~ Day Four ~
Ten Ways To Love Ourselves

~ Dear Friends on our Journey ~

DAY ONE

~ STOP ALL CRITICISM ~

CRITICISM NEVER CHANGES A THING.
REFUSE TO CRITICIZE YOURSELF.
ACCEPT YOURSELF EXACTLY AS YOU ARE.
EVERYBODY CHANGES.
WHEN YOU CRITICIZE YOURSELF,
YOUR CHANGES ARE NEGATIVE.
WHEN YOU APPROVE OF YOURSELF,
YOUR CHANGES ARE POSITIVE

DAY TWO

~ DON'T SCARE YOURSELF ~

DON'T SCARE YOURSELF.
STOP TERRORIZING YOURSELF
WITH YOUR THOUGHTS.
IT'S A DREADFUL WAY TO LIVE!
FIND A MENTAL IMAGE THAT GIVES YOU PLEASURE
( MINE IS A WATERFALL),
AND IMMEDIATLEY SWITCH YOUR SCARY THOUGHT
TO A PLEASURABLE THOUGHT.

DAY THREE

~ BE GENTLE AND KIND AND PATIENT ~

BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF.
BE KIND TO YOURSELF.
BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF
AS YOU LEARN THE NEW WAYS OF THINKING.
TREAT YOURSELF AS YOU WOULD
SOMEONE YOU REALLY, REALLY LOVED

DAY FOUR

~ BE KIND TO YOUR MIND ~

SELF HATRED IS ONLY HATING
YOUR OWN THOUGHTS.
DON'T HATE YOURSELF
FOR HAVING BAD THOUGHTS.
GENTLY CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS.

Visualization. Brain-Washing. Programming. Recording New Tapes. As compulsive people, somewhere along othe line, we all grew up not quite loving ourselves enough. Or maybe we quit doing that along the way. At any rate, not loving oneself enough contributes to reasons we look for things that are not good for us to stuff feelings.

We have to Re-Program ourselves. We just have to change our behavior because if we keep doing the same old thing, we going to *get* the same old thing. And we don't WANT the same old thing. We want something better. We want recovery.

Sometimes we "should" all over ourselves. We "should have" done this. We "should" have done that. And we do that so often that we begin to really have some bad images of ourselves. We even begin to think of us as being bad people. I have heard so many sponsees and friends talk about something that they did that they simply couldn't help ... and they talked about it with such guilt it broke my heart.

It is not our fault that we have a disease that manifests itself in compulsions. It is not our fault that we are addicts. That we are trying to find SOMETHING to fill a void that we have.

Day One ... I hope we made a vow to us not to criticize us. Day Two I hope we could quit scaring ourselves to death with bad thoughts and instead substitute beautiful thoughts. Day Three brought the message to be gentle, kind and patient to ourselves. And today, Day Four, quit hating ourselves by leaving bad thoughts in our mind.

Each one of these need to be reflected on. And prayed about. They aren't going to just happen. They're exercises. Exercises of the mind. Exercises of the emotions. Exercises of the psyche.

Dear God,
There's a lot of
things I can do to help
me to love myself more. One
of them is to gently change the way
my thoughts ... and get rid of the thoughts
that make me hate myself.

Love,
Mari
Marisok@aol.com
The Recovery Group







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