Gambling Addiction & Recovery Support Group
Compulsive gambling is an urge or addiction to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. A preferred term among many professionals is problem gambling, as few people described by the term experience true compulsions in the clinical sense of the word. Problem gambling often is defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others rather...
Good Afternoon Folks
Took me awhile to figure out how to get back into the site.
I am not computer wise.But am back and I am going to start
posting the GA Reflection for the Day again and hope to catch
up with my old recovery friends and to meet some new people.
If you are interested I visit a new site called Gamtalk that is run
out of Montreal Canada and it has 24/7 chat room and on Friday
at 3pm est we have a group Topic Session.Today's topic is Step 9.
God Bless
Ken L GRCG
March 22 Reflection for the Day
Once in a great while, I find myself thinking perhaps things werent quite so bad as they seemed to be. At such moments, I force myself to realize that my illness is talking to me, trying to tempt me into denying that I am, in fact, afflicted with an illness. One of the key action steps of the Gamblers Anonymous Program is that we give our illness to God, as we understand Him, accepting our powerlessness in the face of His greater Power.
Do I believe that the grace of God can do for me what I could never do for myself?
Today I Pray
May I know that much of our lives depends on faith. For we cannot know the limits of space and time or explain the mysteries of life and death. But when we see God working through us and through others who have found new life in the GA Program it is all the evidence we need to know that God exists.
Today I will Remember
The Big Wheel runs by faith.
Took me awhile to figure out how to get back into the site.
I am not computer wise.But am back and I am going to start
posting the GA Reflection for the Day again and hope to catch
up with my old recovery friends and to meet some new people.
If you are interested I visit a new site called Gamtalk that is run
out of Montreal Canada and it has 24/7 chat room and on Friday
at 3pm est we have a group Topic Session.Today's topic is Step 9.
God Bless
Ken L GRCG
March 22 Reflection for the Day
Once in a great while, I find myself thinking perhaps things werent quite so bad as they seemed to be. At such moments, I force myself to realize that my illness is talking to me, trying to tempt me into denying that I am, in fact, afflicted with an illness. One of the key action steps of the Gamblers Anonymous Program is that we give our illness to God, as we understand Him, accepting our powerlessness in the face of His greater Power.
Do I believe that the grace of God can do for me what I could never do for myself?
Today I Pray
May I know that much of our lives depends on faith. For we cannot know the limits of space and time or explain the mysteries of life and death. But when we see God working through us and through others who have found new life in the GA Program it is all the evidence we need to know that God exists.
Today I will Remember
The Big Wheel runs by faith.
I'm learning - all too slowly, at times - that when I give up the losing battle of trying to run my life in my own way, I gain abiding peace and deep serenity. For many of us, that learning process is a painfully slow one. Eventually, however, I understand that there are only two wills in the world, my will and God's. Whatever is within my direct control is my will, and whatever is beyond my direct control is God's will. So I try to accept that which is beyond my control as God's will for me.
Am I beginning to realize that, by surrendering my will to the Divine Will, I am for the first time living without turmoil and without anxiety?
Today I Pray
May I hope that my will can be congruent with the all-encompassing will of God. I pray that I will know immediately if my will is in a useless tug of war with His Divine Will. May I trust God now to guide my will according to His Master Plan - and to make His purpose mi
December 18 Reflection for the Day
I'm learning - all too slowly, at times - that when I give up the losing battle of trying to run my life in my own way, I gain abiding peace and deep serenity. For many of us, that learning process is a painfully slow one. Eventually, however, I understand that there are only two wills in the world, my will and God's. Whatever is within my direct control is my will, and whatever is beyond my direct control is God's will. So I try to accept that which is beyond my control as God's will for me.
Am I beginning to realize that, by surrendering my will to the Divine Will, I am for the first time living without turmoil and without anxiety?
Today I Pray
May I hope that my will can be congruent with the all-encompassing will of God. I pray that I will know immediately if my will is in a useless tug of war with His Divine Will. May I trust God now to guide my will according to His Master Plan - and to make His purpose mine.
Today I Will Remember
I will that my will be in harmony with God's.
ne.
Today I Will Remember
I will that my will be in harmony with God's.
The Gamblers Anonymous Program teaches me to work for progress, not perfection. That simple admonition gives me great comfort, for it represents a primary way in which my life today is so different from what it used to be. In my former life, perfection for all its impossibility - was so often my number one goal. Today I can believe that if I sometimes fail, Im not a failure and if I sometimes make mistakes, Im not a mistake. And I can apply those same beliefs to the Twelve Steps of Recovery, as well as to my entire life.
Do I believe that only Step One can be practiced with perfection, and that the remaining Steps represent perfect ideals?
Today I Pray
God, teach me to abandon my erstwhile goal of superhuman perfection in everything I did or said. I know now that I was actually bent on failure, because I could never attain those impossible heights I had established for myself. Now that I understand this pattern, may I no longer program my own failures.
Today I Will Remember
I may strive to be a super person, but not a super-person.
When we compulsively strive for perfection, we invariably injure ourselves. For one thing, we end up creating big problems from little ones. For another, we become frustrated and filled with despair when were unable to meet the impossible goals weve set for ourselves. And finally, we decrease our capabilities to deal with life and reality as they are.
Can I learn to yield a little here and there? Can I apply myself with a quiet mind only to what is possible and attainable?
Today I Pray
May I see that striving for an impossible accomplishment provides me with an ever-ready excuse for not making it. It is also an indication of my loss of reality sense, which ought to involve knowing what I can do and then doing it. With the help of my Gamblers Anonymous group and my Higher Power, may I learn to set reasonable goals. These may seem ridiculously small to me, after years of thinking big. But, by breaking down my projects into several smaller ones, may I find that I actually can accomplish some of my goals.
Today I Will Remember
Break down large goals into smaller ones.
Each of us in the Gamblers Anonymous Program can, in our own time and own way, awaken our own spirituality. With this comes the deep-down knowledge that we are no longer alone and helpless, also the deep-down awareness that weve learned certain truths that we can now transmit to others, so that perhaps they, too, can be helped.
Do I keep myself in constant readiness for the spiritual awareness that is certain to come to me as I practice the Steps?
Today I Pray
May I be steady, not expecting that my newly recognized spirituality will startle me like an alarm clock into sudden awareness of a Higher Power. It may settle on me so quietly that I may not recognize precisely when my awareness comes. The clue may come in my desire to Twelfth-Step others. May I realize then that I have accepted the principles of the GA Program and have truly made the effort to practice them in all my affairs.
Today I Will Remember
Live the principles and pass them on.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. Henry David Thoreau. We always had the power to change ourselves and our lives, but prior to coming to Gamblers Anonymous, we had little success in making progress toward any realistic goals. Now that we have found the GA Program, we not only have the ability, but we have a plan a set of blueprints that work.
Do I believe that none come too soon to the GA Program, and that none return to it too late? Do I believe that, with my Higher Power as guide and my fellow GA members cheering me on, no level of elevation seems unattainable?
Today I Pray
May I not forget that, although my intentions to better myself and my life may have been real, my ability to accomplish this without a realistic plan was destined to fail. May I be grateful that I found this Program and that the miracle of GA exists in my life. May I remember honestly how it was and celebrate, with the brothers and sisters of this great Fellowship, how it is today and how it can be.
Today I Will Remember
GA gives us the blueprints.
How can I tell if I have begun to be aware of my spirituality. Sometimes the discovery that we are spiritual beings manifests itself in simple, rather than complicated, evidences: emotional maturity; an end to constant and soul-churning resentments; the ability to love and be loved in return; the belief, even without understanding, that a Power beyond us controls the setting and rising sun, brings forth and ends life, and gives joy to human hearts.
Am I now aware, as I try to practice the Gamblers Anonymous principles in all my affairs, that my perspective is wider, my view of humanity gentler, than in the self-centered misery of my gambling days?
Today I Pray
May my spiritual confidence begin to spread over my attitudes towards others, especially during holiday times, when anticipations and anxieties are high. As a compulsive gambler, I have not handled the emotions of holidays well. I pray for serenity to cope with the holiday brew of emotions.
Today I Will Remember
Perspective comes through practicing the principles.
We came to Gamblers Anonymous as supplicants, literally at the ends of our ropes. Sooner or later, by practicing GAs Twelve Steps of Recovery, we discover within ourselves a very precious thing. We uncover a serenity through which we can be comfortable in all places and situations. We gain strength and grow with the help of God as we understand Him, with the Fellowship of the Gamblers Anonymous Program, and by applying the Twelve Steps of Recovery to our lives.
Can anyone take my new life from me?
Today I Pray
May my prayers of desperate supplication, which I brought as a newcomer to the Gamblers Anonymous Program, change to peaceful surrender. Now that I have seen what can be done through the Program and the endless might of a Higher Power, may my gift to others be that strong conviction. I pray that those I love will have the faith to find their own spiritual experiences and the blessings of peace.
Today I Will Remember
Peace inner and outer is the greatest blessing.
Today is a special day in more ways than one. Its a day that God has made, and Im alive in Gods world. I know that all things in my life this day are an expression of Gods love the fact that Im alive, that Im recovering, and that Im able to feel the way I feel at this very instant. For me, this will be a day of gratitude.
Am I deeply grateful for the dawn of this special day, and for all my blessings?
Today I Pray
On this day of remembering Gods gift, may I understand that giving and receiving are the same. Each is part of each. If I give, I receive the happiness of giving. If I receive, I give someone else that same happiness of giving. I pray that I may give myself my love and my strengths generously. May I also receive graciously the love and strength of others selves. May God be our example.
Today I Will Remember
Giving and receiving are equal blessings.
None of us can really claim to understand our Higher Power to any extent. But this I do know: there is a power beyond myhuman will that can do wonderful, loving things for me that I cant do for myself. I see this glorious power at work in my own being, and I see the miraculous results of this same power in the lives of thousands of other recovering compulsive gamblers who are my friends in the Gamblers Anonymous Program.
Do I need the grace of God and the loving understanding any less now than when I began my recovery?
Today I Pray
May I never forget that my spiritual needs are as great today as they were when I came into Gamblers Anonymous. It is so easy to look at others, newer to the recovery process, and regard them as the needy ones. As I think of myself as increasingly independent, may I never overlook my dependence on my Higher Power.
Today I Will Remember
I will never outgrow my need for God.
Two words that I became very aware of even during my gambling days are words that I need to take into my recovery: stopping and starting. I must stop gambling and start recovering. I must start looking within, and stop blaming others. I must start tuning in to the will of my Higher Power and stop allowing myself to be guided by self-will. The more I start to see positive results from the Gamblers Anonymous Program, the more honestly I can look at the negative past actions that led me to misery and despair.
Has recovery given me a mirror to see myself in others?
Today I Pray
May I remember that I could choose to stop my destructive gambling any time, but unless I have started the recovery process through the GA Program and the Twelve Steps, I cannot remain stopped. If I keep recovery started, I can keep my gambling stopped.
Today I Will Remember
The life-altering significance of those two words: stopping and starting.
The Gamblers Anonymous Program, for me, is not only a safe place and a philosophy, but a highway to freedom. The highway leads me toward my spiritual goal of becoming the person I want to be as the result of these Steps. Sometimes the highway doesnt get me to the goal as quickly as I might wish, but I try to remember that God and I work from different timetables. But the goal is there, and I know that the Twelve Steps of Recovery will help me reach it.
Have I come to realize that I and anyone else can now do what I had always thought impossible?
Today I Pray
As I live the GA Program, may I realize more and more that it is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. May I keep in mind that the kind of spirituality it calls for is never complete, but is the essence of change and growth, a drawing nearer to an ideal state. May I be wary of setting time-oriented goals for myself to measure my spiritual progress.
Today I Will Remember
Timetables are human inventions.
The success of the Gamblers Anonymous Program, I've been taught, lies in large measure in the readiness and willingness of its members to go to any lengths to help others tyrannized by their gambling addiction. If my readiness and willingness cools, then I stand in danger of losing all that I've gained. I must never become unwilling to give away what I have, for only by so doing will I be privileged to keep it.
Do I take the Twelfth Step seriously? What Twelve Step message have I carried today - either through direct help or by example?
Today I Pray
May I never be too busy to answer a fellow compulsive gambler's call for help. May I never become so wound up in my pursuits that I forget that my own continuing recovery depends on that helping - a half-hour or so on the telephone, a call in person, a lunch date, whatever the situation calls for. May I know what my priorities must be.
Today I Will Remember
Helping helps me.
My life before coming to Gamblers Anonymous was not unlike the lives of so many of us who were cruelly buffeted and tormented by the power of our addiction. For years, I had been sick and tired. When I became sick and tired of being sick and tired, I finally surrendered and came to the Gamblers Anonymous Program. Now I realize that I have been helped all along by a Higher Power; it was this Power, indeed, that allowed me to live so that I could eventually find a new way of life.
Have I found in the GA Program a measure of serenity previously unknown to me?
Today I Pray
May I realize that my higher Power has not suddenly come into my life like a stranger opening a door when I knocked. The Power has been there all along, if I will just remember how many brushes with disaster I have survived by a fraction of time or distance. Now that I have come to know my Higher Power better, I realize that I must have been saved for something perhaps for helping others like me.
Today I Will Remember
I am grateful to be alive and recovering.
December 31 Reflection of the Day
God grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change; COURAGE to change the things I can; and WISDOM to know the difference living one day at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking this world-full-of-wrongs as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that my Higher Power will make all things right if I surrender my willfulness to a Divine Will.
Do I strive above all for those qualities serenity courage and wisdom that form the cornerstone of my new life?
Today I Pray
May I look back at this past year as a good one, in that nothing I did or said was wasted. No experience however insignificant it may have seemed was worthless. Hurt gave me the capacity to feel happiness; bad times made me appreciate the good ones; what I regarded as my weaknesses became my greatest strengths, I thank God for a year of growing.
Today I Will Remember
Hope is my balance brought forward into a new years ledger.
In the old days, I saw everything in terms of forever. Endless hours were spent rehashing old mistakes. I tried to take comfort in the forlorn hope that tomorrow would be different. As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but nonexistent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud.
Do I still think in terms of forever?
Today I Pray
May I set my goals for the New Year not at the year-long mark, but one day at a time. My traditional New Years resolutions have been so grandly stated and so soon broken. Let me not weaken my resolve by stretching it to cover forever or even one long year. May I reapply it firmly each new day. May I learn not to stamp my past mistakes with that indelible word, forever. Instead, may each single day in each New Year be freshened by my new-found hope.
Today I Will Remember
Happy New Day.
Before I came to the Gamblers Anonymous Program, I hadnt the faintest idea of what it was to Live in the Now. I often became obsessed with things that happened yesterday, last week, or even five years ago. Worse yet, many of my waking hours were spent clearing away the wreckage of the future. To me, Walt Whitman once wrote, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
Can I truly believe that in my heart?
Today I Pray
Let me carry only the weight of twenty-four hours at one time, without the extra bulk of yesterdays regrets or tomorrows anxieties. Let me breathe the blessings of each new day for itself, by itself, and keep my human burdens contained in daily perspective. May I learn the balance of soul that comes through keeping close to God.
Today I Will Remember
Dont borrow from tomorrow.