by sharing it with the
newcomer.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
Our
old-timers were very important to us because they were the backbone of
the Fellowship and we wanted them to continue to be members, so we did
our best to make them feel respected and comfortable.
When a newcomer came to a meeting, we took good care of the newcomer
by giving him&her our full attention so that we could find out
what he&she needed from us to feel safe among us.
We also understood that the newcomer was the most important person in
AcAdAn because he&she gave both old-timers and other newcomers the
opportunity to share our experiences with the Program in AcAdAn.
By sharing our understanding of the Program, we expanded our own
perspectives, and the more members we became, the more perspectives we
gained on the Program, and the more recovery we got access to.
Today's contemplation
Today I will further develop my social skills by taking care of a
newcomer or an old timer in my AcAdAn Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
26: Humaneness/fallibility
No
matter how much spiritual information was passed on among us, we
realized that we still needed to accept each others’ humaneness and
fallibility.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 17
Before we came to AcAdAn, our existential sufferings made us seek for
freedom from them and we heard from many that the solution to our
sufferings lay on the Spiritual Path.
This had led us to believe that if only we became spiritual enough, we
would no longer suffer from being a limited, ignorant, powerless and
mortal/changeable human being on this Earth.
In AcAdAn’s Program, we discovered that no matter how prominent our
spiritual life became, we still lived as human beings on Earth and
that our fallibility stemmed from our humanness.
This made us realize that fallibility was an inbuilt part of our
humanness and not a moral flaw, and this realization made us realize
that our fallibility did not have to prevent us from being content.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Program to forgive myself and others for
the mistakes I think we have made today.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
27:
Willingness to transformation
This
Step is exclusively about achieving the willingness to have all our
defects of character removed through transformation; it’s not about
becoming super human beings.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 46
In Step
Six, we began to transform our character defects into enlightenment
and wisdom by pairing them with our virtues, beginning this process in
Step One by admitting that a defect of character was active in our
minds.
Next, we asked ourselves what we hoped to achieve by using our defect
of character and in that way we discovered the desire that lay at the
root of our use of that defect of character
Then we moved from the pain of the character defect to examining how
we thought the situation would have turned out if we had used the joy
of the corresponding virtue to fulfill our desire.
Thereby, we gained some enlightenment about our mind that led to
wisdom, and our serenity grew every time we went through the process
of transformation from pain to enlightenment and wisdom.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will use my Sixth Step to go through a process of
transformation from pain to enlightenment and wisdom in my thinking
mind, my Ego.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
28:
Step Five to Eight
The
Program of Active Addictions Anonymous Step Five to Eight.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 10
We
gradually discovered that it was not only Step One to Four that set
the Big Ring of Joy with its faith, hope, love, and truth into
oscillations, but that it also was true for Step Five to Eight.
In our work with Step Five in our AcAdAn Program, we had faith
in that it was to our advantage to share our realizations from Step
Four with our self, our Higher Power, another human being and our
Fellowship.
In Step Six, we hoped that the transformation of our defects
of character would make us more content, and in our cooperation with
our Higher Power in Step Seven, we received the unconditional love
of our Higher Power.
In Step Eight, we came face to face with the truth about those
areas we were ashamed of and received forgiveness from our self, our
Higher Power, another human being and our Fellowship.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use Step Five to Eight to set the Big Ring of Joy
into oscillations.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
February
29: Guilt
and shame
We
brought all those areas out in the open that we felt guilty about
from our childhood till today.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
In Step Four we bring out into the open all that we feel hurt about,
and in Step Eight we bring out into the open all that we are ashamed
of because we believe we have hurt ourselves or others.
The purpose of bringing our guilt and shame out into the open is to
liberate ourselves from guilt and shame because they are the deadliest
poisons to ourselves, for when we feel guilty and ashamed we hide from
others and thus harm them.
When we worked with our feelings of guilt and shame, we had already
acknowledged many painful feelings and had experienced the healing of
the pain by admitting it and its unmanageability in Step One.
This had given us the courage to bring out our most secret and painful
emotional feelings of guilt and shame into the open in Step Eight and
to liberate ourselves from them in our Ninth Step.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will bring a painful shame feeling out into the open by
admitting it and using my Ninth Step to liberate myself from it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
MARCH
March
01: The
purpose of the group
As
a group, we possess vital collective experiences and wisdom about
recovery from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and we
consider it to be the group’s primary purpose to make this wealth of
knowledge available to our self and others.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 90
ByBy
opening an AcAdAn meeting, we created and manifested a place where we
could meet with like-minded people who had also discovered that they
were dissatisfied on a daily basis.
In our meetings, we told each other about our experiences with
recovering from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and about
how we managed to find satisfaction under all circumstances, no matter
what they were.
By listening to each other's experiences, we began to understand that
we were not alone in this suffering, and that together we held a
wealth of experiences on how to recover.
With the help of our meetings with the other members, it became easier
and easier for us to recover from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction both physically and psychologically.
Today's contemplation
Today I will participate in a meeting in Active Addictions
Anonymous to let myself be enriched by the experiences of other
members and to enrich others with my experiences.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March 02:
To pass on the message of AcAdAn
The
Twelfth Step suggests that we practice these principles in all our
affairs, and when we did that, our way of being clearly reflected
the rewards of working the AcAdAn Program
in everything we did, and thus we carried the message by living it
even when we were not passing it on to others by word of
mouth.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 82
In
AcAdAn, it was important for us to pass on the message that it was
possible to recover from one’s addiction to use one’s addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction with ourselves, others, life and the World
at large.
It was important for us both because we wished others well, and
because growth in our AcAdAn Fellowship helped us to gain new
perspectives on our Program by the help of the newcomers.
When we passed on the message, it was important for us to remember
that pressure createsmanifests counter pressure, so we did not try
to overwhelm others with the message or to persuade them to become
members.
Instead, we chose to follow the principles of our Active Addictions
Anonymous Program, which states that our Program works through
attraction rather than promotion.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will to apply the principles from my AcAdAn Program,
when I pass on the message about AcAdAn to others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
03: Coming
to believe
After
coming to AcAdAn, we discovered that it is a process to come to
believe in someone or something greater than us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 24
When we
came to AcAdAn, most of us had been completely locked in by our fears
of our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness, and
mortality/changeability.
We had done everything the were in our power to deny our humanness,
but despite all our efforts, we still came face to face with the
fact that it could not be done every day.
We also tried to flee from it, and when we failed, we became
dissatisfied with our humanness on a daily basis, and little by little
we became addicted to being dissatisfied, and our dissatisfaction
became chronic.
When we came to AcAdAn, we discovered that it helped us to bring a
Power greater than ourselves that could help us recover into our lives
, because we ourselves were powerless over our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my Third Step to surrender myself to the care of a
Power greater than myself that I find in my AcAdAn Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
04:
The
Higher Power's will
The
Eleventh Step suggests only to pray for knowledge of our Higher
Power’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
This meant that we wanted to know our Higher Power’s will for us,
which is, in Reality, our own will for our self when we are not
blinded by our thoughts and emotions.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 74
In Step
Eleven we used prayer and meditation because prayer helped us to turn
to our Higher Power, and meditation enabled us to pick up on our
Higher Power’s guidance.
We needed meditation to quiet our minds so that we could pick up on
our Higher Power’s subtle guidance in order to make our Eleventh Step
work for us.
As we began to pick up on our Higher Power’s guidance, some of us
became afraid of becoming slaves to our Higher Power’s will, but we
learned that it was important only to follow the guidance when we were
ready.
Little by little, as we gained experience in our Eleventh Step work,
we became more and more willing to surrender to our Higher Power’s
will for us because we discovered that it was to our advantage.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will open myself to listening to my Higher Power's will for
me, so in that way I may become able to find my own true will for me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March 05:
The Small Ring of Avarice
We
discovered that when The Small Ring of Avarice became active in us,
we wanted to receive something materially, physically, time-space
wise, emotionally, mentally, socially or spiritually without
having
to use our own money, time, energy or interest
to get it (Stinginess), and we readily received anything
that we didn’t have to make an effort to get (Greed) even if we did
not need it (Gluttony), while at the same time, we felt poor in
spite of all the things and advantages we possessed (Poverty).
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 38
In our
work with the Small Ring of Avarice, we discovered that poverty was
part of the Small Ring of Avarice, which made us feel poor despite the
fact that our basic needs were met.
Most of us could even gluttonously possess far more than we needed,
and our homes were filled with furniture and toys for our
entertainment, such as TVs, computers, the Internet, and games.
The feeling of poverty caused us to become greedy to acquire more than
we needed, and we became stingy with others because we feared we would
lack something if we gave our surplus away.
Our studies of how the Small Ring of Avarice affected us evoked a
desire in us to move out of this energy field, and into the Small Ring
of Faith, which is the antidote to the Small Ring of Avarice.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
will work on moving out of the Small Ring of Avarice and into the
Small Ring of Faith.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
06: The
Seducer Role of Codependency
At
times, we seduced others by claiming to know better than them and
their Higher Power as to what their path and their truth in life
ought to be or not to be, or by pretending to genuinely care for
their wellbeing, whereas we were actually driven by this need for
others to take our suggestions to heart, for us to feel better and
more valuable than we were able to due to our self-criticism.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 30
Sometimes,
we felt a need to have confirmed by others that we
were valuable, in particular when we felt a low self-esteem, and we
imagined that we could achieve this by doing something for others.
We hoped to save them from the pains of life in those areas where we
had found a solution and that made us seduce ourselves and them to
believe that we were able to save them from the pains of their life.
This could lead to that we used our resources, our money, time,
energy and interest on saving them, and when we discovered that our
attempts to save them often had the opposite effect, we felt like
victims.
This made us understand that each of us needed to find our own way
out of the pain, so we could grow in enlightenment and wisdom, so we
stopped enabling others to use our resources instead of their own
for healing.
Today’s
contemplation
Today,
I
will give others time and space to find a solution to their small
or big existential pains instead of seducing myself and them to
believe that it is my task to save them from carrying out this
work.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
07: The
Smile Meditation
This
central area of our brain together with the healing power of a smile
has been used by spiritual masters for millennia as an object of
contemplation and has created and manifested the smiling eyes that
are so well known in spiritual masters, and this central area in the
brain has been named the cave of Brahma in Hinduism and the Crystal
Palace in Taoism.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 79
In our
Eleventh Step of AcAdAn, we used the Smile Meditation during our
meditation state to help our Mother Earth body recover from various
weaknesses and illnesses.
To our surprise, research has shown that the central part of our
brain, which contains the thalamus and hypothalamus, the pineal gland
and the pituitary gland, plays a role in meditation.
These areas and associated glands secrete oxytocin, endorphin,
dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline, and when we focused on this part
of our brain, we triggered them and it helped us achieve powerful
healing.
When we focused our awareness on this part of our brain with a gentle
smile and loving eyes, we could infuse the healing power of our focus
to infuse healing power into the sick parts of our body.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use the
healing power of the Smile Meditation from my Eleventh Step in
AcAdAn to heal my own existential pains and that of others, whether
the pains were physical, energetical, emotional, mental, social or
spiritual.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
08:
To stop fleeing
Some
of us became so despondent upon these realizations that we withdrew
from life, but when we came to AcAdAn, we decided to stop fleeing
from life's pains.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 18
In
AcAdAn we explored the existential pains that arose from our
dissatisfaction with our four basic human characteristics, our
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness, and mortality/changeability.
We had done much to escape our humanness, but when we reached the
end of the road with yet another escape attempt, we had to face the
fact that we were still limited, ignorant, powerless, and
mortal/changeable.
In Active Addictions Anonymous we found a Fellowship with others who
suffered from the same addiction to chronic dissatisfaction that we
did, due to our dissatisfaction with our humanness.
By the help of our AcAdAn Program and the Fellowship of Active
Addictions Anonymous, we moved together from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction to contentment under all circumstances, no
matter what they are.
𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲’𝐬 𝐂𝐨n𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
𝑇𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝐼 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝐴𝑐𝐴𝑑𝐴𝑛 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚
𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝐴𝑐𝐴𝑑𝐴𝑛 𝐹𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛 𝑡𝑜
𝑏𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒,
𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑
𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦/𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦..
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
09:
To let go of control
We
feared that our lives would get out of control if we surrendered to
a Higher Power, but we shared our fears and reluctance at the AcAdAn
meetings and with others who had experiences with working Step
Three.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 27
Step
Three suggests we turn our will and our life over to the care of
our chosen Higher Power, but many of us feared to do thet, because
many of us had been brought up with the idea of a punishing
Godhead.
This idea had made us imagine that our Higher Power would be like
a parent who ordered us to do things we did not feel like doing,
and who punished us if we did not do as we were told.
In our Second Step, however, we had worked on choosing our Higher
Power as an unconditionally loving, caring, compassionate and
merciful Power, and this made it easier for us to use Step Three.
When got the courage to surrender our will and our life to the
care of our Higher Power, we discovered that surrender was a
process, not an event, so we could take our will back, when we
wanted to.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my Third Step to move forward in my process
towards a wholehearted surrender to my Higher Power’s care.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
10: Step
Twelve
The
principle of Step Twelve is Mercy.
Slogan: We do not ask how your addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction arose but what you want to do about it
and how we can help.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Before we came to AcAdAn, many of us were not aware that we were
addicted to chronic dissatisfaction, even though we used
dissatisfaction with ourselves, our lives, others and the world
around us many times a day.
We used dissatisfaction because we were trying to escape our
powerlessness over ourselves, others, life and the world around us
in the hope that our bodies, others, life and the world around us
would change to our satisfaction.
It never occurred to us to investigate whether what we were doing
was working for us when we used our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction until we heard about Active Addictions Anonymous.
It was only when we came to AcAdAn meetings and heard other members
share about their work with the Program that we realized how much
suffering stemmed from our illness and we began our healing.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will joyfully receive help from other members of AcAdAn
by receiving the wisdom, they have to offer about recovery in
AcAdAn.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
11:
Artificial joy
The
pattern of Codependency settled in
us because of our self-criticism and depression creatingmanifesting
within us a need for others to praise us so that we reach a state of
euphoria, also called artificial joy, springing from self-praise,
which for many of us was the only form of joy we knew before we came
to AcAdAn.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 31
The
only kind of joy most of us knew when we came to
AcAdAn was the artificial joy called euphoria, which springs from
self-praise, and this activated the Ring of Self-Centeredness in our
psychological landscape.
We activated the Ring of Self-Centering with its euphoria,
depression, self-criticism, and self-praise hoping to stay in our
euphoric state, but found that the euphoria turned to self-criticism
and depression very quickly.
When our self-praise and euphoria were replaced by our
self-criticism and depression, we often needed praise from others to
feel valuable without it, and thus we opened ourselves to the pain
of the Ring of Codependency.
Thus we added pain to pain, but as our work in the Sixth Step
developed, we became better at moving from these pains to the joys
of the Ring of God-Centeredness and the Ring of Emotional Sobriety.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will let go of
using the Ring of Self-centeredness in relation to myself and
the Ring of Codependency in relation to others, and
instead I will use the Ring of Godcenteredness in relation to myself
and the Ring of Emotional Sobriety in relation to others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
12:
Ignorance
We
respected our own and others’ emotions and stopped pretending that
we knew something about everything, and as a result, we became more
content.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 21
While growing up,
many of us were ridiculed if there was something we did not know,
and sometimes we were called evil when we accidentally hurt another
living being because of our ignorance.
At other times, we were called stupid in a derogatory way, and it
could also happen that we were teased by others when we were
ignorant about something, in tones that made us cringe.
This made some of us decide that when we became adults, we did not
want to be ignorant anymore, and therefore we found it harder and
harder to admit our ignorance.
As a result, we pretended to know something about everything because
we were afraid that someone would expose our natural human
ignorance, without understanding that true knowledge comes from
experience.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to
liberate myself from my fear of my human ignorance.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
13: To
share understanding with others
We
also realized that the spiritual wisdom we were blessed with was
inherent in each one of us as a natural part of our being; so it was
not our task to persuade others to believe in anything that was not
true for them, but their own task to seek help
to come into contact with their
inner
knowing.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 17
Many
of
us became so excited about the discoveries about ourselves that we
made by the help of our AcAdAn Program that we wanted to share them
with our fellow human beings.
Therefore, we had a tendency to share our pearls with others, even
if they had not expressed a desire to hear about the
happiness-creating effects of our self-realizations.
Instead of letting go of saying any more, some of us became so eager
to make the other person understand how good it would be for
him&her to become members of AcAdAn.
After doing this a number of times, we discovered that our eagerness
had the opposite effect, so we reminded ourselves that our Program
works by attraction, not by persuasion.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
choose to only share my experiences with my AcAdAn Program
with others, who express an interest in hearing about it them
self.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
14:
Comparisons
As
a natural consequence
of using the Ring of Emotional
Sobriety, we came in touch with the Truth that any
creaturemanifestation is equally valuable to
creationmanifestation, exactly the way they are, and thus the Big
Ring of Joy opened up to us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 33
Before we came to AcAdAn, we would sometimes compare ourselves to
others, and it could happen that we compared our best qualities with
others' worst, or others' best qualities with our own worst.
However, in our work with our Program, we discovered that we are all
so unique that there is no one like us in the entire World, so we
realized that we could not understand ourselves or others by comparing
ourselves with others.
Instead of comparing ourselves with others, we used the Ring of
Emotional Sobriety with its detachment, integrity, respect for self
and respect for others to be able to understand ourselves and others
better.
In the work with this Ring, we also let go of seeing our own and
others' defects of character and virtues as qualities we or they
possessed, but as energy fields we or they temporarily found ourselves
in.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use the
Ring of Emotional Sobriety from my
AcAdAn Program so as to
accept that it is my task to take care of my
emotions and thoughts and it is the task of others to take care of
their emotions and thoughts.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
15: Step
Seven
Step
Seven consists of two parts, and the first part we could do
immediately after finishing Step Six.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 54
When
we came to Step Seven, we had become entirely ready
to allow our Higher Power to liberate us from our defects of
character, and we began our Seventh Step by praying to be liberated
from all of our defects of character.
Next, we moved on to the other part of our Seventh Step, which is a
daily cooperation with our chosen Higher Power about being liberated
from our defects of character in those situations where we observed
they arose.
Gradually, as we developed our Seventh Step we became better and
better at spotting our defects of character and thereby we also
became better at cooperating with our chosen Higher Power about
being liberated from them.
By daily use of Step Seven, we experienced that our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction was decreased, and we became more and more
content with ourselves and our life under all circumstances, no
matter what they are.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
Seventh Step to
cooperate with my Higher
Power about liberating me from my
defects of character.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
16: Loss
Because
we accepted that the process of sorrow had to take its own course
and it took its time whether we wanted it or not, gradually, we
learned to not oppose it but to allow it to pass so as to become
able to liberate our self from our sorrow that otherwise might turn
into bitterness.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 41
When
we lost something or someone, which or who were important for us,
whether it concerned our possessions, our health, or people, it
often happened that we found it difficult to accept the loss.
Our lack of acceptance of the loss set the five stages of sorrow
into movement: denial, anger, nEgotiation, grief and acceptance, and
it did not matter for the intensity of our pain, in which area we
experienced loss.
Even if the loss was to our advantage, it could still be painful for
many of us, like it for example happened, when we let go of our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
When we suffered a loss of the familiar, it could make many of us
turn away from our recovery in AcAdAn, because it was important for
us to learn to live through the process of sorrow.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use
my AcAdAn Program
to ease and
heal the pain of my
losses.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
17:
To try to escape from life
We
discovered that our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction were just
one of the many paths we had traveled in our attempts to escape
from coming face to face with our four basic human attributes.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 15
Most
of us had been on the spiritual path for a long time in our search
for a solution to our existential pains before we came to AcAdAn.
At meetings in Active Addictions Anonymous we heard others talk
about that it was good to stop trying to flee from life as a human
being.
However, we could not put a finger on what it entailed to try to
escape from life even if we had a vague idea about that it was
what we did.
Only when we heard about our human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability we understood that it
was our humanness we had tried to flee from.
𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to learn to be content with
my human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeablity.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
18:
Praise
from others
Instead
of thinking that we had to save others from the consequences of
their thoughts, emotions or actions so as for us to be able to feel
good
about our self, we respected their
right to own the consequences
of their thoughts, emotions and actions, and hence, we gave them
time and space to find their own solutions, and at the same time, we
gave our self the right to the same.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 48
Our
need to be able to perceive ourselves as good people
could make us use the savior role of our codependency to achieve
praise from others so we could get to feel better about ourselves.
As we did not expect to get praise from others just like that, we
became willing to use our resources to save others from life's pains
even if our true motive was not to save them but to get praise from
them.
We discovered our true motive by us experiencing emotional pain, if
nobody expressed praise about us sacrificing our resourcers so
others could get to feel good instead of using our resources on
ourselves.
This showed us that our co-dependency was active, so used the
detachment of our emotional sobriety to the existential pains of
others without letting go of our love for them.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
AcAdAn Program to liberate myself from my need for praise from
others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
19:
The
euphoria of self-praise
Instead
of praising our self for the successes we thought we had achieved in
the course of a day and thereby creatingmanifesting a short-lived
euphoria from the thought of how great we thought we were, we chose
to focus on our gratitude about the help we received in the course
of the day that made our success possible, whether the help sprang
from within or without.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 47
When we
saw the beauty and qualities of others, we could feel that they were
better than we were, and this could make us want to praise ourselves
for the successes that we had recently experienced.
When we praised ourselves for our successes, we tended to forget
that we had achieved them because we had received an empowerment
from our inner World’s inspiration or from the help and support of
our outer World.
Our self-praise gave us a short-lived state of euphoria from the
Ring of Self-Centeredness about how good we thought we were, and we
knew that our self-criticism and depression would soon would follow.
This taught us to move from the pain of the Ring of
Self-Centeredness with its self-praise, euphoria, self-criticism and
depression to the joy of the Ring of God-Centeredness with its
gratitude, joy, openmindedness and empowerment.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
AcAdAn Program to move
from the pain in the Ring of Self-centeredness with its
self-praise, euphoria, self-criticism and depression, to the joy in
the Ring of God-centeredness with its gratitude, joy,
open-mindedness and empowerment.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
20:
Task
solving
Some
of us thought it wasn’t necessary to seek our Higher Power’s will
for us so often in the course of a day as we had done so at the
beginning of the day itself.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 70
Step
Eleven
suggests that we must seek guidance from our Higher Power, before we
begin a task to be able to find the best possible solution to the
task.
Furthermore, Step Eleven suggests that we thank our Higher Power for
the guidance and the power to carry out the task, when the task is
completed.
Many of us did not think we had the time to stop both before and
after a task, because we wanted to proceed to the next task
immediately.
We discovered however, that this impatience and rashness often led
us to feeling rushed, irritable and belligerent, and thus we lost
our contentment.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use the suggestion from my
Eleventh Step in AcAdAn to stop both before and after a task to seek
guidance before the task and to thank for the guidance and the power
to carry out the task afterwards.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
21:
Choice
of a Higher Power
The
right to have a Higher Power of our own choice is unconditional and
without traps.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 27
Before
we came to AcAdAn, many of us had some perceptions
of a Higher Power that frightened us because we had been told that
if we didn’t do certain things or failed to do others, our Higher
Power would punish us.
In AcAdAn, we had a need to liberate ourselves from these
impressions in Step Two and instead choose a Higher Power that did
not punish or reward us for things we did or did not do.
The only suggested guidelines in our Second Step are that we
choose a Higher Power that we were able to perceive as
unconditionally loving, caring, compassionate, and merciful.
When we heard about other members’ experiences with choosing an
unconditionally loving, caring, compassionate, and merciful Higher
Power, our confidence grew that it could be done by us too.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my faith in that my
choice of my personal Higher Power is completely without traps
so I can freely choose a Higher Power that I trust.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
22:
Appreciation of the
group members
We
know that each and every group member is vital for the group to
survive.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 86
When we moved around in society, we observed that both we and other
people were treated more or less respectfully depending on our and
their external appearance.
Furthermore, we observed that we and other people were treated
differently because of our wealth or prestige or lack thereof,
especially if we or they had a high position in society.
In our Fellowship, we did not want to use this external yardstick for
how we related to each other because our common goal was of an
internal nature, and therefore we emphasize the Principle of
Anonymity.
The Principle of Anonymity says that we all have equal value to the
Fellowship because each individual member is vital to the survival of
our group, and therefore we want to show each member of our group the
same respect.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will respect and
appreciate every single member of my group both in my AcAdAn
Fellowship and my other Fellowships, like for example the
Fellowship of two people in my marriage.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
23: To
learn by listening to other members
The
Program of Active Addictions Anonymous might seem to us like a
humongous task, and it helps us if we remember that we cannot do it
all at once, and that nobody expects us to.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
In
our
first AcAdAn meeting we heard about many concepts that were new to
us, and for many of us it seemed overwhelming to think about
acquiring an understanding of them.
After the meeting, we talked with other members, and they told us
that their understanding of the concepts also kept developing, so
they had learned to take it easy.
They suggested that we took it easy and just listened to what others
had to share about their understanding of the concepts, and little
by little our understanding would develop.
Furthermore, we could consider beginning the work on our own AcAdAn
Program and thus become even better at developing our own
understanding of the concepts.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will participate in an AcAdAn meeting to
learn about the AcAdAn Program by listening to other members'
understanding of it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
24: Acts of
violence and war
We
remembered that attack is the first act of violence and defense the
first act of war, and an explanation would be an expression of our
desire to defend our wrong.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 67
Most
of us considered ourselves to be peaceful people,
until we came to AcAdAn and investigated the issue further, and here
we found out that we often attacked others, although we rarely did
so physically.
We had denied that it was a violent attack on others when we used
irritated, impatient, belligerent or bitter tones or looked at them
with angry facial expressions or used angry words towards them.
We defended our attacks on others by saying that we were defending
good against evil or that we were saving him&her from
his&her misunderstandings of right and wrong, thus sparing
him&her from future pain.
After working with our AcAdAn Program for some time, we realized
that all of these actions were acts of violence and that our defense
of our attacks on others were acts of war regardless of whether they
attacked us first or not.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will
use my AcAdAn Program to stop those acts of violence and war
that I usually carry out in my social life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
25: Step
Eight
We
began by looking at what we considered to be harm Today seen through
the eyes we have gained through working the first Seven Steps in
Active Addictions Anonymous. Therefore, we took an honest
stand on how
we had harmed our self and others materially, physically,
time-space wise, emotionally, mentally, socially and spiritually.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 60
When we
came to AcAdAn, we had mainly seen material loss and illness as
harmful to us, and it had taken us a long time to understand that we
were addicted to chronic dissatisfaction and that it was harmful to
us.
In Step Eight, we had become aware that we needed to make amends to
ourselves and others for the harm our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction had inflicted on ourselves and others.
In Step Eight, we understood that our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction was a mindset that had come at great cost to
ourselves, our loved ones, and everyone around us, and that it was the
root of much of the suffering in our lives.
Furthermore, we discovered that our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction was not only harming us socially, but also materially,
physically, energetically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, so
we needed to make amends to ourselves for this.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
Eighth Step to make myself ready to make amends for the harms I
have done to myself and others with my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction in Step Nine.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
26:
Accountability
in service
Tradition
Nine opens up the possibility that we may createmanifest service
boards and committees if we want to take on a bigger project like
writing new literature or organizing an event or a convention, but
those who take on this service are directly responsible to those
they serve – the members, groups and the Fellowship of AcAdAn as a
whole.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 95
In AcAdAn
our most important task was to help and support each other in
recovering from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, which has
got nothing to do with our profession, our status or our position in
our society.
To create and manifest the haven we needed to recover from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction without fear or favor, we
needed that our Fellowship was non-professional.
This meant that we did not look at each others’ status in society,
and therefore we had a need for that service work in our Fellowship
happened on a voluntary basis, so our service structure did not
depend on status or fear or favor.
When we needed to carry out a bigger project, we wanted also this to
happen by the help of a voluntary effort, and that those who served
our Fellowship, kept the Fellowship informed about their line of
action and the economics.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I will be aware of that although the
service work I do for the Fellowship is voluntary, an important part
of this service is, that I keep the Fellowship well informed about
my workflow and the economics in my part of the service work.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
27:
Transformation
This
way, by being thorough, meticulous and committed to do this work day
after day, gradually, we became entirely ready to be liberated from
all of our defects of character by allowing our Higher Power to
transform them to their corresponding qualities in the Rings of Joy.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 53
Gradually, as our work with our Seventh Step developes, we became
aware of that our perception of what transformation of our defects of
character involved, was not in conformity with Reality.
Many of us thought that our chosen Higher Power would transform them all
when we used the first Seventh Step Prayer so we needed not do any more
about, but in Step Seven we needed to learn to cooperate with our Higher
Power.
When we worked with Step Seven however, we realized that the
transformation was not an event but a process, and we had to contribute
every step of the way to attain a working Seventh Step.
After completing the initial prayer, we used our Seventh Step Prayers,
one at a time according to the defect of character we spotted in a
social interaction by asking our chosen Higher Power to liberate us from
it.
Today's contemplation
Today I will use my Seventh Step to cooperate with my chosen Higher
Power to liberate myself from my use of my defects of character
throughout the day
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
28: The
changeability
Thereby,
we became able to understand that every moment is precious and is
forever over, when the next moment is born, and by looking at our
mortality through this perspective, it became less frightening, and
we became more content.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 21
When we worked with our four basic attributes as manifested
creatures in our AcAdAn Program, we discovered that our perception
of death changed.
Most of us thought of death as the moment we left our physical
bodies, but by investigating death in daily life, we discovered that
mortality/changeability is an ongoing process throughout our day.
We also discovered that we needed mortality/changeability to be able
to see ourselves, our lives, others, and the World as a whole in the
new perspectives that constantly arose due to the changeability of
everything.
In this way, we could find ourselves, others, our lives, and the
World at large interesting, and thus we could enter the joy of the
Ring of Fulfillment with its fulfillment, interest, meaningfulness,
and oneness.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
will
use my
AcAdAn
Program
to let go
of
my
fear of change.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
29: The
consequences of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
Most
of us realized that in spite of our continuous efforts to change,
and in spite of all the understanding, love and care we received
from others, we still felt dissatisfied with our self and others.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Gradually,
as we worked with our addiction to chronic satisfaction in our
AcAdAn Program, it became clearer and clearer to us how deeply
seated it was.
It also became clear to us that the thoughts we thought as a result
of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, gave rise to some
emotions that both hurt us and our loved ones.
This insight into our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction and its
consequences, made our desire to recover from it more intense.
Thereby, it became easier for us to let go of this disease by the
help of the daily work with Step Ten, Eleven and Twelve for the
maintenance of our contentment.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to maintain my contentment.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
30: Recovery
from existential pains
Some
of us tried to hide parts of our past in an attempt to look better,
but we could not afford this mistake.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 44
When our
Fifth Step is approaching,
some of us may feel
uneasy by the thought of
sharing some of those discoveries
about our self that we discovered
in our Fourth
Step.
That thought made us consider hiding them, so that our
Sponsor/recovery-buddy should not think poorly of us
or maybe even not loose interest in working the Step with us.
We spoke
with other members of AcAdAn about our feelings, and they told us that
Step One is the basis for the healing to begin, because in Step One we
admit what pains us and how they make our lives unmanageable.
.
They told us
further that Step
Four is an inventory
of many of
our existential pains,
and the more we have
the courage to admit, the greater will be our
possibility of recovering from the pains, so
it is essential that we have the courage to stand by our self in Step
Five by admitting our pains to another human being.
Today's contemplation
Today courageously, I will admit
my existential pains,
and how they make my
life unmanageable to another human being.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
March
31:
Acceptance of the ignorance
Many
of us had equated ignorance with stupidity, and even with evil, and
as we neither wanted to be stupid
nor evil, we
had problems admitting our ignorance, but when we accepted the
fact that ignorance is an integral part of our humaneness, we gave
up blaming our self and others for not knowing better.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 20
In
our
highly developed culture, we received a flow of information all the
time through newspapers, magazines, TV and the Internet, and that
could make many of us imagine that we knew a lot about this, that and
the other.
As we were not personally involved in most of the events, we got
information about, we were ignorant about the true nature of the
events, but anyway we were expected to have a stand point on
everything between heaven and earth.
If we admitted our ignorance, we could be exposed to reactions from
others, which gave us the impression that there was something wrong
with our ignorance, and this could lead us to get an urge to hide our
ignorance.
The fact was, however, that both we and others could not escape our
human ignorance no matter how much information we possessed, because
there would always be a lot of areas that we knew nothing about.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will accept my ignorance as a part of being human.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
APRIL
April
01:
Recovery from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
Our
experience has shown us that, whether our disease is mild, moderate
or severe, over time, it generally settles within us as an addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction with our self, with everything and
everyone everywhere, at all levels of existence, and thereby with
life itself.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
Most of us perceived
dissatisfaction as a tool we could use when we wanted to create and
manifest change for the better in our lives, until we realized that
giving ourselves this pain was not the solution.
It also did not occur to us that we were dissatisfied on a daily basis
many times a day without changing anything for the better because of
it, so we were torturing ourselves to no avail.
Before we came to AcAdAn, we were not aware that our daily use of
dissatisfaction was a chronic insanity that was harmful to ourselves,
our loved ones, and everyone we encountered during the day.
Using our AcAdAn Program, we began the work of overcoming our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction by changing what we could change
and accepting what we could not change.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Fellowship to get the help I need to
overcome my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
02:
Fellowship with everything and everybody
In
the course of our spiritual work in AcAdAn, we discovered that
self-sufficiency is an illusion.
We need everyone and everything around us, and we need to experience
a
sense of Fellowship with everyone
and everything around us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 85
Most
of us thought we only had a Fellowship with our near and dear ones
and with different groups we were a part of, but at AcAdAn meetings,
we discovered that we have a larger Fellowship.
We may not have thought we had a Fellowship with a stone, and yet a
stone is a manifested creature that is limited, ignorant, powerless
and mortal/changeable just like we are, so we have that in common.
Both plants and animals are limited, ignorant, powerless and
changeable manifested creatures, just like we are, and both on Earth
and in the Higher Worlds this applies, so we all have that in
common.
The only energy field where we are not limited, ignorant, powerless
and mortal/changeable, is in the oneness with our true Self, our
Spirit in the God Realm..
Today's contemplation
Today, I will open
myself up to the Fellowship, I have, with everything and everybody
everywhere on all planes of existence.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
03:
Existential pains
We
sought help and consolation from each other in AcAdAn, and thus we
got the strength to go through the emotions of pain until they
subsided.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 40
Little by little,
as we worked with our AcAdAn Program, we began to
accept that pain is an advantageous part of life even if we had not
imagined that something like that could become possible for us.
We realized that pain protected us from sitting down on a hot stove,
and it made us go to the doctor if we had experienced pain in our
physical body for a while without us being able find out why the
pain was there.
When we experienced mental-emotional pain, our natural reaction was
to move away from the pain, but gradually as we developed
sensitivity to ourselves, we practically experienced pain every day,
if not physically then psychologically.
It were these existential pains that made us to seek a spiritual
solution to our pains, and thus we stopped fleeing from our pains at
long last and instead we investigated them, so we could release them
and let them go.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to
investigate a physical or psychological pain to find out what I
need to do to release it and let go of it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
04: The
Twelve Traditions of AcAdAn
An
AcAdAn Group’s fundamental
purpose is of a spiritual nature, and the moment we begin to be
preoccupied with money, property,
power
and prestige issues, we are diverted from our primary purpose.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 91
AcAdAn’s
Twelve Traditions are an expression of those
experiences we have had with our Fellowship as a whole both in our
relationship with each other and in our relationship with the
surrounding society and the World at large.
We have discovered that if we let ourselves get diverted from our
basic purpose, which is to liberate ourselves from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction, the Fellowship soon lost its healing power.
We had achieved our contentment by the help of our Fellowship and
our AcAdAn Program and we lost our Fellowship, and if our Fellowship
did not function in conformity with our Traditions.
Our Traditions hold together our World-wide Fellowship, and if we
did not follow them, we did not have the support that we needed to
maintain our recovery.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will
respect the Traditions of AcAdAn
and maintain my
focus on my spiritual
work in AcAdAn
above everything else.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
05;
Individuality
We
know that no single person can speak for the group or for Active
Addictions Anonymous as a whole in public discussions, and
therefore, we do not speak on behalf of the group or on behalf of
Active Addictions Anonymous as a whole.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 96
As members of AcAdAn it was important for us that no one spoke on
our behalf by speaking on behalf of the Fellowship as a whole,
because we are all unique, so we all have our completely unique way
of understanding our Program.
However, sometimes we needed to give one of our members a mandate to
speak about AcAdAn in a public context, and when one of us got this
task, it was important that we remembered our Traditions.
When we spoke about AcAdAn in public contexts without mandate we let
nobody have any doubt that we spoke on our own behalf about our
personal experiences with the Fellowship and with the Program in
AcAdAn.
If a member had been given the mandate to present our group's views
to our Area Service Committee, he/she made sure to express only what
the group had assigned him/her to say.
Today's contemplation
Today,
I
accept that I cannot speak
on the behalf of others, so I choose to be aware
that I am speaking for
myself and about myself when
I express my thoughts.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
06:
Decision making process
Beginning
the day by making up our minds if our decision to surrender to our
Higher Power’s care was also valid Today the decision could slowly
grow and become wholehearted.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 28
In
Step
Three, we had a need to surrender the care for our will and our life
to our chosen Higher Power’s unconditionally loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention.
For most of us, this decision was not an event but a process, and
while we worked with our Third Step, we reached to a desire to
surrender our will and out life to our Higher Power's care.
We soon discovered that we felt like withdrawing our desire to
surrender our will and our life to our Higher Power’s care for many
different reasons that we thought were good reasons.
By beginning the day with our Third Step Prayer, we could support our
self in our desire to achieve that wholehearted surrender that we had
experienced in short glimpses during our work with Step Three.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use the Third Step Prayer to support my desire to
surrender my will and my life wholeheartedly to my Higher Power's
care, one day at a time.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
07:
Appreciation
The
principle of Tradition Five is Gratitude.
Slogan: Mutual appreciation pleases the heart.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
Many
of
the actions we carried out during the day, were about our interactions
with others, and in that connection we performed many actions that
contributed to the lives of others with an empowerment.
We believed that we were then entitled to receive their joy and
gratitude, so we expected them to be in the Ring of God-Centeredness
with its joy, empowerment, openmindedness and gratitude.
Therefore, it was important for us to know that appreciation for our
contribution was not necessarily possible for the one whose life we
contributed to, so instead we could choose to be grateful that our
Higher Power had given us the capacity to contribute.
The highest joy for us as givers was to experience the appreciation
and joy of others in response to our contribution, but we were not
entitled to it, so we made sure that we would rejoice in helping and
that this was enough.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will only choose to help my neighbor if it would bring me
joy to do so, knowing that the right action is the sweet fruit
itself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
08: To give
and receive life force
When
we participate regularly in the meetings, we are part of that Power
that keeps the group alive.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 86
In
our work with our AcAdAn Program, we began to observe ourselves and
our lives in the course of the day and discovered that our thoughts,
emotions and actions held many possibilities.
Little by little, we observed that there were some areas of our
lives that we particularly valued, and therefore we supported these
areas by using our resources on them, our money, our time, our
energy and our interest.
For us, as AcAdAn members, our inner life is of great importance,
and therefore we chose to give life force to our inner life by
working with our AcAdAn Program and attending meetings in our AcAdAn
Fellowship.
By working with our Program, we discovered ourselves in new ways,
and when we went to meetings, we got inspiration and life force for
our inner life, because the other members shared their experiences
with their inner life with us.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will give life
force to
my inner
life by
doing Step
work in
AcAdAn
and
I will attend
an
AcAdAn
meeting
and
receive
life force
to my
inner life
from
what the other
members share during the meeting.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
09: Courage to be honest:
Courage to be honest
We
needed to be honest and brave to be able to do this work, and we
initiated it by seeking strength from our Higher Power every time
we sat down to write about our defects of character
and our virtues, and how our use of them had affected our lives
till this day.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 41
DDuring
our growing up, many of us experienced that it could be difficult to
be allowed to be honest because our parents and other adults around
us could get angry about what we had at heart.
Sometimes they could even become violent because of our perception
of Reality, and this had led us to not believe it was safe for us to
be honest about our thoughts, emotions and actions in social
interactions.
Although being honest could create fear in us, we understood that it
was to our advantage to surrender to the First Step, which states;
The Principle of the First Step is Honesty. Slogan: Truth always
triumphs in the end!
By the time we reached Step Four, we had admitted so many things to
ourselves and our Sponsor or Recovery Buddy and our AcAdAn
Fellowship that we now have the courage we need to look honestly at
our character defects and our virtues.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Program, my Sponsor or Recovery Buddy,
and my AcAdAn Fellowship to find the courage to be honest.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
10:
First meeting with the Big Ring of Joy via Step One to Four
The
Program in Active Addictions Anonymous Step One to Four.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 10
In
our AcAdAn
Program the Steps themselves are a
meeting with the Big Ring
of Joy with
its faith, hope, love
and truth.
We carried out Step One because we believed
it was to our benefit to begin to be honest with ourselves by
admitting what was hurting us and making our lives unmanageable.
We carried out Step Two because we hoped that we could have
a better life by opening ourselves to take a loving Higher Power
into our lives, and we carried out Step Three because we wanted to
surrender to the loving care of our Higher Power.
We carried out Step Four because we wanted to find out the truth
about what defects of character prevented us from surrendering
to the loving care of our chosen Higher Power and what virtues
helped us to surrender.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use Step
One, Two, Three and Four
in my AcAdAn
Program to set the
Big Ring of
Joy into vibration in my
psychological landscape.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
11:
The Truth
The
principle of Step One is Honesty.
Slogan: Truth always triumphs in the end!
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
In
our AcAdAn
Program, we needed to be as honest as we were capable of, so
as to become able to carry out the Program, but it is important for us
however, not to demand of ourselves that our truth and the Truth are
identical.
We accepted that the word chair is a symbol that points to the truth,
which is the chair, and whether we used one or the other word for
chair, depending on the language we spoke, the word however, would
never become the chair.
As a result of this understanding we realized that a dispute about
words is a waste of our time, our energies and our interests, and this
allowed us to honestly acknowledge that our perception of Reality in
one perception among many.
That made our social life easier, because we no longer needed to
persuade others to accept our perception about the truth, but could
allow them to use their own words to describe their own truth, as they
perceived it.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will remember that words
are not the Truth, but a
pointer to how I and
others perceive Reality
right
here and right now.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
12:
Responsibility
We
took responsibility for that part which we felt guilty about, and
let go of their feelings of guilt or the lack of it as something
which is between them and their Higher Power.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 66
In
our Ninth Step, we made the amends we had decided on in Step Eight, but
sometimes we would not be willing to do a Ninth Step because we felt
that the other person had also wronged us.
If that was the case, we remembered that there were three different
types of tasks in life: Our tasks, the tasks of others, the tasks of our
Higher Power, so it was the personal tasks of others to choose to make
amends to us.
If we chose to perceive our AcAdAn Program as given to us by our Higher
Power, it was our task to do it as best as we could, and it was the task
of others to take care of the tasks they had been given by their Higher
Power.
In other words, it was only our responsibility to do the tasks that our
Higher Power had given us today and not to take responsibility for the
tasks of others, because their tasks were given to them by their Higher
Power and not by us.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will choose to take responsibility for the tasks that my Higher
Power has given me, and I will let go of trying to take responsibility
for giving others tasks and leave it to their Higher Power.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
13: Cooperation
with our Higher Power in Step Seven
With
the first part of Step Seven, we had shown
our Higher Power and our self that we were entirely ready to have
all our defects of character transformed. Now, we began to cooperate
with our Higher Power about having them transformed.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 54
The first time we read the headline of Step Seven, we imagined that we
would be free from all of our defects of character, when we had finished
Step Seven.
When we actually began working with Step Seven, we imagined that we
would be liberated from all of our defects of character all at once,
when we had finished Step Seven.
When we began working with Step Seven, we discovered that this did not
happen even though we prayed for it, because Step Seven invited us to
our cooperate with our Higher Power about being liberated from them, one
day at a time.
With the initial Seventh Step prayer, we had shown ourselves and our
Higher Power that we were willing to be liberated from our defects of
character and thus ready to cooperate with our Higher Power on a daily
basis.
We cooperated by asking our Higher Power to be liberated in the NOW when
we observed an active defect of character beginning to surface, and in
the process we became well acquainted with our psychological landscape.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will
cooperate with my Higher Power by the help of Step Seven by praying to
my Higher Power to liberate me from my defects of character, when I
observe that they surface in the course of my day.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
14:
Meditation
To
be able to hear our Higher Power’s guidance, we had to empty our
mind from all thoughts and turn silent.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 69
In Step
Eleven,we learned how to use prayer and
meditation to expand our conscious contact with our chosen Higher
Power, and with this purpose in mind, we needed to learn to empty our
minds of all thoughts.
We did this by letting all thoughts from our thinking mind, our Ego,
pass us by without grapping hold of them, until they slowly slipped
into the background, and we became present in the Blissful Flow of the
Present Moment.
As our thinking mind, our Ego, slipped into the background, we
observed that various inspired impulses came to us, and we perceived
them to be our Higher Power's suggestions for activities for the day.
In this way, an almost imperceptible sense of Holy Presence arose in
our minds, and we understood that our meditation had begun, and
therefore we had become able to sense the presence of our Higher Power.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use meditation to expand
my conscious contact with my
Higher Power.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
15:
Priorities
We
place strong emphasis on this, for we know that when we use
dissatisfaction in any form, we activate our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction all over again.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
For
many years
we had used
dissatisfaction many times a day because we imagined that our
dissatisfaction would give us the power to change the areas we
were dissatisfied with.
When we began to look more closely at whether it was working as
intended, we discovered that in most cases our dissatisfaction
did not lead to the changes we wanted it to make.
Only when we came to AcAdAn we realized that we used our
dissatisfaction to feel that we had done something about what we
wanted to change and could become willing to do something about
it in a fictional future.
In our work with the Program, we became aware of how our
dissatisfaction damaged us and everything around us, and
therefore our work to recover from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction became the center of our life.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will
give my recovery
from my addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction first
priority in my life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
16: The
Ring of God-centeredness
We
also investigated how our open-mindedness had brought about help
from unexpected sources, how this had empowered us to solve our
issues, and how this had brought about gratitude and joy in us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 31
Many
of
us imagined that the use of God-centeredness meant that we thought
about God or were focused on the concept of God all the time during
our day, and that we served God in ways that we imagined would
please God and reward us.
In AcAdAn, we used the Ring of God-centeredness with its joy,
empowerment, openmindedness, and gratitude for this purpose and to
liberate ourselves from the pain of the Ring of Self-centeredness
with its euphoria, depression, self-criticism, and self-praise.
The Ring of God-centeredness enabled us to be grateful for
everything that happened during our day, whether it brought us pain
and thus the opportunity to grow in enlightenment and wisdom, or
joy.
In our AcAdAn Program and our AcAdAn Fellowship, we learned to use
both pain and joy to our advantage, and thus we were able to let go
of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use
the Ring of God-centeredness to find
contentment with myself,
my life, others and
the World at large
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
17: Anger
We
had a tendency to live secret lives by hiding behind artificial masks,
hoping we
could fool others into loving us by the help of these masks.
However, we discovered that the only one we fooled was our self.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 44
Many times
we hid behind a mask of kind friendliness because we did not want to
hurt others with our anger, nor did we want to experience the
consequences of expressing our anger to others.
Before we came to AcAdAn, we did not know what else to do with our
anger, even though the reaction of others to us suggested that they
knew we were angry.
In AcAdAn, we learned that we could safely express our anger because
we now knew that repressed anger is hatred, and we needed to express
the pain of our hatred in order to recover from it.
We used Step One to admit our anger and how it made our lives
unmanageable, Step Two to find the loving intention behind the
situation that made us angry, and Step Three to surrender to that
loving intention.
Today's contemplation
Today,
I will liberate myself
from one of my anger
forms by the help of my
AcAdAn Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
18: Respect
and love for ourselves
Even
if we would succeed in making others love and respect us, it would
still not bring about our own love and respect for our self and thus
we needed to develop respect and love for our self to be able to
achieve contentment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 16
Many
of us believed that if we could get others to love and respect us,
we would be able to love and respect ourselves, so we fought many
battles with other to force them to do what we wanted so as to be
able to believe that they loved and respected us.
No matter how many times others did what we wanted to prove that
they loved us, we discovered that it did not change our perception
of ourselves or our belief that we were worthy of love.
In doing so, we understood that even though others did what we
wanted, we did not believe in their love, and we understood that we
needed to develop love into respect for ourselves in order to
believe that we were loved.
In Step Six, we transformed the aspects of ourselves that made us
feel unloved by developing an enlightened and wise and thus quiet
Ego, so that we could use Step Eleven to receive the unconditional
love of our Higher Power.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
AcAdAn Program to
work on those thoughts in me that
prevent me from
respecting and loving myself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
19: Trust
When
we had made our choice, we moved ahead in confidence with our chosen
person.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 43
In
our
Fifth Step, we had admitted to our self how our misunderstandings
and use of pain had affected us and our life until now, by writing
it down in our Fourth Step.
It had been a painful but also liberating task to write it down, and
in our Fifth Step the time was ripe to share it with our chosen Higher
Power, and we did so by reading it to our Higher Power.
We then needed to share the same with another human being, and that
could be a frightening thought for many of us, and so we needed to
choose to trust the person with whom we had decided to share our
Fourth Step.
In making this choice, we discovered that we were met with recognition
and understanding, and we also discovered that our joy was doubled and
our pain was halved when we shared our joy and pain sincerely with
another human being.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will
choose to trust that
I can sincerely share my joy
and my pain with another
human being.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
20:
Self-will and God's will
We
began taking care of our pain and the changes that took place in our
lives all the time with the help of our AcAdAn Program, and as a
result, we discovered that both pain and change are advantageous
parts of life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 18
When
we
came to It had been a painful but also liberating task to write it
down, and in our Fifth Step the time was ripe to share it with our
chosen Higher Power, and we did so by reading it to our Higher
Power.
We then needed to share the same with another human being, and that
could be a frightening thought for many of us, and so we needed to
choose to trust the person with whom we had decided to share our
Fourth Step.
In making this choice, we discovered that we were met with
recognition and understanding, and we also discovered that our joy
was doubled and our pain was halved when we shared our joy and pain
sincerely with another human being.
Today's contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Program to find my
chosen Higher Power's loving, caring, compassionate and merciful
intention behind the events in my day that I harbored he greatest
ill will towards.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
21:
Obsession
When
we become overpowered by such obsessive thoughts, we end up acting
on them, impulsively and at times against our will, and thus we are
compulsive.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
We
thought that we were in control of our thoughts, when we came to
Active Addictions Anonymous, and we had spent much time criticizing
our self, because we did not implement the decisions that we had
made in the beginning of the day.
However, we discovered that we were not only powerless over our
feeling of addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, but we were also
powerless over the thoughts that led to our feeling of addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction.
We believed that our thoughts spoke the truth, when the thoughts
that went through our mind, told us that we had good reasons to be
dissatisfied with our self, others and the World at large.
It did not occur to us that we could suffer from a mental obsession
that gave rise to our feeling of addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction and that we needed help to recover from this
obsession.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
will use my membership of Active Addictions Anonymous to get
the help I need to recover from my mental obsession by
thoughts, which holds addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
with me, others and the World at large.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
22:
Tradition Five
TRADITION
5:
Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry the message of
recovery to others suffering from addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 12
Before we
came to AcAdAn, we
believed that we could recover
from our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction by
using willpower, and we have tried to do
that for many years without success.
After we came to AcAdAn, we realized that we were suffering from a
mental illness that we needed help to recover from, and we received
that help from our Program, our Sponsor or Healing Buddy, and our
meetings.
In our meetings, we heard about how others handled their recovery from
their addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and that gave us a lot of
inspiration in our own recovery.
When we shared in meetings about how we were working on our recovery,
we deepened our understanding of our illness and at the same time
passed on the message that recovery from addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction IS possible.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will share about my
recovery from my addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction in
an
AcAdAn
meeting.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
23:
Tolerance
The
principle of Tradition Three is Tolerance.
Slogan: Tolerance furthers understanding.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
In
Tradition
Three we open our self both as individuals and as a group to the fact
that we cannot judge other people's lives and motives by looking at
them from the outside.
We are honest when we admit that we can never know if someone else
has a desire to give up his/her dissatisfaction with
himself/herself, his/her life, others and the World at large.
By the help of the Program in AcAdAn, our personal work with it, our
Sponsor and/or recovery buddy, our Higher Power and our meetings, if
we have a desire to give up our addiktion to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Therefore, we welcomed anyone, who expressed a desire to give up
his/her addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, regardless of the
reasons they state to be dissatisfied, and regardless of in what
their active addiction consists.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to show
tolerance towards others, who suffer from addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction and thereby give myself a chance to get a new
perspective on my own addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
24:
Detachment
We
detached from others’ material, physical, time-space wise,
emotional, mental, social and spiritual issues without detaching
from our love,
care, compassion and mercy
for them, and thus, we maintained our detachment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 48
Our dissatisfaction with others mostly sprang from our childhood, where
we tried to solve our parents' problems of intolerance and anger by
trying to change our behavior to please and appease them.
Therefore, when we spent our time, energy, interest, and money on trying
to fulfil the desires of others or solve their problems without success
or without them showing gratitude for our help, we became dissatisfied
once again.
When we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, we learned that our job is
to spend our time, energy, interest, and money on fulfilling our own
desires and taking care of our own existential problems.
Furthermore, we learned that in the same way it is the job of others
spend their time, energy, interest, and money on fulfilling their own
desires and solvtheir own problems, so we stopped attaching ourselves to
other people's problems.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will listen respectfully to the problems and desires of
others without taking them on as if they were my own.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
25:
Changeability
In
Active Addictions Anonymous, our recovery began only when we stopped
using dissatisfaction, and that meant that we stopped finding
reasons to be dissatisfied every day, even many times a day and
found reasons to be content every day, many times a day instead.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 22
When we came to
Active Addictions Anonymous,
many of us believed that the impetus to create and manifest
advantageous changes in our life sprang from our dissatisfaction with
ourselves and our life.
We also believed that we could force others to change in accordance
with our perception of what is right, if we voiced our dissatisfaction
with their way of being in the World.
It never occurred to us that we could create and manifest advantageous
changes in our lives without using dissatisfaction, but in AcAdAn we
that the changeability of life called forth changes without us needing
to use dissatisfaction.
When we used our AcAdAn Program to take a closer look at the
changeability in ourselves, others and our life, the changes always
and without exception proved to be to our advantage in the long run,
and thereby it became easier for us to be content.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to further
my recovery from my compulsive use of dissatisfaction with the
changeability of myself, others and life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
26: To make
amends
We
made a decision as to how we could restore the damages we thought we
had done, and thus, we became empowered to liberate our self from
our feelings of guilt and shame.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
In the course of
our life we had done much harm materially, physically, energetically,
emotionally, mentally, socially, and spiritually, and we wanted to make
amends for the harm we felt we had done to ourselves or others.
We wanted to do this to be able to liberate ourselves from guilt and
shame., so we brought out into the open all the areas we were ashamed of
in our Eighth Step and decided how we would make amends to ourselves and
others for our mistakes.
We then used the Great Day of Forgiveness to forgive ourselves, and in
Step Nine we made our amends after having sought guidance from our
chosen Higher Power and our Sponsor on how best to make amends.
We made direct amends to ourselves and others by changing the behavior
that had hurt us or them, and we made indirect amends to others if it
was not possible to make amends to them directly.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
will make amends to myself and others in those areas I think I
need to make amends for in order to become able to liberate
myself from guilt and shame.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
27:
Sponsorship
When
we took on a commitment as Sponsor, we found yet another way of
passing on this message.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 82
In our work
with our AcAdAn Program that when we got the opportunity to express
ourselves about our understanding of the Program, our understanding of
the Program became deeper and clearer.
That inspired us to pass on the message of AcAdAn to others, who
suffered from addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Simultaneously, we experienced the satisfaction of contributing to
that another person's existential pains diminished, and this is the
phenomenon we call a 'win win' situation, because we both win
something valuable by sharing our experiences.
When we took on the commitment as a Sponsor, we discovered the
benefits of having a person in our life, who was deeply interested in
what we thought about the Program, and who made it possible for us
confidently to express what we had learned in AcAdAn.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I
will deepen my understanding of my AcAdAn Program by passing on my
experiences with my Program to another human being, who is interested
in my Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
28:
To carry
out a full Twelve Step Recovery
To carry through a full Twelve Step Recovery
Sometimes,
we discovered that our Higher Power did not remove a particular
defect of character in us, for example, our impatience, in a given
situation even if we prayed for it.
From this, we realized that our Higher Power wanted us to take a
closer look at what our impatience had to tell us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 58
Gradually, as we became accustomed to using
our Seventh Step many times a day, when we observed that a character
defect rose to the surface, we were also getting used to being in
recovery under many different circumstances.
However, sometimes it happened, that we used our Seventh Step without a
change happening in our painful perspective on the situation, and we
know then that we need stronger measures to recover from our pain.
Therefore, we made use of the first given opportunity that arose to
inventory the situation by the help of our Sixth Step, and if we were
still not able to recover from the situation, we carried out a full
Twelve Step recovery on it.
A full Twelve Step Recovery is a powerful means to recover from most
pains in life whether the pain is material, physical, energetic,
emotional, mental, social or spiritual.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
will
use my
AcAdAn
Program to
take
a painful
situation
through a full
Twelve
Step recovery,
if
my
Sixth
and
Seventh
Step
do not work
for me
the situation.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
29:
Self-created and
self-manifested sufferings
When
we had completed our list, we went through it
point-by-point, and we wrote down how
we wanted to make amends.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 63
We had many
situations in our life
from the past that we
felt guilty about, because we did not
like the way, in which we
handled the situation
in question, and we
needed to recover from
our feelings of guilt
and shame because from the past.
We also needed to recover on a daily basis from our feeling of
guilt and shame about the way we handled situations in the present
that mostly stemmed from that pattern, we experienced in our
childhood.
It is important for us to learn how to handle any situation that
gives rise to guilt and shame in us, whether it took place in the
past or in the present, because guilt and shame are the deadliest
poisons for our spiritual life, where happiness is found.
Guilt and shame make us break off our contact with our chosen
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful Higher Power, when we
need this contact the most, and thereby our sufferings are
prolonged unnecessarily.
Today's contemplation
Today,
I will use Step Eight and Nine in my AcAdAn Program to recover
from ways in which I handled a situation that I am ashamed of.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
April
30:
A punishing Godhead
A punishing
Godhead
Therefore,
we could approach our Higher Power in many different ways that could
give us an experience of a loving, caring, compassionate and
merciful Higher Power, such as our 12-Step Program, the earthly and
spiritual principles, God, our Spirit, love that flows as the life
energy between us and others, everything and everybody everywhere at
all levels of existence or any other understanding and experience
that we had of a loving, caring, compassionate and merciful Higher
Power’s presence.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 73
Whether
we
grew up in the North,
the South, the East
or the West, our surrounding
society had given us an impression
of an invisible Higher
Power together with all what our
society thought about the
invisible Higher Power.
An important detail for many of us was that we were
told that the Higher Power, which our society perceived as the right
one, was the only right one, and if we did not think so, we were
doomed to hell, if not now then once we died and the time of
reckoning came.
This made our life far more difficult than it needed to be, so it
was a great relief for us when we came to our Twelve Step Program in
AcAdAn that we were told in Step Two that we had an absolute freedom
without traps to choose a Higher Power.
The only stipulation was that we chose to take a loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful Higher Power into our life, and in that
way the punishing Godhead lost its power over us.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will to use
my AcAdAn Program
to let go completely of
the thought of a punishing Godhead
by the help of my
Second Step.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
MAY
May
01:
The principle of
anonymity
When
we interact with the outside world – both with the public as well as
while carrying the message to others who suffer from addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction – in the course of our AcAdAn services, we
practice Tradition Ten by not expressing anything about outside
issues such as religion, therapeutic communities, politics,
treatment methodologies etc.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 96
As
members
of AcAdAn we tried to give everything its proper place, and
our Traditions were one of the areas we wanted to keep in mind when
we mentioned AcAdAn in public contexts.
We respected the Principle of Anonymity by being aware that we were
ambassadors of AcAdAn rather than our personal selves when we
expressed ourselves about AcAdAn in public contexts.
Therefore, we did not express our personal opinion on outside
issues, but were happy to express our knowledge of AcAdAn's capacity
to contribute to our individual well-being.
So if others wanted to find out what AcAdAn has to offer them
personally, we could only suggest that they read our literature or
attended a few AcAdAn meetings to find out if they think they could
benefit from what we have to offer.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will respect
the Anonymity Principle of AcAdAn by
accepting my role as AcAdAn's
ambassador in public
contexts if my participation
in AcAdAn
crops up in the conversation.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
02:
Our
life's purpose
Our
life's purpose
The
principle of Tradition Six is Life-force.
Slogan: I liberate myself from that which does not serve my
purposes.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
Many of us felt guilty when we wanted to take care of our own
purposes first and foremost, because we learned during our
upbringing that we had the right to take care of our own purposes
only, when we had taken care of the wished of our parents.
Our parents taught us that their purposes were more important than
ours, and our society taught us that their purposes were more
important than ours, and some of us have even learned that we should
serve the God’s needs instead of our own, as they were described by
others.
However, when we cam to AcAdAn we realized that our omnipresent,
omniscient, omnipotent and immortal Higher Power holds everything
and everyone everywhere at all levels of existence and desire does
not need anything from us other than us following our hearts!
When we discovered that it became clear to us that our life’s
purpose is to improve our life on a daily basis, so we understood
that our true purpose in life is the same as everyone else's: namely
to work on improving our own life, and thereby improve life on
Earth.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I will use my AcAdAn Program to liberate myself from that which
prevents me from using my resources on improving my own life and
thereby on improving life on Earth.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
03:
Our basic purpose in
AcAdAn
Therefore,
we don’t use AcAdAn resources to endorse, finance or lend the AcAdAn
name to any related facility or outside enterprise, because such an
affiliation of Active Addictions Anonymous with other facilities
having a purpose similar to ours may easily createmanifest a
situation where
power, prestige, and debates
over money and ownership might divert us from our
primary purpose.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 91
In AcAdAn our basic purpose was to liberate ourselves from the
existential pain that sprang from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction with our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability.
Those results we achieved by working with our AcAdAn Program were of
such a miraculous nature that many wanted to take AcAdAn’s credit for
their work of a similar nature.
This could easily lead to controversy about which enterprise should be
given the honor for these results, but in AcAdAn we were not interested
in participating in a public debate about the honor.
Our basic and only purpose is to help each other to recover from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction and thus achieve contentment, so we
do not participate in discussions about to whom belongs the honor for
the improvement in another's life situation.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will stick to
my basic purpose when
I take part in conversations,
whether they are about my membership
of AcAdAn or
other areas of my life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
04:
To
listen
The
principle of Step Two is Open-mindedness.
Slogan: To listen attentively and respectfully to another is the
first expression of emotional sobriety.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Most
of us us could become so eager about expressing our perception of a
topic that we stopped listening to other participants in the
conversation, especially if it was a topic that we knew something
about, and even more so if it was about our area of expertise.
It could even lead to us completely stopping listening to what
others had to contribute with on the topic in question, because we
became so consumed by thoughts of what we wanted to contribute with,
when our turn to speak came.
As our entire focus was on our thoughts instead of on listening
attentively and respectfully to what the others had to share, we
lost the very purpose with conversation with others.
In that way, at the same time, we lost the enrichment of our own
perspectives that we could have achieved, if we had chosen to listen
attentively and respectfully to what others had to contribute with
to our perspectives.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
will
listen
attentively and
respectfully
to others to
draw
nourishment
from the
perspectives they have to offer.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
05:
Our choices
This
way, by being thorough, meticulous and committed to do this work day
after day, gradually, we became entirely ready to be liberated from
all of our defects of character by allowing our Higher Power to
transform them to their corresponding qualities in the Rings of Joy.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 53
In AcAdAn, little
by little, we got to know our psychological landscape in Step Four, and
thereby we got to know the emotional and mental energies that brought us
and others pain and those that brought us and others joy.
In Step Six, we were given the power to choose between using the
energies that pained us and others and the energies that gave joy to us
and others and this strengthened our capacity to find contentment under
all circumstances, no matter what they are.
At the same time we discovered how it affected our material life, our
physical life, energy life, emotional life, thought life, social life
and spiritual life when we chose pain, and when we chose joy that both
have theirs to give .
That taught us to appreciate the message of pain, because pain showed us
what we could advantageously transform in our life, and furthermore the
pain gave us an intensified drive to renew ourselves, and joy gave us
the power to experience a life of contentment.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my Sixth Step in my AcAdAn Program to transform an
emotional pain to enlightenment and wisdom by the help of the Rings of
Joy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
06:
The
four states of our thinking mind, our Ego
The five
states in our thinking mind, our Ego
This
meant that we wanted to know our Higher Power’s will for us, which
is, in Reality, our own will for our self when we are not blinded by
our thoughts and emotions.
When praying for the power to carry that out, we were actually
praying for the capacity to overcome our thoughts and emotions that
stood in our way.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 74
As
our
work with our AcAdAn Program evolved, developed, we discovered that
our thinking mind, our Ego, basically contained four types of
thoughts with the associated emotional feelings.
We found out that our painful emotions were related to painful
thoughts passing through our Egomind, and our joyful emotions were
related to joyful thoughts passing through our thinking mind, our
Ego.
When we paired a Painring with a Joyring in Step Six, we gave our
thinking mind, our Ego, a state of enlightenment and wisdom, which
gave our Ego mind peace in the Blissful Flow of the Present Moment
The silence that our peace of mind brought forth made it possible
for our Egomind to become the sounding board for our knowing mind,
our Godmind, and thus learn about and get to know God's will for us
and thus our own innermost will for ourselves.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to study
the four basic states of my thinking mind, my Ego in the course of
the day, and I will use my silent mind to find out what I want
innermost.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
07:
Pain's
function
In
Active Addictions Anonymous,
we want to be led to contentment, and by investigating these
patterns that revolves around and around in circles we clearly saw
how our contentment was blocked by our self-centeredness and was
achieved by help our God-centeredness.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 31
In AcAdAn, we discovered that the pains of life were not meaningless
or a punishment for known or unknown trespasses, because we found
out that the pain an action signal, which tells us that we must move
away from what is going on.
We also discovered that if we did not feel able to move away from
the pain in our inner or outer World for various reasons, we could
use our AcAdAn Program to inventory our pain, so we could find new
ways in which to move away.
By the help of our inventory, we developed new perspectives on
Reality and at the same time we developed our capacity to become
creative and emanifestive, when we came face to face with our own or
others’ existential pains.
We could furthermore develop our capacity for mercy towards
ourselves and others and thereby we brought ourselves in line with
our true Self, our Spirit and that joy of living, which this leads
to
.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use
my existential pains to develop my wisdom and my capacity for
mercy by the help of my Program in Active Addictions Anonymous.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
08:
Forgiving
of ourselves
We
simply admitted our wrongs, made amends, and then let go of them,
and if we were still not able to forgive our self, we applied Step
Two to open our minds to the loving, caring, compassionate and
merciful intention of our Higher Power behind our pain.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 67
It was common knowledge in our Fellowship
that the one we had the hardest forgiving was our self, and it was due
to our relationship with the pain of life, because we imagined that if
we did everything perfectly, we could escape the pain of life.
This could make us believe, we must have done something wrong, when we
were in pain, but in our AcAdAn Program we learned that pain is a
natural and beneficial part of life for a limited, ignorant, powerless
and mortal/changeable human being.
We realized that it was the job of pain to warn us that we could get
hurt if we continued to do what we were doing, and the warning meant
that we needed to change direction if we sat down in a fire.
Similarly, we needed to act on our mental and emotional pain by changing
something when we were in pain, and we did this by using our AcAdAn
Program to change our thoughts and thus our emotional feelings
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to forgive myself for my
judgements of today's material, physical, emotional, mental or social
pains.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
09:
Us
For
some of us, coming to believe
was equivalent to
opening our minds to the possibility that there might be more
between heaven and earth than what we were able to perceive with our
senses, and this helped us to begin approaching the concept of a
Power greater than us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 24
In Step Two, we worked with ‘a Power greater than me’ and a ‘Higher
Power’, and we realized that ‘a Power greater than me’ played out in
our social interactions with a ‘me’, a ‘you’ and a ‘us’, and an ‘us’
was a power greater than each of us.
This made us realize that there was a constant interaction between
us and the World around us on the horizontal plane, and that in all
these interactions there was a Power greater than ourselves
personally in the form of ‘us’.
By the help of the concept of a ‘Higher Power’, we became able to
receive guidance on the vertical plane in the Higher Worlds from the
fourth dimension to the eighth, which is also called the Absolute.
When we chose a ‘Higher Power’ on the vertical axis in Step Two,
many of us used that choice to choose an unconditionally loving,
caring, compassionate and merciful Higher Power that we called God.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will use the power-up I receive from ‘us’, whether it is
in my interactions with the visible or the invisible, the
horizontal or the vertical.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
10:
To move
from distrust to trust
We
talked with and listened to others in our Fellowship, and gradually,
we discovered that there were one or more of the others in whom we
had a special confidence, and thereby, we began trusting.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 26
When
we came to AcAdAn many of us had lost trust in both God and
humankind because of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction that
made us see let downs that made us see failure in all possible ways,
whether it was a real possibility or not.
So when we came to AcAdAn we distrusted both the Program, the other
members and our ability to ever live a satisfied life despite all
the gifts life had given us.
Still, we had a small glimmer of hope that we had found a way out of
our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, so we investigated AcAdAn
in the hope that we could get confirmation that we had finally found
a place where we could find contentment.
As our investigations progressed, our confidence grew in that AcAdAn
really intended our best and that we had found a path to resolution of
our daily pains because of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will give myself permission to
investigate all aspects of AcAdAn that I distrust before I
surrender to the suggestions of the Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
11:
Powerfulness Powerfulness
To
escape our powerlessness, many of us tried to achieve power over
various aspects of our lives, varying
from the cleanliness of our homes to taking on high
positions in society.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 15
It
could be difficult for us to face the fact that we were powerless
over many things, because we often had the impression that we were
powerful, especially when our projects were a success and our
desires were fulfilled.
When things were working out for us, we had a tendency to forget
that it did not happen by the help of our own efforts alone, and so
we could forget to be grateful for the help we had received from
others.
As a result of our self-praise, we also criticized ourselves for
what projects or unfulfilled desires that did not work out, because
all the energies of the Ring of Self-Centering were activated when
we used self-praise.
When we were in the Ring of Self-Centeredness with its euphoria,
depression, self-criticism, and self-praise, our lives became a
painful struggle to maintain our false self-image, because we feel
pain when we are unauthentic.
Today's
contemplation
Today I
will use my AcAdAn Program to cultivate gratitude for the help
and support that I receive from others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
12:
The driving force of
pain
Most
of us were scared of admitting that we needed the driving force of
pain and involuntary change in our lives to achieve enlightenment,
but we realized that not only we but any creaturemanifestation is
Spirit exploring the information hidden underneath the pains and
changes of life, each in our way.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 19
Pain is
an action-signal,
which
tells us that we must move away from what is happening, whether the
pain is material, physical, energetic, emotional, mental, social or
spiritual to give ourselves time to take care of the pain.
Most of us in AcAdAn, who had been working with the program for some
time, did this as something natural, but some of us were unable to
move away from the pain, because we sought the driving power of
action that lies in the pain.
However, little by little, we realized that even though our various
forms of anger gave us a temporary power of action, at the same time
it incurred huge costs for our life on all levels.
When we discovered that, most of us chose instead to use the Tenth
Step to dive down to the root of the pain and find the enlightenment
and wisdom that hides there, and in that way we transformed the
emotional pains, we experienced in everyday life to joy.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
AcAdAn Program to dive down to the root of one of those pains that
I experienced today to find the wisdom and mercy that lies at the
root of the pa
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
13:
The Small Ring of Faith
We
also discovered that when The Small Ring of Faith became active in
us, we believed that our Higher Power gave us what we needed when
we needed it (Trust), and we used our Higher Power’s gifts to the
full or passed the surplus on to others if we did not have any use
for it our self (Accountability).
Therefore we passed on our material, physical, time-space wise,
emotional, mental, social or spiritual surplus to others who
lacked what we had in excess (Generosity), and through these
actions, we realized that we indeed had a surplus to give from
(Abundance).
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 38
Despite the abundance that many of us lived
in both materially, health wise, time and space wise, emotionally,
mentally, socially and spiritually, it could be difficult for us to
remember that it is so, because it was our habitual situation.
Therefore it was important for us to face that we were wealthy enough to
have something to share in one or more of these areas for it to become
easier for us to become able to be content with our self and our life.
By using the Small Ring of Faith, we could learn to trust that we could
pass on our surplus without fearing to regret it later.
In that way we became able to experience the joy of experiencing the joy
of others about receiving that, which we had in excess while at the same
time we became more content by taking responsibility for that Mother
that Mother Earth's resources did not go waste.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use the Small Ring of Faith to
get the driving power to share my surplus with others, who lack what
I have en excess.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
14:
The Tree of Hatred and
the Tree of Love
First,
we needed to find out what our part of the work consisted of.
To find this out, we needed to have an overall idea of the nature
of this part of our Seventh Step work.
We could achieve this by using the below illustration of The
Tree of Hatred and The Tree of Love as a representation
of our defects
of character and our virtues.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 54
In
our
Seventh Step, we began co-operating with our Higher Power about
having our defects of character transformed to enlightenment and
wisdom by pairing them with our virtues, and we used the Tree of
Hatred and the Tree of Love with this in mind.
We imagined that the soil the trees grew in was a situation that we
experienced, and the cilia of the tree, the finest roots illustrated
the most subtle energies we used to handle the situation.
These cilia led nutrition into the larger roots, which led
nourishment into the stems of the trees and up into the crowns,
which in the Tree of Hatred was the fully unfolded hatred, and in
the Tree of Love it was the fully unfolded Love.
The situation was the same, whether we chose to nourish one or the
other tree in context with the situation, but dependent on what
energies we used, we further developed the pain of the Tree of
Hatred or the joy of the Tree of Love.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use those
energies, which bring forth growth in the Tree of Love in
my interactions with others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
15:
The Process of sorrow
The
process of sorrow moves us through a sequence of emotions namely
denial, anger, nEgotiation, grief and acceptance in several waves,
one after the other, in varying
order and intensity.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 40
Gradually, as our work with our AcAdAn
Program developed, we had investigated our processes of sorrow and
discovered the five stages of the process of sorrow.
At the same time, we had become aware that three of the characteristics
that the process of sorrow brings forth belongs in the Rings of Pain,
and two characteristics belong in the Rings of Joy.
Thereby, we discovered that we could transform the process of sorrow by
the help of our AcAdAn Program.
When we used the Sixth Step of our AcAdAn Program for the transformation
process, we recovered faster, because we merely needed a turning point,
and the turning point took place when we stepped into that Ring of Joy
we had chosen for the process.
Today's
contemplation
Today, I
will
use my
AcAdAn
Program to
investigate
the losses
that still
pains me and
transform
the pain
to
joy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
16:
To be ill from addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction
Today
many are found who suffer from a severe case of active addiction,
and many more that have a mild or moderate form of this disease.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
During
our growth, we studied our surroundings completely open-minded in
order to get an impression of what were the norms of our parents and
our surrounding society, and this gave us the impression that
dissatisfaction was a useful energy.
We took this to heart without being aware that it was a disease of the
mind of our parents and our surroundings, because this disease was so
common that it was perceived to be a normal state of mind.
We did not discover either that this disease was chronic in our
surroundings, because they were dissatisfied with their human
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability.
As a result of their chronic dissatisfaction they put up impossible
demands on themselves and us, which were impossible to live up to, and
all of this contributed to our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
AcAdAn Program to recover from my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
17:
Creationmanifestation of thought
paths Creation
of strings of thoughts
Our
mind consists of strings of thoughts that we have created and
manifested from a combination of our experiences with our material
life, our physical life, our life in time and space, our emotional
life, our thought life, our social life and our spiritual life.
Active Addictions Anonymous -
The Wild Life, page 71
In
AcAdAn we discovered that we had created and manifested a long
series of thought sequences that belonged together in sets, and we
began to make ourselves aware of these sets in Step Four by working
with the Rings of Pain and Joy.
Thereby, we discovered that although a single thought had no power
in itself, it could belong to a pattern that had immense power, and
that the thought set in motion, and this pattern step into our minds
as an obsession.
The obsession could make it difficult for us to move out of a Ring
of Pain and into a Ring of Joy, but in Step Six we worked on
creating and manifesting thought patterns that enabled us to attain
enlightenment and wisdom by pairing the two Rings.
The more thought patterns we created and manifested that supported
our movement out of a painful thought by pairing it with a
corresponding joyful thought, the easier it became for us to
experience contentment.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Program to create and manifest thought
pathways that make it easy for me to let go of my addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction.
ss
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
18:
Super Human Beings
As a
result of using our codependency, it became clear to us that
arrogance was the natural consequence of our demand on our self that
we must be able to save our self and others from the pains of life,
because our desire to save our self and others from pain made us
pretend that we were superhuman beings, who were not affected by our
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality, and as a result
the Big Ring of Pain opened up to us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 33
Because we
had grown up in a society that made impossible demands on us, we had
got the impression that if we were not super human beings, we were not
good enough, and this impression had led us to strive to be super
human beings.
We demanded from ourselves that we should be able to do more than we
could, know more than we knew, control more than we could, and we
should not change even if constant change is the life condition for
all humans, animals, plants and minerals.
As a result we became ill of an addiction to chronic dissatisfaction,
and it had led to such existential pains that many of us had resorted
to using legal and illegal chemical substances to quiet our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction.
Others of us had used the people pleasing of codependency, hoping that
others would accept that we were not super human beings, if only we
used our resources to contribute to their lives instead of our own
.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to learn to use my emotional
sobriety to accept my human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability instead of trying to be a superhuman being.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
19:
The Step
of Liberation
Gradually,
as we progressed in our Ninth Step, we experienced how relieved we
felt about resolving all such situations from our Eighth Step list,
one after another, and therefore, many call Step Nine The Step of
Liberation.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 65
In
our childhood, many of us were often told by others that we should be
ashamed of something that was bad in their eyes, and if they were to
believe that we were ashamed enough, we should bow our heads and admit
that we were bad people.
We did not know as children that guilt and shame are weapons that our
environment uses to make us bend to their will, nor did we know that
even when it was our loving parents who used these weapons against us,
they did us great harm.
As adults, we still felt guilty and ashamed of ourselves, as we had
been taught, and we still did not know that guilt and shame are the
deadliest poisons to our spiritual life and thus to our oneness with
our true Self, our Spirit.
In our Eighth Step, we brought out into the open all that we had been
ashamed of, and we used the Day of the Great Forgiveness to forgive
ourselves, and in our Ninth Step we experienced the liberation from
guilt and shame by making amends to ourselves.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my Eighth and Ninth Step to let go of my
feelings of guilt and shame from a situation in the present.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
20:
Comparison with others
Before
we came to AcAdAn, many of us perceived our demands, that we should
be understood, admired, respected, perfect, healthy, beautiful,
famous, rich and so on, and that others in our lives should be
completely loving, caring, giving, understanding, tolerant, and so
on, as fair and reasonable, but we cannot afford to be confused on
this issue.
These demands createmanifest dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
From our
society, we received a lot of information about other people, whom we
did not know, but who were apparently perfect, healthy, beautiful,
rich, respected and admired, and if we did not possess all this, we
were not who we ought to be.
We also received much information about other people whom we did not
know, who had wonderful social lives, full of admirers and suitors,
good male and female friends and ideal relationships with parents,
siblings, spouses and their and other ‘s children.
When we looked at the external image of others and at our own social
life, we saw that our personal and social lives contained pain on a
daily basis and that we had problems with parents, siblings, spouses,
children and male and female friends.
This could make us think that we were not good enough, but in our
AcAdAn meetings we learned to our joy that others had the same
problems as us with their human limitations, ignorance, powerlessness
and mortality/changeability.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn meetings to learn to let go of comparing
myself and my life with others and their life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
21: Dissatisfaction
with our four basic attributes
After
having tried everything we could by our self to overcome our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction without success, we eventually
sought help from each other in Active Addictions Anonymous.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Before
we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, most of us were not aware of
our four basic human conditions, which are that we are limited,
ignorant, powerless, and mortal/changeable.
After we came to AcAdAn, we discovered that we were limited by our
form, were ignorant of that which lay outside the form, and although
we possessed information about the World in many ways, it was still
outside our personal field of experience.
We realized that there would always be an unimaginable amount of
information about life even in our areas of expertise, and it became
clear to us that we were powerless over that which we knew nothing
about.
Our resistance to our four basic characteristics led to our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction, and wanting to recover from this disease,
we became willing to do the Program of Active Addictions Anonymous.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program and my AcAdAn Fellowship to get
the help I need to recover from my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
22:
The third meeting with
the Big Ring of Joy
The
Program in Active Addictions Anonymous Step 9-12.
STEP 9: We made amends to our
self and others except when doing so would cause more harm to us
or others.
STEP 10: We continued to
take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted
it.
STEP 11: Through prayer and meditation, we sought to
improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power, as we understood
that Power, praying only for
knowledge of our Higher Power’s will for us and the power to carry
that out.
STEP 12: Having had a spiritual
awakening as a result of these Steps, we practiced these
principles in all our affairs, and carried the message
of AcAdAn to others suffering from addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 10
When
we daily carried out our Ninth Step by making amends to ourselves
and others for the harm we felt we had caused, we did so because we
had faith in that it would make it easier for us to be content with
ourselves.
When we daily carried out our Tenth Step by carrying out a personal
inventory and admitting our mistakes immediately when we discovered
them, we hoped that this would lessen the harm that could happen to
ourselves and others.
When we daily carried out our Eleventh Step by expanding our
conscious contact with our Higher Power, we wanted our contact with
our Higher Power’s love for us to teach us true Love.
When we daily carried out our Twelfth Stepby passing on our
knowledge of the AcAdAn Program to others, we held on to the truth
of what we had received in AcAdAn, and we did this in order to keep
what we had gained.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will set the Big Ring of Joy with its faith, hope, love
and truth into oscillation in my life by the help of Step
9-10-11-12.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
23:
Limitations
Furthermore,
many of us have realized that we are limited in many different ways,
but it was hard for us to admit this even to our self, because we
felt defiant when we encountered limitations of any kind whatsoever
and that could make us wage war against any type of limitations.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 20
Many
of
us had difficulty accepting our emotional limitations, and thus we had
a hard time saying no to a task we did not want to do, but if we did
it anyway, it became a heartless act.
When we lacked the courage to say no, we could experience a sense of
defiance while doing the task, and this meant that we were now in the
pain of the Small Ring of Envy with its defiance, submission,
disbelief and superstition.
In the Small Ring of Envy, our disbelief consisted in us believing
that we did not have the right to say no kindly, our superstition
consisted of believing that others should refrain from asking us for
something, so that we did not have to learn to say no.
Furthermore, when we were in the energies of the Little Ring of Envy,
it meant that we had submitted to an energy field that gave us pain
and that all our tasks became permeated by these energies, even when
doing tasks that we would love to do.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
Program to release my fear of saying no to tasks that I do not
want to perform.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
24:
To serve principles
The
principle of Tradition Two is Service.
Slogan: I do not serve to elevate
myself but to give life-force to the principles I wish to further.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
When
we chose to serve AcAdAn we investigated our motives to determine
whether we sought the power and the glory associated with the post
and therefore needed to learn to accept a post exclusively to serve
the principles we wished to further.
First and foremost however, we needed to investigate if we had our
heart with us in our chosen service to the Fellowship, and that
meant that we served the principles that we wished to further with
joy and interest.
Sometimes, we realized that we had our heart with us in our service
to begin with, but lost the desire do the service at a later date
after we had discovered in all details what it entailed to do it.
As we do not want to perform heartless actions against ourselves or
others by performing a task we do not have our heart into, we
liberate ourselves from the service that we had undertaken at the
earliest possible opportunity.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will joyfully serve the principles
that I want to further in my AcAdAn Fellowship and in my life as a
whole, until I do not want to do it anymore.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
25:
Shame
We
looked at the harm we had inflicted on our self or others by
destroying some of our possessions or that of others, whether the
things were big or small, or whether we had done it on purpose or
not.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
Before
we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, many of us felt ashamed of
ourselves when we did anything that deviated from caring for our
physical bodies that need to be well rested, well cared for, well
exercised, and well nourished.
Gradually, as our work with our AcAdAn Program developed, we
realized that we could not in Reality harm ourselves or others
without feeling ashamed of these actions.
When we admitted in our Eighth Step that we were ashamed of the
harms we had caused, we refrained to judge whether we did it
intentionally or not and we also did not judge whether it was major
damage or minor.
The crucial thing was that we were ashamed, and therefore needed to
find ways to make amends to ourselves and others in Step Nine so
that we could become able to forgive ourselves.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my Eighth Step to decide how I will make amends
to myself or others for a mistake, and I will use Step Nine to
carry out my amends.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
26:
A wholehearted decision
The
more times we made this decision, the less frightening it became.
Every time we made it, we got new insights about our self in the
form of our reluctance and fear that prevented us from making the
decision wholeheartedly that day.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 28
We discovered that if we wanted to change a decision, we met
resistance from the part of us that we had given reasons for staying
in a painful thought pattern, and therefore we could rarely go
directly from our changed decision to acting on it.
First we needed to change the decision by addressing our reasons for
our disadvantageous mindset by changing the mental-emotional pattern
that supported our old painful behavior by the help of Step Six.
Sometimes the change of our thinking mind, our Ego, could take years
before we reached a wholehearted decision in a particular area, but
most of the time the everyday changes could be digested in a few hours
or a few days.
However, this did not discourage us because we had our AcAdAn Program
and our AcAdAn Fellowship that we could use to work on replacing our
old habitual painful thought patterns with new thought patterns that
gave us joy.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to work on changing an old
habit that does not serve me any longer, even though I might have to
work on it now and then over a longer time phase.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
27:
Politics
Each
member has one voice, which they can contribute when their turn
comes, and that means, we proceed to take a collective conscience on
the issue through a written vote when everybody has spoken once,
even if some of us might feel that if we were allowed to speak more
than once, we would have a better chance of explaining and
convincing others that what we suggested could be the right action
to follow for our group.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 87
In political
debates, it is often the most eloquent, who can convince others that
their point of view of the right thing should be the foundation for
decisions on behalf of everyone, but in AcAdAn we have a different
perception of what is politically correct.
When making decisions on behalf of the group has to be made, we do not
want that the most eloquent of us speak again and again so we in that
way give them the power to overpower the rest of the group with their
view points.
Our politics in group settings is therefore that each member has one
voice, and thus we only get the opportunity to speak once about our
perception of the right mutual foundation for action for the group.
Furthermore, we want that all group members get the opportunity to
express their perception of the right foundation for action for the
group, so that all members are heard and taken into consideration,
before we cast our vote on, what each of us think.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will express my conscience in my AcAdAn group, if a decision
has to be made about a mutual foundation
for action
for my entire group.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
28:
Recovery in AcAdAn
Abstain
from using your addiction to chronic dissatisfaction one day at a
time.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 13
In
AcAdAn
we inventoried, how we used dissatisfaction in our daily life, and to
our surprise we discovered that we were using dissatisfaction from we
opened our eyes in the morning til we went to sleep at night.
Because we were content for few short moments in between the moments,
where we made use of our dissatisfaction, we had not been aware that
we were chronically dissatisfied, that we were in fact addicted to
dissatisfaction.
We investigated why it was difficult for us to let go of our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction and realized that we hoped that the pain of
our dissatisfaction would give us the push we needed to change
ourselves for the better.
In AcAdAn, we investigated whether our use of dissatisfaction produced
the desired results and discovered that dissatisfaction was not
producing a change for the better, and thereby it became easier for us
to let go of our addiction to dissatisfaction.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to investigate how I can
use contentment instead of dissatisfaction in my daily life, one
situation at a time.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
29:
Self-criticism
Instead
of criticizing our self for the mistakes we thought we had made in
the course of a day, we chose to open our mind to ideas and ways to
remedy those mistakes, whether those ideas sprang from within us or
from outside us
though others. This way, we were
empowered to set right our mistakes instead of sinking into
despondency and depression.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 47
When
we began working with the Ring of Self-Centeredness with its euphoria,
depression, self-criticism, and self-praise in Step Four of AcAdAn, we
discovered that self-criticism brings forth depression.
Until then, many of us had thought that depression was an unpleasant
state of mind that we would suffer from now and then, but in AcAdAn we
began to replace our self-criticism with openmindedness.
We did this in our Sixth Step, where we worked on transforming our
self-criticism into enlightenment and wisdom by pairing the Ring of
Self-Centeredness with the Ring of God-Centeredness with its joy,
empowerment, openmindedness, and gratitude.
The Ring of God-Centeredness gave us the empowerment we needed to put
our self-criticism behind us, and we discovered that depression became
a rare state of mind for us.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will use the Ring of God-Centeredness to recover from my
use of the Ring of Self-Centeredness.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
30:
Accept
Before
we came to the Fellowship of Active Addictions Anonymous, we could
not accept our self, others and our lives.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction made us focus on those areas we
thought ought not to be the way they were, whether it was about our
spiritual life, social life, thought life, emotional life, actions and
our material life.
We always and without exception found something to be dissatisfied
with about ourselves, our lives, others and their way of being, our
society or the World at large, and this constant mental-emotional pain
made us sick in Soul and body.
Our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction ran like a red thread through
our days, and we felt pain whether we looked inward at ourselves or
outward at others, but when we came to AcAdAn and let go of our
addiction to dissatisfaction, the miracle happened.
We learned to accept ourselves, others, our society and the World at
large, as we and our lives are, and as the others and their lives are,
and as the World at large is, and thus we began to recover from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
AcAdAn Program to learn to accept myself, others, my society and
the World at large exactly the way we all are on all levels,
whether it is materially, physically, energetically, emotionally,
mentally, socially or spiritually.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
May
31:
Anger
Thus,
when we approached and healed our angry thoughts and emotions both
mentally, emotionally and energetically, in loving and respectful
ways, we could move beyond the anger, to the joy of feeling love for
our self and others.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
Our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction led us to become angry again and
again for all kinds of reasons, and over the years we had used a lot
of our energy to deny, defend, justify and rationalize our anger.
We had learned in AcAdAn that our anger was telling us that we needed
to change direction, but because we used denial, defense,
justification, and rationalization of the anger, we were unable to
listen to the message of our anger.
Instead, we tried to find good and loving reasons to inflict the pain
of anger on ourselves and others, but in our Sixth Step we paired our
anger with acceptance, and in doing so we gained the enlightenment and
wisdom we needed to let go of the anger.
In Steps Six and Seven we learned to listen to the message of our
anger, thereby expanding our thinking mind’s, our Ego’s enlightenment
and wisdom, which we could use in similar situations in the future and
thus be content even with pain.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my Sixth and Seventh Step of AcAdAn to transform
my anger into joy over the wisdom and compassion my anger allowed me
to attain because I used the Pain Rings and Joy Rings of Step Six to
transform my anger into enlightenment and wisdom.
.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
JUNE
June
01:
Courage
The
principle of Step Four is courage.
Slogan: I accept both my virtues and my defects of character.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Many
of us had associated courage with physical actions, but after we came
to AcAdAn, we discovered that it took courage for us to use Step One
to admit our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction and that it made our
lives unmanageable.
As we used Step Two more and more to explore our Higher Power’s
unconditionally loving intention with that we are exactly as we are,
it began to become easier for us to admit that we were suffering from
an addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
As we surrendered ourselves on a daily basis to our Higher Power’s
loving intention in Step Three, it became possible for us to begin to
take the actions we discovered in Step One and Two that we needed to
take in order for our life to become manageable.
This preparatory work was necessary for us to be able to get the
courage that is required for us to admit our exact nature in Step Four
by the help of the attributes in the Rings of Pain and Joy.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will show courage in AcAdAn by admitting both my
character defects and my virtues by the help of the Rings of Pain
and Joy in Step Four.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
02:
AcAdAn literature
At
the founding time of Active Addictions Anonymous, our literature
consisted of four books: Active
Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life, One Sponsor’s Suggestions for
Working the Program of Active Addictions Anonymous
– The Wild Life, Daily contemplations for members of Active
Addictions Anonymous
– The
Wild Life
and
Six
Step Analyses for members of Active Addictions Anonymous – The Wild
Life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 92
The
purpose
with the literature of AcAdAn is to slowly build up a library in which
various members express their experience of their way through the
AcAdAn Fellowship.
Some members might want to make an alternative sponsor suggestion that
better suit their taste and others, who have the same taste as them,
and thereby we developed our information to everyone, who wanted to
participate in AcAdAn.
We could also have various books of daily contemplations for members
of Active Addictions Anonymous, written by members, who felt like
contributing with their ideas on how they thought a set of daily
contemplations should be.
We could also choose to write pamphlets about our Traditions and about
Service in AcAdAn, because only imagination sets limits for how we
could expand our literature in AcAdAn for the benefit of our members.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will read some of the books that are available to me
as a member of AcAdAn, and if I also feel like writing something for
the benefit of other AcAdAn members, I will do it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
03:
To share experience,
strength and hope
We
carry
our AcAdAn message best when we simply share our recovery, express
our experiences from our work with the AcAdAn Program and how the
Program has helped us, because thereby, we give others hope that
they too can achieve contentment; and also, this way, they get the
strength to begin their journey of recovery towards contentment with
self, others and their life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 96
When we met our sponsor or recovery buddy in the
beginning of our recovery from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction,
we told him/her about our emotional pains, and how they made our life
unmanageable.
Thereby we gave our sponsor or recovery buddy the opportunity to tell us,
how he/she would have used our AcAdAn Program to recover from the
emotional pains, we described, and in that way it became a win-win
situation.
It became a win for our sponsor or recovery buddy, because we gave him/her
an opportunity to deepen his/her own understanding of the Program by
sharing his/her understanding with us, and thereby we got new knowledge
about Program
Thereby we learned to us it on our own exsistential pains, and our sponsor
or recovery buddy got an opportunity to observe, ha’ow we used the Program
and his/her suggestions to recover from our human pains.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will share my experiences with my AcAdAn Program with my
sponsor or my recovery buddy and in an AcAdAn meeting and thereby
contribute to my own growth and that of others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
04:
Letting go of the
seducer role of codependency
Instead
of seducing others by hiding our own pain or by pretending that we
were wiser than them and their Higher Power so as to make them
change according to our perception of the right thing, we gave them
time and space to express their thoughts, emotions and actions
according to their own perception of the right thing.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 48
Many
of us had the impression that it was our task to save others from
their existential pains and that could make us seduce both ourselves
and them to believe that we must not be subjected to the pains of
life just like everybody else.
That made us step into the role of the powerless helpers, who could
not get the help we needed ourselves, because that required us to
admit the pains of our lives instead of pretending that we were
above them.
When we were presented with the Ring of Codependency with its savior
role, seducer role, victim role and offender role, we discovered to
our relief that everyone in our Fellowship worked on letting go of
the seducer role of codependency.
We used the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its detachment to
lovingly let go of others' problems, its integrity to respect ours
and theirs right to find a solution to those pains, vi had chosen to
solve.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its
detachment, integrity, respect for self and respect for others to
let go of my codependency’s savior rolle, seducer role, victim
role and offender role.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
05:
The importance of Step
Five
We
discovered that no self-appraisal, however thorough it was, had a
lasting effect unless followed up by just as thorough a Fifth Step,
and with this knowledge we moved on to Step Five.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 41
In
Step
Four, we had made many discoveries about ourselves,and we thought that
they were so important to us that we would be able to remember them
without difficulty, but they got still lost like a dream in the night
if we did not affirm them.
So we used the Fifth Step to affirm them by reading what we had
written to ourselves, so that we could look at our self-realizations
from an intellectual point of view, and we wrote a synopsis of what we
discovered about ourselves at the same time.
Next, we read our synopsis to our Higher Power, because we needed to
receive inspiration from our Higher Power, and we added the
inspirations that came to us while we were reading our inventory to
our Higher Power.
Finally, we read our self-realizations to another person and to our
AcAdAn Community, and thus we also had the opportunity to hear what
another person and our Fellowship had realized, and thus they were
further elaborated.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my Fifth Step to share my self-realizations with
myself, my Higher Power, another human being and my AcAdAn
Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
06:
Perfect laziness
The
principle of Tradition Seven is Simplicity.
Slogan:
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
Many
of
us perceived laziness as a sin of omission, but laziness is actually a
quality if we chose to look at what perfect laziness is, because then
we realized that perfect laziness is perfect order on all levels.
When we had perfect order in our home, we knew where everything was
down to the smallest pin, and that meant that we didn't have to spend
time, energy and interest on finding things that we needed right now.
When we had perfect order in our physical condition, it meant that our
physical body was well rested, well exercized, well groomed and well
nourished, and thus we were spared from having to spend our resources
on taking care of various lifestyle diseases.
With perfect order in our thoughts and emotions, it meant that we
lived a principled life, where we took care of our thoughts and
emotions, so that we could have a social life where we did not clash
with other people's thoughts and emotions.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will spend time cultivating my perfect laziness by creating
and manifesting a place for everything thing, and I will put every
thing in its place, whether it is my material things, my physical
body, my energy life, my mental-emotional life, my social life, and
my spiritual life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
07:
A content life
However,
when we came to AcAdAn, we discovered we could learn to live a
content life with the help of the Program of Active Addictions
Anonymous whether our active addiction was mild, moderate or severe.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
When we
shared with others about our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, we
discovered that they could not relate to this illness, even though
they were actually dissatisfied many times a day, so we preferred to
share about our illness in meetings.
Before we came to AcAdAn, we also thought like them that we were
satisfied with ourselves and our lives, until we investigated the
matter and discovered that we found reasons to be dissatisfied many
times a day.
We admitted that we suffered from an addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction and needed to refrain from using our dissatisfaction,
and at first we did it for five minutes at a time, expanding our
contentment little by little.
Day by day we became better and better at finding reasons to be
content with ourselves, other people, with things and situations that
we were previously dissatisfied with, and this meant that we slowly
came to live a content life.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to learn how to let go of my
dissatisfaction so that I can get to live a contented life, one day
at a time.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
08: Achievement
of honor
Even
when it did seem like we had succeeded in making others honor us, we
discovered that this didn't bring us any closer to self-acceptance
and contentment in any possible way.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 17
In
our
state of addiction to chronic dissatisfaction many of us imagined that
if only others treated us better, were more loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful, we would be more content.
Some of us hoped to be honored by others, so that we could feel
valuable and appreciated, not only by our family and our circle of
friends, but by a larger group outside our personal circle or even by
our entire society as such.
Some of us managed to obtain special honors from society as a whole,
but we discovered that it was a short-lived joy that did not make us
more content with ourselves and our lives.
It made us understand that honor from others did not give us the
contentment we had hoped for, and we rejoiced in that we had found a
place in our AcAdAn Fellowship where we could finally recover from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will continue my work on recovering from my addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction by the help of my AcAdAn Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
09:
Our mutual purpose
In
Active Addictions Anonymous, each of us needs a sense of Fellowship
with our group.
This we attain, first of all, with the help of our mutual purpose,
which is our work with our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, so
that it becomes possible for us to be led to a state of contentment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 85
It
was not possible for us as members of AcAdAn to recover from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction on our own, and therefore we
needed our group in AcAdAn so we could get the needed help to
recover.
People, who did not suffer from addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, and even people, who suffered from addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction, could have difficulties understanding us if
they were not members of AcAdAn.
Therefore it was vital for us that our group stayed available to us
and the other members of our group, so we could achieve the
necessary trust in our group with the help of a sense of fellowship
with the other members.
Our mutual purpose bound us together in love, care, compassion and
mercy, and slowly, we began to get the courage to change our way
from being addicted to chronic dissatisfaction to contentment.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will remember that we are all members of AcAdAn, because
we have a mutual purpose, which is to recover from our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction, and I choose my AcAdAn meetings as my
highest priority.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
10: The
Step of forgiveness
We
used Step Eight to liberate our self from feelings of guilt, and
thereby, from shame.
Therefore, many call this Step ‘the Step of Forgiveness’ as
forgiving our self liberates us from guilt and shame.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 58
In
Step
Eight which is the Step of Forgiveness we become able to look at how
we have harmed ourselves or others, seen with the eyes that our AcAdAn
Program has given us to see with.
We bring out into the light, all of our guilt and shame that we had
hidden for many yests and thus we discover that we do not have nearly
as much reason to feel guilty and ashamed that we thought we had.
We investigate the areas where we think we need to make amends to
ourselves and others and decide which amends we want to implement when
we have finished our Eighth Step list and the Big Day of Forgiveness.
In the Big Day of Forgiveness we ended our Eighth Step list by
forgiving ourselves for having made the mistakes that we have made,
and thus we could let go of our feelings of guilt and shame.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to correct my mistakes and
forgive myself, so I can become able to be liberated from guilt and
shame.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
11:
The Small
Ring of Envy
When
The Small Ring of Envy became active in us, we imagined that we
could get what others had without doing anything for it
(Superstition), and that there was nothing or nobody who would help
us get what we so desired if we worked at fulfilling our desires our
self (Disbelief).
We got angry if someone suggested that we should participate and
contribute with our interest, energy, time or money, like others
did, to get the same as they had whether it was material, physical,
time-space wise, emotional, mental, social or spiritual (Defiance),
or we submitted to various demands that were contrary to our
innermost desires, hoping that others e.g. God, our employer,
spouse, friend, family etc. would fulfill our desires if only we
threw our self on our knees and flattered them with sacrificial
gifts or words of praise (Submission).
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 38
Before,
we
came to AcAdAn, many of us confused the Small Ring of Envy with its
disbelief, superstition, submission and defiance the Small Ring of
Avarice with its stinginess, greed, poverty and gluttony.
After, we came to AcAdAn we discovered that the Small Ring of Envy is
about us seeing something we desired, but which we did not believe
that we could get and therefore we gave up in advance doing the
required to have our desire fulfilled.
Instead of working on getting our desire fulfilled, we might then end
up using the Small Ring of Avarice, because we begrudged the other
person, we were envious of, the things or qualities that we did not
believe we could achieve ourselves.
By the help of our AcAdAn Program, we cleared up our misunderstandings
about these concepts and instead learned to pair them with the Small
Ring of Hope and the Small Ring of Faith, and thus we grew in
enlightenment and wisdom.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will learn to pair the Small Ring of Hope with the Small
Ring of Envy and the Small Ring of Faith with the Small Ring of
Avarice, so I can grow in enlightenment and wisdom.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
12:
Self-criticism and
self-praise
We
investigated how our self-criticism had brought about depression and
how our self-praise had brought about
euphoria in us, and how this had impacted our life from
childhood till today.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 31
When we investigated how self-criticism and self-praise had affected
us and our life from childhood to the present day, we were surprised
to discover that thoughts are not duty free, which we had otherwise
heard many say that they are.
We
discovered that when we praised ourselves, we experienced a feeling of
euphoria, which is the companion of self-praise, but it was a
short-lived joy that quickly turned to depression, which is the
companion of self-criticism.
We discovered that euphoria and depression belong in the Ring of
Self-Centeredness with its self-praise, euphoria, self-criticism and
depression, so we paired it with the Ring of God-Centeredness with its
joy, empowerment, openmindedness and gratitude.
Thus we discovered that our state of mind depended on the Ring we were
in with its associated thoughts and emotions, and if we moved out of
the Ring's energy field, we thought different thoughts, depending on
our choice of Ring to enter.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will change my mindset by pairing a Ring of Pain with the
corresponding Ring of Joy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
13:
To forgive ourselves
When
we had made amends for the mistakes of our past, we let go of them
and the harm done whether we achieved the forgiveness of others or
not, remembering that we did not carry out our Ninth Step to achieve
the forgiveness of others, but to take responsibility for our part
of the harm so that we are able to forgive our self and let go of
our guilt and shame.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 66
It is common
knowledge in the Twelve Steps Fellowships that the one we have the
hardest time forgiving is ourselves, and so it was a great help for us
to come to Step Eight, where we became ready to forgive ourselves for
our past and present mistakes.
In Step Eight, we brought out into the open all the guilt and shame we
felt from the past and present, so that we could become ready for the
Big Day of Forgiveness, where we forgave ourselves for all the
mistakes we thought we had made.
Then we used our Eighth Step list in Step Nine to make our planned
amends to ourselves and others, and to our delight we discovered that
we had not nearly as much reason to feel guilty and ashamed as we had
thought.
These discoveries made it easier and easier for us to accept our
mistakes without feeling burdened by guilt and shame because we had
made a mistake, and in this way we improved our capacity to forgive
ourselves for the mistakes we made.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my Eighth and Ninth Step to forgive myself for
the mistakes I have made today.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
14:
To open our self
Step
Five was the key to freedom, because it was only through bringing
that out into the open which we had discovered in our Fourth Step
that we were liberated from our feelings of being victimized by
others and life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
In the
Fourth Step we discovered many things about our true nature, which we
had not been aware of before, both concerning our virtues and our
defects of character when we began to clear up our psychological
landscape.
We discovered that at the root we always had a loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention, and that this also applied when
we used our defects of character, and that our intention was not
fulfilled when we used our defects of character.
In Step Five however, we discovered that it was to our advantage to
come out into the open with those sides of ourselves that we wanted to
deny or hide in the past, because we pained due to our use of our
defects of character.
Gradually, as we became better and better at coming out in the open
with the pain of our defects of character, it became possible for us
to use Step Six to transform the pain of our defects of character to
enlightenment and wisdom.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will open myself to use my AcAdAn Program to recover from
my use of one of my defects of character.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
15:
Understanding
Some
of us chose to do our Fifth Step with a person who was not a member
of Active Addictions Anonymous, although we felt that we would be
better understood by one of the
other members.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 43
We
had
often been told that we were nothing special, but when we came to
AcAdAn we discovered that we are all so unique that even our
fingerprints are not found alike in the whole world.
In our AcAdAn Fellowship we told the other members about how we
thought and felt both when our character defects and our virtues were
active, and about how we paired them in Step Six and became more
enlightened and wise.
By the time we came to Step Five, we had achieved the confidence to
share both our painful and our joyful thoughts and emotions with our
sponsor and/or our recovery buddy and would be met with understanding.
As a result, we were able to bring out into the open all the thoughts
and emotions that our family and our environment had judged as
unworthy during our upbringing and that we had therefore suppressed
and kept secret.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will talk to my sponsor and/or my recovery buddy about a
painful thought that I have suppressed and kept secret, so that I
can finally release it from the place it sits in my physical body.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
16:
Wasting resources
So
we let go of our attempts to achieve love and respect from others
in this way, and instead,
we began using our time, energy, interests and money to build up
our own lives.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 16
When
we
worked with the pain in the Ring of Codependency with its savior-role
seducer-role, victim-role and offender-role, we discovered that we had
used much money, time, interest and energy in an attempt to save
others.
We wanted to save others from the pains of life, even though we
discovered time and time again that it could not be done, because it
was their own task to change the thought patterns that resulted in
existential pain.
It had made us understand that it was a waste of our resources to use
them in a way that did not lead to anything fruitful for ourselves or
those we were trying to save from the pains of life.
We gained the courage to spend our money, time, energy and interest on
ourselves and our lives by the help of the joy of the Ring of
Emotional Sobriety with its detachment, integrity, respect for self
and respect for others.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will spend my money, my time, my energy and my interest on
myself and my life and I will only give to others if it would bring
me joy to do so.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
17:
To respect our emotions
We
challenged our self emotionally by denying those emotions that we
found to be limiting our freedom to do anything we wanted; for
example, when we were scared, we defied our fear by doing what we
feared instead of respecting our emotion and working with it until
we were ready to perform the action in question with confidence
instead of defiance.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 21
Many
of us of us found it difficult to accept a no, when there was
something we wanted, and it was even harder for us to accept a no
when it came from within ourselves, and it could make us defy our
own no.
If we wanted to be with certain people, and our emotions told us
that it was not the right choice because we had some tasks we had
promised ourselves to carry out, and interaction with these people
would prevent us from carrying them out.
We could feel the urge to break our promises to ourselves, and when
we chose to do so, we discovered that our experience of emotional
discomfort in the form of low self-esteem guided us to fulfill our
promises to ourselves first and foremost.
When we refused to fulfill our promises to ourselves in the NOW, our
integrity and our belief in ourselves diminished, and so we used the
Ring of Emotional Sobriety to learn to respect ourselves and others.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its
detachment, integrity, respect for others, and respect for myself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
18:
The importance of
meetings
We
meet regularly to help each other recover from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction by sharing our experiences and
drawing
strength and hope from each other.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
Many of us had been or were members of other Twelve Step Fellowships
when we came to Active Addictions Anonymous and had discovered how
powerful it was to accept our powerlessness in a particular area.
In AcAdAn we discovered that our powerlessness was just one of our
four basic human characteristics, and that it was even more powerful
to work with all four of them.
Already in Step One we worked with our rebellion against accepting our
human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness, and
mortality/changeability, which had led to our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
By attending AcAdAn meetings we heard about many aspects that
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction led to and how other members
handled their addiction, and in doing so we received much inspiration
to handle our own.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will attend a meeting in AcAdAn to listen to what others
have to say about their addiction to chronic dissatisfaction and how
they handle it and to share about my own perception of my addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction and how I handle it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
19:
The Ring of Fulfillment
When
we investigated our use of the Ring of Fulfillment, we discovered
that if we found our self in the Ring of Fulfillment, when we had
empty time ahead of us, our empty time was accompanied with a
feeling of fulfillment, because we could fill it with something that
had our interest and which therefore was meaningful for us and this
sense of meaningfulness made us experience a sense of oneness with
our self, others and our life, also if we were alone when we were
busy with that which we were interested in.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 30
The
Ring of Fulfillment is also called the God box, Sudarshan
Chakra, the Sun Wheel and many other luminous names, because it
illuminates our inner world in the same way that the sun illuminates
our outer world.
When we chose to use the Ring of Fulfillment, we released all the
joys of the world into our lives, and we also used it as an antidote
to the Ring of Emptiness with its emptiness, boredom,
meaninglessness and loneliness, also called the Pandora's Box.
Pandora's Box is said to release all the suffering of the world into
our lives if we chose to use it, and the Ring of Fulfillment with
its fulfillment, interest, meaningfulness and oneness is clearly the
opposite that we can choose to use instead.
Many of us had tried to get out of the Ring of Emptiness in many
ways such as chemically numbing ourselves or making ourselves so
busy that we did not feel our emotions, so it was a great relief for
us to gain access to the Ring of Fulfillment.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use the Ring of Fulfillment with its fulfillment,
interest, meaningfulness, and unity to release all the joys in my
life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY
JUNE JULY
AUGUST SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
June
20:
Our psychological
landscape
Those
of us, who chose to use the symbolic image of the trees for this
purpose, imagined that the soil in which the tree grew was the
situation that we inventoried, and the small cilia found on the
finest roots of the tree that drew nourishment from the soil were
various thoughts and emotions that we took into use in that
situation.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 55
When
we
reached Step Seven in our AcAdAn Program, we had formed a picture of
our thoughts and feelings by investigating how the mental-emotional
patterns in the Rings of Pain and the Rings of Joy had played out in
our psychological landskabe.
Furthermore, we had found out how we could pair a Painring with a
Joyring in Step Six and thus make our thinking mind, our Ego to grow
in enlightenment and wisdom, and this we call the transformation of
our mental-emotional pains.
In our Seventh Step most of us preferred to use the symbolic picture
of the Tree of Hatred and the Tree of Love to make clear to ourselves,
how best we could make our Seventh work for us.
Thereby we began to get to know the pains and joys as well as the
enlightenment and wisdom of our psychological landscape, and which
energy fields we wanted to use in the now to our contentment with
ourselves and our life, which is our goal in AcAdAn.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will to use the symbolic picture of the trees from the
Seventh Step to develop my understanding of my psychological
landscape.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
21:
Success and fiasco
While
working our Fifth Step with our chosen person, we realized that we
had difficulties perceiving specific incidents that our chosen
person shared from his or her life as successes or failures, and
thus we discovered that we had considered some incidents in our life
as successes or failures that others did not necessarily perceive in
the same way; and in that way we found out that our perception of
successes and failures was subjective.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 44
Until
we
came to AcAdAn, most of us believed that our perceptions of success
and fiasco were objective, and that everyone else had the same
perceptions of success and fiasco as we did, and that if they did not,
they were wrong.
When we discovered in our conversations with our sponsor and/or
recovery buddy in Step Five that it was not so, we became insecure and
sad because we had lost our usual yardstick for determining whether or
not we were on the right path in our lives.
After digesting this fact and accepting that others’ perceptions were
true for them, just as our perceptions were true for us, without it
meaning that we were not on the right path, we began to experience a
new freedom from seeking the validation of others.
Our new freedom consisted in standing by ourselves by learning to look
at our experience of fiasco as an offer to begin a new learning
process and our experience of success as the completion of a task we
had set out to complete.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Program to learn to perceive my fiascos
as an offer to begin a new learning process and my successes as the
end of a learning process.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
22:
Dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction
is an imbalance that affects all areas of our lives.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 22
In AcAdAn we investigated our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction and
discovered that a sure sign that we suffer from an addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction is that we find reasons to be dissatisfied
even when our desires are fulfilled.
We may have had a long-held desire fulfilled and perhaps had not
expected to spend time, energy and interest on integrating the
fulfilment of the desire, so we used that as a reason to be
dissatisfied.
Perhaps we had long wanted to get a partner or a male/female friend
into our lives, but when the desire was fulfilled, we may have thought
that the new person should not be the way he/she was.
Our dissatisfaction might lead us to wage war against this person to
make him/her change in accordance with our perception of how he/she
should be, and thus our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction was
reinforced.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my First Step in AcAdAn to admit my
dissatisfaction with a gift life brought me and how my
dissatisfaction makes my life unmanageable, so that I can let go of
my dissatisfaction with the gift.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
23:
The importance of our
Fellowship with others
At
long last, we had found a Fellowship with others who suffered from
the same as us, and together we moved from our dissatisfaction with
self, others and our life,
towards
contentment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Our
AcAdAn
Fellowship taught us to find Fellowship with others to achieve any
goal, because Fellowship gave us many perspectives on our goal that
could encourage us and give us access to the most inspiring path to
the goal.
In Fellowship with others who had the same goal as us, we also
strengthened our ability to fulfill our desire to achieve that goal,
whether the goal was material, physical, energetic, emotional, mental,
social or spiritual.
At the same time, we gained access to a source of wisdom that
strengthened and further developed our own ideas about how to achieve
our goal and, so our Fellowship with others gave us an empowerment
that we would not otherwise have access to.
Our goal in AcAdAn is to achieve contentment with ourselves and our
life, and we needed a lot of inspiration to achieve our goal, because
our dissatisfaction came to us in so many guises that the discoveries
of others could help us discover them.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will let myself be inspired by my AcAdAn Fellowship to work
with some of the types of dissatisfaction that my Fellowship has
inspired me to inventory.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
24:
The Higher Power of the
group
We
have chosen to trust that our will and our life is governed by our
Higher Power, and in the same way, we choose to trust that our
group’s will and life is governed by the Higher Power of the group
that comes to expression through our Group-conscience.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 87
In
the
course of our service work in AcAdAn we came into contact with the
Traditions, when various problems occurred in our group, our service
group or in our Area Service Committee.
By the help of our Traditions, we found a principled solution to the
problems, and little by little as we became acquainted with the
Traditions, we learned to surrender to a Higher Power at group level.
This did not only benefit us in AcAdAn, but also in all the groups we
were a part of, whether the group consisted of two in our coupleship,
our friendships, family, in our workplace, or anywhere a decision
could not be made by us alone.
In this way, our Thirteenth Step benefited us in our social life, our
Soul Life in the seventh dimension in so many ways that the pains we
had experienced in our social life dissolved.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will work on familiarizing myself with the Traditions so
that I can learn to surrender to the Higher Power of one of my
groups, as expressed in the Group Conscience of the group.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
25:
The message of AcAdAn
When
we went to meetings in Active Addictions Anonymous, we shared our
experiences with the AcAdAn Program with other members, and in this
way, we passed on the message.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 82
Many
of
us in AcAdAn used dissatisfaction as a lever, because we imagined
that the discomfort of our dissatisfaction would drive us to
createmanifest the changes we wanted to createmanifest in our life.
When we came to AcAdAn and investigated if it worked, we discovered
that it did not and instead it merely createdmanifested discomfort
and existential pain and suffering.
Little by little, we discovered that we did not need to use
dissatisfaction with ourselves and our life to bring about those
changes in our life that we wanted to create and manifest.
Instead, we could use our power of creation and manifestion to make
improvements of the benefits that already were there in our life,
and to let go of or transform the areas which gave rise to us
experiencing existential pain.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will take AcAdAn´s message to heart
that I can use my AcAdAn Program to createmanifest the changes
that I want, without taking my dissatisfaction into use.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
26:
The First Tradition
The
principle of Tradition One is Fellowship. Slogan: Together, we can
accomplish what we cannot accomplish alone.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
Gradually, as our individuality became evident to us, we realized that
we were unique in our way of thinking, but that we had a Fellowship
with others emotionally, who understood how it felt to be scared or
angry.
We also knew the feeling of joy for various reasons, and we worked on
admitting our anger and our joy by the help of The Rings of Pain and
the Rings of Joy in Step Four of our AcAdAn Program.
When we shared about our work with the Rings of Pain and the Rings of
Joy with our sponsor or our recovery buddy and in an AcAdAn meeting
and heard about others’, we discovered that although we knew fear and
anger, we had different reasons for it.
We realized that others could recognize our emotions, but not
necessarily our reasons for feeling like we did, and thus we gained a
new freedom to change perception of many things that we had taken for
granted, thanks to our AcAdAn Fellowship.
Today's contemplation
Today,
I will use my AcAdAn Fellowship to get the help that I need to
change painful thoughts with joyful thoughts by the help of of a
movement from a Painring to a Joyring.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
27:
The flow of information
When
we began to seek our Higher Power’s guidance on a daily basis, we
discovered that our ability to distinguish
the voice of our Higher Power from our own began to develop,
and thus Step Eleven began working for us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 69
In
Step Eleven in AcAdAn, we began to develop our capacity to receive our
Higher Power's guidance, both from within and from without, by the
help of the flow of information that constantly came to us both from
within and without.
It helped us to navigate our psychological landscape that we listened
both inwardly and outwardly, and we listened inwardly through prayer
and meditation and outwardly by listening to the part of the flow of
information that came to our lot.
The flow of information is the information that we receive from
others, whether it is through other people, TV, radio, the Internet or
from our cat or dog, because everything speaks to us about God.
The point is that there is some of the information that comes to us
that repeats itself, no matter what source we listen to, and it is
this repetition that we call our Higher Power's personal flow of
information to us from without.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will both listen to my inner life by the help of
prayer and meditation and to my outer life by by listening to my
personal flow of information so I can develop my capacity to ‘hear’
my Higher Power's guidance under all circumstances, no matter what
they are.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
28:
To harm our earth
connection
First,
we looked at how we have harmed our self physically in various ways,
for example, by denying or ignoring our physical needs.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
Many of us
in AcAdAn had been spiritual seekers long before we came to AcAdAn,
and in our quest for a personal connection with our chosen Higher
Power, we had neglected our physical body in many ways.
Some of us had even developed various addictions because we chose to
numb our bodies with chemicals like sugar, nicotine, alcohol, heroin,
cocaine and many other chemicals to escape taking responsibility for
our physical body’s needs.
Our bodies need to be well rested, well cared for, well nourished and
well exercised, and after we came to AcAdAn, we began to take
responsibility for these needs to be met, even though it required us
to spend energy, time, interest and money on this task.
As we took responsibility for our bodies’ needs, we used our AcAdAn
Program to liberate ourselves from old thinking habits that made it
difficult for us to spend time on our bodies’ needs, but when we took
on this work, we became more content.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to develop my capacity to
take responsibility for my physical body being well rested, well
groomed, well nourished and well exercised.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
29:
The process of
meditation
Thus,
the process of meditation consisted of
withdrawing our consciousness from
being focused on the outer world
into our inner point
of concentration, and then letting go so that the expansion of our
consciousness could take place.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 72
Ordinary
Reflection
Contemplation
Concentration
Meditation
When
we came to Step Eleven in our AcAdAn Program, we wanted to expand our
conscious contact with our chosen Higher Power.
In Step Two, we chose our personal Higher Power, in Step Three, we
began the process of surrendering to our chosen Higher Power's care,
and in Step Seven we began to learn to cooperate with our Higher Power
by the help of The short and The Long Seventh Step Prayer.
In Step Eleven, we united everything we have learned in Step Two,
Three and Seven about surrendering to our Higher Power´s care by
adding prayer and meditation as means to expand our conscious contact
with our chosen Higher Power.
We use the graph from the Eleventh Step to learn how to step into
meditation and thus to become better and better at receiving our
Higher Power's guiding impulses from within.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will train my capacity to enter into meditation, so I
can become able to pick up my chosen Higher Power's guiding impulses
and thereby find greater contentment with myself and my life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
June
30:
To harm our self and others spiritually
We
looked at how we had harmed our self and others spiritually with our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with our self, others and our
life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 62
In
the
course of our work with our AcAdAn Program, it dawned on us that we
could not harm our true Self, our Spirit, but we could harm our self
and others spiritually in many ways.
Harming our self spiritually meant that we lost touch with our true
Self, our Spirit and thereby we lost touch with our capacity for
love.
Harming others spiritually meant that we tried to make them follow
our ideas about the right thing instead of giving them space to
follow their heart and thereby do what they felt like doing.
By harming our self and others spiritually we took away from our
self and others the joy of living, which is creation's and
manifestation's highest purpose.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will choose to spend that money,
time, energy and interest I have at my disposal on following my
heart and thus do what I most feel like doing as best as I can.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
JULY
July 01:
The first step towards
contentment
When
we fully concede to our innermost selves that we are powerless
over our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, we have taken a
giant step towards acceptance of our self, others and our life,
and thereby we have taken a giant step towards contentment.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 13
In
the course of our work with our AcAdAn Program we realized that
recovery from our existentialist pains could only begin, when we
admitted that we pained.
Some of our existential pains we had lived with for so long that we
perceived them as a natural state of being, and therefore we thought
that we were powerless over the pains that had become chronic and thus
a daily experience in our life.
Therefore it was a surprise for us to discover that our daily
dissatisfaction with this that and the other was an existential pain
that we no longer had to live with after we had come to AcAdAn.
The first step towards contentment is to admit that we are chronically
dissatisfied, because we are dissatisfied with our self, others and
our life for various reasons, many times in the course of a day, and
that our dissatisfaction made our life unmanageable.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work on recovering from my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction by admitting how my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction expressed itself today and how this made my life
unmanageable, so my recovery can begin.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
02: The
Eleventh Step Prayer
|
The ‘I’ Version
God,
I meditate to expand my conscious contact with You,
to seek knowledge of Your will for me this day
and to seek the Power
to carry that out.
|
The ‘We’ Version
God,
We meditate to expand our conscious contact with You,
to seek knowledge of Your will for us this day
and to seek the Power
to carry that out.
|
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 74
When
many of us chose to pray our Eleventh Step Prayer every day, it was
not to remind our omniscient Higher Power that we wanted to expand
our conscious contact with our Higher Power, but to remind our self
of this desire.
We therefore chose to use the Eleventh Step Prayer as an object of
contemplation, because we wanted to become able to enter into
meditation to become better and better at expanding our conscious
contact with our chosen Higher Power.
Gradually, as we became more experienced in picking up on our Higher
Power's subtle presence, we also became better and better at
translating the impulse that came to us from our Higher Power about,
what we advantageously could use our day for.
Furthermore, we sought the power to carry out our Higher Power's
will for us, because our experience has taught us that when we
succeeded in finding ways and means to carry out our Higher Power's
will for us on daily basis we became more content.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my
Eleventh Step Prayer to remind myself that I become a happier and
more content person by expanding my conscious contact with my
Higher.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
03:
The right action
When
we inventoried how the right action brought joy into our day, it
became easier for us to remember how we could choose the right
action in any situation, and thereby, we were ready for Step Eleven.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 68
When
we had become ready for Step Eleven, we had worked so much with our
painful thoughts and emotions plus the transformation of them into
enlightenment and wisdom that we were no longer as afraid of our
thoughts and emotions as we had been.
It had lead to it becoming easier for us to just let the flow of
thoughts pass through our mind without grabbing hold of a particular
thought unless we were in the process of working on our inventory or
on solving an issue, which required thinking.
In this way, it became easier for us to intercept the vibratory
impulses that came from our innermost heart and translate them to
thoughts that are always and without exception unconditionally
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful.
In that way, it also became easier for us to to find the action that
was the right one for us, whether it was met with criticism or
praise from our surroundings, because we felt good about what came
to us from our chosen Higher Power.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I
will listen inwardly to receive the impulse to my next right
action, which is that action that feels delightful to me, and I
will follow that impulse regardless of, whether others think it is
the right action or not.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
04:
The formal part of Step
Three
In
Step Three, we investigated our most obvious reluctance and fears of
being liberated from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and
when we reached a point where we could honestly say that we wanted
to surrender our will and our life to our Higher Power’s care, even
if we might be able to do so only for half an hour, we had finished
the formal part of the Third Step.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 28
Before
we came to AcAdAn, we were not aware that we suffered from addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction and even after we had become aware of our
disease, we had a hard time thinking of our need for recovery.
We had difficulties imagining that our life could work without us
using dissatisfaction and even when we came to Step Three it was
difficult for us to seek help from our Higher Power in Step Three by
seeking help from our Higher Power to recover.
We chose to surrender our will and our life to the care of our Higher
Power anyway, because we realized that we could not recover from our
illness on our own, but needed a Power greater than ourselves to
recover.
Sometimes we took our will back again, by using dissatisfaction as a
leverage, so we needed to surrender our will and our lives to the care
of our Higher Power again and again in order to be able to recover.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will do my best to surrender my will and my life to my
Higher Power's care.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
05:
Discomfort with the
fulfillment of our desires
In
the course of this work, we also discovered what we wanted innermost
when we took the various Rings into use, and we found out that when
we took the attributes from the Ring of Emptiness, the Ring of
Self-Centeredness, The Ring of Codependency and the Big and Small
Rings of Pain into use, we generally did not achieve what we truly
wanted; on the contrary, we destroyed our possibility of achieving
it, but even in those instances where we seemingly achieved what we
wanted by the help of our defects of character we experienced
discomfort in context with the fulfillment of our desire.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 45
In
Step Eleven we discovered that our inner nature is unconditionally
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful, and that we suffered if
we were not aligned with our authentic Self, our Spirit.
However, often we were not aware that our actions, feelings and
thoughts were unloving, uncaring, hard-hearted and merciless towards
ourselves or others, because our intention was loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful.
Therefore, we needed to develop our discernment by the help of our
AcAdAn Program so that we could find out when we were acting on a
defect of character and when we were acting on a virtue so that we
could make a choice.
When even the fulfillment of our desires felt uncomfortable, we knew
that we had failed to fulfill the loving, caring, compassionate and
merciful intention of our authentic Self, our Spirit, and changed
direction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn
Program to investigate a situation, where I felt discomfort about
the fulfillment of one of my desires.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
06:
The right time to
making amends
Even
though we longed for this liberation,
we accepted the fact that we had to be
patient and wait for the right circumstances to occur to make each
of these amends; but we did not use this to postpone a Ninth Step
that we could do now.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 65
Gradually,
as our work with our AcAdAn Program progressed, we became more and
more aware of the harm that we have caused our self, our loved ones,
our friends and the World at large because of our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction.
That could make some of us want to make amends to our self, our
loved ones, our friends and the World at large before we actually
were ready to make those amends in our Ninth Step.
Even when we came to the Ninth Step, we needed to be patient with
making amends for our mistakes to ourselves, our loved ones, our
friends and the World at large, because an amend given at an unripe
point in time could result in a backlash.
Therefore, we let our Eighth Step decisions to make amends lie in
the back of our mind until our Higher Power brought forth a
situation, which gave us a powerful impulse to make an amend, before
we carried out our amend.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will carry out
one of those amend that I decided on in Step Eight, if I get a
powerful impulse to make this amend.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
07:
To admit our wrongs to
our Higher Power
When
we admitted our exact nature to our Higher Power after having
admitted it to our self, we opened up to approaching our Higher
Power with something that we might otherwise want to rationalize out
of the picture by thinking that our Higher Power already knew about
it.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
Most of us have a clear sense of our Higher Power's merciful nature,
so we thought that our Higher Power's mercy meant that we had been
forgiven in advance for the mistakes we had made in the course of
our day.
We had difficulties believing that we needed to admit our mistakes
to our Higher Power in Step Five, but when we did so anyway, we
discovered that we were simultaneously opening our minds to receive
an inspired solution from our Higher Power.
In the same way, we received inspiration when we read our synopses
to ourselves and thus looked at it from the outside, which gave us
new perspectives on it, and we also received inspirations from our
sponsor or recovery buddy, when we read it for them.
When in the end, we admitted to our AcAdAn fellowship how our
mistakes had made us want to change direction in similar situations
in the future; we were ready to transform it into enlightenment and
wisdom in Step Six.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will take to heart the inspirations I receive when I
share my search with my Higher Power in Step Five.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
08: The
belief in our Higher Power as a rational being
To
others of us, coming to believe meant developing faith in that our
Higher Power is a rational being, who always works on
creatingmanifesting the maximum benefit for all even though our
Higher Power’s actions might appear incomprehensible to us in the
moment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 24
Many
of us had heard the words: God's ways are inscrutable, but as we
evolved to higher and higher levels of insight, we began to realize
that God's ways are rational and to our advantage.
In Step Two, we began to develop our understanding of a Higher
Power, and in Step Three, we learned that it was always and without
exception to our advantage to surrender to our Higher Power's
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention.
When we reached to Step Seven and began to cooperate with our Higher
Power about liberating our self from our defects of character, we
became more and more clear-minded, and our belief in that our Higher
Power is a rational being, grew to unconditional trust.
Thus we became ready to use Step Eleven to expand our conscious
contact with our Higher Power, to seek knowledge about our Higher
Power's will for us and to pray to our Higher Power for the power to
carry that out.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the four Higher Power Steps - Step Two, Three,
Seven and Eleven - to develop my trust in my Higher Power’s
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
09:
The belief in life:
The process of coming to believe restored our faith in life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 26
Many
of us had lost faith in the good, when we came to AcAdAn, because we
had learned about a punishing God, who would punish us in various
ways, if we did something that the punishing Godhead did not like.
Moreover, the punishing Godhead would punish us if we failed to do
something that this Godhead thought that we should do and send us to
hell for eternal torment, when we died if we had not been, as the
punishing Godhead thought we ought.
In Second Step in AcAdAn, we were told that we had an unconditional
freedom without traps to choose a Higher Power, and that the only
suggested guidelines were that we chose a Higher Power that was
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful.
Gradually, as we learned to look at our our self, our lives, others
and the World around us through our faith in our personal loving,
caring, compassionate and merciful Higher Power, our faith in life
as a delightful adventure was restored.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will choose to
look at myself, my life, others and the World around me through my
faith in the loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention
of my chosen personal Higher Power.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
10:
Achievement of honor
from others
We
imagined that we had to achieve that others honored us, because we
believed that if only we achieved this, we had achieved their love
and respect, and then we would be able to accept our self.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 15
As members of
AcAdAn, we became increasingly aware of how dissatisfaction with our
human limitations, ignorance, powerlessness, and
mortality/changeability had led us to our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
One of the many means we had used in an attempt to overcome our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction was to try to get others to
honor us, because we imagined that honor from others would make it
easier for us to accept ourselves.
When we succeeded, we discovered that it did not bring us closer to
accepting our humanness, so it was not a solution to our addiction
to our chronic dissatisfaction.
As a result of this realization, we realized how important it was
for us to use our AcAdAn Program to recover from our chronic
dissatisfaction with ourselves, our lives, others, and the World
around us and be led to contentment.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will let myself be
lead to contentment by the help of my chosen Higher Power, my
AcAdAn Fellowship and my AcAdAn Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
11:
Humility
The
principle of Step Five is Humility. Slogan: I’m neither more nor
less than any other creaturemanifestation.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Until
we came to the Fifth Step, many of us had a feeling that we alone
used our defects of character in our relationships with our self,
others and the World at large, and that had made us to feel inferior
to others.
We were not aware that our sense of inferiority belongs to the Small
Ring of Arrogance with its superiority, inferiority, overcrowding
and isolation.
However, when we shared our Fourth Step discoveries about ourselves
in our Fifth Step, we discovered that this was a common feeling in
the psychological landscape of all humankind, so we were not alone
in this.
When we shared about our work with the Rings of Joy, we realized
that also using them was common, and thereby we understood that we
were neither more or nor less than any other manifested creature.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my Fifth Step to admit my Fourth Step
discoveries about my exact nature and thus that I am neither more
nor less than any other manifested creature.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
12: The
Book Active
Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life
Active
Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life contains members’
collective experiences with the Steps and Traditions of
Active Addictions Anonymous.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 92
In
AcAdAn began our work on our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with
the book Active Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life, which is
the basis for all the work of the Twelve Steps that takes place in the
Fellowship.
Little by little, the work was clarified with the help of another book
called Two Sponsors’ Suggestions for Working the Program in Active
Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life, which suggests how we
could work the Program in AcAdAn.
After some more time, we began work on the book Daily
Contemplations for Members of Active Addictions Anonymous – The Wild
Life, because many of us wanted to start the day by thinking
about our Program.
Finally, we began work on the book Sixth Step Analyses for Members
of Active Addictions Anonymous – The Wild Life, which enabled us
to go directly to a Sixth Step analysis when we were in
mental-emotional pain.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will use the literature of AcAdAn to create a clear picture
of my illness for myself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
13:
Focus in AcAdAn
We
refrain from either endorsing or opposing issues and causes outside
of AcAdAn.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 96
When
we came to AcAdAn, most of us had a well-developed thinking mind, a
well-developed Ego, because we had invented infinitely many reasons
to be dissatisfied with different areas of our life.
That our Ego was well developed did not necessarily mean that it was
healthy, but it meant that we had many different options to address
a wide range of topics from many different perspectives.
In connection with our AcAdAn membership, we chose to focus on those
perspectives, which made us dissatisfied to identify the areas that
we needed to change to contentment by the help of our AcAdAn
Program.
Therefore, we did not use our thinking capacity to focus on
approving or opposing issues outside AcAdAn, but used it instead to
focus on our recovery from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will share in a
meeting how with success I used my AcAdAn Program to recover from
what pained me most today that I had tried to use my disease of
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction to recover from without
success.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
14:
Emotional Sobriety
We
also investigated
our Emotional Sobriety by looking
into those instances where
we were
able to respect our self
by taking
care of
our self materially,
physically,
time-space wise, emotionally,
mentally,
socially and spiritually.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 32
Most
of us had worked with our co-dependency, which was called the savior
complex in the old World Order, in one form or another, before we
came to AcAdAn.
In AcAdAn we worked with the pain in the Ring of Codependency with
the four attributes of the savior, the seducer, the victim and the
offender that play out in this energy field.
Furthermore, we worked with the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its
dettachment, integrity, respect for self and respect for others,
which is the antidote to our codependency.
When we used our emotional sobriety, our codependency slowly faded
into the background and thus we could use our resources as they were
intended to create and manifest a life for ourselves that satisfied
us.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my
emotional sobriety to createmanifest a life for myself that
satisfies me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
15:
To move from pain to
joy in AcAdAn
After
having worked
with learning
to move
from
the Big
Ring
of
Pain
to
the Big
Ring
of
Joy,
we
dived
deeper in our Sixth Step work, by learning to move from the
Small Rings, the Minirings, the Microrings and the Nanorings of
Pain to the Small Rings, the Minirings, the Microrings and the
Nanorings of Joy.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
In
our work with Step Four in our AcAdAn Program, we investigated our
psychological landscape by investigating how the energies from the
Rings of Pain and the Rings of Joy had influenced us from our
childhood until now.
In Step Five, we discovered that we had these experiences in common
with our sponsor and/or our recovery buddy and our AcAdAn
Fellowship.
Thereby we became entirely ready to use these energies consciously
in Step Six, where we learned to move consciously from
mental-emotional pain to mental-emotional joy.
Thus, we had achieved the capacity to find contentment with
ourselves, others and our life, and when we had been dissatisfied,
we used Step Eight and Nine to make amends to ourselves and others
for our use of dissatisfaction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my
Program to learn to move from mental-emotional pain to
mental-emotional joy in as many situations as possible.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
16:
The flow of thoughts
Because
of our active addiction, we are trapped in a constant flow of
thoughts overwhelming us to act contrary to our heart’s desires, and
this we call obsession.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
In
our work with our thinking mind, our Ego, we noticed that our Ego is
traversed by a stream of thoughts that give rise to our emotional
feelings, which is that energy that is flowing from our stream of
thoughts.
By observing our flow of thoughts, we observed that some thought
patterns led to emotional feelings of joy, and other thought
patterns led to emotional feelings of pain, and that it was possible
to shift our focus from pain to joy.
We also observed that we grabbed hold of some thought patterns and
twisted and turned them because they scared us, and we wanted to
find ways and means to prevent these thoughts from turning into
illness and pain in our lives.
In AcAdAn, we made a conscious decision about which thought patterns
we wanted to cultivate and which ones we wanted to replace with more
advantageous patterns that made it possible for us to act in
accordance with our heart´s desires.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will choose
to use my AcAdAn Program to consciously cultivate the thought
patterns that make it possible for me to act in accordance with
the desires of my heart.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
17:
Tradition Eleven and
Twelve
TRADITION
11: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than
promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level
of internet, press, radio, TV and
films.
TRADITION 12: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our
traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before
personalities.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 12
In
our
work with our AcAdAn Program and in our Fellowship, the Principle of
Anonymity as it is described in our Traditions, is of the utmost
importance,.
The Principle of Anonymity ensures that we do not make the mistake of
letting our self become blinded by the status in society or in the
Fellowship of other members, so we lose sight of our goal with being
members of AcAdAn in that way.
We did not want that our work with recovering from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction should come out of course by us beginning to
focus on topics, which had got nothing to with our recovery.
By using the principles that are described in Tradition Eleven and
Twelve we could all meet as equally worthy in recovery from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction by the help of the joy these
Traditions open for us.
Today’s contemplation
Today
I keep the Principle of Anonymity in mind in my recovery from my
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
18:
The guidance of the Ego
Our
thinking Mind is also called our Ego and has the task of guiding us
about how best we can handle our life; however, in the course of our
Stepwork we discovered that our thinking mind was dysfunctional due
to lack of information or due to flawed information that had made us
draw wrongful conclusions about our self, others and our life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 71
When
we
began to study our thinking mind, our Ego by the help of the Painrings
and the Joyrings, we discovered that our thinking mind, our Ego could
be more or less misinformed about various areas.
We also discovered that our thinking mind, our Ego could lack
information that we needed to be able to take care of our lives in a
satisfactory way, and therefore we chose to keep our thinking mind,
our Ego updated with new information.
We wanted that our thinking mind, our Ego should be updated about,
which goals we wanted to achieve, so we did not run into opposition
from our Ego, when we began to act on fulfilling our desires in
various areas.
Gradually, as we equipped our thinking mind, our Ego with plentiful
and accurate information both about what we wanted, and about what
energies we wanted to make use of to fulfill our desires, our thinking
mind, our Ego became calm.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work on providing my thinking mind, my Ego with
plentiful and accurate information about where I want to move to in
my psychological landscape, and what energies I want to use.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
19:
To liberate our self
from guilt
What
was important was not whether it was a big or small thing, or if we
did it on purpose or not, but whether we felt guilty about it and
therefore were ashamed of our action.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
During
our
growth, we got the impression that we were guilty of the painful
mental-emotional states of others, especially our parents, siblings,
teachers or male/female friends.
That had misled us to believe that the honor was also ours when others
were joyful and comfortable, and a sign that the honor was ours was
when we were praised by them, but in AcAdAn, we found that our
codependency held an addiction to praise.
Praise was our 'drug' and people pleasing is the diseased state of our
mind that results from our addiction to praise, so we began using the
Ring of Emotional Sobriety to transform our co-dependency into
enlightenment and wisdom.
This work was a major factor in liberating us from the
mental-emotional pain that held us in our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction because we let go of what others thought of what we
thought, felt and did.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to liberate myself from feelings
of guilt due to the mental-emotional pains of others and that
feeling of shame that my feeling of guilt brings forth.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
20:
Seduction of others
To
accomplish this, we tried to overwhelm others with our perspectives,
to make them believe that we could save them from the pain of their
lives if only they followed our directions, seducing them further by
concealing the pains of our own life, refusing to acknowledge that
we were no wiser, better or more powerful than they and their Higher
Power were, and we denied the truth that they had to find their own
answers to life just like we had to.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 32
Many
of
us came from other Twelve Step Programs that work with various
existential problems, before we came to AcAdAn, and many of these
Fellowships work with codependency.
Some Fellowships call codependency the drama triangle, and the various
Fellowships, as well as some forms of psychology work with three
concepts in that context and that is the savior role, the victim role
and the offender role.
Therefore, we were surprised to discover that our AcAdAn Program works
with four concepts instead of three by adding the seducer role to the
other three, and that the Program has set up the concepts in a circle
instead of in a triangle.
When we investigated the seducer role, we realized that the seducer
role is the twin of the savior role, because we seduced ourselves and
others, when we imagined that we could save others from their
existential pains, which was their own task.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will take my knowledge about letting go of the seducer
role of codependency to heart, so I may be able to free up my
resources for my own use.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
21:
The consequences of
dissatisfaction
If
you are like us, you know that a situation which is received with
dissatisfaction creates and manifests a multitude of consequences.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
When
we
came to AcAdAn and began to investigate our dissatisfaction, we
discovered that it did not just suddenly arise in the present moment,
because there were a long series of thought habits behind every
expression of dissatisfaction that we had built up over many years.
We also realized that we lost the joy of life because of our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction, and that it was a big and demanding task
to recover from this disease that we had spent many years creating and
manifesting.
Over the years, we had tried to recover from it by seeking out
psychologists, psychiatrists, spiritual guides, or our near and dear
ones to seek help in recovering from it.
When we came to AcAdAn we realized that our dissatisfaction was not
just about a single situation or person, but that it was a chronic
condition we used many times a day every day that we needed to be
healed from.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Program to heal from my addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
22:
Change
We
realized that if our Higher Power pulled up the whole Tree of Hatred
from its roots all at once and thereby instantly transformed it into
a fully developed Tree of Love that was new to us when we asked to
have all our defects of character removed by way of transformation,
we would probably feel so alienated from our self that we might go
insane from it or even die from shock.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 56
Most
of
us imagined that we wanted to improve our life in many many ways,
which could consist in quitting smoking, losing weight, getting a new
car, meeting a partner or getting a child.
However, we were not aware that any change creates and manifests an
upheaval in our everyday lives, whether the change consists in an
improvement of our life, or it consists in a worsening of our life.
Already in Step One, we became aware that death can be expressed as
the changeability, and that had indeed made it easier for us to accept
death, but we also needed to learn to accept the changeability.
Many of us had tried to stifle ourselves or put ourselves and others
into catEgories to overcome our discomfort about death/changeability,
but in AcAdAn we worked on coming to accept of the changeability of
ourselves and others.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to learn to live in the
Blissful Flow of the Present Moment.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
23:
To be part of a group
So,
we
let go after having expressed what we want for the group, trusting
that the outcome is the best for the group here and now, also if
our own wish for a specific outcome is not in conformity with what
the group chooses as a solution.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 87
In AcAdAn we
learned to look at the Group Conscience, as our Higher Power speaking
to us through our group, whether the group consisted of two in our
marriage or many in our Fellowship that we were part of as a group
member.
The Group Conscience consists of each member's conscience, and
therefore we took each members’r expressed conscience into
consideration, when we had to make a decision on behalf of the whole
group.
By learning to listen to the Group Conscience as our Higher Power
speaking to us, we developed our social skills, so we became better
and better in being part of a group as a contented and harmonious part
of the group.
While we learned to listen to the Group Conscience, much of our
anxiety in social situations disappeared, and thus we became more and
more content with our self, others and our life.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will surrender to the Group Conscience in the same way that
I surrender to my individual and personal Higher Power.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
24:
Live and let live
The
principle of Tradition Eight is Respect.
Slogan: Live and let live.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
In the
hierarchy of the Rings of Pain the Ring of Codependency comes as
number three after the Ring of Emptiness and the Ring of
Self-centeredness in our AcAdAn Program.
To us this meant that practically all of us suffered from a severe
case of codependency, and therefore we are consumed with our
perception of what other people were doing.
At times, we believed others needed to be saved, at other times we
wanted to change others people, and therefor we interfered in their
actions, or their interaction with their peers or the way they had
chosen to live their spiritual life.
We discovered to our dismay that others mostly did no welcome our
interference and little by little we learned to respect their way of
being in the World, and thus we took to heart the slogan of Tradition
Eight: ‘Live and let live’.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will take the principle of Tradition Eight to heart and
respect others' right to live as they choose to do.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
25:
The power and the glory
Others
of us tried to achieve power and glory by raising our level of
energy beyond what was naturally possible for us through ingesting
various chemical substances that were harmful to our body and mind
so as to force our body and mind to yield more results than they
were otherwise capable of.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 16
In
our work with the Ring of Self-Centering with its euphoria, depression,
self-criticism and self-praise, we discovered that our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction sprang from our use of this energy field.
Our self-criticism made it difficult for us to value ourselves, and
therefore a need arose within us to raise our self-esteem by being
gloryfied by others, and this had led many of us to seek power and
glory.
Some of us chose to use various chemicals to increase our power to
perform, so we could accomplish more than other people in our pursuit
of power and glory, but our use of chemicals turned against us at some
point.
At that time, we were addicted to our favorite substance and had to
find a way back to normality by going through a time- and
energy-consuming healing process and thus becoming accustomed to what
was possible for us normally.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will accept my human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness
and mortality/changeability, and therefore I will accept that the
power and the glory solely belong to my Higher Power.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
26:
Religion and
spirituality
AcAdAn
is not a religious program.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
Many of us AcAdAns came into contact with the religion that was
dominant in our society at a young age, and for many of us it had led
to us getting various existential problems that had made us turn our
backs on religion.
Gradually, as our quest for answers to our existential problems
developed, we discovered that there is a difference between religion
and spirituality.
Religion is the initial learning, which is given to human beings, who
do not have personal experiences in the spiritual area, so they can
have a guideline, which advantageously, they can use to handle
existential problems.
At
one point in time, however, a desire arises about experiencing the
spiritual states that the various types of religions describe, and
thus this human being begins his/her spiritual path.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will accept that religion has its place in the big
picture, and that spirituality is my personal experiences with the
states that religion describes.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
27:
Fellowship
At
long last, we had found a Fellowship with others who suffered from
the same as us, and together we moved from our dissatisfaction with
self, others and our life,
towards
contentment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Before
we came to AcAdAn it was not easy for us to spot our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction, even though we used dissatisfaction in many
different situations and for many different reasons.
When we came to AcAdAn and heard what other members had to share about
their addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, we recognized what they
were sharing, so we decided to give ourselves a chance to recover
using the AcAdAn Program.
It was a great relief to us that we now had a Community with others
who also admitted that they lost their joy in life due to their
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and we chose to start coming to
the AcAdAn Community.
Listening to others at meetings, and finding a sponsor and starting to
do the Program gave us an opportunity to examine how our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction was affecting us, our lives, and everything
and everyone around us.
Today’s contemplation
Today I will use my AcAdAn Community to examine how my daily use of
dissatisfaction is affecting myself, my life in general, and my
surroundings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
28:
Our attitude
An
attitude of indifference and intolerance towards earthly and
spiritual principles can
destroy
our recovery process.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
Most
of
us had been on the spiritual path for a long time, when we came to
AcAdAn to work with our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
On our spiritual path, we had received much information that we could
advantageously apply to our spiritual life, but it had not occurred to
us that it was equally important that we found information, which was
about our earthly life.
When we came to AcAdAn. it was the first time for many of us that we
came across information that emphasized that we also needed to apply
earthly principles to achieve contentment with our self and our life.
Therefore, it was a big relief for us to come face to face with the
First Step in AcAdAn, because immediately, we got to work with our
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to learn to accept my
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL
MAY JUNE JULY
AUGUST SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
July
29:
The admiration and
respect of others
We
imagined that we had to gain honor from others, as we believed that
if only we achieved this, we would have achieved their love and
respect, and then we would be able to accept our self.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 15
Before
we
began to study our self by the help of our AcAdAn Program, many of us
imagined that we could achieve self-acceptance by being admired and
respected by others, but by studying our self, we discovered that when
we actually received admiration and respect from others it didn´t help
us to achieve greater self-acceptance.
We even spotted self-critical thoughts in this context, so when others
expressed admiration or respect for our way of being in the World or
for our talents and capabilities in certain areas, our self-critical
thoughts could make us think that their admiration and respect was
connected with the fact that they did not know us, as we were in
Reality.
Our self-critical thoughts could also make us think that if others
knew us, as we were in Reality, they would not admire or respect us,
and these thoughts in particular showed us that we had not come any
closer to our self-respect, because of other people's admiration and
respect.
Thus it became clear to us that we needed to achieve self-respect by
the help of the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its detachment,
integrity, respect for self and respect for others to be able to take
other people's admiration and respect to heart.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the Ring of Emotional Sobriety to achieve
self-respect, so I can also become able to receive other people's
admiration and respect in my social life with an open heart.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
30:
To admit
Nobody
could convince us
that we were chronically dissatisfied. This was an admission we
had to make for our self.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 22
Being
chronically
ill had a lot of unpleasant associations for most of us, because it
gave us the impression that it is a disease,which we could not recover
from, and if it came to being chronically mentally ill, it became even
more difficult for us to admit how we were doing.
In AcAdAn, nobody tried to convince us that we were chronically
dissatisfied, because we knew from personal experience that this
disease was very painful to have to stand by, especially because we
had tried to be happier than the happiest in social contexts to hide
our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Therefore it was a big relief for us to admit our disease and how it
affected us and our life when we attended meetings in our AcAdAn
Fellowship, confident that our AcAdAn sisters and brothers understood
us and in our AcAdAn process it also became clear to us that it was a
basic existential pain we were facing.
We understood that is was about our fear of our human limitation,
ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability, and it was not
us alone, who tried to escape our humanness, but that every human
being tried to do that to a certain extent, and that we could arrest
our disease by the help of the AcAdAn Program to such an extent that
we could become symptom free without using medicine.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my First Step to admit that I am dissatisfied
with a certain situation today, and how my dissatisfaction makes my
my life unmanageable, so I can use Step Two to begin to recover from
my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
July
31:
Anonymity
We
listen to the message instead of our personal opinion of the
messenger, and in this way, we maintain the anonymity by placing the
principles before the persons involved.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 98
When
we
began to become squinted with the Traditions of AcAdAn, we discovered
that one of our Program's main principles is to place those principles
another member shared about before his/her personal appearance.
If we listened to our personal opinions about the person, who shared
about those principles, which he/she shared about in a meeting, we cut
our self off from being open-minded enough to pick up that message
that we needed to hear.
Therefore we choose to use Step Two's principle, which is
open-mindedness and Step Two's slogan that says: Listening attentively
and respectfully to another is the first sign of emotional sobriety.
We wanted to be emotionally sober, so therefore we choose to maintain
the anonymity by the help of Step Two and Tradition Twelve, which
says: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions,
ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will choose to maintain the principle of anonymity by
listening attentively and respectfully to those I interact with in
my social life, rather than being preoccupied with my positive or
negative thoughts about their personality.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
AUGUST
August
01:
Freedom in our work
with the Program
One
Sponsor’s Suggestions for Working the Program of Active Addictions
Anonymous describes how we can work with the Program
of Active Addictions Anonymous, but we
have the freedom to choose to work the Program in any other way as
long as it works for us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 92
When
we worked with the Program in Active Addictions Anonymous, we
basically worked with the dissatisfaction that was connected with
our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability.
We made use of many different methods to express our dissatisfaction
and we worked with many of these expressions by the help of the
Archetypal Rings of Pain and Joy from our Fourth Step and onward.
The Sponsor Suggestion in our literature suggests to us, how we
could carry out this work, but we had the freedom to work with our
dissatisfaction with our humanness in other ways, if we found other
ways more advantageous.
The most important thing was that our method made it possible for us
to work with our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with our
humanity in such a way that it became possible for us to recover
from it.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will work on
recovering from my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with my
own humanity and that of others in any way that works for me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
02: Attraction
rather than promotion
When
we talk about Active Addictions Anonymous in context with public
relations, we don’t promote AcAdAn.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 97
In our enthusiasm about the results we achieved, as a result of our
work with the Program in AcAdAn, we might be seized by an
irresistible urge to try to overwhelm others with our enthusiasm.
Therefore, our Traditions have established that we want to let our
Program work by attraction rather than promotion so those of us, who
had a desire to convince others of the excellence of our Program
could learn to take it easy.
When we became able to take it easy, it became possible for us to
not talk about our Program with people, who were not part of AcAdAn
unless they had expressed a desire to hear about it.
By leaving to a Higher Power to lead those, who wanted it to AcAdAn,
we learned to let of attempting to overwhelm others with our
enthusiasm about our Program, knowing that the Program would only
work for people, who were willing to take on the extensive work it
takes to recover from one’s addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will leave it to a Higher Power to bring those people,
who has a deep and earnest desire to recover from their addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction to me, so I can inform them about the
Program of AcAdAn.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
03:
Prejudice
In
Tradition Three, we open up both as individuals and as a group to
the fact that we cannot judge other people’s lives and motives by
looking at them from the outside.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 88
Before we became familiar with the Traditions of AcAdAn, we mostly
stuck to the first impression we got of others, which often meant
that we formed an opinion about them solely because of their outer
appearance.
When we heard others share in an AcAdAn meeting, often, we formed an
opinion about what kind of human being they were solely based on
their voicing, their facial expression and their body language.
We call this for prejudice in AcAdAn, because it is impossible to
judge others' lives and motivations by looking at them from the
outside, whether the judgement came into being because of their
physical appearance or their way of expressing their thoughts.
In AcAdAn we wanted to identify with what others had to share
instead of keeping them at a distance by the help of judgements, and
therefore, we chose to open our self to get to know them better,
before we determine in what ways we could benefit from those people
our Higher Power sent into our lives.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use levelheadedness in my perception of others that
my Higher Power sends into my life, before I take a stand on in
which ways if any I might benefit from them.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
04:
Cooperation
with our Higher Power
Hence,
we began cooperating with our Higher Power on
a daily basis about doing this work at a pace we would be able to
bear.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 56
In
Step Seven we began to cooperate with our Higher Power about
liberating our self from our character defects at a pace we could
bear, and how fast this process could take place was decided by our
courage to change.
We had discovered that even if the change was to our advantage, any
change could createmanifest a sense of alienation from our self if
we moved forward too fast and thus did not feel at home in our self
any longer.
Those of us, who had let go of a chemical addiction, like for
example an addiction to sugar, nicotine, alcohol, heroin, cocaine,
etc., knew that it was an improvement in our lives that we were
liberated from our addiction to our drug of choice.
But although it was an improvement of our lives to recover from our
addiction, it was not a change that happened from one day to the
next, and thus we realized that it was to our advantage to change
our self in cooperation with our Higher Power at a pace we could
bear, so as to not drive our self mad with our desire for change to
happen fast.
Today’s contemplation
Today, Today, I will use Step Seven to work on changing to my
advantage in cooperation with my Higher Power at a pace I can
tolerate.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
05:
Belongingness
We
know that it is vital for our group that all its members feel that
they belong to the group, for our experiences have shown us that
when more and more members lose
their sense of belonging to our group, the group ceases to exist.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 85
We
knew from our experience that if we did not experience a feeling of
belonging to a group, we quickly lost the desire to be part of the
group and our Traditions also taught us that it was important that
we left contexts that did not serve our purpose, even if they had
served our purpose for a while, but did not do it any longer.
It was important for us to attend meetings in AcAdAn, because we had
an opportunity to share our work with the Program with like minded
people, and at the same time we could let our self be inspired by
listening to what others member’s had to share about their
work with the Program.
Therefore, it was important for us that those members of AcAdAn, who
had chosen to attend the AcAdAn meeting, we and our group had
created and manifested felt like a welcome and valuable part of our
group, so joyfully we welcomed them to the meeting in our group,
whether their participation was a single meeting or many.
We talked with those, we felt inspired to talk with both before and
after the meeting and related to what they had to share, while at
the same time, we remembered that both newcomers and old-timers had
a need to feel like a welcome and valuable part of the meeting and
to be talked with before to not to lose the desire to participate in
our meetings.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I choose to take good care of both newcomers and
old-timers with loving kindness, because I want them to experience
a sense of being a welcome and valuable part of the meetings in my
group.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
06:
The Small Ring of
Arrogance
When
The Small Ring of Arrogance became active in us, we felt above
others when our needs were met (Superiority), and below others when
our needs were not met (Inferiority).
When we felt below others (Inferiority), we stayed by our self to
hide our vulnerability and our feelings of worthlessness
(Isolation), and when we felt above others (Superiority), we filled
up our time and space with people and activities to show off our
superiority by the help of the number of people present in our lives
and the numerous activities we undertook with these people
(Overcrowding).
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 40
Until
we worked with the Small Ring of Arrogance in Step Four in our
AcAdAn Program, we believed that arrogance exclusively consisted in
feeling superior to others, but in our work with this Ring we
discovered how our arrogance also holds feelings of inferiority.
Furthermore, we realized that our goal with taking our arrogance
into use and overcrowd our day and our life with people to meet and
activities to do was to be attractive to other people, but we
discovered that as a result of taking our arrogance into use,
instead, we felt isolated from other people.
This lead to us becoming entirely ready to work on transforming our
arrogance in Step Six, where we worked on becoming entirely ready to
allow our Higher Power to transform our defects of character to
virtues by investigating our use of the Small Ring of Arrogance in
all details.
When we had investigated our use of the Small Ring of Arrogance in
all details, we moved our focus to the Small Ring of Truth with its
humility, honesty, individuality and fellowship to investigate how
we imagined that the situation could have transpired if instead, we
had used the Small Ring of Truth, and that created and manifested
the transformation, we had longed for.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn
Program to transform the pain from my use of the Small Ring of
Arrogance to the joy of learning to use the Small Ring of Truth
instead.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
07:
Transformation
The
principle of Step Six is Transformation. Slogan: I own my hurts.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Many of us felt that others that were responsible for our hurt
feelings, until we came to Step Six in our AcAdAn Program and became
acquainted with the slogan of the Sixth Step, and it was a shock to
acknowledge that our hurt emotions belonged to us, because it meant
we were responsible for healing them.
We had imagined that if others would only treat us better, be more
loving, understanding, accommodating and kind, we would not feel
hurt, but when we investigated the issue, we found out that it was
not everybody, who felt hurt by the same situations that we felt
hurt by.
We also discovered that what hurt us one day did not necessarily
hurt us the next day, so it would be impossible for others to behave
in ways that were loving, understanding, accommodating and kind
enough to make sure that they did not hurt us in any possible way.
This meant that we could not see to it that others did not feel hurt
either, no matter how well meaning we were, and thereby we began to
exclusively take responsibility for our own hurt emotions and after
that we could use our Sixth Step in AcAdAn to transform our pain to
joy.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will heal my hurt
emotions and transform them to joy by the help of my AcAdAn
Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
08:
The Ring of Fulfillment
In Hindu
mythology an archetype is found called the Sudarshan Chakra or the
Sun Wheel, that is said to light up our inner World as brightly as
the Sun lights up our outer World and thereby the Sun Wheel
transforms all of our defects of character to their mature state –
to virtues.
In AcAdAn we use the name the Ring of Fulfillment for the same
archetype and we perceive this Ring to be the origin of all our
virtues and thus the origin of all of our joys.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 30
It
is not only in our AcAdAn Program that we may encounter information
on compositions of various energies and their consequences for life
as a human being.
In mythology, there are other names for various energy fields we
work with in AcAdAn, which we call the Rings of Joy and Pain.
Thus, we encounter the Ring of Fulfillment in mythology under the
name Sudarshan Chakra that Lord Krishna used to decapitate all
demons/defects of character.
The Ring of Emptiness, we also encounter in mythology with the name
Pandora's Box, which is said to release all the sufferings of the
World for the one, who opens the box, which we in AcAdAn perceive to
be the root of all our defects of character.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work on
consciously moving into the Ring of Fulfillment with its
fulfillment, interest, meaningfulness and oneness, when I discover
that I am in the Ring of Emptiness with its emptiness, boredom,
meaninglessness and loneliness.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
09:
To enter into
meditation
To
enter into meditation, we moved from
our normal state of daily consciousness into the reflective
state, then into the contemplative state, from there into the
concentrated state of our mind,
and in the end, we let go and entered into meditation, where our
consciousness expanded.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 72
When
we began working with prayer and meditation in Step Eleven in our
AcAdAn Program, little by little, we came to know the meditative
state
Thus, we discovered that actually, there had not been a day in our
life where we had not spontaneously entered into meditation, however
without us having put the word meditation on our state of mind.
When we experienced a moment of pure presence, we found our self in
a thoughtless state, because in that moment, we had stopped thinking
anything about anything and this we call meditation.
Right before we fell asleep at night, we discovered that as long as
the band of thoughts was running, we could not fall asleep, so we
had to wait for the flow of thoughts to stop, before we could fall
asleep, and when the flow of thoughts stop, we have entered into
meditation.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will consciously
work on entering into meditation as often as possible during my
day by consciously prolonging those moments, where the meditation
naturally arises.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
10:
Respect for others
Instead
of offending others by saying or thinking that they thought, felt
and acted wrongly, we chose to respect that they needed to think,
feel and act in accordance with their reality as it was for them.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 48
Before
we worked with the Ring of Emotional Sobriety in AcAdAn, it was hard
for us to find out how we could handle our co-dependency with its
savior role, seducer role, victim role and offender role.
When we found our self in the Ring of Codependency, we had an urge
to save others from the difficulties of their life without being
aware that their difficulties were tasks given to them by their
Higher Power.
By taking on solving their tasks we blocked them from learning what
they needed to learn, and this insight made us realize that it was
to the advantage of both us to detach from other people’s issues.
If they asked us for help we took time out to think about, if we
would love to contribute to a solution, before we said yes or no and
thereby we showed respect both for ourselves and others.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will respect the capacity of others to solve their own
problems.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
11:
To open up about our
secrets
Only
complete trust in the person we chose could give us the courage we
needed to be thorough with our Fifth
Step.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 43
In
Step
Four in our AcAdAn Program, we came face to face with our hurts from
childhood to the present, and we had kept many of our hurts secret out
of fear of others using this knowledge to hurt us if we did not submit
to their desires.
Therefore, it was frightening for us to think about opening up about
our secrets to another human being, but it was a comfort for us to
think of that others had done it before us and that we had been told
that it took courage to do Step Five.
We were careful with selecting the person that we wanted share our
secrets with, whether we chose a person inside or outside the
Fellowship to share our Fourth Step with.
We needed to trust our chosen person to be able to summon the required
courage to let our secrets come out into the open.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will be careful in choosing the people I share my
secrets with, so I can trust that I will not be the subject to
hurtful gossip.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
12:
To admit to our Higher
Power
This
way, we discovered that it did make a difference to admit our Fourth
Step to our Higher Power, and at the same time, we also prepared our
self to admit the exact nature of our character to another human
being.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
Our Program helped us achieve the courage it took to become able to
share our Fourth Step with another human by us first admitting to our
self that we felt hurt about many things that we used to tell our self
that we did not care about.
Next, we admitted to our Higher Power that we felt hurt by the
experiences we had written down by reading our Fourth Step to our
Higher Power and add those inspirations that came to us while we were
reading.
After having shared our pain with our Higher Power, we discovered that
much of the intensity of our pain disappeared in the process, and in
that way it was not so scary to share our hurt feelings with another
human being.
When we shared with our self, we experienced our hurt from the inside,
and when we shared with our Higher Power, we could look at our hurt
from the outside, and when, in this way they became less personal, our
courage grew to share our hurt with another person.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will follow the suggestion of the Program to first admit
my hurts to myself, then to my Higher Power, then to another human
being, then to the Fellowship and then I am ready to meet the World
at large without having a need to hide my hurts
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
13:
The Ring of Emptiness
When
we investigated our use of the Ring of Emptiness, we discovered that
if we found our self in the Ring of Emptiness, when we had empty
time ahead of us, our empty time was accompanied by a feeling of
boredom, and with the boredom we experienced a sense of
meaninglessness that made us wish to abandon our self and our lives
and that made us feel lonely, no matter how many people we were
surrounded by.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 30
Humankind’s biggest sufferings spring from the Ring of Emptiness,
and until we came to Active Addictions Anonymous many of us were
ashamed of our emptiness, boredom, meaninglessness and loneliness.
We were not aware that we were in the energy of the Ring of
Emptiness, and we were not aware either that it was quite easy to
move out of the Ring of Emptiness and move into the Ring of
Fulfillment with its fulfillment, interest, meaningfulness and
oneness.
It was a great relief for us to read in the texts of AcAdAn that
this was possible, and that made us willing to learn how we could
move from the pain of the Ring of Emptiness to the joy of the Ring
of Fulfillment by the help of our Sixth Step.
In Step Six, we learned how to move spiritually, socially, mentally,
emotionally, energetically, physically and materially from pain to
joy, and this meant that we achieved the freedom to move from the
Ring of Emptiness to the Ring of Fulfillment.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to choose to move from the
pain in the Ring of Emptiness to the joy in the Ring of
Fulfillment.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL
MAY JUNE JULY
AUGUST SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
August
14:
Miracles
The
real miracle happens when you realize that your compulsive need to
use dissatisfaction has been repealed. You have stopped being
dissatisfied and have begun living a life of contentment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 13
There
are many perceptions of what miracles are and in AcAdAn we consider
miracles to be events that are contrary to the generally approved
perceptions of life on Earth, and therefore, we consider it to be a
miracle that a human being can look so deeply into himself/herself
that he/she can discover that the most intense of his/her
existential pains arises from his/her addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Furthermore we perceive it to be a miracle, when he/she realizes
that his/her addiction to chronic dissatisfaction springs from
his/her dissatisfaction with his/her human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability, and that it is actually
possible for him/her to recover from his/her addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
We experienced time and time again that when a newcomer had become
ready to admit that he/she wanted oneness with his/her true Self,
his/her Spirit it could lead to that he/she became so dissatisfied
with his/her humanness that he/she was been ready to do many
destructive acts to his/her physical body in a misunderstood attempt
to become himself/herself.
In AcAdAn we discovered, however, that a prerequisite for completing
our spiritual journey into oneness with our true Self, our Spirit
while we were still living on Earth, was that we learned to accept
and even love our own and others' human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability, and it is this
development we call the full AcAdAn miracle.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work on creatingmanifesting my personal miracle in
AcAdAn by learning to use the Program by the help of my
sponsor/recovery buddy, my Higher Power and the Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
15:
Pain as a teacher
As
long as everything in our lives worked to our satisfaction and did
not change, unless it was a change we had chosen our self, we did
not stop to think deeply about the meaning or purpose of our life,
but when we experienced pain, or when
our
life changed in ways we had not expected, we began investigating the
cause of our pain and the reason for the change, and in this
process, our awareness and understanding of our life grew.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 19
Before
we came to AcAdAn most of us perceived there to be something wrong
with us or our life when we experienced pain, but gradually, as our
work with the Program progressed, we became aware that pain is a
teacher.
It was the pain associated with our use of our character defects in
the Archetypal Rings of Pain that taught us to stop and take a
closer look at our self and our life, and thus the pain helped us to
become more aware in many areas.
At the same time that pain made us more aware we learned to use the
Archetypal Rings of Joy consciously, and thus we became able to use
our defects of character constructively by transforming them and
thus lift our self to a higher level of energy.
Little by little, as we developed our capacity to consciously use
the Rings of Joy and Pain, our fear of our existential pains
disappeared, and thus we became able to see that both pain and joy
have theirs to give.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work on reducing my fear of existential pains by
developing my capacity to use my AcAdAn Program to move from pain
to joy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
16:
Problem-solving
We
are not interested in who or what caused our
addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction,
what we have done in the past, how much or how little we own, but
only in what we want to do about our problem and how we can help
each other recover from our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
When
we became aware that we were chronically dissatisfied, many of us
felt frightened, because we could not see how it would be possible
for us to figure out our problem and find a solution to it, and that
could make us stay stucked in our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction for years.
We knew instinctively that contentment, joy, happiness, bliss and
ecstasy are spiritual states, and therefore we perceived it as a
step backwards to admit our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, in
particular because we thought we had come so far on the spiritual
path that we ought to be more joyful and content with our self and
our lives than we actually were.
Gradually, as we heard others share about that they too had had the
same problem with admitting their addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, it helped us to discover that our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction cropped up, when we began on the spiritual
path, because we thought that our humanness stood in the way of our
oneness with our true Self, our Spirit.
Our idea that our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability stood in the way of our oneness with our
true Self our Spirit, had settled in us as an addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, which exactly lead to a limitation of our oneness
with our true self, our Spirit.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use Step One
in my AcAdAn Program to admit my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction with my human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness
and mortality/changeability, so my recovery can begin in Step Two.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
17:
To harm others
We
looked at how we had harmed others physically by turning violent and
causing physical harm, for example, by slapping, pushing or beating
them, and we included our children too in this list.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
In
the past it was very common that parents exposed their children to
violent assaults, and many of us in AcAdAn has been subjected to
exactly such attacks by getting spankings or being told that we were
not allowed to follow our heart, but had to do what our parents
thought was the right thing.
This had given us the impression that love came to expression
through violence in many forms, and therefore we treated those we
loved with many forms of violence, because we believed that it was
they way to express love in conformity with the saying; the one you
love, you tasten.
Only when we carried out our AcAdAn Program, we realized that when
we gave others pain, we our self pained, because we did not feel in
conformity with our true Self, our Spirit, when we were unloving,
uncaring, hardhearted and merciless.
We pained in particular, when we were unloving, uncaring,
hardhearted and merciless to our near and dear ones, whom, in
Reality, we wanted to treat with love, care, compassion and mercy
and as we broke our old patterns by the help of our AcAdAn Program,
we became more content with our self and our life.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to find out how I can stop
being unloving, uncaring, hardhearted and merciless towards myself
and others and instead fulfill my desire about being loving,
caring, compassionate and merciful.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
18:
Flawlessness
Instead
of being hard on our self by expecting to be flawless from hereon,
we drew hope from Steps Eight and Nine, knowing that we could use
them to right our wrongs, whenever we made a mistake as revealed to
us seen in the light of our AcAdAn Program.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 56
When we came to Step Seven in our AcAdAn Program, most of us
imagined that we had finally come to a point, where we could learn
to be flawless, because now we were going to cooperate with our
Higher Power about being liberated from all our defects of
character.
In Step Six, we had become entirely ready to allow our Higher Power
to liberate us from our defects of character, and in Step Seven our
cooperation with our Higher Power help us to become flawless,
because we had now become ready to cooperate with our Higher Power
about it.
Our willingness made us believe that we were now going to succeed in
becoming flawless, and we became disappointed, when we discovered
that it was a misunderstanding of Step Seven, because even if we
cooperated with our Higher Power about becoming liberated from our
defects of character, they still became active in many situations.
Gradually, we discovered that any new idea necessarily would lead to
us making mistakes in the carrying out of our idea, whether we
wanted to createmanifest a new mindset or a new bridge, and thus we
became able to give our self permission to experiment with new ideas
even if we made mistakes in the carrying out of it in the beginning.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will give myself permission to make mistakes, because I
know I have Step Eight to acknowledge my mistakes and forgive
myself and Step Nine to make amends to myself and others for my
mistakes.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
19:
Denial
Also,
our denial convinced us that we could get to feel content any time
we wanted to, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 22
When
we began our work with our denials in Step Seven in our AcAdAn
Program, we discovered that denial is that veil of grace that covers
up those mistakes, which we are not ready to come face to face with
as yet.
This means that we, as a Fellowship, did not try to tear the veil of
denial from someone else's eyes, because we perceive that to be an
act of violence.
Neither did we tell another that he/she was in denial in any context
whatsoever, and instead we gave him/her time to become ready to come
face to face with his/her mistake.
It was no longer important for us, if we or others we in denial,
because we knew that our Higher Power would show us, what we needed
to know, so therefore we let our self and others be in denial to the
extent our and their Higher Power allows.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will refrain from thinking that I or others should know
everything there is to know about our mistakes, trusting that my
Higher Power and theirs will lead me and them gently face to
face with our mistakes and a solution to them, when time is ripe.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
20:
Mental limitations
At
the mental level, we had problems accepting our limited knowledge
and pretended to know something about everything even if we had
neither personal experience in the area nor book knowledge about it.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 21
In
AcAdAn we consider wisdom as personal experience in a particular
area, we have book knowledge about, for even if we have book
knowledge about many things, we do not perceive book knowledge as
wisdom, no matter how much book knowledge, we had gathered.
We used the gathered information from those books we had read about
a particular area to begin practicing what we had read, so little by
little we could achieve personal experience with it and thereby
achieve more and more wisdom in the area.
No matter how much knowledge we have achieved in essential areas, we
could still not escape our ignorance, because there would always be
more on our areas of expertise that we did not know anything about.
That had made us work on acceptance of our ignorance, even in the
areas we knew most about, and that meant that we could finally begin
to take it easy in the mental area and become teachable, also in
those areas we knew most about.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the Microring of Hope with its appreciation,
teachableness, openness and worthiness to handle my ignorance,
also in the area that I know best.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
21:
Accountability in
service
The
principle of Tradition Nine is Accountability.
Slogan: I serve with pleasure or not at all.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
Before
we
came to AcAdAn many of us perceived accountability to be performing
service in the Fellowship, whether we felt like it or not.
When we became aware of the Ninth Tradition, we realized that it was
possible to look at accountability in a different way.
We realized that when had our heart with us in what we were doing, we
rejoiced in it, and when we did not have our heart with us, it became
joyless.
This realization made us choose to be accountable according to the
definition of AcAdAn, so we could become able to perform our service
with joy.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will be accountable and perform my tasks with joy
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
22:
Lacking acceptance of
humanness
Then,
we admitted how our lack of acceptance of our humanness
and that of others gave rise to our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with self and others, and how
that made our life unmanageable.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 15
Most
of us had not thought about how often we used dissatisfaction in the
course of our day, and we were shaken, when we began to investigate
the issue in AcAdAn.
We discovered that often we used dissatisfaction several times in
the course of every hour, and that made us understand how all
pervasive our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction was.
We had not previously investigated how our dissatisfaction was
directed towards our own and others' humanity.
When we became aware that it was possible for us to recover from our
lack of acceptance of our own and others' humanity, it gave us the
drive to take on the task of carrying out the Program of Active
Addictions Anonymous.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to recover from my lack of
acceptance of my own and others' humanity.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
23:
To pass on the message
When
we reached Step Twelve, we had achieved a spiritual awakening by
reaching a state of mercy those who still suffer, and we considered
how we could pass on the message to other people who suffer from
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, that it is in fact possible to
achieve a state of contentment with our limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 82
Gradually, as our recovery from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction moved forward by the help of our AcAdAn Program, we
discovered more and more of the costs that our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction has led to.
We discovered that both physical, mental and emotional illnesses,
social and spiritual illnesses were among the follow illnesses that
our chronic dissatisfaction had brought in its’s wake.
This understanding made our heart swell of mercy, when we met a
fellow human being, who suffered from addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, and therefore we became willing to contribute time,
energy and interest to the recovery of this human being.
We let him/her know that we are members of AcAdAn where we work on
recovering from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and if
he/she wants to hear more about it, we share our experiences with
him/her.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Twelfth Step to contribute with time, energy
and interest to another person's recovery from his/her addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction, if he/she expresses a desire for help.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
24:
Spirituality and
religion
AcAdAn
is a spiritual Program, and as such, AcAdAn neither endorses nor
opposes any conviction, creed or religion; we are neither connected
to any religious or political group nor affiliated with any other
organization.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
Many
of us only had a vague idea about the difference between
spirituality and religion, when we came to AcAdAn, because both deal
with our relationship with a Higher Power that some choose to call
God.
When we said to newcomers that AcAdAn is a spiritual Program, it
meant that we were people, who wanted to experience The Eternal
Truths that reveal themselves as the core of any religion or
spiritual creed.
As long as we did nor have those experiences our self that our
religion taught about, we did not participate in spirituality, but
chose to believe that the religion in question spoke the truth about
the personal experiences of the founder in the spiritual area.
Gradually, as our work with our AcAdAn Program progressed, we
experienced more and more glimpses of oneness with our true Self,
our Spirit, and thus we became able to confirm the experiences of
the founders of religions out of our personal experience.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work on achieving oneness with my true Self, my
Spirit by the help of my AcAdAn Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
25:
Principled lifestyle
Four
of these principles that are essential for our recovery are honesty,
open-mindedness, willingness and humility.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
In our recovery from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction we
found out that we needed to apply earthly and spiritual principles
to recover.
The first principles, we were presented with were honesty,
open-mindedness, willingness and humility.
Honesty was necessary for us to carry out our First Step and admit
how our use of dissatisfaction made our life unmanageable.
In our Second Step, we needed to be open-minded to the idea, that
there might be a loving intention behind our life's pains, so we
could investigate the issue willingly without feeling less than
others because of our pains or more than others because of our joys.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use honesty, open-mindedness, willingness and
humility in my work with my human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
26:
Our Higher Power's
speak to us
Sometimes,
our Higher Power spoke to us humorously and sometimes seriously;
sometimes from within our self and sometimes from outside us through
everything and everybody, everywhere, at all levels of existence,
but always and without exception, with unconditional love, care,
compassion and mercy.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 70
In
our
Eleventh Step, we worked on expanding our conscious contact with our
Higher Power by the help of prayer and meditation, so we put aside
time to focus our awareness on our Higher Power's speak, which comes
to us as an impulse.
We translated the impulse by the help our thinking mind, our Ego and
little by little we became better at discerning, when if the impulse
came from our Higher Power or from our thinking mind, our Ego.
Besides the feeling in the vibration, we used the content of the
thought as a help to determine, whether it came from our Higher Power
or from our thinking mind, our Ego.
We investigating, whether we perceived the message of the thought to
be unconditionally loving, caring, compassionate and merciful, and if
so, we took the message to heart as our Higher Power's speak to us.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Eleventh Step to decide if, what comes to me
from inside or outside is unconditionally loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful, and if so I will take it to heart as my
Higher Power speaking to me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
27:
To admit anger
We
were thorough and prompt in admitting our anger to our self, to
prevent it from striking root within us and turn into hatred that
could crystallize and settle in us as a constantly nagging and
miserable bitterness.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
Until
we came to AcAdAn, many of us had had big problems with our anger, for
we knew it was harmful for our health to suppress our anger, because
that meant that it was pressed down into our physical body.
If we continued to suppress our anger, eventually, it began to come to
expression in various physical illnesses, and when our anger had
reached this stage, it was very demanding to enter into recover from
it.
We also knew that it was harmful to our Soul life, our social life to
send our anger out into the World by thinking that others' ways of
being in the World was a fair and just reason for us to be angry.
Only when we began to live the AcAdAn Program, we had at long last got
a functional way of handling our anger, because we could use Step One
to admit our anger to our self and begin our recovery from it in Step
Two.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to receive my anger’s message
in Step One and use Step Two til Twelve to heal the pain of my
anger.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
28:
Transformation in daily
life
Step
Six is often called the Step of Transformation. We used Step Six to
take a look at how that, which we discovered about our self in our
Fourth Step expressed itself in our daily life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 45
When
we
came to the Sixth Step in AcAdAn, we finally became able to take care
of our defects of character in a loving, caring, compassionate and
merciful way.
We did this by receiving the message of the painful emotion, and we
discovered that even physical pain had a message to give us, once we
have tapped through the pain
Our physical body carries our mental-emotional pains as a blockage of
the body's circulation of energies, and this could result in stiffness
and pains in the body.
Therefore, we used Step Six to investigate what mental-emotional
patterns of thoughts and emotions that created and manifested the
blockage and then we removed the blockage by moving from a Pain Ring
to a Joy Ring.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use Step Six in my AcAdAn Program to transform my
material, physical, energetic, emotional, mental, social or
spiritual pains by the help of the Rings of Pain and the Rings of
Joy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
29:
Unmanageability
We
needed to admit that our life became unmanageable, when we took our
dissatisfaction into use, and we also needed to admit that we needed
help, because we were powerless over our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 23
When we became members of Active Addictions Anonymous, we got access
to the help we needed to recover from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction and the unmanageability that we experienced in our
life as a result.
We could hear at meetings, what others had done to recover from the
areas of their life that became unmanageable, because they had used
dissatisfaction in connection with these areas.
Moreover, we could find a recovery buddy or a sponsor in the
Fellowship, so we thereby had a personal buddy or sponsor to talk
with privately about our discoveries in our recovery from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
This cooperation made it easier for us to share our experiences at
meetings and thus achieve even more clarity about our recovery while
at the same time we gave hope to other members that also they could
recover from their addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will seek help from my sponsor/recovery buddy and from
my AcAdAn Fellowship with the unmanageable problems I cannot find
a solution to myself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
30:
Uniqueness
We
admit that it is our personal point of view we express when we speak
about the principles, and at the same time, we are aware that others
do the same.
In this way, we don’t take offense when someone expresses the
principles in a way we cannot relate to.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 98
In
We were aware that our fingerprints are so unique that none like
them are found in the Universe, but although we were unique we could
still relate to others about how it is to live within a unique
physical body.
Our emotional life is the outflow of energy from out thoughtlive,
which is also completely unique depending on our life experiences
and out perception of them.
However, we could still relate to each other’s thoughts and
emotions, because we could relate to our power to choose what to
think and to the emotional feelings that sprang from out choices.
That made us understand that even if each one of us were unique and
therefore could not expect to understand others or to be understood,
we could still exchange experiences about how we uniquely
experienced life.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the principle of openmindedness from Step Two
and I will also use Step Two’s slogan that says: To listen
attentively and respectfully to another is the first expression of
emotional sobriety.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
August
31:
To harm our self and
others with arrogance
We
looked at how we had harmed our self and others socially and love-wise
by either
isolating our self and thus depriving our self and others of the
love and care we all need from each other or by overpopulating our
lives and thereby losing out on intimacy and closeness with
others.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
When
we
investigated our use of The Small Ring of Arrogance Ring with its
superiority, inferiority, overcrowding and isolation, we found out
that we had believed that others would feel that we were more
attractive if we were superior to them.
We imagined that others would wish to achieve our state of superiority
by learning from us, but when we took a closer look at arrogance, we
discovered that the result of our arrogance was isolation from others
instead of the interest we had hoped to achieve from them.
We also realized that when we isolated our self from others because of
our arrogance, we harmed both them and our self, because that presence
and togetherness that we all need was lacking in our being together.
As a result of these realization, we chose instead to use the Small
Ring of Truth with its humility, honesty, individuality and fellowship
so as to finally achieve the fellowship with others we longed for in
our social life.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will choose to use the Small Ring Truth in situations,
where I used to use the Small Ring of Arrogance, so I can stop
harming myself and others with my arrogance.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
SEPTEMBER
September
01:
The
Short Seventh Step Prayer
|
The
‘I’ Version
God,
Liberate
me from this self-important seriousness.
THANK
YOU!
|
The
‘We’ Version
God,
Liberate
us from this self-important seriousness.
THANK
YOU!
|
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 75
When we came to Step Seven, we learned about The Short Seventh Step
Prayer, and when we began to use it, we became liberated from many
of our defects of character, because we could pray it, when we
thought that we were not being respected by our self or others.
By praying this prayer maximum four times we could liberate our self
from the situation in which we did not feel respected, because it
helped us to remember that we may feel treated with disrespect, if
we took our self to seriously without it necessarily being so.
When we felt treated with disrespected, we could use this prayer to
give our thoughts a new direction, and when we have calmed down by
the help of it, we could consider what wish we did not have
fulfilled, or which of our boundaries we perceived to be crossed.
Then we could find out if we needed to find a way to fulfill our
desire our self or if we needed to set a boundary in an amiable way,
or whether we needed to withdraw from similar situations completely
in the future.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use the Short Seventh Step prayer in the course
of my day, when I feel disrespectfully treated.
JANUARY
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JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 02:
Wholehearted decisions
We were loving and caring to our self as far as our reluctance and
fear were concerned, by continuing to work with them until we
reached a point where all aspects of them were understood and cared
for.
Thereby, our reluctance and fear melted away, and we moved forward
in our process towards a wholehearted decision of surrender.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 28
Until we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, many of us had the
perception that we should just do what we feared doing so we could
learn to overcome our fears, but in AcAdAn we perceive that as an
assault on ourselves.
This assault could make us experience the pain of the Miniring of
Envy with its insecurity, confusion, unclarity and wretchedness, and
as we did not want to use these energies in our decision-making
process, we decided to use the joy of the Miniring of Hope instead.
We wanted to use the joy in the Miniring of Hope with its safety,
well-informedness, clarity and nobleness to find out, how we could
use these energies to quire an overview of where our decision-making
process could take us by the help of these energies.
When we had used the pain of the Mining of Envy to investigate the
energies we used in our decision-making process and the joy of
Miniring of Hope to form a picture of where our decision could take
us, we were then ready to make a wholehearted decision.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will
use the Miniring of Hope with its safety, well-informedness,
clarity and nobleness to get to a wholehearted decision in an area
where I am in doubt.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 03:
Getting off course
Even when no strings seem to be attached to contributions coming
from outside, we decline them, because we have discovered that the
price we might have to pay in indirect and unforeseen ways may give
rise to disagreement and conflict.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 92
It
was important for us that we did not come off course in our work
with our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction in Active Addictions
Anonymous, so therefore we did our best to make sure that it did not
happen.
Our Traditions are created and manifested in such a way that we are
protected both from external influences and from members, who want
to steer AcAdAn in a direction that is no longer focused on our
recovery.
If influences coming from the outside has power over our economy, or
what literature we should make use of, our recovery would soon come
out of course, and therefore we decline outside contributions.
We decline these contributions, whether they are money or property,
literature or lecturers with a purpose, which is the same as ours,
and in that way we keep things simple and avoided coming off course
in our recovery.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will keep my focus
on my recovery from my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction in all
contexts that are concerned with my personal affairs and with my
AcAdAn Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 04:
Our humanness
The
Program of
Active Addictions Anonymous made it possible for us to accept our
four basic attributes as human beings – our limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality – thereby liberating us from the
suffering that sprang from our lack of capacity to accept our self
and others as human beings, and life as it is for a human being.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Our awareness of that we in Reality, wee a Spirit, who for a while
is experienced life on Earth as a human being, could lead us to be
dissatisfied with our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability.
It seemed to us that it was our human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability that made it difficult for
us to achieve oneness with our true Self, our Spirit, especially if
we had come far on the spiritual path, when we came to AcAdAn.
After we came to AcAdAn, we began to investigate the issue and
discovered that we had been mistaken, because our true Self, our
Spirit lives within every limited, ignorant, powerless and
mortal/changeable form and is therefore compatible with everything.
When we had realized that, we got the courage to begin the work on
accepting our humanness by the help of our AcAdAn Program, and thus
it slowly became possible for us to experience our self and life on
Earth as a human being with contentment.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
AcAdAn Program to learn to accept my human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability and my life as a human
being on Earth with contentment.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 05:
Kindred Spirits
We have faith that the Program will be attractive to those who seek
the same as us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 97
Before we came to AcAdAn many of us had the perception that we were
reasonably content with living as human beings on Earth no matter
how many times we use dissatisfaction with our self, others and life
in the course of the day, and we were thus not interested in what
AcAdAn has to offer.
No matter how often we discovered that we used dissatisfaction with
ourselves, others and our life however, it was only when our longing
for achieving oneness with our true Self, our Spirit became stronger
that we began feeling drawn to AcAdAn.
We had been told that oneness with our true Self, our Spirit held
states of mind like joy, happiness, bliss and ecstasy and that our
chronic dissatisfaction blocked us from experiencing these.
Therefore, it was a relief for us to find a Fellowship, where we
could work on recovering from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction by the help of the Fellowship and the Program in
AcAdAn.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will work on recovering from my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, by the help of the Program and the Fellowship of
AcAdAn
JANUARY
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SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 06:
Letting oneself
be adored
Often, they critically scrutinized our life and our character, and
they felt let down when they found out that we were human too, and
thus limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 16
Many of us also participated in other Twelve Step Programs both
before and after we came to Active Addictions Anonymous and little
by little, as we picked up principles and concepts of the AcAdAn
Program, we discovered that it had much to offer, we had not met
before in our Twelve Step work.
When shared our new experiences from our new Twelve Step Program in
our other Fellowships and with newcomers in AcAdAn, we discovered
that others could have a tendency to worship us, because they
perceived us to be identical with the information that we shared
about in the meetings.
If we began to hide our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness
and mortality/changeability, because we let ourselves be sucked into
our craving for the adoration that was showered on us it could
become pure poison for our recovery from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Therefore, we chose to receive adoration because of the knowledge we
had acquired in AcAdAn by holding on to our emotional sobriety, and
thereby we maintained the connection with our human limitation,
ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will receive worship because of my knowledge about the
AcAdAn Program by holding on to my emotional sobriety, and thereby
my limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 07:
Choosing of a personal
Higher Power
The
only suggested guidelines are that this Power is loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful and greater than our human limitation,
and that coming
to believe in this Power worked for us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 26
When we began to consider how we could choose a Higher Power in Step
Two in our AcAdAn Program, we needed some guidelines, because we
were not used to having to take responsibility for, which Higher
Power we wanted to surrender to.
The suggested guidelines were that we chose a Higher Power that were
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful, because it would be
easier for us to surrender in Step Tree to a Higher Power, who was
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful.
In addition, it was suggested that we could choose to emphasize that
it worked for us to approach our chosen Higher Power so it could
become possible for us to cooperate with our Higher Power in Step
Seven and expand our conscious contact with our Higher Power in Step
Eleven.
Little by little as our interactions with our chosen Higher Power
developed, we discovered that our Higher Power became our source of
action-power, because we became confident that we were loved and
would be met with love, care, compassion and mercy, when we made
mistakes.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will follow the suggested guidelines in AcAdAn about how I
most advantageously can choose my personal Higher Power in Step Two.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 08:
Old wine on new bottles
In Greek mythology, an archetype
is found called Pandora’s Box that is
said to release all the miseries of the World if opened.
In AcAdAn, we use the name The Ring of Emptiness for the same
archetype, and we perceive this Ring to be the origin of all our
defects of character and thus the origin of all of our pains.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 28
All over the World we meet various archetypes in the mythology of
various countries and these archetypes consist various combinations
of thoughts and the emotional feelings that springs from the
thoughts.
In Greek mythology the Pandora's Box is found, and in Hinduistic
mythology the Sudarshan Chakra is found, and these archetypes we
call the Ring of Emptiness and the Ring of Fulfillment in AcAdAn,
but these names are merely new names on ancient knowledge.
In AcAdAn, we learned how to work with some of these archetypes in
the form of the Rings of Pain and the Rings of Joy, which we began
to work with in Step Four, when we needed to map out our
psychological landscape.
In Step Four, we used the Painrings and the Joyrings to investigate
how these energy fields had influenced us from our childhood to the
present, and thereby we realized to our surprise that they had been
with us throughout our lives, even though we did not know it.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will take the new
names to heart that the old archetypes have got in AcAdAn.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
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JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 09:
To become more
enlightened
We shared with all the people to whom we owed amends what we were
into and that we wouldn’t have acted today like we did at the time,
when the harm took place, if we had known then what we know today
and then we offered our amends.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 65
Before we came to Active Addictions Anonymous many of us had been on
the spiritual path for a long time, and we had believed that becoming
a more enlightened person belonged to the spiritual plane.
After we came to AcAdAn however, we discovered that our true Self, our
Spirit is omniscient, and our true Self, our Spirit could therefore
not become more enlightened, so becoming more enlightened was a mental
phenomenon.
We used our Ninth Step to make amends for the mistakes we had made in
our Soul life so our Soul life could be filled with the love, care,
compassion and mercy that is characteristic of our Soul.
In addition, we used our Tenth Step to nourish our thinking mind, our
Ego with more enlightened thoughts from our AcAdAn Program, and thus
it also became easier for us to become one with our true Self, our
Spirit in Step Eleven.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use Step Nine, Ten, and Eleven to become a more wise
and enlightened human being and Step Twelve to share my wise and
enlightened information with others in my AcAdAn Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
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JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 10:
Superficial perceptions
In
Tradition
Three, we open up both as individuals and as a group to the fact
that we cannot judge other people’s lives and motives by looking
at them from the outside.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 88
When
we began working on developing our social skills by the help of our
AcAdAn Program, we discovered that we had a tendency to form our
perceptions of others by looking at their physical appearance or
other external factors.
We discovered that when we judged a human being on his/her outer
appearance, it became difficult for us to receive that inspiration
from him&her, which might be exactly what we needed to hear in
The Blissful Flow of the Present Moment.
In this way our superficial perceptions also became a stumbling
block both for our continued stay in The Blissful Flow of the
Present Moment and for our attempts to develop our social skills.
Therefore, we let that stream of thoughts with superficial
perceptions move through our thinking mind, our Ego without taking
these thoughts to heart so as to remain in The Blissful Flow of the
Present Moment and to further develop our social skills.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will let my
superficial streams of thoughts pass through my thinking mind, my
Ego without taking them to heart.
JANUARY
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SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 11:
The Step of
Consciousness Expansion
We continued the work we began in Steps Two, Three and Seven, by
using Step Eleven to improve our conscious contact with our Higher
Power.
Therefore, this Step is often called ‘The Step of Consciousness
Expansion’.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 69
In
Step Two, we opened our mind to let a loving, caring, compassionate
and merciful Higher Power into our life, and we chose our personal
Higher Power solely from our own heart rather than from the heart of
various religions.
In Step Three, we experimented with surrendering to that, which we
believed could be our Higher Power's loving, caring, compassionate
and merciful intention for us with that pain we experienced in
various situations.
In Step Seven we had developed our perception of our chosen Higher
Power sufficiently to begin to cooperate with our Higher Power about
being liberated from the pain of our defects of character through
their transformation into the joy of our virtues.
When we came to Step Eleven, we had therefore become able to
liberate our self from those circumstances that prevented us from
cooperating with our Higher Power, and thus we had become ready to
expand our conscious contact with our Higher Power on a daily basis.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my
Eleventh Step in AcAdAn to expand my conscious contact with my
Higher Power.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
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JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 12:
The rightful place of our
thinking mind, our Ego
By the help of our Stepwork and our Higher Power, we now began to
correct our flawed information and conclusions, by redirecting our
thinking from dysfunctional and immature thinking to functional and
mature thinking and by allowing our Spirit to take up more and more
space in our mind when no thinking was required, which we
discovered, was most of the time.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 71
As
we grew up, we received much information that had become outdated
before we became adults or that were downright erroneous, because
the people, who gave us this information, thought it was in
conformity with Reality.
In the course of our Step Work in Active Addictions Anonymous, we
discovered that we could replace our outdated and erroneous
information about existence with updated and accurate information
that were in conformity with our experiences and new knowledge.
When we discovered that we could replace one mindset, which didn’t
serve us anymore with another mindset, which served us at the
present point in time by the help of our AcAdAn Program, we became
aware that we had taken our thinking way too seriously.
At the same time, we discovered that when we were able to observe
our thoughts and decide that we would think in a way that was
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful, it meant that we were on
a higher plane of consciousness, on the plane of our
Soul-consciousness.
Today's contemplation
Today, I
will observe my thinking mind, my Ego from my Soul’s plane, and
use my observations to give my thinking mind, my Ego its proper
size in at loving, caring, compassionate and merciful way.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 13:
To buy the helping
hands of others
Yet others of us tried to achieve power and glory in our quest to
find self-acceptance and contentment by acquiring material wealth
way beyond our needs, and when we used these riches to buy the
helping hands of others towards fulfilling our needs and desires, we
felt powerful and hoped that others’ expression of respect and love
for us this way would help us accept our self better and thereby
find contentment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 16
Many
of us held the idea that money, power, property and prestige would
help us to better achieve self-acceptance, but those of us who came
into possession of these advantages, discovered that it was not how it
was in Reality.
It took some time for us to realize that even though we had achieved
money, power, property and prestige, we still felt that we were not
able to accept our self in many areas that had got nothing to do with
our possessions or how others perceived us, but how we perceived our
self.
Furthermore, we discovered that other people's appreciation of our
position, money, power, property and prestige, did not necessarily
mean that they appreciated us as a human being, and even when they did
appreciate us as a personality, it did not help us to achieve
self-accept.
Therefore, finally, we became ready to admit to our self that our
self-esteem was very low, and that we needed help to recover from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with our self, and thus we had
become ready to begin working with the Program in AcAdAn.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work with my AcAdAn Program so that I can achieve
self-acceptance and thus gain access to the Small Ring of Love with
its admitting, self-acceptance, health and sanity.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 14:
Let go and let God
The principle of Step Seven is Letting Go.
Slogan: Let go and let God.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Our Sixth Step work
had made it easier for us to stand by our defects of character and to
find out how we could move from the pain of our defects of character
to the joy of our virtues.
In our Seventh Step we used our discoveries from Step Six, where we
became entirely ready to let our Higher Power liberate us from our
defects of character, and thus we became able to use our Seventh Step
efficiently.
When we discovered that a defect of character was about to become
active in our thinking mind, our Ego, we prayed to our chosen Higher
Power to liberate us from the effect on our mind of the defect of
character in question.
When we had prayed this prayer maximum four times, we let go and let
our Higher Power take care of transforming our defect of character, so
we could make the quantum leap from a defect of character to a virtue.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Seventh Step to ask my Higher Power to
liberate me from a defect of character, when I discover that it is
beginning to rise to the surface.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 15:
To liberate oneself
from guilt and shame
When we had completed the formal part of Step Eight, which was about
liberating our self from the guilt and shame that we carried from
our past, we could use this tool according to our needs in our daily
life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 60
When
we acted towards ourselves or others in ways that were unloving,
uncaring, hard-hearted and merciless, we felt ashamed of ourselves,
because we did not act in accordance with the unconditional love,
care, compassion and mercy of our true Self, our Spirit.
In our Ninth Step we could make amends to ourselves and others for
our misunderstood way of acting and thereby liberate ourselves from
feeling ashamed of ourselves by being loving, caring, compassionate
and merciful way towards ourselves and others in a similar situation
in the future.
Sometimes, we felt guilt and shame without it being in conflict with
our true Self, our Spirit, but simply because others had expressed
that we ought to feel guilty and ashamed of ourselves for various
reasons, which they thought we ought to feel guilt and shame about.
We could make amends to ourselves for this type of guilt and shame
by using the Ring of Emotional Sobriety to stand by ourselves by
admitting that we did not feel guilt or shame about this situation,
even if others thought that we ought to feel guilty and be ashamed.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will liberate myself from feelings of guilt and shame by
using my Eighth Step to find out how I can make amends to myself
and others and my Ninth Step to carry out my decision.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 16:
To set others free
We
looked into
those instances where we
respected others
by accepting
that just as it is for us, others needed to follow their own path
and their own truth in life even if their path or truth might be
different from ours.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 32
When
we came to AcAdAn, many of us had a perception of friendship as
being a lifelong relationship, where we and our friend were willing
to help each other with everything between heaven and earth.
Little by little, as we examined our social life by the help of the
Program of Active Addictions Anonymous, we became aware that these
perceptions had made us demand to much of ourselves and others.
We realized that two or more people, who have the same purpose at a
given point of time in life, could form a friendship to help each
other fulfill their mutual purpose, but when the purpose was
fulfilled they can advantageously part ways fully understanding
their mutual purpose was fulfilled.
Therefore, we examined if some of the friendships we held on to,
were an energy drain or a contribution to our life, and if they no
longer served our purpose, we used our Traditions to give ourselves
permission to set ourselves and them free.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will set those friends free, with whom I no longer
have anything in common.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 17:
Mistakes
Our purpose with this Step was, however, neither to indulge in our
mistakes from the past nor to seek
forgiveness from others, but to take a look at those areas of our
lives we felt guilty about, and which therefore made us
feel ashamed of our self.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
Many of us were afraid of coming to Step Eight in AcAdAn, because we
imagined that it implied that we had to humiliate our self in front of
others, if we admitted that we had made a mistake in relation to them,
and that they would use it as a weapon against us at a later point in
time.
Furthermore, we were afraid that others would use our admission of our
mistake to slande us, but in Reality we were well prepared, when we
came to Step Eight, because in the Sixth Step we had become entirely
ready to allow our Higher Power to liberate us from our mistake.
In Step Seven we had worked on giving up our denial, defense,
justification and rationalization of our mistake, because we had
discovered in Step Six that it was to our advantage to stand by our
mistake, so we could work on transforming them into successes.
So, when we came to Step Eight, we were entirely ready to plan the
amends that we wanted to make both to ourselves and others without
having to humiliate our self for that reason and without fearing that
others would use our mistake to slander us.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Eighth
Step to plan how I want to make amends to myself and others
for a mistake I have made without needing to humiliate myself,
because I am fallible.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 18:
Just for today
JUST FOR TODAY my thoughts will be on my recovery, living and
enjoying life without using dissatisfaction with self, others and
life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 14
Many
of us had tried to create and manifest an overview of our life, hoping
to be able to get control of it in such a way that we would become
able to carry out those tasks we thought our life should consist in
from this day to our death.
By trying to do this, we came to carry our whole life on our shoulders
every day without being aware that we had given ourselves an
impossible task, which made us feel chronically exhausted, and that
the changeability demands that we made decisions for the day, often
one hour at a time.
We could not get an overview of the contents of our life from a point
in the present to a point in the future due to the changeability, and
we could not get control over our life, because of the powerlessness
over everything we did not know anything about, which limited our
freedom of action.
Gradually, as we worked with Step One in Active Addictions Anonymous,
we became better and better at accepting our human limitation,
ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability, and thus we
became able to live just for today without taking our dissatisfaction
with our self, our life, others and the World at large into use.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will choose to live a content life by just living it
one day at a time, and at times one hour at a time.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 19:
Development of faith
There
were others among us for whom coming to believe was about developing
our faith in the perception that a Higher Power is present in the
core of each atom of the Universe, and hence in the core of our very
being.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 24
Before we
came to AcAdAn, many of us believed that a faith in a Higher Power was
something that a human being had or did not have.
But after we came to AcAdAn and began working with Step Two, we
discovered that faith in a Higher Power was something that we could
develop.
Little by little, as we developed our faith in a Higher Power, it
became possible for us to 'see' our Higher Power in everything and
everybody everywhere at all levels of existence.
Thus we began to feel safe as limited, ignorant, powerless and
mortal/changeable human beings and our contentment with life grew.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will work
on developing my faith in my chosen Higher Power, so I can get to
feel content and safe although I am a limited, ignorant, powerless
and mortal/changeable human being.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 20 Overpowering
emotions
At this point in our Seventh Step work, most of us discovered that
if we waited to apply Step Seven until, for example, our irritation
had developed into hatred, often, the feeling had gained so much
power over us that we were not able to or willing to make use of
Step Seven.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 57
When
we
came to Step Seven in our AcAdAn Program, we discovered that if we
found our self in a Pain Ring, like for example the Mining of Hatred,
with its ill will, unkindness, irritation and impatience, it could be
a shorter or a longer stay.
If it was a shorter stay for a few seconds, we could allow our self to
take our Seventh Step into use without interrupting what we were
doing, but if the stay was a couple of minutes, a more comprehensive
Seventh Step was required.
A longer stay for a minute or more meant that our emotion had already
gained so much power over our state of mind that we needed to stop
what we were doing to investigate, which Pain Ring we found our self
in.
When we had identified that we found our self for example in the
Miniring of Hatred, we asked our Higher Power to liberate us from the
attributes of the Miniring of Hatred by praying to be liberated from
each single attributes of the Ring, but maximum four times for each
attribute.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my Seventh Step immediately if a defect
of character becomes active in my mind, and if the defect of
character is active for a minute or more I will stop what I am into
to carry out a more comprehensive Seventh Step.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 21
Integrity
The
principle of Tradition Ten is Anonymity.
Slogan: I speak for myself about myself.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
When
we
learned about the Traditions of AcAdAn, we discovered that our
Traditions put emphasis on respect for the principle of anonymity,
both when we participated in meetings, and when we had a social
interaction with another or some others, who confided in us.
The principle of anonymity encouraged us to both maintain the
anonymity of the members in a meeting and to treat what was shared in
the meeting as confidential, because thereby we could feel more safe,
when we participated in and shared in meetings
When we felt safe, we could begin to develop our integrity and thereby
become better and better at using the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with
its detachment, integrity, respect for self and respect for others.
Thus we also got the courage to speak for our self about our self
instead of hiding behind quotes of others’ words of wisdom that we had
taken from our Program or other sources, and instead we expressed our
personal wisdom, which is our knowledge paired with our experience.
Today's
contemplation
Today,
I
will use the Ring of Emotional Sobriety to develop my integrity by
speaking for myself about myself about how I use my AcAdAn Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 22:
The purpose with our work in AcAdAn
We are men and women, who want to achieve acceptance of our self,
others and our life and thus contentment and to fulfill this desire
we work with the Program in AcAdAn.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
Because most of us had been on the spiritual path for a long time
before we came to AcAdAn, many of us found it difficult to admit both
to ourselves and others that we were chronically dissatisfied, and it
was even more difficult for us to accept it.
We knew innermost that the happy life we sought was to be found in
oneness with our true Self, our Spirit, and we also knew that
dissatisfaction removed us from this oneness so we had a hard time
facing that we were chronically dissatisfied.
After we came to AcAdAn and investigated whether it could be true that
we were chronically dissatisfied, we discovered that we found reasons
to be dissatisfied many times every single day in spite of all our
desires for the opposite.
Little by little as we developed acceptance of our own and others’
humanness by the help of the Program in AcAdAn, we discovered that
there was no contradiction between our spiritual goals and our
humanness and thereby we became more content.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn
Program to achieve contentment with my human limitation,
ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September
23: To
help each other
We feel that our approach to our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
is highly therapeutic, for the recovery power of two or more people
helping each other liberate themselves from their addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction is without parallel.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
Before we came to AcAdAn, many of us had an urge to hide
from others, because we were ashamed of our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction, as we moved in circles putting
emphasis on being in oneness with our true Self, our
Spirit.
We thought there had to be something wrong with us, when
we were dissatisfied with so many things in our daily life
while at the same time, we tried to be in oneness with our
true Self, our Spirit and thus with the joy without
opposites, which we call happiness.
We perceived our self to be spiritual people, and we also
wanted to appear to others as spiritual people, so our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction crushed our
self-image, and it also made us have an urge to hide our
true emotions from others.
Our denial to our self and others of our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction made our recovery difficult, and
therefore we needed the help from our AcAdAn Program, our
sponsor or recovery buddy and other AcAdAn members to be
able to recover.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will make use of everything Active Addictions
Anonymous has put at my disposal for me to become able
to recover from my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 24:
The loving intention of our Higher Power
When we opened our minds to this
perception, we realized that we could actually see our Higher
Power’s loving intention behind everything; even behind the
misfortunes and pains of our lives, because when we looked for it,
we always came to a point where the loving intention became
obvious to us, both behind our fortunes and our misfortunes, our
joys and our pains.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 24
Most of us had not imagined that we could become able to see our
life's misfortunes, sufferings and pains as an expression of our
Higher Power's love for us, until we wanted to use our AcAdAn Program
to learn to be content under all circumstances, no matter what they
are.
In Step Two in our AcAdAn Program we worked with our belief-systems to
investigate areas of our life, where we felt let down by our Higher
Power, because we had experienced sufferings and pains and this we
could not reconcile with there being a loving intention behind them.
On closer inspection, we spotted that we had had our wisdom and
capacity for mercy expanded by the help of the painful experiences in
our life, so they had served a purpose, which was to our advantage,
but which we had not spotted until we investigated the issue.
Furthermore, we discovered that pain is an advantageous part of life,
as it gives us a shortlived action signal telling us we need to change
direction, and if we did not do it, the action signal became
misfortune and suffering, but exactly this gave us renewed strength to
change direction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to inventory the sufferings of
my life so as to find the loving, caring, compassionate and merciful
intention behind my sufferings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 25:
To hit others with guilt and shame
In Step
Four, we looked at the wrongs we
thought that others had done to us so
as to be able to reverse the process
concerning the guilt and shame that we
thought others ought to feel for what
they did to us.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild
Life, page 60
In Step Four in our AcAdAn Program, we
discovered that a part of our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction we felt, because
others have done something to us we
thought they should not have done, or they
did not do something we thought they
should have done.
Gradually, as we identified the hurts we
still suffered under from our childhood,
at the same time we became aware that what
others had done or had not done in
relation to us in Reality was not
personal, but was due to the energy field,
they found themselves in at that time.
We discovered that our perception of what
they had done or had not done, was also
associated with that energy field we were
in ourselves at that time, and therefore
we did not think any longer that others
should feel guilty and ashamed because of
what they had done or had not done.
We also did not think that we were guilty
and ought to feel ashamed of what we had
contributed with to the situation that
pained us, and when we came to Step
Eight’s Grand Day of Sacred Forgiveness,
we discovered that it became easier for us
thereafter to always let go of guilt and
shame.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to
recover from my desire to hit myself and
others with guilt and shame, because I
experienced pain in a specific situation.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 26:
The
nature
of illnesses
Our active addiction can be of a mild, moderate or severe nature,
just as it is the case with any other physical or psychological
illness.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
In our Second Step in Active Addictions Anonymous we learned to find
the loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention behind the
illnesses of our life whether our illnesses were physical or
psychological, and in that way we grew in wisdom and mercy.
We discovered that all illnesses could come to us with a nature that
was mild, moderate or severe, but no matter what form they came to us
in, they always and without exception came with a loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention.
It could be difficult for many of us to accept that there could be a
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention behind our
illnesses, especially if they were of a severe nature, which might
lead to our physical death within a shorter or longer time frame.
In our daily application of Step Two in those areas of our day, where
we experienced physical or psychological illness, we became better and
better at being in touch with love, care, compassion and mercy towards
our physical body and our mind, even when they were ill.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program
to develop unconditional love for, care for, compassion with and
mercy towards my physical body and my mind.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 27:
The purpose of personal inventory
When the day was over, we reflected on the events of the day and
took a stand on one of the situations of the day and looked at where
we took into use the attributes from The the Ring of Emptiness, Ring
of Self-Centeredness, The Ring of Codependency, the Big Ring of Pain
and one of the Small Rings of Pain in the course of our day.
Then, we looked at what came out of it and looked into what we
thought we could advantageously change in view of a similar
situation in future.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 45
Those of us, who had
worked daily with Step Ten in our AcAdAn Program for a while, had
discovered that we gradually began to feel young again, no matter what
age we had, and this was because we got better and better at looking
at those areas we were dissatisfied with and transform our attitude
towards these areas.
In this way, we were liberated from much stress that ate away at our
body before we came to AcAdAn, and the purpose with the daily
inventory of our self was exactly to build up the knowledge that the
situations we were dissatisfied with could always be seen from another
perspective that made us content, and thereby we were liberated from
much stress.
We built up our contentment over time by the help of perseverance in
our Tenth Step, and gradually as we became more and more experienced
in our daily self-examinations, it became easier and easier for us to
look at any situation from a perspective that gave us contentment, and
thereby our capacity to live a content life grew.
By the help of our daily Tenth Step, it became possible for us to
change on a daily basis and thus our life changed in the same way that
children and young people constantly changed their perception of
themselves and their life, and therefore the state of mind, we
achieved through our daily Tenth Step inventories is called for being
'eternally young'.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my Tenth
Step to keep myself and my life 'eternally young'.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 28:
To do justice to our anger
Instead of suppressing or ignoring our anger and thus allowing it to
become hatred, we admitted to our self, our Higher Power and another
human being that we were angry, and we found out what we felt
deprived of or which of our boundaries we felt were transgressed.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
When we were children, most of us learned that our anger was not an
acceptable emotion, and if it were our parents, we were angry at, it
became even more dangerous for us to show our anger, because it was
life threatening for us if our parents chose to disown us.
Furthermore, we had got the impression that we were not allowed to be
angry, because we were on the spiritual path, but in AcAdAn we learned
that our anger was a messenger from our inner, who made us aware that
we needed to change something.
Therefore we used our Program to find out, why we were angry, and we
discovered that most of the time it was because one of our boundaries
had been crossed or that a desire we had, had not been fulfilled.
When we had listened to the message of our anger by writing it down in
our Step Work, we used the knowledge we achieved to carry out those
actions that the message demanded from us, and we did it without
criticizing our self for being angry and without offending others.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will listen attentively and
respectfully to my anger, and I will act on the message of my
anger in a way that satisfies me without hurting myself or others.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 29:
To liberate oneself from one's successes
We also became aware that it was just as important for us to
liberate our self from our past successes as it was to liberate our
self from our past failures, if we wanted to be able to live in the
Blissful Flow of the Present Moment and thus, achieve contentment.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
Before we came to AcAdAn, many of us had made it a habit when we
became self-critical, to try to recover from our self-criticism by
thinking of past or present successes, but after we came to AcAdAn,
however, we became aware that when we were self-critical, we found our
self in the Ring of Self-centeredness.
In AcAdAn we came to know the Ring of Self-centeredness with its
euphoria, depression, self-criticism and self-praise, and we also
learned that we needed to recover from our self-criticism by moving
into the Ring of God-centeredness with its joy, empowerment,
open-mindedness and gratitude instead of praising our self.
By the help of this work we realized that when we praised our self of
the successes from the past so as to recover from the pain of our
self-criticism, we found our self in the Ring of Self-centeredness
still, because we praised our self, and thus our pain continued in a
concealed way, even if we thought we had liberated our self from it
with the euphoria, our selfpraise created and manifested.
We wanted to live in the joy of the Blissful Flow of the Present
Moment, and that was not possible if we tried to liberate our self
from our self-criticism by using self-praise, and when we lost touch
with the Blissful Flow of the Present Moment by going to the past in
our thoughts, we still experienced the pain from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will liberate myself from
praising myself of successes from the past by using the Ring
of God-centeredness to let go of my self-praise, so that I can
enter into the joy of The Blissful Flow of the Present Moment.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
September 30:
To give others time and space
,
We allow others to take the
principles to heart at the pace they want, because we know that
the Program will only work for those, who want to take it to
heart.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 98
Many of us became so enthusiastic about what we discovered, when we
worked with the Program of Active Addictions Anonymous, that we wanted
to share it with all the people, we knew, who suffered from chronic
dissatisfaction.
We discovered, however, that others had their own path and made their
own choices in accordance with their path, so our enthusiasm could
make them feel forced and therefore repulsed rather than attracted to
our Program.
When we talked to others about what we had achieved by the help of our
AcAdAn Program, we chose to pay attention to whether others were
receptive to what we had to share or whether others would rather talk
about something else.
If we saw that others were not interested in what we had to share, we
let go of talking about it so they could get time and space to find
out if AcAdAn was something for them without them needing to feel
overwhelmed or forced by our enthusiasm.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will to give others time and
space to find out if AcAdAn is something for them, and I will give
other AcAdAn members time and space to take the Program to heart
at a pace that suits them.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
OCTOBER
October 01: Forgiving
our self and others
The principle of Step Eight is Forgiveness. Slogan: Forgive my
mistakes and give me the capacity to forgive those who mistake me.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Only, when we came to AcAdAn, many of
us discovered that forgiveness of our self was the hardest of all
forgiveness, because forgiveness can not be given as a decision, but
has to spring from the heart to bring forth that liberation from the
feeling of guilt, which we experienced when we thought that we had
made a mistake.
We also discovered that forgiveness of others was difficult, because
we often thought that others had wronged us too in the situation we
had in mind, and many of us felt that others got away with having
wronged us if we tried to make amends to them for our own mistake.
Therefore the work with forgiveness came late in our Program, namely
in Step Eight, where we decided which amends we wanted to make to
our self and/or others for those actions we felt guilty about, which
we therefore felt ashamed of and wished that we had done
differently.
To be able to reach that point where we forgave our self and/or
others for our/their mistakes from our heart, we needed help both
from our Program, our Fellowship, our Sponsor and our Higher Power
for us to become able to work with our list for amends.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will accept that forgiveness
of myself and others, takes place late in my Program, so I am
waiting patiently for my time to come, when I can begin to forgive
myself and others by the help of Step Eight.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 02:
Courage
in AcAdAn
By working Steps One, Two and Three, we had achieved the level of
trust and strength it took to honestly look at our self, and we
needed these qualities in Step Four so as to be able to take an
inventory of our self and of our life as it had expressed itself
until now.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 29
In AcAdAn, we have a different perception of courage than that, which
is usually found in our environment, which often links courage with
physical action, whereas we perceive courage to be the willingness to
inventory our motives.
It required courage of us to use Step One in AcAdAn to admit how we
used mental-emotional pain energies in our spiritual, social, mental,
emotional, energetic, physical or material life, and how this made our
lives unmanageable.
It also required courage of us to open our self to take our chosen
Higher Power’s loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention
with our pains into consideration in Step Two, because we often felt
that our existential pains was some kind of a punishment.
Moreover, in Step Three, it required courage of us to be willing to
surrender to the loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention
we found out in Step Two, because it required that we changed and
change frightened us.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use Step One, Two and
Three from my AcAdAn Program to achieve the courage to face my
humanness, so I can achieve the courage to carry out my Fourth
Step.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 03:
Remedies for
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
We had tried several other means to rid our self of our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction – psychologists, lovers, new places,
new people, new jobs or all of these.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 23
For many years we had felt an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in our
emotional life, and after working with our AcAdAn Program for some
time we became aware that our emotional life sprang from our thought
life.
Therefore we wanted to learn to put those thoughts into words that
gave rise to our painful emotions and when we learned that, it made
us realize that the remedies we had used in an attempt to get rid of
our undercurrent of dissatisfaction had been inadequate.
In this way we discovered that we needed to develop our capacity to
both look inward to investigate our psychological landscape and to
look outward to investigate what was happening around us so as to
become able to take care of our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Gradually, as our observation capacity developed, we realized that
we could give our self reasons to be content or to be dissatisfied
with same truth value, and thereby our recovery from our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction began to pick up speed.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program
to find reasons to be content with something I usually am
dissatisfied with.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 04:
The Small Ring of Truth
When The Small Ring of Truth became active in us, we felt that
everybody is equally valuable to totality (Humility) even though we
were not able to evaluate the full value of our self and others
(Honesty).
Therefore, we did not try to evaluate our worth or that of others;
instead, we sought to find that part in our self where we recognized
the emotions of others (Fellowship), while at the same time, we
accepted that we and others may have different reasons to feel the
way we did (Individuality).
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 40
Before we came to AcAdAn, many of us had the perception that we should
give up our individuality and submit to others' thoughts and emotions
so as to be accepted by them.
After we came to AcAdAn and began our work with the Small Ring of
Truth, we realized that our individuality is our unique gift from our
Higher Power
We also realized that our individuality is our unique gift to the
World, so it was a great relief for us to become able to use the Small
Ring of Truth in our social life.
The Small Ring of Truth gave us permission to honestly show our self
as we are, and it also gave us the Fellowship with others that we had
longed for.
Today’s contemplation
Today,
I will use the Small Ring of Truth to honestly stand by my
individuality.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 05:
Fleeing
from life
After having investigated how our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction with our humanity expressed itself, we also took a
look at how we had tried to escape our humaneness by taking our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
into use.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 15
When we came to AcAdAn we discovered that
deep down we had known all along, who we truly are, but this knowledge
about our self as an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and
immortal/unchangeable Spirit had been covered by layer upon layer of
created and manifested forms, all of which are limited, ignorant,
powerless and mortal/changeable.
Because we had lost contact with our true Self, our Spirit, life as a
limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal/changeable creaturemanifestation
could seem daunting and give us a desire to escape from our life as a
human being, and our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction was one of the
many means we use in an attempt to escape our life as human beings.
Little by little, as our work with our AcAdAn Program evolved, we began
to spot our true Self, our Spirit again and we discovered that when we
were in oneness with our true Self, our Spirit, life as a human being
was no longer scary, and we also lose the desire to escape from our
humanness and our life as human beings.
In oneness with our true Self, our Spirit we felt entertained and
content with our life on Earth under all circumstances, no matter what
they were, because we realized that our participation in the life on
Earth was like attending a live three-dimensional drama, which we could
participate in heart and soul without having to take the game to
seriously.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the Short Seventh
Step Prayer, if I begin taking myself or my life so seriously that
I no longer have fun.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 06:
Principles
Some of us chose to consider the earthly and spiritual principles to
be our Higher Power, and began opening our minds to these
principles.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 25
When we began studying AcAdAn’s Principles, we wondered if it was to
our advantage to take the principles to heart or not, because we did
not want to change our old habits in order to be able to take the
principles to heart.
We experienced those changes that we imagined it would take to be
overwhelming, but exactly because we were reluctant to follow them, we
became aware of what the consequences of not following them were.
When we became aware of these consequences, we hesitantly began to use
the principles of the Program, and in that way we achieved a qualified
knowledge about what it meant for us when we followed the principles.
This knowledge made us ready to surrender to the spiritual and earthly
principles, which says that our true Self, our Spirit is omnipresent,
omniscient, omnipotent and immortal, and that our human self is
limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will surrender to the
earthly and the spiritual principles by the help of my work with
my AcAdAn Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 07:
The joy of helping
We also did our best to remember that it is given nobody to help
everybody with every issue and that it would not give us joy to help
someone if we were not bestowed with the capacity to help out with
the issue at hand.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 33
Most of us felt joy
about helping others in a way that had an improving effect on their
life, but in our work with the Rings from our AcAdAn Program, we
discovered that sometimes it could happen that our desire to help
sprang from a desire to achieve our 'drug' in our disease of
codependency.
The ‘drug’ in our disease of codependency consists in achieving praise
for our help, and the desire for praise made us refrain from taking a
stand on, whether we had experience with the area, we wanted to help
with, whether what we wanted to help with actually was a help and if
it would give us joy to help.
At other times it could happen that we wanted to help, because we felt
a low self-esteem and therefore we thought that it could help us to
become able to praise our self of being of value, but we discovered
that it meant that we found our self in the pain from the Ring of
Self-centeredness with its self-praise, euphoria, self-criticism and
depressions so that did not ease our pain either.
Therefore, it was important for us to give our self time and space to
consider, whether we had experience with the area, we wanted to help
with, whether what we wanted to help with actually was a help and
whether it would give us joy to help, and if those conditions were not
fulfilled, we gave up the idea of helping.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will give myself time and space to inventory my motives
before I offer my help to a fellow human being, even if I imagine
that I would rejoice in helping.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 08:
The Bird Phoenix
When thus our pain was burned to ashes, we rose from the ashes with
our new wisdom like the Bird Phoenix of Mythology that burns to
ashes just to rise from the ashes to a new life on a daily basis.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 19
When we
had
finished the formal part of Step Ten in our AcAdAn Program, we had
achieved the capacity to use the tools of the Program for a daily
inventory on the existential pains, we had experienced in the course of
our day.
We experienced pains of various types and they could be physical,
energetic, emotional, mental, social and/or spiritual, but at this point
in our Step Work, we had achieved the capacity to take care of them,
No matter which area we wanted to work with, we could select the pain,
which had given us the biggest energy loss in the course of the day and
work our Tenth Step inventory on this pain, and as a result we grew in
wisdom and compassion.
At the same time, the mythological Bird Phoenix became realized in our
life, because we rose from the ashes of our pain with our new wisdom and
capacity for mercy in the same way as the Bird Phoenix that rises from
the ashes of his/her pain to a new life on a daily basis.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to rise to a new life from the
ashes of my pain on a daily basis.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 09:
Empowerment
When we respect each other’s diversity and listen attentively to
each other, we feel comfortable in each other’s company, and benefit
more from what others have to share with us.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 85
When we learned to consciously use the Ring of God-centeredness with
its joy, empowerment open-mindedness and gratitude in our Sixth Step,
we discovered that we received an empowerment in our AcAdAn meetings.
We received this empowerment, because we both had the opportunity to
share our own experiences with the Program and to hear about the
experiences others had with the Program and thereby our perspectives
on our Program became expanded.
In was in this way our meetings became a source of empowerment, and we
also observed that we became happy about participating in meetings,
because we opened our mind to listen gratefully to what others had at
heart and moreover we shared from our heart too.
At the same time, it also became easier and easier for us to
appreciate and respect each other's differences and to feel
comfortable in each other's company, and simultaneously it also became
easier and easier for us to consciously use the energies of the Ring
of God-centeredness.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will be aware of how the Ring of God-centeredness opens
up for me, when I am in a meeting in AcAdAn because of the
empowerment to understand my Program better that I receive during
meetings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 10:
Amassing riches
Some of us amassed spiritual riches way beyond our existential needs
in our attempts to achieve power and glory, and thus self-acceptance
and contentment.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 16
After we
began
on the spiritual path, we picked up many pearls of wisdom through our
meetings with various spiritual teachers, and some of us discovered
that when we passed on these pearls to others, they praised us for our
understanding.
They did this without considering if we had taken the pearl in
question to heart our self and made it our own through experience, and
this could lead to that we began to collect pearls of wisdom without
making them our own.
In this way we could amass riches of pearls that we could pass on to
our fellow human beings in exchange for their praise and even in
exchange for their resources in the form of their money, time, energy
and interest, if we would teach them.
Gradually, as we discovered that this did not createmanifest the
self-acceptance and contentment that we had hoped for, we became ready
to let go of this means in our attempts to achieve self-acceptance and
contentment.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to liberate myself from the
thought that the pearls of my spiritual riches can createmanifest
the self-acceptance and contentment that I long for,
if I have not made them mine throught experience
.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 11:
Admitting of our successes
Some of us found it difficult to admit to another
person about our dissatisfaction with our self, our lives
and our failures, and others of us found it difficult to admit
areas where we felt satisfied with our self, our lives and
our successes.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
As
members
of AcAdAn we worked on recovering from our existential pains on our
various planes of existence, and this recovery was an essential
incentive for us to work with the Program on a daily basis.
Therefore it came as a surprise for us, when we came to Step Five and
were told that it was just as important that we admitted the joy of
our successes as it was that we admitted the pain of our mistakes, if
we wanted to live in The Blissful Flow of the Present Moment.
Many of us had got the impression that we ought not talk about our joy
about our successes, because others might think that it was
self-praising and unattractive, but if we did not express them the
grew wild in our mind.
In our secret life, this created and manifested an exaggerated picture
of our successes, but when we got used to talk openly about our joy
because of them, they got their proper size, and at the same time it
became easier for us to let go of the past, also in this area.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will share with a another human being about a success from
the past, which was particularly delightful for me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 12
Constant remembrance
We maintained contact with our Higher Power throughout the day by
praying for our Higher Power’s guidance before we began each and
every new activity in the course of the day, as to how we could
accomplish the task at hand in accordance with our Higher Power’s
will for us, and we then prayed for the power to carry out the task
to the best of our abilities.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 70
In Reality our
omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and immortal/unchangeable Higher
Power does not need anything at all from our side, so when we tried to
come to know our Higher Power's will for us anyway in Step Eleven, it
was due to that our innermost heart’s desires were also that, which was
our Higher Power’s will for us.
Moreover, our heart's innermost desires were known by our chosen Higher
Power, but were often being obscured for us by our thinking mind, our
Ego, so in our Eleventh Step in our AcAdAn Program we sought through
prayer and meditation to come to know our Higher Power’s will for us,
because we now knew that it was also our own true will for our self.
Little by little, as we became better and better at picking up our
Higher Power's guidance, it became more and more important for us to
move through the day in accordance with our Higher Power’s will for us,
one hour at a time, and therefore we began to practice constant
remembrance of our Higher Power’s will for us, one task at a time.
By constantly staying in touch with our chosen Higher Power’s will for
us in this way, we ensured that we surrendered to our innermost heart’s
desires under all circumstances no matter, what they were without
letting our self be led astray by our thinking mind, our Ego, who could
easily lead us out on detours, which were an energy drain that we did
not want.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use AcAdAn’s Eleventh Step Prayer to practice constant
remembrance.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 13:
Discovery of our defects of
character
Thus, our part of the work consisted in that we prayed to our Higher
Power to liberate us from our defects of character every time we
discovered them arising within us in the course of the day, and our
Higher Power’s part was to liberate us from them, by transforming
them.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
In our
Seventh Step, we began to cooperate with our Higher Power about
being liberated from our defects of character, when we discovered
that they were about to take over our trend of thinking.
Many of us thought that it would be easy for us to do so, because we
had worked with our defects of character in Step Four, Five and Six
and had come to know them from many different perspectives.
When we began the daily cooperation with our Higher Power about
being liberated from our defects of character, when we spotted that
they rose to the surface, we discovered however, that it was not as
easy as we had imagined.
Because we always and without exception had a loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention with everything we did, it
could make us deny, defend, justify and rationalize
that our way of fulfilling our intention did not work as intended.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Seventh Step to pray to my Higher Power about
being liberated from my use of my defects of character as soon as I
discover that one of them are active, so my loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention can be fulfilled.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 14:
The God Prayer
|
The ‘I’ Version
God
You are the only true goal of my life
I’m yet but a slave of my wishes
putting bar to my advancement
and You are the only God and Power
Who can take me up to that stage.
|
The ‘We’ Version
God
You are the only true goal of our life
We are yet but slaves of our wishes
putting bar to our advancement
and You are the only God and Power
Who can take us up to that stage
|
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
Most of
us had used many thoughts and feelings on considering what our life’s
purpose might be for real.
It was clear to us that we wanted to be happy, but we could not figure
out how we could make our self happy, so we had tested many ideas that
we thought was the solution.
Again and again we discovered that when we were happy for some reason,
we became unhappy, when our reason to be happy disappeared.
In Step Eleven we discovered that we were happy for no reason, when we
experienced oneness with our true Self, our Spirit by the help of prayer
and meditation.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use Step Eleven in my AcAdAn Program to reach my only
true goal, which is to be unconditionally happy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October
15: Stopping
the sufferings of life
But no matter how much knowledge we acquired, we had to face the
fact that life and death
went on anyway, and
in spite of our vast knowledge and capacity to relieve many
maladies of life, we were still paining either, materially,
physically, time-space wise, emotionally, thought-wise, socially
or spiritually.
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 18
Gradually, as
we
faced our existential pains at all levels by the help of our AcAdAn
Program, life’s pains began to occur less frightening to us, because
we developed functional ways to deal with our pains.
In meetings we heard other members say: Pain is inevitable, but
suffering is a choice, and they explained to us that pain is a short
lived action-signal, and suffering is refusing to carry out the action
that the pain ordains.
Furthermore, we discovered that our physical pains was the loud and
definitive expression of painful thoughts and emotions that we had not
been aware of or that we had not known how to handle.
Now, however, we had our AcAdAn Program to take care of our painful
thoughts and emotions, and thus we became able to stop our existential
pains before they manifested as sufferings.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will stop my existential pains by the help of my AcAdAn
Program, so they do not have to develop into sufferings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY
JUNE JULY
AUGUST SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 16:
The Small Ring of Love
When The Small Ring of Love became active in us, we took
responsibility for our self by fulfilling our needs materially,
physically, time-space wise, emotionally, thought-wise, socially and
spiritually (Self-acceptance), and we sought the help of others with
those needs that we could not fulfill our self by admitting our need
for help to another human being (Admission).
As we fulfilled our needs this way (Sanity), we experienced an
increased well-being in all areas (Health).
Active Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 39
Before we came to AcAdAn, most of us had got the impression that it
was love setting our self aside so as to give to others, so if we gave
to our self instead, we had gotten the impression that it meant that
we were selfish people.
Therefore we became surprised, when we began working with the Small
Ring of Love, because it gave us the information that it is love to
take care of our self first and foremost and to seek help with those
areas, where we could not solve our problems on our own.
When we began using the Small Ring of Love, we discovered that when we
treated our self the way of the Small Ring of Love suggests, our sense
of self-esteem and contentment grew and so did our capacity to take
care of others from the heart too.
This led us to become better and better at taking care of our self,
and the increased self-esteem and the increased contentment we
experienced in this context was simultaneously beneficial for all the
people we came into contact with without them necessarily needing our
help.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will follow the suggestion in my AcAdAn Program about
taking care of myself by using the Small Ring of Love as a guideline.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 17: Our
perception of the right thing
We
also
gave our self time and space to express our perception of the
right thing without trying to force our understanding on others or
to overwhelm them with our perception.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 48
Despite
the
fact
that we had worked a lot with accepting our thinking mind, our Ego
before we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, many of us felt
uncertain about our own perception of the right thing.
Therefore we could feel compelled to try to convince others about that
what was the right thing for us also was the right thing for them, and
our eagerness in attempting to convince them about that could make us
try to overwhelm them with our perception.
We felt that it was not enough that we our self knew what was the
right thing for us, and therefore we wanted that others should confirm
that it was the right thing for all by also taking it to heart as if
it was the right thing for them too.
Little by little, as we worked with our humanness, we discovered that
no two people were to be found that had completely identical Mother
Earth bodies, and thereby we realized that we are all unique, and
therefore the right thing for us was not necessarily the right thing
for others.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will express my perception of the right thing without
trying to make others take my perception to heart by overwhelming
them with arguments so as to receive their approval of my
perception.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 18: The
work with the Archetypal Rings
We
made our self entirely ready to allow our Higher Power to liberate
us from our defects of character by investigating how our defects of
character affected us in our daily life socially, mentally,
emotionally and energetically by first and foremost working
mentally, emotionally and energetically with the energy fields of
the Rings, also known as Archetypes.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 46
In our work with the Rings of Joy and
Pain in our AcAdAn Program, we discovered various mental-emotional
energy patterns, and in our meetings we became aware that these
patterns held the same energies for all of us, even if we expressed
them differently, and therefore they were called Archetypes/basic
patterns.
In our meetings we became more and more aware that many different
ways were to be found, which we could use to handle the Archetypes,
and it was inspiring for us to hear about how others chose to handle
them, whether it concerned their perception of the Rings of Pain or
the Rings of Joy.
Thereby we realized that our usual way of handling the Archetypes
was merely one possibility for handling our material life, our
physical life, our time and personal space, our emotional life, our
thought life, our social life and our spiritual life, and as a
result our creativitymanifestivity and capacity to observe began to
unfold on all of levels.
By investigating those Archetypes that brought us emotional pain and
those Archetypes that brought us emotional joy by the help of Step
Six, we became better and better at making conscious choices about
what energies, we wanted to take into use in various situations and
thus we became more content with our self and our life.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will work
consciously with the mental-emotional Archetypes in Step Six, so I
can develop my capacity to choose joy over pain in as many
situations as possible.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 19: Application
of contentment
The
only way to avoid returning to our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction is by not taking our dissatisfaction into use.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
Gradually,
as
our work with our AcAdAn Program developed, we discovered that behind
the use of each and every one of our defects of character, our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction lay as the initiator of the
defect of character in question.
This meant that it became even more important for us to use our
Seventh Step to liberate ourselves from using our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction in the course of our day, and if we could not make our
Seventh Step work for us immediately, we stopped what we were into.
When we stopped what we were into to focus on our Seventh Step so as
to pray to our Higher Power to liberate us from a feeling of
dissatisfaction in the situation, we got a breathing space, which made
it possible for us to experience that our dissatisfaction was lifted.
If our Seventh Step still did not work for us, we chose to use our
Sixth Step to turn our perception of the situation or the person
around by thinking of what we could choose to be content with in this
situation and in this person.
Today’s contemplation
Today,
I
will choose to focus on, what I am content with in each situation,
and what I am content with in each person that I me in the course of
my day.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 20: Careful
choices
However,
we had to be careful in choosing the person with whom we wanted to
share what we had found out about our self in Step Four.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 43
In Step
Four, we came face to face with many experiences that had been so
painful for us in our childhood, youth, adulthood and old age that we
had pushed them down under the threshold of our day consciousness.
Moreover, we came face to face with many joyful experiences that we
had not shared with any human being, because we were afraid of being
perceived as boastful or of being ridiculed because these experiences
delighted us.
To get the courage to bring our painful and joyful experiences into
our day-consciousness in our Fourth Step, we had a need to know that
the person with whom we wanted to share our existential pains and joys
was understanding and merciful.
Therefore most of us preferred to share our discoveries from Step Four
with our AcAdAn sponsor/recovery buddy, because he/she had faced
his/her painful and joyful experiences himself/herself in his/her own
Fourth Step.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will be careful when choosing the person with whom I share
my existential pains and joys, so I do not need to fear that my
confidentiality will be misused.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 21: Our
basic needs
We
looked at how we had harmed our self time-space wise by depriving
our self of the time and space that we needed for our self so as to
be able to take care of our basic needs and personal interests.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
Before
we
came to Active Addictions Anonymous, many of us were not aware that we
not only needed money to take care of the basic needs of our Mother
Earth body/our physical body being well-rested, well-groomed,
well-nourished and well-exercised.
After we came to AcAdAn, we realized that we also needed to show
interest in taking care of these needs, because if we were interested,
we became willing to use our energy and our time on this care for our
mother Earth body/our physical body.
By the help of our Active Addictions Anonymous Program, we became
better and better at liberating our self from the thoughts and
emotional hindrances we came across, when we began trying to take care
of our basic needs as human beings on the Earth.
Gradually, as our loving care for our Mother Earth body/our physical
body developed, we not only discovered the harm we had inflicted on
our self, but we also discovered that we harmed others with those
states of mind that arose when we were unrested, ungroomed, untrained
and malnourished.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will treat my Mother Earth body/physical body with loving
care by seeing to it that he/she is well rested, well groomed, well
nourished and well exercised.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 22: Explaining
our mistakes away
When
we were wrong, we didn’t try to explain to others how or why
we committed a mistake, because thereby we harmed our self
and others further, and this was also contrary to our desire to let
go of our mistakes as soon as possible.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 67
Most
of
us put much too high demands on our self, because we imagined that we
were not allowed to make mistakes, if we were to be valuable in other
people's eyes, so we demanded from ourselves that we must do a new
task perfectly, even if it was the first time, we did it.
That could make us deny, defend, justify, rationalize and explain away
our mistakes, if others called our attention to that we had made a
mistake and thus we blocked the learning process, which any mistake
opens the possibility for.
If we discovered our self that we had made a mistake, which we had to
admit to another human being, we could wish to explain how it had
happened and why, but our Tenth Step suggests us to refrain from
explaining or defending our mistake.
In AcAdAn we learned that attack is the first act of violence, and
defense is the first act of war, and therefore we no longer wanted to
defend our mistakes by explaining how it happened, so instead we took
it to heart and corrected it as fast as possible.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will merely admit my mistakes and correct them, whether it
is another person, who calls my attention to my mistake or it is me,
who spots it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 23: Individual
choice
It is
up to each one of us to ascertain for our self, with the help of the
Program, our Sponsor and our Higher Power, if we have a desire to
give up our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with our self, and
thereby with others and our lives.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 88
After we had worked with
the Rings of Joy and Pain in our AcAdAn Program for some time, we
understood that we are all unique and therefore only we alone could
know what our psychological landscape looked like, what was joyful and
painful to us and how we used the Rings of Joy and Pain in our life.
Nobody, but our self could thus know if we suffered from addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction with our human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability and as a result of our
illness found reasons to be dissatisfied with this, that and the other
many times a day, and if we wanted to be liberated from our addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction.
Therefore, it was important for us to give our self permission to hold
on to our membership of AcAdAn, even though our near and dear ones
maybe began to oppose our membership, when they experienced the new
strength we achieved in our social interactions, which made it
difficult for them to have the same control of our actions that they
had had before.
It could also happen that we shared about our AcAdAn membership with
another person at our workplace or in our circle of friends, and this
person had maybe difficulty imagining that we could have a need for
such a Fellowship, and yet we knew in our innermost heart, we were an
AcAdAn member, because we needed to be.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will hold on to my membership of AcAdAn, because I need it
even if others might think that I do not need it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 24:
Contribution to the Fellowship
We
let the kitty bag go around at our AcAdAn meetings and each of us
contributes towards the rent of the room, the coffee or other
refreshments and for meeting other group expenses according to our
desire and capacity.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 93
In AcAdAn we
are not obligated to contribute money if we do not want to, but if we
want to, we can contribute to make our meeting with other AcAdAns
possible and cozy.
We want to have our meetings in a room, and because we are
self-supporting, we need to pay for rent of the room, and if we want
to drink a cup of coffee or tea during the meeting, we need money for
this expense.
We salute the for free principle by making it possible for everyone,
who wants it to get access to AcAdAn’s literature and to attend
AcAdAn’s meetings without having to pay anything for getting access to
those resources that AcAdAn has to offer.
If however, we have the possibility of paying for our own coffee or
tea as well as contribute to paying for the rent of our meeting room,
we make it easier for our self and newcomers to get access to the
recovery, which Active Addictions Anonymous has to offer.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will give a contribution to the costs in AcAdAn by paying
for my coffee or tea plus give my contribution to the rent of our
meeting room.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 25: Meeting
attendance
We
have learned from our experiences in the AcAdAn Fellowship that
those of us who keep coming to our meetings regularly learn to stop
using dissatisfaction with our self, others and our lives.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
There were many
undiscovered sides of our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, which we
could only spot in interaction with our kindred spirits, who had the
same purpose as us.
When we participated in meetings in Active Addictions Anonymous, we
heard our kindred spirits share about how they handled their addiction
to chronic dissatisfaction.
By listening attentively to other members, we became aware of the many
ways in which our own addiction to chronic dissatisfaction could come to
expression.
Those inspirations, we received, helped us in our recovery from our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction and thereby we become more and more
content.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will attend a meeting in Active Addictions Anonymous
and take to heart a new perspective from what others have to share
about how their addiction to chronic dissatisfaction expresses
itself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 26: Our
innermost core
When
our focus point became empty, we became able to achieve the direct
experience of our
Spirit, our Highest Self, and thereby we became able to see, hear,
feel and sense our Spirit’s presence from where unconditional love,
care, compassion and mercy flows through our entire
being from our innermost core.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 72
Before
we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, most of us knew that we are a
spirit, who has an experience as a human being, because we had been on
the spiritual path for a long time.
As we began to move into the spiritual path, we were seekers, however,
without having a clear idea of what we were looking for, or how we
could find what we were looking for.
Gradually, it dawned on us that what we were looking for was our true
Self, our Spirit and that our true Self, our Spirit is our innermost
core.
We also discovered that it was not so easy for us to rest in oneness
with our true Self, our Spirit, because our thinking mind, our Ego
often stood in the way of our oneness with our true Self, our Spirit.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to clean up my thinking mind,
my Ego, so I can be in oneness with my innermost core, my true Self,
my Spirit most of the time.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 27: Liberation
from envy
Instead
of enviously thinking that we could never achieve what others had,
we chose to move forward in life with hope that we too could achieve
what we wanted if we worked for it by learning from those we envied
as to how they had achieved what they had or were.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
Before we
came to Active Addictions Anonymous, many of us had confused avarice
with envy, but avarice is about not wanting others to have, what they
have, and envy is about not believing that we can get what we want
that others have, and it was after we came to AcAdAn and became
acquainted with the characteristics of the Small Ring of Avarice and
the Small Ring of Envy, we discovered this.
That could make us feel defiant, because we thought that our Higher
Power did not give us what we wanted, and that made us want to
distance our self from the love, care, compassion and mercy of our
Higher Power, and instead of seeking our Higher Power’s help to have
our desire fulfilled, we submitted to the situation.
We learned, however, in our Sixth Step in Active Addictions Anonymous
that we could liberate our self from envy by using the Small Ring of
Hope with it’s credence, information, discernment and serenity to have
credence in that we could get what we wanted, no matter what it was,
if we worked on it our self.
Therefore we sought information from those, who possessed what we had
been inspired to want too and gradually, as our discernment developed
and the results began to show, we achieved serenity concerning the
fulfillment of all of our desires, because now we knew what energies
we could use to fulfill our desires.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use the Small Ring of Hope to fulfill a desire I
have been inspired to want by seeing someone else having it or being
it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 28:
Liberation from hurting
our self and
others
We
took a closer look at how we had harmed our self and others
emotionally by hurting or putting our self and others down
in our
thoughts, words and actions, and how we had harmed our self and
others mentally by lying, manipulating, concealing or
distorting the
facts of our life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 62
Many
of
us of us had not discovered that we hurt our self when we hurt others,
until we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, but after having worked
with the Rings of Social Interaction in Step Eight, we became aware
that we became sad about having hurt others, when our
anger-intoxication had subsided.
This knowledge we used in our Tenth Step to begin inventorying
situations, where we found our self in an anger-intoxication, which
made us consciously desire to hurt another human being, whether we
actually acted on our desire to hurt or merely cultivated revengeful
thoughts in our mind's eye.
During our Tenth Step inventory, we used all our tools from Step One
to Step Ten included, and when we were done with our inventory, we had
formed a clear picture of how we wanted to act without hurting our
self or others in a similar situation in the future.
Gradually, as this work progressed, our understanding grew of that we
hurt our self when we hurt others, and therefore we no longer
projected our anger-intoxication out into the World, but put it into
our AcAdAn Program so as to purify that wound our anger pointed to by
the help of our Tenth Step.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to purify my thinking
mind, my Ego from an anger-intoxication that I would otherwise hurt
another human being and thereby myself with.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 29: Personal
anonymity
Even
if we readily tell about our membership of Active Addictions
Anonymous when others express a desire to hear about it, we don’t
present our perceptions of the Program as the viewpoints that apply
to Active Addictions Anonymous as a whole, and neither do we try to
overwhelm others with our perceptions or act as if we are vouching
for AcAdAn.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 97
By working
with the Small Ring of Truth with its humility, honesty, individuality
and fellowship in Active Addictions Anonymous, we understood that our
individuality entailed that we were unique, and this was true both for
our material life, our Mother Earth body and our energy, our emotions
and our thoughts, our social life and our spiritual life.
Although we all had in common that we have a Mother Earth body, the
combination of our body parts are so unique that even our fingerprints
are not to be found similar in the whole World, and the same is true
for our thoughts and the resulting flow of emotions, because we all
use mental-emotional patterns in our own individual way.
This means that we can only speak for our self and about our self,
when we speak about existential issues in social contexts, and
therefore we respect that others also have their individual
perspectives on existence, and we maintain our personal anonymity by
not pretending that our perspective on AcAdAn was the only right one.
In context with Active Addictions Anonymous, we also do not express
our self about what the Fellowship at large stand for, but exclusively
about our personal perception of the Program and what we had gained
from working with it while at the same time, we did not conceal that
we spoke on our own behalf and not on behalf of AcAdAn as a whole.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will remember my personal anonymity and thus that my
perspective on AcAdAn is unique, so I will not try to overwhelm others
with my perspective or pretend that I speak for Active Addictions
Anonymous as a whole.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 30: Freedom
to choose
The
principle of Tradition Twelve is Freedom.
Slogan: I take to heart what I can use and leave the rest.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 99
The
natural
thing for us as limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal/changeable
human beings is to desire to belong to a Fellowship with others,
whether it is one of two in our marriage, one of many in our family,
or one of many in our workplace.
Our desire to belong to a Fellowship could make us do everything in
our power to adjust to that, which we imagined that others in our
Fellowship wanted us to say, do, feel and think even if we might feel
that it was not the right thing for us.
If we felt that it was not the right thing for us, it meant that it
was in sharp contradiction with our individuality, our uniqueness and
if we chose to do something that did not feel like the right thing for
us, we lost our integrity in our eagerness to adjust to others.
In AcAdAn’s Twelfth Tradition however, we learned to respect our right
to choose that, which fitted our path in life right now, right here
and to discard that, which did not fit into our path right NOW, and
right HERE, and thus we maintained our integrity.
Today’s
contemplation
Today will use that freedom which AcAdAn’s Twelfth Tradition
gives me to take to heart, what I can use, and let go of the rest.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
October 31: Overpowering
of others
We
express our opinion about the principles, both inside and outside
the group, but we don’t try to overwhelm or overpower others with
our understanding.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 98
In the
Second Step in our AcAdAn Program, we wanted to open our self to take
a personal Higher Power into our life by opening our mind to choose a
Higher Power, who is loving, caring, compassionate and merciful.
Our open-mindedness made it possible for us to accept that our
personal choice of a Higher Power could be very different from the
choice others had made even if we chose to listen to what others had
chosen to be inspired to our own choice.
When we listened attentively and respectfully to what others had to
share about their choice of a Higher Power, we used the slogan of the
Second Step that says: To listen attentively and respectfully to
another it first expression of emotional sobriety.
Our respect for others helped us to respect their choice of a Higher
Power and their way of working with the Program, so we refrained from
trying to overpower them with our understanding of a Higher Power and
our way of carrying out the Program.
Today’s
contemplation
Today,
I
will listen attentively and respectfully to what others have to share
about their understanding of a Higher Power and their Step Work
without trying to overpower them with my own understanding of a Higher
Power and the work with the Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
NOVEMBER
November 01:
Our choice of a
Higher Power
Our
understanding and choice of a Higher Power was up to us.
Nobody could decide it for us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 25
Before we came to Active Addictions Anonymous we had often pondered how
it could be possible for us to believe that a Higher Power could be
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful, when we suffered our self
and saw others suffer in so many areas of our life.
In Step Two in our AcAdAn Program we began to investigate, how it could
become possible for us to begin to develop a relationship with a Power
greater than our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability.
We were told that the only suggested guidelines were that our chosen
Higher Power was loving, caring, compassionate and merciful, and that it
worked for us to turn to our Higher Power any time at all that we needed
our Higher Power’s guidance.
When we were done with the formal part of Step Two, we needed to begin
to interact with our chosen Higher Power as much as possible so as to
develop our trust in that our Higher Power was indeed loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Second Step to find my chosen Higher Power’s
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention behind one of my
sufferings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 02: The
right attitude to helping each other.
The
essential point in this Tradition (Eight) is that we help each other
as equal men and women in our efforts to achieve contentment,
and therefore, our profession or status in society has no
relevance in AcAdAn.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 94
Mostly, in our society we primarily
come into contact with others, who are a part of our family or who
have the same work environment as us, and furthermore our
interaction happens primarily with those people, who have the same
status as us in the company we work for.
In AcAdAn we come into contact with people from many different
professions, with more or less status in society, but our Traditions
teaches us that it is important that we do not concern ourselves
with members’ profession or status in society, but exclusively with
where that member we wanted help from was to be found in his/her
recovery from his/her addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
If we focus on other members' profession or status in society, when
we are to help others by taking on sponsorship or become a recovery
buddy, our and their recovery easily come our of course.
Therefore we keep in mind that we need to find a sponsor or recovery
buddy, who fits what we need for our recovery, and we also chose to
take on being sponsor or recovery buddy without sqinting to our new
sponsee’s or recovery body’s profession or status in society.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will refrain from
focusing on the status in society of other AcAdAn members so that
my purpose with being a member of AcAdAn will not get out of
course.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 03: The
right action is the sweet fruit itself
The
principle of Step Nine is Liberation.
Slogan: The right action is the sweet fruit itself.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
Because of our codependency it can be
difficult for us to discern when it is the right action for us to
help another human being.
Here the slogan of Step Nine come to our aid, because we can decide
for our self whether we want to help because this action gives us
joy, or whether we want to help to get praise from the other person
or to become able to praise our self because of our action.
If we want praise from others or if we use our action to praise our
self of the action it springs from the Ring of Codependency with its
saviour role, seducer role, victim role and offender role or from
the Ring of Self-centeredness with its euphoria, depression
self-criticism and self-praise.
If we discover that these motive lies behind our action, we refrain
from acting, because we know that we act from a pain energy, whether
it is one or the other of the two Rings we use for the purpose, but
if we discover that we want to help, because we think that it could
bring us joy to do it, we know that we are in the process with doing
the right action, which is the sweet fruit itself.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use the slogan
of Step Nine when I have to decide for myself if it is the right
action for me to help another human being if I do not have a need
for any other reward for my action than the action in itself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 04: The
interrelation among the Steps in our AcAdAn Program
The
Program in Active Addictions Anonymous from Step One to Step Twelve.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 10
In Step One our recovery from an existential pain began simply,
because we admitted what pained us and how it made our life
unmanageable, as thereby we became ready to open our self to receive
help to recover from our pain in Step Two by investigating, what could
be our Higher Power’s loving, caring, compassionate and merciful
intention behind the pain, and in Step Three we surrendered to the
intention we had found out in Step Two.
In Step Four, we used the Rings of Pain and Joy to investigate what
prevented us from and what could help us to surrender in Step Three,
and then we shared our discoveries from Step One to Four by reading
though our synopses from our inventory to our self, our Higher Power,
another human being and our AcAdAn Fellowship, and we added those
inspirations, we received in the process, before we moved on to Step
Six, where we transformed our use of pain energies to use of joy
energies.
In Step Seven, we began to cooperate consciously with our chosen
Higher Power by praying to be liberated from a defect of character
that we observed in a situation and in Step Eight, we considered how
we wanted make amends to our self and/or others for those mistakes we
had made in relation to our self and/or others in the course of the
day, while at the same time we forgave our self for our mistakes, and
then we moved on to Step Nine to fulfill our desire to make amends to
our self and/or others, and then we let go of our mistake.
In Step Ten, we carried out a daily inventory of that mistake from our
day that pained us the most by the help of Step One to Ten, and in
Step Eleven we expanded our conscious contact with our chosen Higher
Power by seeking guidance about that, which was our Higher Power’s
will for us for the day, and we prayed for the power to carry that
out, before we moved on to Step Twelve, where we passed on the
information to others, who were interested in hearing about our
recovery by the help of our AcAdAn Program for the pain we described
in Step One.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use all of my
AcAdAn Program to recover from the existential pain that
pained me the most in the course of the day, and I will share my
recovery with others, who want to hear about it.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 05: The
Third Step Prayer
|
The ‘I’ Version
God,
take
my will and my life
and
show me how I can live
in complete compliance with
my true Self, my Spirit.
|
The ‘We’ Version
God,
take
our will and our life
and
show us how we can live
in complete compliance with
our true Self, our Spirit.
|
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page
In our
Second Step, we had investigated our belief-systems at all levels,
whether it concerned our material life, our physical life, our
space-time life, our emotional life, our thought life, our social life
or our spiritual life.
In that process, we decided how we wanted to look at a power greater
than our human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability, so our spiritual life could become active.
The only suggested guidelines was that our chosen Higher Power was
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful, and that it worked for us
to approach our chosen Higher Power.
Thereby we had become ready to take our Third Step into use by using
the Third Step Prayer to surrender to that, which came to us in the
course of the day, because we perceived it to be our Higher Power's
will for us.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use the Third Step Prayer as soon as I wake up, so
as to remind myself that what comes to me today is my chosen
Higher Power’s loving, caring, compassionate and merciful will for
me.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November
06: Expansion
of conscious contact with a Higher Power
For
the expansion of our conscious contact with our Higher Power, we
used prayer and meditation.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 69
Some
members of Active Addictions Anonymous perceive prayer to be our
talk to our chosen Higher Power and meditation to be our chosen
Higher Power's answer to that, which we turned to our Higher Power
for.
Those of us, who have this perception, use prayer to approach our
Higher Power and then we became still, so we can enter into
meditation, and the meditation made it possible for us to pick up
that vibration, which is our Higher Power's answer to our prayer.
Our thinking mind, our Ego can translate this vibration to a
thought, we can understand, but sometimes it happens that the
translation is not completely correct, and at other times the
translation is completely in conformity with our Higher Power's
response to us.
In
our work with expanding our conscious contact with our Higher Power,
slowly, we learn to separate the faulty translation from our
thinking mind, our Ego of the vibration from our Higher Power to the
right one, and the yardstick we use to determine if the message is
correctly translated, is if it contains our Higher Power's
unconditional love, care, compassion and mercy for us and everybody
implicated in the situation we seek guidance about.
Today’s
contemplation
Today,
I will expand my conscious contact with my Higher Power by the help
of prayer and meditation, and at the same time I will expand my
capacity to discern, when my thinking mind’s, my Ego's translation
of the vibration is in conformity with my Higher Power’s answer to
my prayer.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November
07: Public
appearance
Since
this Tradition is about the context of our public efforts, one way
we can practice the principle of Tradition Eleven is by making sure
we pass on the message of AcAdAn in public contexts and not our
personal perception of the Program.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 97
If
we are to appear in public as AcAdAn members, it is important that
we remember the principle of anonymity, which says that we speak for
our self about our self, when we speak about AcAdAn, so we do not
give the impression that we speak on behalf of AcAdAn as a whole.
It is also important that we do not behave inappropriate
in
those contexts, where we speak about AcAdAn in the media,
because it could have adverse effects for AcAdAn as a whole if
others have got the impression that we are the mouthpiece of AcAdAn.
It is important that those members of our society, who hear about
AcAdAn from our mouth, do not get discouraged from seeking recovery
from their addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, because they
believe that our inappropriate behavior is
characteristic for members of AcAdAn.
Therefore it is important for us as AcAdAn members to remember that
we remain as anonymous as possible, when we speak about AcAdAn in
public contexts, and that we behave as accommodating
as possible in the same contexts.
Today’s
contemplation
If
I am going to speak about AcAdAn today, one on one with a new
member or in a public context I will let no one have any
doubts that I speak for myself about myself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 08:
Achieving of Worldly
power and glory
Others
of us tried to achieve power and glory
by moving in the hallways
of power.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 16
When, as
young people, we looked around in our surroundings for a goal for our
lives, many of us got the impression that if we achieved power and
glory by moving around in the hallways of power, we would become a
valuable member of our the Fellowship of our society .
That could mislead some of us to imagine that we could achieve others’
love and respect, if only we gained worldly power and glory, and that
could make us use a part of our life to achieve this goal.
After we achieved worldly power and glory however, we realized that we
still felt chronically dissatisfied, and we experienced an emptiness
in the power and the glory that we could not have imagined in advance.
When we discovered that the achievement of worldly power and glory did
not heal our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, we were finally
ready to begin to recover from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction by becoming a member of Active Addictions Anonymous.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, will set my recovery
from my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction to be my highest
priority, because my addiction to use chronic dissatisfaction can
not be healed by the help of power and the glory.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 09:
The Small Ring of
Hatred
When
The Small Ring of Hatred became active in us, we denied our needs
and refused to take responsibility for them, whether they were
material, physical, time-space wise, emotional, mental, social or
spiritual (Denial), and we tried to manipulate others into
fulfilling our needs to have it confirmed that we were valuable
(Manipulation).
At the
same time, we imagined that others fulfilled our needs because we
were so special (Madness), and if others did not fulfill our needs,
we continued to deny them until we felt so bad physically,
time-space wise, emotionally, mentally, socially or spiritually that
we got ill from it (Disease).
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 36
In our
Fourth Step, we began to get to know the Rings of Pain, and it was a
big relief for us to see many of our thoughts and emotions described
by the help these Rings, because it showed us that our defects of
character were not merely thoughts and emotions that we alone made use
of, but that they were a part of those energies that all of humankind
came into contact with in their psychological landscape.
By the help of the Small Ring of Hatred, we began to face our
suppressed anger that we call hatred in AcAdAn, and it was a big help
for us to have the Small Ring of Hatred with its denial, manipulation,
illness and madness as a guideline, when we wanted to investigate our
hatred in a neutral way, because this investigation allowed us to
receive the message of our hatred.
Little by little, as we worked with the Small Ring of Hatred, we
became better and better at receiving our suppressed anger, our hatred
as a loving, caring, compassionate and merciful messenger from within
our psychological landscape, and thereby we could begin to
createmanifest those changes in our way of being in the World, which
it was our hatred’s message that we should make.
The better we became at knowing our hatred, the better we became at
taking care of all those areas in our life that made us angry without
us having the courage to express our anger, but now we had our AcAdAn
Program to give expression to our suppressed anger, our hatred by the
help of our Step Work, and the better we became at accepting our
hatred’s message the better we became at transforming our hatred to
love by the help of Step Six.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will open myself to the message of the Small Ring of
Hatred, so I can transform the pain of my hatred to the joy of my
love.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 10: The
forgiveness from others
Sometimes,
the one we had harmed forgave us and at other times the person was
not ready to forgive us.
We
accepted this, knowing very well that now we had done our best, and
we let go of the situation.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 65
When we had
come to the Ninth Step in our Active Addictions Anonymous Program, we
were going to make those amends that we decided on in Step Eight.
In Step Eight we had completed the Grand Day of Sacred Forgiveness,
where we received our own and our Higher Power's forgiveness for our
mistakes.
Our forgiveness of our self had made us realize that forgiveness had
to come from the heart, and that had made us understand that others
might not be ready to forgive our mistake.
Therefore, we followed the suggestion of Step Nine about carrying out
this Step to achieve a pure path for our self and not to achieve the
forgiveness of others.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will let go of my mistake after I have made direct or
indirect amends to the other person for my mistake, whether the
other person forgives me or not.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 11: Trusting
the help
JUST
FOR Today, I will have faith in someone in AcAdAn who believes in me
and wants to help me in my recovery.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 14
Our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction had given rise to many thought
patterns that were filled with distrust of our self and others, and
therefore it could be difficult for us to be trusting of something new
from the beginning.
However, it was important for us to have confidence in the help we
could achieve in Active Addictions Anonymous so that we could begin to
work on our recovery from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Our distrust in other contexts has led many of us to be on our guard
towards that, which AcAdAn has to offer, and therefore it was
important for us to admit our distrust, so we freely could investigate
what we were afraid of in context with AcAdAn.
When we had finished investigating what, we needed to investigate, we
could finally choose to believe in someone in AcAdAn, who believed
that we were able to recover from our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, and who wanted to help us with our recovery.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will choose to
believe in someone in AcAdAn, who believes that I can recover from
my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and therefore I will
choose to receive the help he/she has to offer.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 12: The
context among the Traditions in our AcAdAn Program
Tradition
One to Twelve
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 12
Tradition One taught us that the survival of a
group depended on that each member felt like a comfortable and respected
part of the group, and Tradition Two taught us that we could look at the
Group Conscience as the Higher Power of the group and moreover how we
could surrender to the group's Higher Power, whether the group consisted
of two members or many.
Tradition Three taught us to define our common purpose for the group,
which is that which is going to keep the group together, and Tradition
Four taught us to accept the autonomy of the group members as long as they
respected the group’s common purpose as we describe it in Tradition Five,
and in Tradition Six we defined those traps we could encounter in the
fulfilment of the group’s purpose.
Tradition Seven taught us the importance of fulfilling our personal needs
so we did not lose our integrity in an attempt to get our needs fulfilled
by the group in those instances where our needs had got nothing to do with
the group's purpose, and Tradition Eight taught us to define how we best
could help each other with fulfilling our group’s purpose.
Tradition Nine taught us to organize the group in such a way that no
single member achieved control of the group, Tradition Ti how we could
speak about our group with others outside the group, Tradition Eleven how
we could refrain from overpowering others with our perspectives, and
Tradition Twelve to listen to the message instead for our perception of
the messenger, and thus we let principles come before personalities
.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the principles in the Traditions of Active
Addictions Anonymous to take care of my external life in the same
way as I use the Steps to take care of my internal life.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 13: Detachment
in the past
We
also investigated those instances from our past where our
detachment came to expression, when we were able to detach from
others’ material, physical, space- time wise emotional, mental,
social and spiritual issues as if they were our own without
detaching from our love, care, compassion and mercy for them.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 32
Before we came to Active Addictions Anonymous we were not aware that we
could be or not be emotionally sober, but after we began working with
the Ring of Emotional Sobriety with its detachment, integrity, respect
for self and respect for others, we became more and more aware of it,
when we were not emotionally sober.
We discovered that it was important for our emotional sobriety that we
did not attach to others' problems as if they were our own, when we
investigated how our detachment expressed itself in the past in Step
Four, and how it felt to be loving, caring, compassionate and merciful
while at the same time we did not attach to the sufferings others told
us about, as if they were our personal problem.
This meant that we could listen attentively and respectfully to what
others told us about their sufferings without us needing to try to find
a solution for them, because we had trust in that they merely needed to
express their pain, so they could begin to find their own solution to
the sufferings they told us about.
Thereby we discovered that our detachment to the pain of our fellow
human being made it possible for us to use the first signs of emotional
sobriety, which is to listen attentively and respectfully to our fellow
human being, and thereby we gave space and time for our fellow human
being to ease his/her heart, because he/she were allowed to express
his/her pain and thus come closer to a solution according to his/her own
choice.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use the detachment I have observed from my past in
Step Four to listen attentively and respectfully to a fellow human
being’s pain without attaching to his/her pain as if it were my
personal problem.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 14: The
invisible in the visible
For
some of us, our perception of our Higher Power included both the
invisible presence of the earthly and spiritual principles and the
visible presence of everything and everybody around us.
Active Addictions
Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 25
Many of us
had perceived the invisible to be unreal, but when we began working
with earthly and spiritual principles in our AcAdAn Program, we
discovered that although we could not take a thought or an emotion out
and show the thought or the emotion to another person, we could see
the invisible in the visible anyway.
If we met an angry person, we could easily see that he/she was angry
because the anger came to expression in the other person's behavior,
body language, tone of voice and facial expression, and if we asked
why he/she was angry, and he/she answered that he/she was not angry,
it did not change our perception of him/her being being angry.
We merely thought that the other person did not want us to know, why
he/she was angry, and even if the other person gave us the silent
treatment without saying a word to us, when we addressed him/her, we
also knew that he/she was angry even if he/she did not say a word.
Although we could not see the invisible thoughts that made the other
person angry, we could see the anger anyway, even if we could not see
the thoughts behind the anger, and we could choose to respect the
other person’s anger without taking it to heart, even if the other
person thought that we were the cause of his/her anger.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will give others space to recover from their anger by
moving out of the situation either mentally or physically instead
of taking responsibility for the other person's anger, even if
he/she claims that it is my fault that he/she is angry
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 15: 'Good'
and 'bad' people
We
were used to perceiving our self and
others as ‘good’ people when we took our virtues into use and as
‘bad’ people when we took our defects of character into use.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 29
Before we
came to Active Addictions Anonymous, we perceived our self as ‘bad’
people, when we took our defects of character into use and moreover we
also perceived our self to be dysfunctional but after we had come to
AcAdAn however, we discovered that our use of any of our defects of
character had got something to do with being a 'bad' person.
It also had got nothing to do with being a ‘bad’ person that we were
dysfunctional, because it merely meant that we used pain energies to
fulfill our loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention, and
thereby we discovered that our loving, caring, compassionate and
merciful intention was not met with the help of pain energies.
As we worked with the Rings of Pain and Joy, we discovered that we
needed to use our virtues to be able to fulfill our loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention and we also discovered that we
could use our Sixth Step to transform our defects of character into
virtues and when we did that, we became able to fulfill our loving,
caring, compassionate and merciful intention.
Once we had transformed our defects of character into virtues by the
help of Step Six, we discovered in the same way that it did not mean
that we were 'good' people but simply that we now had the necessary
information to use functional ways of fulfilling our loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention, and thus it became easier for us
to be content under all circumstances, no matter what they are.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, , I will stand by my
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful intention, so I can
investigate if my loving, caring, compassionate and merciful
intention is being fulfilled, and if not I will change my ways to
become able to fulfill my intention.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 16: Members
of AcAdAn
Anyone
may join us regardless of their form of active addiction, age, race,
sexual identity or preference, political conviction, creed, religion
or lack of religion.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
Whether we suffered from
a physical or psychological illness that we were dissatisfied with,
we were welcome to work with our dissatisfaction by the help of the
Program of Active Addictions Anonymous so we could recover from our
dissatisfaction.
Furthermore, we were welcome in AcAdAn no matter what our
existential standing was, because addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction had got nothing to do with if we believed in God or
not and it had got nothing to do with what race, sexual grouping or
age group we belonged to either.
The basic purpose for us as members of AcAdAn was to recover from
our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, whether we were
dissatisfied with our self, our life circumstances, others or the
World at large, because addiction to chronic dissatisfaction has
many faces.
What otherwise was going on in our life was not something we dealt
with in Active Addictions Anonymous, but only with what we wanted to
do to recover from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will focus on how I
can recover from my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 17:
Suppression
However,
our successes and
failures had a tendency to grow wild in our mind if they were
suppressed, and when they were brought
out into the open, they dissolved.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 43
Little
by
little, as we worked with our AcAdAn Program, we discovered that it
led to physical and psychological illnesses to live with suppressed
emotional pains, and that these sprang from our defects of character,
and that they could lead to physical illness, if we suppressed them,
because then they settled in different places in our physical body and
got stuck there.
Over time, the pain in our defects of character created and manifested
pain in the place where they were stuck, and this could lead to
various physical illnesses, if we did not release the suppressed
thoughts and emotions that created and manifested the pain, whether it
was about the pain in the fear of sharing our successes or in the fear
of sharing our failures with others.
When we used Step One to admit a painful thought with the accompanying
emotion and how the pain made our life unmanageable, it became
possible for us to recover from the pain by the help of Step Two to
Twelve, whether it was about a thought with the accompanying emotion
that pained or it was about a physical pain.
As a result of these experiences, we discovered that we were as sick
as our secrets, and therefore it felt like a great relief for us to
share our secrets with our sponsor or our recovery buddy, so that we
no longer needed to suppress our painful thoughts and emotions or our
physical pains.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will make an inventory on one of my painful thoughts with
the accompanying emotion by the help of my AcAdAn Program..
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 18:
Social interaction
When
we felt less than others (Inferiority), we stayed by our self to
hide our vulnerability and our feelings of worthlessness
(Isolation), and when we felt like more than others (Superiority),
we filled up our time and space with people and activities to show
off our superiority by the help of the number of people present in
our lives and the numerous activities we undertook with these people
(Overcrowding).
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 23
Before we
came to AcAdAn, many of us had withdrawn from life by doing our best
to not have interactions with other people, because our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction easily became active, when we were together
with other people.
It pained us so much on a daily basis that we had chosen to live a
kind of hermit life in order to escape the pain even though some of us
lived in a big city, which opened up the opportunity for many
interactions with others for us.
Little by little, as we became better and better at taking care of our
painful emotions and transform them into joy, we became more and more
courageous, and our desire to have a blooming social life came alive
again.
We slowly began to open up by the help of our AcAdAn Program, and as a
result we opened up to our AcAdAn sponsor/recovery buddy, then to our
kindred Spirits in our AcAdAn Fellowship and finally to the World at
large.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will open myself up to
develop a blooming social life by the help of my AcAdAn Program, my
AcAdAn sponsor/recovery buddy, my Higher Power, my AcAdAn Fellowship
and the World at large.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 19:
Prerequisite for membership of
AcAdAn
The
only prerequisite for membership in AcAdAn is a desire to give up
one’s addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 119
Sometimes
our basic purpose with being members of Active Addictions Anonymous
could drown in the many perspectives we achieved on our human
limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and mortality/changeability when
we worked with our AcAdAn Program.
As it was our dissatisfaction with our human limitation, ignorance,
powerlessness and mortality/changeability that settled in us as
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, we had a need to expand our
understanding of our humanness so as to become able to recover from
our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
Therefore, it was important for us to remember that the only
prerequisite for membership of AcAdAn is a desire to recover from
one's addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and therefore many of us
began our daily recovery work with the AcAdAn Program by reminding our
self of our basic purpose with being members.
By remembering this, we could take any kind of dissatisfaction up for
transformation by the help of our AcAdAn Program and by listening to
the message in our dissatisfaction and finding out giving to our self
what we were dissatisfied with not having received from others or by
setting the boundaries that we had allowed others to overstep.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will remember that
the only prerequisite for membership of AcAdAn is a DESIRE to
recover from from my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 20:
Nameless defects of
character
In
some cases, we became aware of a defect of character rising to the
surface due to a sense of emotional discomfort without us being able
to put a name to it, and in such cases, we prayed to our Higher
Power to liberate us from this defect of character without
naming it.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 57
Gradually,
as we learned by heart the Long Seven Step Prayer and the Prayer of Joy
from Step Eleven, we achieved the capacity to put a name to many defects
of character and many virtues.
Therefore, we eventually became well-informed about where we found our
self in our psychological landscape under different circumstances, and
as a result we became able to use our Seventh Step more and more
efficiently.
Sometimes it could happen that we experienced a sense of emotional
unease, however, without us being able to put a name to the place, where
we found our self in our psychological landscape.
Under such circumstances, we still use our Short Seventh Step Prayer by
simply praying to our Higher Power to liberate us from the emotional
discomfort we felt rising to the surface.
Today’s contemplation
Tod, I will use the Short Seventh Step Prayer, even if I cannot put a
name to the defect of character, I can feel rising to the surface by
praying to my Higher Power to liberate me from my emotional discomfort.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 21: Accept
of our limitations and that of others
When
we came to AcAdAn, slowly, we began to learn to accept both our own
limitations and that of others.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 21
Innermost,
we already knew before we came to Active Addictions Anonymous that we
are a Spirit, who experiences life as a human being for a while and
that we as Spirit are omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and
immortal/unchangeable.
Therefore, we could feel that the contrast between our limited,
ignorant, powerless and mortal/changeable human self and our true
Self, our Spirit, was so great that we could have trouble accepting
it.
Exactly this had contributed to our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, because we were often dissatisfied with the
limitations we experienced in our self as well as in others,
regardless of what we perceived to be limiting our self or others so
that our expectations were not met.
Therefore, we often put unreal demands on our self and others about
what we or they should be able to do, but gradually, as we used our
AcAdAn Program to learn to accept our own and others' limitations, we
became more content.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will work on accepting my own and others' limitations by
setting down my expectations of myself and others, so I can become
more content.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 22:
Accept of our fallibility:
We also knew that we were limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal,
and thus fallible, and as such, we knew that we would make
mistakes in the future too.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 66
When we
first came to Active Addictions Anonymous and began to form an
impression of the Program, many of us thought that we would become
able to control our defects of character, if we were persistent with
our Step Work, so we worked diligently on acquiring the Program as
fast as possible.
Gradually, as our work with the Program developed, it became clear to
us that those pains that came to us, whether physical or emotional,
were an advantageous part of life, because what else would make us get
up, if incidentally we happened to sit down on a burning stove top?
We also discovered that our emotional pains were an advantageous part
of life in the same way, because they told us that we needed to move
away mentally or physically from the situation that pained us to use
the situation in our Program instead of just reacting and thereby
hurting our self or others emotionally.
By the help of the Program, we transformed both our physical and
emotional pains to joy, and although we thought that we had made a
mistake by activating a defect of character, we realized that the pain
had helped us grow in wisdom and mercy, and thus it became easier for
us to accept our fallibility.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will accept my
fallibility, because I know that I can use my AcAdAn Program to
take care of it, so I thereby can grow in wisdom and mercy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 23:
Self-acceptance
Our
inability to
accept our self and life as it is actually
created and manifested our own problems.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
Most of us
were often angry about being limited, ignorant, powerless and
mortal/changeable human beings, without us being aware however, that
it was this, which gave us most of our existential pains, until we
began working with the Program of Active Addictions Anonymous and
discovered how deep our dissatisfaction were.
When we came to Step Six, we discovered that we almost constantly
found our self in the pain from the Small Ring of Hatred with its
denial, manipulation, disease and madness, because we denied our
humanity and tried to manipulate our self and others to believe that
we were above it, and in this madness, we ended up making our self
physically ill.
Only when we used the Rings of Pain and Joy to map out our
psychological landscape in daily living, we realized that we needed
our AcAdAn Program to become able to learn to accept our self and life
as it is for a human being, and as a result of accepting our self, we
also became able to accept others and life as it is for a human being.
When we moved out of the pain from the Small Ring of Hatred and into
the joy of the Small Ring of Love with its admitting, self-acceptance,
health and sanity we came closer to the acceptance of our self as a
human being and in the same way we moved from others of the Rings of
Pain to others of the Rings of Joy again and again and again until we
had achieved a wholehearted accept of our humanness.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my Sixth Step to move from a Painring to a
Joyring, if I discover that my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction has become active
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 24: Prayer
When
we entered the contemplative condition, which is called Prayer, if
our contemplation deals with the spiritual sphere, we began to learn
how to concentrate
our awareness consciously, in one singular point of focus.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
When we came
to Step Eleven in our AcAdAn Program, we worked with the contemplative
state, and that means that we were considering an issue, whether our
contemplation was about something worldly or something spiritual, but
if our contemplation was about something spiritual we called our
contemplation for prayer.
Many of us had a need to know that our prayers were heard by our
chosen Higher Power, and we thought that a sign that we had been heard
was that we received what we had prayed for, preferably without us
lifting a finger to get it, so that we could become able to call the
fulfillment of our desire for a miracle – something that went against
the normally accepted ways of how we thought that events would
transpire.
Sometimes we felt that our prayers were heard and sometimes not, and
when we did not feel that our prayer had been heard, many of us
believed that our Higher Power was angry at us, and if we believed
that, we tried to figure out, what we needed to do to appease our
Higher Power, so we could have our desire fulfilled, but our Higher
Power loved us unconditionally, so our Higher Power was never angry at
us for any reason whatsoever.
When we prayed for something from our Higher Power it could happen
that we almost immediately received an inspiration to do certain
things, which were necessary from our side to have our desire
fulfilled, and gradually, as we became aware that that our
participation in our own life was necessary for the fulfillment of our
desires, we became able to participate consciously in the
creationmanifestation of our own destiny.
Today’s
contemplation
Today,
I will be aware of what I need to contribute with for the
fulfillment of my desires so that consciously I can begin to
participate in the creatingmanifesting of my own destiny.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 25: From
arrogance to humility
Instead of arrogantly thinking that we were above or beneath others,
we accepted that we were ignorant and that we did not know the true
value of our self and others; so we chose to let go of the pain of
our arrogance and move into the joy of meeting others with humility,
which means, thinking neither that we were above them nor beneath
them.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
Many of us associated humility with being humiliated, and furthermore
most of us perceived humility to be weakness, before we came to the
Active Addictions Anonymous, so we did not want to become humble.
In AcAdAn we became familiar with the Small Ring of Truth with its
humility, honesty, individuality and fellowship, which is the reverse
of the Small Ring of Arrogance with its superiority, inferiority,
overcrowding and isolation.
By the help of the Small Ring of Truth, we discovered that humility
meant that we did not feel smaller than others, even if they stood
high in esteem in our society, and we did not feel more than others,
even if they stood low in esteem in our society.
We also discovered that when we found our self in the Small Ring of
Arrogance, we experienced emotional pain, and when we found our self
in the Small Ring of Truth, we experienced emotional joy, and that
made us want to be humble.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn
Program to work on becoming humble by the help of the Small Ring
Truth.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 26:
Conscious
movement in our psychological landscape
We began
to work with the Rings by learning to move consciously from the Ring
of Emptiness to the Ring of Fulfillment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
In
Step Four, for the first time, we worked with investigating various
mental-emotional combinations that are archetypes, which contain certain
combinations of thoughts and the resultant emotional feelings, and these
fields we call Rings of Pain, when they lead to emotional pain, and we
call them Rings of Joy, when they lead to emotional joy.
We observed how our use of Painrings and Joyrings went all the way back
to our childhood and up to the present day, and thereby we realized that
our defects of character was a natural part of our thinking mind, our
Ego, and as a result, we began to get better able at orienting our self
in our psychological landscape.
When we came to Step Six, we began to work consciously on moving around
in the various energy fields by observing what energy field we found our
self in and then make a conscious decision about whether we wanted to
remain in the energy field that we were in, or whether we wanted to move
to another energy field, and how we could do this.
If we found our self in a Ring of Pain, we wanted to move to a Ring of
Joy, because pain was our action signal that told us that we had a need
to change direction, and when we took this message to heart, we began to
work on moving consciously from a Painring to a Joyring in Step Six and
thereby our joy of being grew.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will consciously move around in my psychological landscape
by using the Rings of Pain and the Rings of Joy from Step Six as a
guideline about how I can do this.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 27: Respect
for confidentiality
Sometimes,
we feel a need to pass on something we heard at the meeting that may
help another, and we can do this by not putting a name on the
person, who expressed that pearl of wisdom we want to pass on.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 98
We wanted
our participation in AcAdAn meetings to be like meeting a good friend,
we wanted to talk to about the problems we had had in one area of our
life and how we had used our AcAdAn Program to recover from our
problem.
Although, we had even found a solution to our problem, we did not want
others to talk about it in a way that made us regret that we had
trusted our AcAdAn Fellowship with our problem, so it was important
for us that our confidentiality was respected.
We could respect each other's confidentiality by refraining from using
names, when we told others about how various members had solved a
problem by the help of our AcAdAn Program, which they had shared about
in our Fellowship.
Therefore we used the Anonymity Principle to refrain from using names,
when we talked about others both inside and outside our Fellowship,
and in that way we could stop gossip that would hurt the person we
spoke about.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will refrain from using names when I talk about other
people.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 28: To
welcome others again
If a
person changes his/her mind and leaves the group to return later, we
welcome him/her as many times as he/she has reached this desire yet
another time.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 88
The only
requirement for membership of Active Addictions Anonymous is a desire
to give up one’s addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and it is only
the individual himself/herself, who knows if he/she has this desire.
Sometimes it can happen that a member thinks that the work that is
necessary to become able to let go of his/her addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction is more than he/she feels ready to carry out at this
point of his/her life.
This may lead to him/her wanting to leave AcAdAn, and it can also
happen that a member wants to leave AcAdAn for various reasons that
only he/she knows, and nobody needs to explain, why he/she wants to
leave AcAdAn.
After a while he/she may again feel ready to work on letting go of
his/her chronic dissatisfaction, but no matter how many times a member
leaves Active Addictions Anonymous, we welcome him/her back again.
Today’s
contemplation
Today. I choose to welcome
anyone, who wishes to work on letting go of his/her addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction by the help of Active Addictions
Anonymous, whether it is a person, who returns after an absence
period or a newcomer, who wants to explore what AcAdAn has to
offer.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 29:
Bragging
We
feared that others would rub salt into the hurting wounds of our
failures by looking condescendingly or scornfully at us, or in case
of our past successes, that others would think that we were boastful
when we admitted our joy over our successes, or even worse, that
they would think that our successes were without any value.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
For many of us it was easier to admit our failures than our successes,
because we had discovered that it was easier for us to receive other
people's condescension or scorn about us not having done better than it
was to receive others' criticism for bragging in their eyes, because it
was painful for us to see our successes being annihilated by others.
Therefore, we had gotten used to keep our successes to our self without
us being aware that this created and manifested an imbalance in our way
of taking care of our psychological landscape, because our exaggerated
ideas of other people’s envy of our successes, created and manifested a
distortion of our social life.
Even if it is true that other's avarice or envy maybe became active,
when they witnessed our successes, it was important that we learned to
express our joy about our successes, because it made it possible for us
to let go of the past in the same way as our admission of our failures
did it.
Therefore, we picked up our courage and admitted our successes to our
sponsor/recovery-buddy and in a meeting to learn to be present in The
Blissful Flow of the Present Moment instead of being stuck in past
successes or failures, and this new freedom made it easier for us to be
content..
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will admit a success I have experienced in the course of my
day to my sponsor/recovery-buddy and in an AcAdAn meeting
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
November 30: The
difficulties with forgiving our self
We
knew that the one we had the hardest time forgiving was our self.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 61
When
we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, we discovered that the Program
was about being content with our self, our life and others as limited,
ignorant, powerless and mortal/changeable human beings and with the
living conditions that were common to a human being so it could become
possible for us to develop contentment with our self, our life and
others, regardless of the circumstances.
When we studied our Mother Earth body, most of us saw many deviations
from how we wanted our Mother Earth body to look and after we came to
AcAdAn, we discovered that we had perceived it to be a flaw in our
Mother Earth body that he/she did not look like we thought he/she
should look and we had difficulties forgiving our Mother Earth body
that he/she looked like he/she did.
When we studied our way of being in the World, most of us saw many
deviations from how we wanted our way of being in the World to be and
we had difficulties forgiving our self for our way of being in the
World and, even if at times, we thought that our Mother Earth body
looked perfect and that our way of being in the World was perfect, we
discovered that there was always room for improvements.
As a result of these realizations, we used our AcAdAn Program to let
go of our perception that it was a flaw in our Mother Earth body that
she looked like she did or that we were in the World the way, we were,
and at the same time we chose to receive inspirations for improvements
of our Mother Earth body and our way of being in the World as a gift
for renewal instead of as a criticism pointing at a flaw in us.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn
Program to develop contentment with my Mother Earth body and my
way of being in the World.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
DECEMBER
December 01: Trusted
servants
The
Second Tradition establishes that we have no leaders
who govern but only trusted servants.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 86
Our Second
Tradition in Active Addictions Anonymous had made us understand that
no single member of a group could decide for all members, if the group
should remain healthy and therefore we had no leaders, who decide, how
our personal path through the Program must take place, but only
trusted servants.
We have a chair person, who sees to it that the day, the time and the
meeting format that the Group Conscience has decided on is met, but
the chair person does not decide, who can attend the meeting, because
only the individual member himself/herself can decide, if he/she wants
to participate in the meeting.
We have a treasurer, who is our trusted servant, who takes care of the
money we collect during our meeting for coffee, literature, rent for
our room and the likes that the Group Conscience has decided, so our
treasurer does not decide how our money should be used.
We have a GSR - a group service representative - representing our
group at ASC meetings - area service committee meetings – but it is
our Group Conscience that decides, what our GSR must say, and our
Group Conscience also decides, how our greeter must welcome the
members to the meeting.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will remember
that I do not lead Active Addictions Anonymous, because I have taken
on serving AcAdAn as a whole by taking on a service post to
illustrate the feminine principle to illustrate the feminine
principle .
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 02: Governing
of AcAdAn
Our
Steps and Traditions are organized in a specific sequence and order,
and when we say that AcAdAn should never be organized, we mean that
it should never be organized in such a way that it gives individuals
control over Active Addictions Anonymous, and thereby enable them to
govern AcAdAn in a specific direction.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 95
Because we
are limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal/changeable human beings,
we could often imagine that we needed to steer and control everything
and everyone around us to feel more safe about our humanness, but
after we came to AcAdAn we became aware that our enterprise could not
succeed.
Our powerlessness over people, places, events and things, and even
over our own humanness made it impossible for us to gain control over
these five areas, and besides, any attempt to defy Reality put us us
into the pain of The Small Ring of Envy with its disbelief,
superstition, submission and defiance.
Therefore, we wanted to surrender the steering of us and our life to a
loving, caring, compassionate and merciful Higher Power, and
furthermore we wanted to surrender the steering of AcAdAn’s life to
the Group Conscience, who is AcAdAn’s loving, caring, compassionate
and merciful Higher Power.
The Group Conscience comes into being as the voice that comes to
expression, when all members of a group or AcAdAn as a whole had been
heard and taken into consideration, and therefore we surrendered to
the Group Conscience instead of insisting on our own will about, how
AcAdAn should proceed, when we had made a common decision.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will surrender to
the voice of the Group Conscience both in my AcAdAn Fellowship and
my other Fellowships.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 03: To
escape death
We
also realized that invariably, we
had to face death at some point in our
lives in spite of all our efforts to live pain-free and
survive; so this was not the
path to achieve the love and respect we sought, either
from our self or from others.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 18
Many
of
us found it hard to deal with, that we were going to be separated from
our Mother Earth body/physical body at some point in time, and we did a
lot to make sure that he/she was healthy and did not become seriously or
even fatally ill.
When we discovered that our Mother Earth body/physical body had become
fatally ill anyway, and that we only had a limited time left together
with him/her and our life on Earth, it could make us bitter.
Our bitterness was expressed through the Microring of Hatred with its
indignation, vindictiveness, belligerence and bitterness, and as the
Microring of Hatred is a Painring, it meant that we added insult to
injury, when we used it on our mortality/changeability.
Instead, we chose to use the Microring of Love with its mercy,
forgiveness, conciliatory and sweetness, when we became aware that our
time on Earth was running out, so we could discover that we could
experience joy of living until our last moment had come.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use the Microring of Love with its mercy, forgiveness,
conciliatory and sweetness on my mortality/changeability.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 04:
Self-appraisal in AcAdAn
We
could do our self-appraisal in any way that worked for us, but as a
starting point, we investigated how our use of our defects of
character and our virtues had affected us materially, physically,
time-space wise, emotionally, mentally, socially and spiritually in
the course of our life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 29
In AcAdAn,
we came into contact with different forms of self-appraisals and in
Step Four, our self-appraisal was about how we had experienced our
defects of character and our virtues from our childhood to the present
day, and thereby we achieved the courage to admit that we had used
both our defects of character and our virtues in the course of our
life.
When we shared about our defects of character and our virtues with
another human being in our Fifth Step, we discovered that we were not
alone about using both defects of character and virtues and that gave
us courageous, so we became ready to admit in Step Six how we still
used defects of defects and virtues in our daily life.
We used Step Six as another type of self-appraisal, which enabled us
to transform our pain into joy by the help of the Rings of Pain and
Joy while at the same time, we continued to further develop our wisdom
and mercy-capacity through this experience, where we learned to
transform emotional pain to emotional joy.
Step Seven we used to liberate our self from emotional pain in
co-operation with our Higher Power, when we felt that a defect of
character took hold of us; Step Eight and Nine to make amends to our
self for the mistake we had done to our self and Step Ten to end our
inventory by admitting our mistake yet another time and then let go of
it.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use a self-appraisal from my AcAdAn Program, which
fits with the pain that I want to be liberated from, or which
helps me to build up a daily application of the principles I wish
to pay tribute to.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 05: Gossip
It
is important to us that we can freely express our self in our
group, but this is only possible when we have confidence in that
what we disclose would not be spoken about or discussed with
others after the meeting.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 98
We wanted our Active Addictions
Anonymous meetings to be a sacred place where we could open both our
higher heart that is our holiest of holy and our lower heart, where
our defects of character and our virtues live without us risking to
be exposed to derogatory talk about what we had shared in a meeting.
Sometimes, it could happen that we had opened our higher heart
during a meeting, and what we had shared, came back to us in a
distorted form a few days later, because a member, who pretended to
be our friend wanted that we should know that others have perceived
what we had shared as boastful.
It could also happen that we had opened our lower heart, our solar
plexus, during a meeting, and what we had shared, came back to us in
a distorted form a few days, later because a member, who pretended
to be our friend, wanted us to know that others looked down on us
because of what we had shared during the meeting.
We felt unsafe and became sad when we were subjected to derogatory
talk after having poured our heart out, and we wanted to stop the
pain both in the now and the future by making sure that both our
friends and the other members knew that we did not want to hear what
others said about us when we are not present, whether it was praise
or criticism.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will inform both
other AcAdAn members and my friends about that I do not want to
know what others have to say about me, when I am not present.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 06: Guidance
The
principle of Step Ten is Willingness.
Slogan: Guide me through my desires and liberate me from my wrongs.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 83
When we were
done with the formal part of our Tenth Step, we had discovered that we
could recover from many existential pains that had become chronic to
such an extent that we had believed that we had to live with them for
the rest of our life.
To our surprise, we were liberated from those mistakes from the past
that still came to expression as painful physical and psychological
experiences in the present, if we were willing to carry out a Tenth
Step on those pains we experienced in the present.
Gradually, as we carried out a series of Tenth Steps on the pains of
the present, we became more and more content with our life, because
now we knew that we could always recover from our painful mistakes
from our past and our present by the help of our Tenth Step.
Therefore, we became more and more willing to seek guidance from our
AcAdAn Program about our daily problems by carrying out a Tenth Step
and thereby transform our pain to joy and in that way we became more
and more content with our self and our life.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my Tenth Step to inventory something that
pained me today.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 07: Abstinence
in AcAdAn
We are
people who suffer from an addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with
self, and thereby with others and our lives, and we must abstain
from using dissatisfaction in all its forms and disguises to be able
to recover.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
Abstinence in Active
Addictions Anonymous is of an emotional nature, because our
dissatisfaction is of an emotional nature, which has come into being
as a result of dissatisfied thoughts we have thought about our self,
our life and everything and everybody around us.
As AcAdAn members, we wanted to refrain from being dissatisfied with
our self, our life and anything or anybody anywhere at any level of
existence so as to not activate our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction yet another time.
It was very simple and easy to understand, but even if it was simple
and easy to understand, it was not easy for us to carry it out,
because there were so many thoughts and emotions woven into our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction that it took us by surprise again
and again.
By working intensely with the Joyrings and the Painrings of AcAdAn, we
got to know our psychological landscape and discovered the many
mental-emotional patterns, which held our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction and those, which held our contentment.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will uncover yet
another layer of my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction by the
help of the Painrings from my AcAdAn Program, and I will transform
this layer by the help of the Joyrings.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 08: To
have a Program for the day
JUST
FOR Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program. I will try to follow it to
the best of my ability.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 14
In the same
way that we followed the suggestion of AcAdAn to set off time to make
sure that our Mother Earth body/physical body was well rested, well
groomed, well nourished and well exercised, we chose to set aside time
to make sure that our thinking mind, our Ego was well rested, well
groomed, well nourished and well exercised.
We nourished our thinking mind, our Ego by the help of our Tenth Step,
where our thinking mind, our Ego came into contact with new uplifting
thoughts, and at the same time our use of the Tenth Step lead to that
our thinking mind, our Ego got well exercised in thinking the thoughts
we had chosen consciously from the Rings of Joy.
Furthermore, we groomed our thinking mind, our Ego by taking our
painful thoughts and emotions to heart and transform them to joy by
the help of our Tenth Step, and by using our Eleventh Step, we gave
our thinking mind, our Ego rest, because we emptied our mind from
thoughts, when we entered into meditation.
We also used our Twelfth Step to give our thinking mind, our Ego rest
by passing on our experiences with our AcAdAn Program by the help of
those thoughts and emotions we had already worked out and achieved
clarity about, and when we shared this with another person, we
benefited both our self and the other person.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will have a Program for my day, where I createmanifest
space for that both my Mother Earth body/physical body and my
thinking mind, my Ego are well rested, well groomed, well
nourished and well exercised.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 09: The
successes of the past and the present
However,
it was just as important that we admitted our successes as well as
our failures.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 42
Most
of
us had difficulties admitting our successes from the past and the
present, because we were afraid that others would feel smaller than us
when we talked about our successes and that then they would get angry at
us, so we kept our successes a secret without us being aware of that
this lead to that they grew wild in our inner.
We were also afraid that others would think we were boasting when we
talked about our successes, or even worse that they would perceive our
successes to be a trifle, which was not even a success in their eyes,
and our imaginations about other people's possible reaction made us
afraid of losing the joy of our successes.
However, when we came to Step Five in our AcAdAn Program, we both needed
to talk about the pain of what we perceived to be our failures and the
joy of what we perceived to be our successes, and we understood at this
point in our Step Work that it was necessary to talk about both areas to
achieve presence in the NOW.
When we had shared with our sponsor/recovery buddy and had heard our
sponsor/recovery buddy share about his/her successes, we discovered that
here after it became possible for us to let go of our fear of other
people's possible reactions to our successes, and that we no longer had
an exaggerated perception of the meaning of our successes.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will share with my AcAdAn Fellowship about a success
that I have already shared with my sponsor/recovery buddy.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 10: Anger
over our powerlessness
After
coming to AcAdAn, we accepted that powerlessness is an inevitable
part of our humaneness, and thus, we let go of our anger and
accepted our powerlessness.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 20
When we came
to Active Addictions Anonymous and began working with our
powerlessness over our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction with our
human limitation, ignorance, powerlessness and
mortality/changeability, we discovered that we were angry because of
being powerless over our humanness.
Little by little, as we worked on recovering from our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction, we discovered that there were many advantages
in learning to be aware of our powerlessness, and one of the many
advantages was that we learned to reach out for the help our
Fellowship had to offer.
We heard in meetings that we were not only powerless over our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction but also over things, places,
situations and people, and this meant that we could let go of our
attempts to gain control over those areas that it was not possible to
gain control over, no matter how hard we tried.
When we let go of trying to get control over areas we were powerless
over, we avoided much emotional pain, because we used our AcAdAn
Program to let go of our attempts to get control and instead we
surrendered the control to the care of our Higher Power.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program to recover from my anger over
my powerlessness by beginning to find its advantages.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 11: The
for free principle
It does not cost
anything to be a member of our Fellowship.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 119
In AcAdAn
the for free principle is about it being free of cost to be a member
of the Fellowship.
This means that we make our literature freely available to those, who
want to use it to recover from their addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction.
Furthermore, we undertake to lead others through the Program as
sponsors or recovery buddies without demanding money for our service.
Last but not least, it is free to participate in our meetings, and
thus we have made it possible for anyone, who wishes to become a
member of Active Addictions Anonymous, to have their desire fulfilled
without them needing to feel blocked by money-related issues.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will contribute to the for free-principle in AcAdAn by
passing on to others the information I possess, if they want to
find out if Active Addictions Anonymous could help them recover
from their addiction to chronic dissatisfaction.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 12: Lack
of joy
of living
We
could not live and enjoy life like other people could.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 9
We
had often wondered why others seemingly got more out of life than we
did, because we found it hard to enjoy what gave joy to others.
Only, when we came to Active Addictions Anonymous, we became aware that
we suffered from addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and that this had
to do with us being dissatisfied with our humanness, because we had
progressed on the spiritual path.
We had had many glimpses of oneness with our true Self, our Spirit, and
that had led us to understand that it was possible for us to experience
the joy without opposites, which is also called happiness.
We imagined that it was our humanness that stood in the way of our
happiness, so we had become chronically dissatisfied with it, and as a
result we lost the ability to enjoy life as limited, ignorant, powerless
and mortal/changeable human beings.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Eleventh Step in my AcAdAn Program to expand my
conscious contact with my true Self, my Spirit and thus experience the
joy of being a limited, ignorant, powerless and mortal/changeable
human being from the core of myself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 13: Explaining
of wrongs to others
Trying
to explain our wrong was an expression of our wish to defend our
wrong, and of our expectation that the person we had harmed must
approve our mistake by understanding or accepting it.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 57
Gradually, as our work with our Seventh Step develops, we discover that
we have an urge to defend our wrongs to others.
That is connected with us knowing that we had a loving, caring,
compassionate and merciful intention with what we did, and we thought
that others should understand our loving intention, so when they did
not, we felt urge to explain it to them.
We were not aware that our desire to explain our mistake was the same as
defending our mistake, but when we discovered that in our Seventh Step,
we let go of defending our mistakes.
We knew that attack is the first act of violence and defense is the
first act of war, and we did not wish to be at war in our social life
anymore.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will remember that attack is the first act of violence, and
defense is the first act of war, so I use my Seventh Step to let go of
defending my mistakes by the help of an explanation.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 14: Impossible
expectations
Even
if we were thorough when we did this work, we did not set up
impossible expectations on our self by imagining that we would
become flawless, because we knew that as a human being we are
ignorant and thereby fallible.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 58
As
human beings, we experience new things every day, and our experiences
give rise to new thoughts and ideas on how best we can feel good about
our self, others, our lives and the World as a whole.
New thoughts and ideas are immature and dysfunctional, because we have
not achieved a clear understanding of the consequences of using our
thoughts and ideas in action.
Gradually, as we gain experience by putting our thoughts and ideas into
action, the thought or idea that we put into action becomes more and
more functional.
We want to experience new thoughts and ideas and therefore we choose to
accept that we will continue to be fallible, no matter how extensive our
old knowledge is.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will accept my fallibility as a necessary part of my
humanness.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 15: The
problems of daily living
We
believe that the sooner
we take care of our problems in our daily lives, whether they are
physical, time-space wise, emotional,
mental, social or spiritual, that much sooner we begin to live in
contentment.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 11
Before
we came to Active Addictions Anonymous many of us perceived daily life
issues to be trifles, because we were not aware that everyday life’s
small events were exactly what gave rise to our dissatisfaction with
this that or the other.
We could always find reasons to be dissatisfied with something in our
life, whether our dissatisfaction was directed against our material
possessions or the lack thereof, or against the time at our disposal or
the lack thereof, against our emotions, our thoughts, our social or our
spiritual life.
When we investigated our dissatisfaction with the problems of our daily
life, it turned out that basically, we were dissatisfied with being
powerlessness over various areas, or we were dissatisfied with the fact
that we changed or others changed.
We might be dissatisfied with not knowing what it would take to take
care of various situations with our limited capacity to take care of
them, but whatever reasons we than had for being dissatisfied; it turned
out to be connected with our dissatisfaction with our humanness.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will investigate an area that I am dissatisfied with and
change my perception of the area to contentment by the help of my
AcAdAn Program
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 16: Gratitude
By
being chronically dissatisfied, we deprived our self and others of
the joy that is an integral part of being God-centred.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 62
When
we work with the Ring of God-centeredness with its joy, empowerment,
open-mindedness and gratitude in Active Addictions Anonymous, we become
better and better at putting behind us our use of the Ring of
Self-centeredness with its euphoria, depression, self-criticism and
self-praise.
When we came to AcAdAn, we had been so enclosed within our self, that we
felt it was our fault when something happened that was not to our
contentment, and this led to us criticizing our self for those actions
that we thought had led to the undesirable situation, and our
self-criticism made us despondent and depressed.
When something happened to our contentment it led to us praising our
self for the actions that we thought had led to the desired situation,
and our self-praise made us euphoric.
We wanted to replace the artificial joy of euphoria with genuine joy and
we achieved that in Active Addictions Anonymous, when we used the Ring
of God-centeredness, and when it began working for us making a conscious
shift between the two Rings, simultaneously, we achieved the joy that
the gratitude in the Ring of God-centeredness gave rise to.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the Ring of God-centeredness consciously so as
to achieve the joy of gratitude.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 17: Our
dissatisfaction list
In
order to be able to see the difference between the things we could
change and the things we could not change, we chose to make a
dissatisfaction list every day by writing down hour by hour what we
were dissatisfied with in the hour that passed.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 52
In
AcAdAn we work with a dissatisfaction list so as to form a realistic
idea of what areas we can change and what areas we cannot change,
because often, we use dissatisfaction with the underlying thought that
we can force our self to change what we are dissatisfied with, if only
we continue to be dissatisfied with it, even if in fact, we cannot
change it.
When we divide our list into areas that we can change and areas we
cannot change, we use our AcAdAn Program to find a way in which we can
let go of our dissatisfaction with the areas we cannot change.
The areas we can change, we also take a stand on by assessing whether an
area is something that we want to invest the money, the time, the effort
and the interest in so as to do what is required to change the area in
question.
If we do not think that we want to invest our resources in
creatingmanifesting the change, we let go of our dissatisfaction with
the area, but if we think that we want to invest our resources in
creatingmanifesting the change, we make a plan of action by the help of
our AcAdAn Program.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will work with my dissatisfaction list as suggested in my
AcAdAn Program so I can learn to let go of what I cannot change and
begin to change what I can that I want to change.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 18: From
avarice to generosity
Instead
of avariciously
holding on to our material, physical,
time-space wise, emotional, mental, social or spiritual
possessions and amassing more and more, we chose to have faith that
we could pass on our surplus to others and thus experience the joy
of our abundance.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 49
Many of us
imagined that we were accountable, when we saved those of our material
possessions that we no longer needed, in a shed or in an attic in
order to have them at our disposal later, if we ever had a need for
them, which we, more often than not, found to not be the case.
Our physical surplus could be that we had found a way to recover from
an uncomfortable state in our physical body, which we could pass on to
others, who needed it, and we could do this by giving of the time, we
had in surplus so as to teach another person, how he/she could
recover.
The same could apply for our surplus in the mental-emotional area,
where we could choose to pass on our surplus on to others, who needed
to recover from mental-emotional pains in areas where we had plentiful
experiences with recovering from them.
In our social life we might have more contacts than we could overcome
taking care of, so we could pass on our contacts to others, who wanted
to expand their social circle, and last but not least, we could pass
on to others how we had gotten surplus in our spiritual life by the
help of Step Eleven in AcAdAn.
Today’s
contemplation
Today, I will pass on my surplus from one of my planes of
existence to another, who needs what I have plenty of.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 19: Building
up of faith
The
process of coming to believe was similar for most of
us and we had to open our minds
to the possibility that there existed a Power greater than us that
could help us recover from our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction,
because we by our self were powerless over it.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 26
Before
we came to the Active Addictions Anonymous it had not occurred to us
that faith is merely a thought, we have repeated enough of times until
we believe that our thought about Reality and Reality itself is one
and the same thing.
In Step Two, however, we investigate our belief systems, and we discover
that much of what we believe in is harmful to us, so we begin to
consider how we can createmanifest a belief system that is to our
advantage.
We begin to let go of the belief systems, which we have built that are
harmful to us and to support those, which are to our advantage.
The main change in our belief system is that we begin to consider how we
can use the idea that a Power, greater than us could be found that can
help us to recover from our powerlessness over our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction, and from there we begin to build up our faith in this
Power.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my Second Step in AcAdAn to begin building up my
faith in that a Power greater than me, who can help me recover from
my addiction to chronic dissatisfaction is to be found
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 20: The
Rings of Social Interaction
By
the help of these Rings, we could easily see that there is a ‘me’,
an ‘us’ and a ‘you’ in any social interaction, be it in the fleeting
interaction with a stranger on the street, with our green grocer,
colleagues, friends, siblings, parents,
our children
or our significant other.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 54
When
we came to know the Rings of Social Interaction in Step Eight, it was
easy for us to see that when we hurt another, we hurt our self.
We can easily see that the two intertwined Rings hold a mutual area for
both Rings, and in addition, there is an area which each Ring alone has
at its disposal.
The mutual area is a symbol of a social interaction, and the individual
areas are a symbol of the two, who have a social interaction.
When we pull the two intertwined Rings from each other, the area that
before used to be intertwined is still there in the individual Ring, and
that means that the hurts that were inflicted during the interaction is
still to be found in the individual Ring, which thus illustrates, how it
happens that we cannot hurt another without hurting our self.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use the Rings of Social Interaction to remind myself
that I can not hurt another without hurting myself.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
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JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 21: Rejection
of our desire to help
Even
if we believed it would bring us joy to help, we accepted that at
times others had to or wanted to receive help from another source
than us.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 33
Although
we, as old-timers in AcAdAn, would like to help a newcomer overcome
his/her addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, the newcomer may feel
overwhelmed by our knowledge of the Program.
The newcomer may feel much more drawn to another newcomer who is in the
beginning stages of his/her work with the Program because he&she is
at the same level as the newcomer.
If we are not aware that our desire to help may not be welcomed by a
newcomer, we may inadvertently overwhelm the newcomer so much that
he&she leaves AcAdAn.
This makes us understand that we help a newcomer best by giving himself
or herself the time and space to approach us or others, when he&she
is ready and have found out from whom he&she wants help.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will give a newcomer the time and space, he&she needs to
find out who he&she wants to receive help from with his/her AcAdAn
Program.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 22: No
obligations towards AcAdAn
There
are no strings attached to AcAdAn.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 8
We
are used to there being strings attached to our participation in various
contexts, and therefore most of us try to find out, which strings are
attached to our membership of Active Addictions Anonymous.
Even though we hear in our meetings that there are no strings attached
to our membership of AcAdAn, many of us need to make sure that we do not
at a later date discover hidden ties.
We examine the entire meeting structure of AcAdAn, and little by little,
as we participate in meetings about the meeting structure of AcAdAn, we
discover that there are no ties attached to the meeting structure.
We also examine the service structure, and little by little we discover
that there are no strings attached to the service structure either, and
we understood that there are no strings attached to membership of
AcAdAn..
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will give myself permission to investigate Active Addictions
Anonymous from all the angles I need to before I surrender to the
Fellowship.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 23: To
take up more space than we need
We
also looked at how we had harmed others time-space wise by demanding
more of their time and space than we needed and thus depleting them
of the time and space that
they needed to take care of themselves or their other loved ones,
and we included our parents, our significant other and our children
in this list.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 62
When
we work with Step Eight, we come face to face with some areas, in which
we have harmed others seen through new eyes that we have achieved in our
work with our AcAdAn Program.
We discovered that we had been demanding more time and space from our
loved ones and others than we needed, thinking that it would insure us
against emptiness, boredom, loneliness, and meaninglessness.
In our work with Step Six, we discovered that these qualities belong in
the Ring of Emptiness, and that our attempts to take more of others’
time and energy than we need belong in the Ring of Codependency.
We used Step Six to gain enlightenment and wisdom about our pain by
pairing the pain in the Ring of Emptiness and the Ring of Codependency
with the joy in the Ring of Fulfillment and the Ring of Emotional
Sobriety.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will use Step Six to pair a Ring of Pain with a Ring of Joy
to gain enlightenment and wisdom about a physical or mental-emotional
pain I experienced today.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 24: Acceptance
or rejection of our
amends
Sometimes,
the amends we offered were accepted and sometimes not.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 65
When
we began to make amends to ourselves and others in Step Nine for the
wrongs we believed we had committed, it could happen that our amends was
rejected with indifference or even anger.
However, we did not make amends to gain forgiveness from others, but to
be able to let go of our feelings of guilt and the shame that followed
in the wake of it.
Therefore, when we have made our chosen amends, we let go of our
feelings of guilt and the associated shame, regardless of whether our
amends were received with forgiveness or rejection.
It could happen that our feelings of guilt resurfaced because they had
become habitual, but we continued to let go of our feelings of guilt
each time they resurfaced after we had made our amends.
Today’s Contemplation
Today I will let go of my feelings of guilt and shame about a
situation where I have already made amends.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 25: Autonomy
in AcAdAn
An
Active Addictions Anonymous group is a group that follows the Twelve
Steps and the Twelve Traditions of Active Addictions Anonymous.
Within this frame, each group is autonomous as to how it wants to
set up its meetings, welcome newcomers, have varying topics at the
meeting, conduct Step meetings, Tradition meetings and so on.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 89
There
are a wide variety of groups that work with self-realization, and in
AcAdAn we work on releasing our addiction to chronic dissatisfaction
with our four basic attributes as human beings.
Our four basic attributes are limitation, ignorance, powerlessness, and
mortality/changeability, and we work on getting to know ourselves once
we have released our chronic dissatisfaction with them.
We have the freedom to work with our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction in the way that works best for us, as long as we respect
the AcAdAn Steps and Traditions as the foundation of our work.
When we respect the AcAdAn Steps and Traditions in this way, we have the
right to call ourselves an AcAdAn group, and we also have the right to
freedom under responsibility to our AcAdAn Fellowship as a whole.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will respect AcAdAn’s Steps and Traditions in my interaction
with my AcAdAn Fellowship and the World.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 26: To
learn to listen to our Higher Power
Sometimes,
it turned out that what we thought to be our Higher Power’s guidance
for us, in
actual fact, was not so, or we would have got distracted and
diverted from the guidance we received while going about the task,
and in such instances, we used our Tenth Step, admitted our mistake,
planned our amends, forgave our self and restored the situation as
best as we could.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 70
Most
of us in AcAdAn have a strong desire to surrender to our chosen Higher
Power, and we can become anxious, when we begin the Eleventh Step and
have to expand our conscious contact with our Higher Power.
We imagine that we must obey blindly, if we believe that an impulse to
action comes from our Higher Power, but such a view point can lead to
tragic consequences.
Therefore, it is just as important that we learn to say yes, no or maybe
to impulses which, we believe, comes from our Higher Power, as it is in
relation to what we are offered in other areas of our lives.
When we work on expanding our conscious contact with our Higher Power we
give ourself permission to be mistaken about the meaning of the impulse
and thus we give ourself permission to say yes, no or maybe.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will give myself permission to say yes, no or maybe to an
impulse that I think comes from my Higher Power.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 27: Right
and wrong
Now
that we were at Step Four, we wanted to begin moving beyond judging
our self, others or the World at large on this basis, in order to
achieve even greater freedom that could lead us to accept our self,
others and the World at large, as everyone and everything is.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 29
Until
we came to Step Four, we perceived it to be right mindset when we
thought thoughts of faith, hope, love, and truth, and wrong
mindset when we thought thoughts of greed, envy, hatred, and
arrogance.
In Step Four however, we needed to put that perception behind us because
we needed to acknowledge both sides of our thinking mind, our Ego, and
thereby both our defects of character and our virtues.
When we acknowledged our defects of character and our virtues from the
Big Ring of Pain and the Big Ring of Joy, we realized that our defects
of character and our virtues are two sides of the same coin
We realized that through the pain of our defects of character, we
learned compassion and mercy, and through the joy of our virtues, we
learned love and care, so both had theirs to give.
Today's Contemplation
Today I will appreciate both my defects of character and my virtues,
knowing that both have theirs to give.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 28. Alienation
We
chose to surrender to the Fellowship and the Program of AcAdAn, and
thereby, we began to receive help to overcome the alienation from
our self, others and our life that our addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction had brought about.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 23
It was a
surprise for many of us, when we first heard that members of AcAdAn
worked on recovering from their addiction to chronic
dissatisfactionur, because own addiction was was so habitual for us.
We had not even observed that we had become alienated to ourselves and
others, because of our dissatisfaction that we took into use many
times in the course of a day with ourselves, others, our lives and the
World.
As we attended meetings and heard how other members perceived their
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, we became aware of how our
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction made our life unmanageable.
The distance we took to ourselves, others and the World led to an
alienation that made us feel like strangers in the World, to ourselves
and to others, and we began to let go of this alienation by the help
of AcAdAn.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will let go of the alienation my addiction to chronic
dissatisfaction has led to.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 29: The
purpose with membership of AcAdAn
The
main purpose of each individual in Active Addictions Anonymous is to
find and live in contentment through
abstaining from using dissatisfaction with self, others and
our life.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 90
When
we first came to Active Addictions Anonymous, we had a hard time
imagining how we would ever be able to let go of our addiction to
chronic dissatisfaction.
At the meetings, we heard about how others had found ways to get through
unsatisfactory situations without using their dissatisfaction, and it
made us want to follow in their footsteps.
After having tried using satisfaction with some unpleasant situations
and experiencing the benefit of doing so, we became ready to go all the
way by completing our AcAdan Program ourselves.
In doing so, we began to achieve days, weeks, months, years where we
experienced ourselves, others, our lives, and the World at large as
satisfactory, although we faced existential challenges like everyone
else.
Today’s contemplation
Today, I will use my AcAdAn Program and my AcAdAn Fellowship as a
means to help myself to be content with myself, others, my life and
the World as a whole
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 30: The
beginning of our own Program
Begin
working your own Program with Step One from the Program of Active
Addictions Anonymous.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 7
At
meetings in Active Addictions Anonymous, we hear about what others have
achieved by working the Program in AcAdAn.
It can make us want to carry out the Program in a hurry so as to achieve
what others have achieved, but we have to do like everyone else and
begin our work in the AcAdAn Program by carrying out Step One.
When we freely admit to our self that we are chronically dissatisfied
and that it makes our lives unmanageable, our recovery can begin.
Our recovery begins in Step Two, when we begin to find our loving
intention behind our use of addiction to chronic dissatisfaction, and it
is up to each of us to find the loving intention that is true for us.
Today’s contemplation
Today I begin my work with the AcAdAn Program by admitting that my
addiction to chronic dissatisfaction makes my life unmanageable
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
December 31:
The
Silence
When
we began to learn to consciously empty our point of concentration
from all thoughts, we moved into the meditative state, which is also
called the Silence or the emptiness in the focus point.
Active
Addictions Anonymous - The Wild Life, page 72
When
we came to Step Eleven, we discovered that our thinking mind, our Ego,
had to become still in order for us to be able to pick up on the impulse
that emanates from our innermost heart.
Our thinking mind, our Ego, translates the impulse into words we can
understand, so that we can form an accurate impression of the contents
of the innermost heart of our true Self, our Spirit.
In Step Eleven, we tried to remain in the impulses from our innermost
heart in a desire to experience life as a human being from the happiness
of the Blissful Flow of the Present Moment.
The more experience we had with this state, the easier it became for us
to remain in the Blissful Flow of the Present Moment, and the easier it
became for us to be content with ourselves, others and our lives.
Today's contemplation
Today, I will use my Eleventh Step to learn how to maintain the
Silence in my thinking mind, my Ego, so that I can experience myself,
others, my life and the World at large from the Blissful Flow of the
Present Moment.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY MARCH
APRIL MAY JUNE
JULY AUGUST
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
DAILY
CONTEMPLATIONS FOR MEMBERS OF
ACTIVE ADDICTIONS ANONYMOUS
THE WILD LIFE