Higher Thoughts for Down Days(c) (February 27)
AFFIRMATION
I am gaining, day by day, a new and hopeful attitude about my life and my relationship with others.
“Strangely, I feel as if I have been incredibly lucky. Logically, I don’t believe in luck. I believe that people make their own lives what they are, but still I feel so lucky to have been involved in a group which gave me the opportunity, and incentive, to start to make changes in my life. To understand why I am sometimes so angry, (See DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS WORKBOOK / Anger workshop. Checklist for Hidden Anger) why I have been so self-critical and self-destructing. Understanding why you feel as you do open the gates for the even harder struggle of changing what you do.” (7)
REFLECTION
Making changes is part of making a life. If I choose to stay mired in the deep pit of depression, I can choose that. I have this as an option. But, if I want to choose and risk changing myself, I have the option of working to construct a different way of looking at my world. Just by changing my attitude about my life and the direction where I want it to go, I can make the hard changes. I want to change my attitude. I will now want to listen to those who have been in recovery for months or years and listen to their hopeful attitudes and how they are felling better now that they are living one day at a time, and no longer fearful that their old nemesis, the sadness, will sneak up and change everything back to the way it was.
I can only change myself. I will always try and keep the focus on how I need to change, not how others around me need to change. (For more accounts of how persons changed their lives in Depressed Anonymous (Personal stories) , third edition, 2011. DAP. )_
MEDITATION
God, we are always heartened and healed by the group. Please guide us and let us be led to that healing community of those persons who are struggling to find the security that you promise to those who do your will.” “Fear not, for I am always with you.”
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Lately, I have been reflecting on how each of us is embedded in a unique culture which not only influences our decision making but also personal mores, attitudes about life, ourselves and each other. In the near future I will spend some time here at this BLOG and share how culture has a dramatic influence on how we live out our lives My thoughts will go in the direction of trying to answer the question: Does our culture, way of life, that is our society, promote a depressive lifestyle, thinking and behavior. I hope that you will follow me here as we together reflect on this critical question. Join me as we continue this clarification of thought process here at our Depressed Anonymous website.
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