If we are ever sad about people we have hurt or even more  angry about people who have hurt us over the years,  we need to get this out into the open. We also need to share the anger that we feel inside of us that has been swallowed for so many years and which  need to get expressed.

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

Finally, I can give myself permission to express my feelings. I have held in many strong emotions over the years. Now, thanks to my friends who are in recovery with me, I have been assured that that it’s alright to express my strong emotions. It has been said that depression is anger turned in on itself. It should also be said that anger unexpressed flattens all feeling, especially the pleasant ones. Today, I know and believe that it is alright to first identify my feeling, secondly to own it, and then thirdly, to express it.

I am learning much from the old axiom that we “first have to be true to our own self.” I am also learning that my need to be perfect and to please everyone made me into a doormat. I thought that I didn’t deserve any better.

Anger has its root, usually from a hurt or an old grievance. The soil that gives nurturance to this hurt is resentment. The best way to get rid of my need to be vindictive is to find out what triggers my anger.

MEDITATION

God show us your mercy and let our trust in you heal all our hurts and let trust be strengthened as we go about our activities today.

(C) Higher thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts and meditation for members of 12 step fellowship groups. Hugh Smith (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky. Pages 224-225. November 11.

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“Depressed Anonymous is not the place to have people feel sorry for you. Depressed Anonymous is a spiritual program where you will find people like yourself, honestly, openly and willingly dealing with character defects – gradually admitting that they will have to change their lives and lifestyle if they are going to be a whole and honest human being. The decision is yours. You make the choice. The Twelve Steps and your own personal story can now be shared with others and can help them on their own life’s journey.

(C) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky. Page 126.

To order these publications online, contact www.depressedanon.com at the Depressed Anonymous Publications Bookstore.

“One of the Steps that I decided to take to get out of my depression was to get myself involved in my Twelve Step spiritual program. It was hard at first to get involved with the program because I didn’t and wasn’t able to have immediate relief from my sadness. I wanted this program to work right now. I wanted someone to say, hang on and in a day or two it will start to work. Instead, I hear that the more meetings I attend, the more I listen and share at my meetings, the more my  attitudes about God will start to change and I will understand how God is truly walking wih me out of this prison of sadness, one day at a time.”

RESOURCE

(C) Higher Thoughts for down days:365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Page 157. An excerpt from the meditation for  September 23.

As  our Depressed Anonymous mutual-aid group began to grow, I felt that something was missing. We already had our Big Book,  Depressed Anonymous and the accompanying  The Depressed Anonymous Workbook.  We needed something practical for our groups, giving them a   unique boost for each day of the year. This boost would be short reflections, namely a Higher Thought, giving each of us, an affirmation that when applied  to our  own struggle with depression, would counteract the negative thinking and behaviors   ruling  our life.  The beauty of this very unique daily book of meditations and reflections,  centers  our efforts  to overcoming depression,  using the 12  spiritual principles of the 12 Steps.

What matters most for those of us in the fellowship and newcomers to the program of recovery is to have a meditation book that deals with depression and the spiritual pathways that lead away and out of depression.  The 213 pages,  along with reflections for everyday of the year, help keep the focus on ourselves, on what depression feels and looks like with multiple   solution focused possibilities of recovery.

At the end of every   Higher Thought   reflection we have a powerful short meditation keeping us centered on the  belief that  a power greater than ourselves will restore and help us reconnect with life,  plus presenting us with hope and a belief that life will get better.

We are happy to be able to have such a book in our hands which talks to us where  we live and is dedicated to march us toward the finish line of sanity and serenity.

Here is a sample  quote from  Higher Thoughts for down days for July 28th.

I surely know collapse and despair because of my sadness and depression that follows me like a dark black cloud wherever I go. My depression doesn’t have to last forever and, in fact, it is irrational to think that it does.  I believe more  than ever in this caring and loving Higher Power who is always waiting for us to seek its presence. Without a doubt, most days I have the belief that my Higher Power is gradually going to see me through my depair and frustration. I know that my faith in a power greater than myself is going to restore to me a serenity and joy that I have never experienced much in my own life.

My faith is going to ensure that my life will be better today than it was yesterday. I am positive about the new consciousness of my Higher Power working  good things out in my life. I have opened the door. I welcome Him into my life.

RESOURCE

(C) Higher Thoughts for down days: 365 daily thoughts  and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.KY. 

Visit the Store for more  info  about this book. One can order it online.

 

 

I am committed to replacing every negative thought about myself with a positive and recreating thought.

CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

I always wondered how can I possibly bring peace to others when I feel so low and down in the mouth? It is my wish to help others who are still suffering and living without the  hope for ever feeling better. It is by doing what I have to do everyday plus living today for all it’s worth, that I will be able to stay in the now and try to change my moods as they start their usual spiraling downward  I believe that ‘Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of the Steps we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all of our affairs. Thus, I can help others.

Happiness is a side product of my letting go of  myself and thinking of some larger effort or goal in my life. It is in setting a goal to work on myself just for today so that I can get in contact with my Higher Power, or the God of my understanding.

We ask God to point out to us where our areas of self-will lie so that we can start to work on these areas. They can and do block us from using all of our talents in the furthering  of our goal to reach out to those others still suffering from depression.

 

Today is my day to live out what I believe and to continue to  use my daily Higher Thoughts for Down Days to not only recreate hope in myself but in the lives of others.
(C) Higher Thoughts for down days

 

                                 CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT

Like it says in the Desiderata, I have every right to be in this universe. I have a right to be here.  I need not shrink or fear anyone or anything. The times that I have felt so guilty for being alive, I now know it is my sense of not being worthwhile or acceptable to myself and to others that keeps me down.

I no longer need other people’s approval, just my own. Everyday I keep my mind and my heart focused on the solutions, while the problems seem less oppressive and frightening. Today, when I want  t o hide, avoid others, or just climb into the security of the comfort of my depression, I cease to exist. I know that I am breaking free from my sadness  by working the twelve steps and listening to the voice inside of me that promotes  my self-respect.

I now have the permission to give myself a real boost by discovering that I can free myself from my sadness and my desire to sad myself. I give myself permission to risk living life to the fullest.

MEDITATION

I believe that my Higher Power has put me here in this universe to serve it’s purpose.  I do  know this, that I am here for the creator’s purpose and that when I  leave this place,   my human community, I want to leave  this green earth   in better shape than when I first came from my mother’s womb.

(c) Higher Thoughts for Down Days:365 daily  thoughts and meditations and for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY.

“The more I am able to break out of my isolation and fear, the better I begin to feel.  It’s like my past sadness and my attachment to it has prevented me from doing anything at all, including the pleasant feelings of joy and serenity. I have lived tied up in the cords of fear and anxiety. I am learning that this Power, whom I choose to call God, is steadily releasing me  from these  bonds, the more I face my fears and the shame of being depressed.

At one time, I found it difficult to place much trust in those people who crossed my path in this life. Now, little by little, I am beginning to trust myself as I am feeling more in control of what I feel, think and do.”

It is in trusting others, namely, those in my fellowship group of Depressed Anonymous, with whom  I share my hope and positive beliefs about myself. These feelings, when they come time and time again, free me gradually from the prison of my depression moods.

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Copyright(c)Higher Thoughts for Down Days: 365 daily thoughts and meditations for members of 12 Step fellowship groups. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.