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Meeting Quotes & Prayers

THE ADDICT PERSONALITY:

“An addict is an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.”

“Since I am the problem, I can’t fix me.”

“Switching addictions is like switching seats on the Titanic.”

“My best thinking had me drinking.”

“One is too many and a thousand is not enough.”

“I can’t think my way to sober living, but I can live my way to sober thinking.”

“I am complex because I complicate things.”

“I don’t get interested in things, I get obsessed with them!”

“The problem is not the food – – I need a new mind.”

“No one can convince you to recover but you.”

“I know for a fact that if I take that first compulsive bite, life as I know it will cease to exist.”

CHANGE:

“Nothing in my life has changed – – but I have!”

“I am working on loving myself unconditionally.”

“Who wants to go through life hating their very existence?”

“Don’t fell condemned…feel ENLIGHTENED!”

“Let go of the past or you’ll be dragging it around like an anchor and your progress will be difficult and slow.”

“Your Higher Power can change as you change.”

“I used to live to eat, now I eat to live.”

“God rewards effort…so TRY!”

CHANGING YOUR THOUGHTS:

“It’s okay to have hopes for the future, but don’t LIVE in them.”

“Fear is a prayer left unsaid.”

“Negative thinking has to be treated like any other addiction.”

“The only way to get rid of our fears is to turn them over to God.”

“Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be right?”

“Life IS change.”

“You can learn from the past, but you don’t have to live in it.”

“If I keep food thoughts in my head, I will eventually eat.”

“It’s the thinking that makes us over-indulge, not the drug.”

“It’s not an eating problem, it’s a thinking problem.”

DISCIPLINE:

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

” ‘Discipline’ does NOT equal ‘punishment’! ”

“Just keep doing the next right thing.”

“Abstinence is the most important thing in my life, without exception.”

“The walk out of the woods is the same distance as the walk into the woods.”

THE DISEASE OF ADDICTION:

“This is a progressive disease.”

“Selfishness and self-centeredness are the root of our problem, not our drug of choice.”

“My death was interrupted by my abstinence.”

“Nothing changes if nothing changes.”

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

“Living the alcoholic life means doing things I don’t want to be doing.”

“This disease is a hopeless condition of the mind and body, but NOT of the spirit.  There is ALWAYS hope for the spirit.”

“This is a progressive illness, whether you drink or not.”

“This disease is made up of an obsession of the mind and an allergy of the body.”

“When you can’t control the amount you are going to have, it has control over you.”

“I know for a fact that as soon as I pick up that first compulsive bite, life as I know it will cease to exist.”

“This has nothing to do with intelligence – –  it’s an illness.”

“Putting down the food is the easy part.  It’s the learning to live without it that we have to figure-out.”

“Withdrawal is a bitch!”

“As with all allergies, you can recover from the reaction, but you can’t be cured of it.”

“For me, eating was not a pleasure.”

“I have to know that this disease kills, and I have to know that down in my core.”

“Once I start overeating, I can’t stop and I can’t live.”

“Without abstinence, I have nothing.”

“For me, overeating is death.”

“The answer is NOT in the food.”

“I’ll ALWAYS be a quantity eater.”

EMOTIONS:

“The only way to conquer fear is to act the opposite of the way you are feeling.”

“The situation I fear is never as bad as the fear itself.”

“We ask God to show us how to be patient and tolerant, even if we don’t FEEL like it.”

“I had to set all my fears aside, one at a time.”

“I can’t afford to have fear in my life anymore.”

“Judgement and fear go hand-in-hand.”

GRATITUDE:

“A grateful addict will never use.”

HANDLING TEMPTATION:

“All I have to do is not pick-up TODAY.”

HELPING OTHERS:

“We can’t focus on ourselves and on helping others at the same time.”

“Now I MAKE myself useful.”

“When all else fails, help others.”

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a tough battle.”

“Help those who God puts in your path.”

“When you feel yourself caving-in on yourself, get out of yourself by helping someone else.”

“We need to switch from helping ourselves to helping others.”

“There is nothing in The Big Book about working alone.”

” ‘We’ is stronger than ‘I’ .”

“The purpose of life is to help others.”

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

“We can’t take control of someone else’s life – – we can only be available to help.”

“We are bound together by our weakness.”

HUMILITY:

“I am only here because I could no longer fight my disease, not because I am better than anyone else.”

“This program works, whether or not I choose to be part of it.”

“I am just one of many.”

“You have to ask for help while you still can.”

OPENMINDEDNESS:

“Let me have lived all of the shit for you.”

“Everybody has a message to give.”

“God works and speaks through people.”

“Judgement ends when we begin accepting ourselves.”

“A wise person learns from his mistakes.  A wiser person learns from the mistakes of others.”

PROGRAM PHILOSOPHIES:

“AA is NOT a selfish program.”

“This disease progresses, but so does Recovery.”

“You can’t hide in a meeting 24 hours a day.”

“The reality is that a person with an alcoholic mind needs a new way of living.”

“As within, so without.”

“The suggestions of the program are ‘suggestions’ in the way that pulling the rip cord on a parachute is ‘suggested’ before you hit the ground.”

“It is a very simple program – – all you have to do is COMPLETELY CHANGE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE!”

“It’s simple, but not easy.”

“This is not a game – – it is life and death for us.”

“I am powerless…I need to find a source of power…God is that source.”

“OA works for everyone who works the program.  I am not unique.”

“You have to want for it to work.”

“This is a simple program for complicated people.”

“The 12-Steps are a design for living that works.”

“Don’t MAKE it happen, LET it happen.”

“This program is about being ok when things are not ok.”

“Surrender or die.”

SELF-AWARENESS:

“The person I was always lying to was myself.”

“My ‘bottom’ was from the neck up.”

“I suffer from the disease of thinking I am unique.”

“I don’t have to act on every thought.  I may still THINK like a compulsive overeater, but I no longer have to ACT like one.”

“I am a human being – – I suffer from the human condition.”

“I have the right to be happy.”

“If we didn’t make mistakes, we’d be gods ourselves.”

“If everything went the way I wanted it to, I would be God.”

“I was always on my mind.”

“I only get into trouble when I argue with reality.”

“I used to believe in my own intelligence – – and look where that got me!”

“If you are miserable in sobriety then you are doing something wrong.”

“Whenever I insist on thinking of myself as separate and different, I am in trouble.  We are all the same.”

“When you are sane, you are no longer hurting yourself.”

“Why did I think it was so important that I do this ‘on my own?’  All that did was keep me from The Spirit.”

“I played the victim because I felt victimized.”

“Eventually, whatever is inside will come out.”

“I wanted everyone to love me, but I didn’t love myself.”

“I don’t have to please everyone all the time.”

“I am the problem, not anyone else.”

“My actions were not those of someone trying to stay alive.  I had no natural instinct for self-preservation.”

“I’ve become the things I hated in my parents.”

“I always just went along with the crowd because I had such a need to feel loved.”

“If only you knew who you were, you wouldn’t treat yourself to badly.”

“I don’t do these things because I am bad, I do them because I am afraid.”

“I am just as powerless over my character defects as I am over food.”

SERENITY:

“You know you have serenity in the midst of a storm, not when things are going your way.”

“The way to a serene life: God first, family second, others third, self last.”

“When in doubt, instead of worrying, say The Serenity Prayer until you have to make a decision.”

SPIRITUALITY:

“Live in such a way that those who know you, but don’t know God, will come to know God because they know you.”

“Asking what part of AA is spiritual is like asking what part of a basketball is round.”

“I have God on my side.”

“With God in your life, you see things differently.”

“God rewards effort, not success.”

“If God leads you to it, He will lead you through it.”

“There are no plateaus in leading a spiritual life – – you are either getting closer to or further away from The Light Of The Spirit.”

“The remedy is accepting spiritual help.”

“Sponsors, relatives, and friends are also just human beings.”

“In all situations, you need to ask, ‘Where is God in this?’ ”

“With God I can do anything.”

“God will never love you any more than He does at this very moment.”

” ‘Prayer’ is us talking to God, whereas, ‘meditation’ is us listening to God.”

“Let God in and let Him clean house.”

“Grace is the power given to us by God (as a free gift) to do what He wants us to do.”

“Live a spiritual life or die an alcoholic death.”

“Religion is for people who believe in hell.  Spirituality is for people who have already been through it.”

“God never leaves you – – you leave Him.”

“As long as I am growing spiritually, there is no obsession to deal with.”

“I had to learn to go to God all the time, not just when I was in trouble.”

“More spirituality = more secure abstinence.”

“By surrendering, you win.”

“People relapse because they fail to enhance their spiritual life.”

“Everything in nature is an example of the power of God.”

“The only one thing you can count on to keep you sober is God.”

“If you fail to enlarge your spiritual life, you will eventually find people, places, and things to eat over.”

“God has always been there for me, I just didn’t want Him.”

“Food or God?  There is no middle-of-the-road.”

“It’s up to God, not me.”

“God is always inside us.”

“It is such a gift to have been made in the likeness of God.  A rose isn’t, and look how beautiful IT is!”

“I want God to be a part of me, not something out there.”

“We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.”

“Sick or well, newcomer or old-timer, we are ALL children of God.”

“God did not put you here to be miserable.”

“God gave you a gift (getting you to this program).  Don’t throw it away!”

“God, please reveal to me what You would have me know.”

“Meetings and sponsors can’t keep you sober – – only God can do that.”

STAYING POSITIVE:

“Just keep telling yourself, ‘It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen.’ ”

“Even the old-timers struggle, but they don’t give-up!”

“You’re doing all the right things!  You’re gonna make it!”

“You WILL have the power to resist.”

“My disease has brought me many gifts.”

“You can do it…just for today!”

“Know that you are right where you are supposed to be.”

“Nothing tastes as good as abstinence feels!”

“Today I CHOOSE To follow my food plan.  No one has a gun to my head.  It is MY CHOICE!”

“Trust the process.”

“I would not trade my worst day in recovery for my best day in my disease.”

WILLINGNESS:

“I can’t DO anything except ask God for the willingness to stay on the path.”

SEVENTH STEP PRAYER

My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here to do your bidding. Amen.

THIRD STEP PRAYER

God, I offer myself to Thee — to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!

FOURTH STEP WRITING PRAYER

God, please reveal to me what You want me to know.  Amen.

ELEVENTH STEP PRAYER / ST. FRANCIS PRAYER (from the AA “12 & 12″ book)

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace–that where there is hatred, I may bring love–that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness–that where there is discord, I may bring harmony–that where there is error, I may bring truth–that where there is doubt, I may bring faith–that where there is despair, I may bring hope–that where there are shadows, I may bring light–that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.  Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted–to understand, than to be understood–to love, than to be loved.  For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.  It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.  It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

SICK MAN’S PRAYER

God, help me to show this person the same tolerance, pity and patience that I would Cheerfully grant a sick friend. This is a sick person, how can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done.

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