Complete Counseling Center

10/20/2022

Step 10 Emotional Sobriety is separate from abstinence and the foundation of happy, joyous and free. A daily check up from the neck up keeps me sweeping my own side of the street and is an investment in living my best life.

"As we work Step Ten and it becomes integrated into our life, we let go of trying to control the world—or other people."

10/14/2022

We all carry it within us; supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy. It is never thwarted and cannot be destroyed. But it is hidden deep, which is what makes life a problem.

~Huston Smith

How does a man lose touch with his strength, his wisdom, his joy? Perhaps it is in the nature of humanity. Our most profound qualities are hidden deep. They never go away, but we cannot always find them. There may be nothing wrong with ourselves as men when we lose touch. It doesn’t have to mean that we are “bad guys” for getting depressed or for feeling inadequate. Who doesn’t have that problem? It is the nature of life that we sometimes feel this way. This program helps us unearth the resources hidden within us.

When we cannot find those reassuring feelings of strength and wisdom and joy, we may think they are gone forever. We even doubt we ever had them or could have them again. But they are still there. They cannot be destroyed. And when we regain contact we know they have been with us all along.

I will have faith that the innermost places in me can never be destroyed.

Download recovery support apps for your Apple or Android device today.
Today's Gift Book
Today's reading is from the book Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men*
*Meditations can be specific, but themes are universal: apply as needed on your personal journey.
Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men

10/04/2022

The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.

~Edward Bulwer-Lytton

How much can we afford to lose? Of all the investments we might make, the most important and riskiest by far are in our personal relationships. Important because such investments put so much of our feelings, sense of self-worth, and serenity on the line. It is risky because the success of the relationship is so dependent on the other person’s willingness and ability to play fair.

No matter how committed we are to making it work, if our partners don’t have or won’t do what it takes—we are out of luck. The quality of a relationship simply cannot be healthier than both of the parties involved.

It isn’t cold or calculating to consider well the implications and ramifications of an important investment. It is fulfilling a primary responsibility to ourselves, to our partners, and to our Higher Power.

Today, I will examine my delusions about myself and the people I love: What’s really going on here?

Download recovery support apps for your Apple or Android device today.
Today's Gift Book
Today's reading is from the book Days of Healing, Days of Joy: Daily Meditations for Adult Children*

09/28/2022

Eleventh Step Prayer

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.

09/27/2022

…except when to do so would injure them or others.

~Second half of Step Nine

We have to be careful when we make amends. We must think about people’s well-being. Can we help them heal by being direct with them? Or would this hurt them again?

At times, this means not making direct amends. Sometimes, it’s better to make some other kind of amends. If you’re not sure how to make amends to someone, ask for advice from your sponsor and your group. And pray. Over time, you’ll know if making direct amends is the right thing to do. Remember, Step Nine means we’re responsible for our actions. In recovery, our actions can be healing. Healing takes place when we love ourselves and others. And love is what heals us.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, I’ve hurt people in the past. Please use me now to help those people heal. Give me good judgment, courage, and good timing.

Action for the Day

I will never be able to make direct amends to some people. I will think of other kinds of amends I can make to them. I can pray daily for their healing.

Download recovery support apps for your Apple or Android device today.
Today's Gift Book
Today's reading is from the book Keep it Simple: Daily Meditations for Twelve Step Beginnings and Renewal*

08/07/2022

To the great men it is a privilege to know!
Who live rigorous honesty, point the finger inward and take responsibility for there thoughts, words and deeds. Living with humility on top of ego and being a difference maker with the example with which they lead!
One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In our former grandiose, all-or-nothing lifestyles, many of us have had a lot of experience being heroes and being failures. Until we had achieved some sanity, we didn’t have much experience with being ordinary, genuine men. Many of us thought there was something fundamentally wrong with us. We tried to be great, and when we failed we felt less than human. Our shame in those experiences seemed to say we would never be normal again.

We are learning that being genuine is far more fulfilling than being great. We no longer have to swing between the opposite extremes of hero and coward. When we become honest with ourselves, we develop an internally respectful relationship with ourselves. That is when we become true men. The courage it has taken for us and others on this journey to become honest is heroic in the deepest sense of the word.

As I find the courage to be honest, I will become more genuine.

Download recovery support apps for your Apple or Android device today.
Today's Gift Book
Today's reading is from the book Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men*

08/01/2022

Growth

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.

~Pearl S. Buck

When we’re out of sorts with everyone and everything, and we realize that we’re the one who needs to change, that’s growth.

When we mind our own business and don’t take the inventory of another, that’s growth.

When we don’t expect anyone to change their opinion simply because it differs from ours, that’s growth.

When we think we’re right at one moment then are proven wrong the next, and are happy about it because we’ve learned something, that’s growth.

When we are as happy about another’s progress as we are about our own, that’s growth.

When we welcome each new day instead of dreading it, that’s growth.

I used to seek happiness in material things and overdependence on other people. Now growth itself is happiness.

Download recovery support apps for your Apple or Android device today.
Today's Gift Book
Today's reading is from the book Easy Does It: A Book of Daily Twelve Step Meditations*
*Meditations can be specific, but themes are universal: apply as needed on your personal journey.

07/27/2022

I’ve trust enough in all that’s happened in my life, the unexpected love and gentleness that rushes in to fill the arid spaces in my heart.

~Tim Dlugos

We sometimes think that it’s up to us to solve whatever problems we encounter and to find immediate solutions. We forget the humility of trust: trust that we’re not in charge of everything, trust in others’ capacity for healing in their own time and in their own way, trust in our own capacity to receive the love and sustenance in which our world abounds.

Our spirits thrive, not because we’ve found a reason for everything or because we’ve gotten our own way at last, but because at least for this moment we’ve surrendered. Our Higher Power’s guidance will take us on the next step of the journey. This day will sustain and surprise us.

Trust that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Today, I trust the process of my life.
Hazelden Betty Ford

07/19/2022

Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift to himself.

~Mother Teresa

In praying, some of us depend on the traditions of our religion, others on the instructions of spiritual leaders. Some of us just strike out on our own, not knowing what to say or what to do, yet believing that form is not as important as intent. We only know that when we do pray, something happens.

And each time we lift our thoughts to God, it is easier the next time. Then, as we keep praying, we discover that we have begun to establish a familiarity. Our heart is opening to God without our realizing it. When we are willing, God fills our heart. And even though we can leave God, and often do, God never leaves us.

I am grateful that God is in my heart. My prayer is one of thanks.

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation