Thought for today:
The natural state of a compulsive debtor is that of binge-charging on credit cards and store credit. So if we have a slip, what do we do?
Sometimes we mess up financially. Sometimes life seems unfair to us. Sometimes people are abusive. A job is lost. A loved one is lost. Property is lost or damaged.
The Twelve Steps of DA can help us with any of these situations.
We start by including our Higher Power, whatever that is, in the conversation. How can we get back on track? What is our Higher Power’s will for us?
We then take a personal moral inventory. What are our positive and negative qualities? Where are we upset? Where are we grateful?
We then ask our Higher Power and another human being to listen to what we found, and help us clean our side of the street. Were we neglectful? Did we do anything to cause the thing that is upsetting us?
With courage of knowing the program works if we work it, we go out and seek to make amends. This means to change our behavior, and correcting past behaviors wherever possible.
The Twelve Steps help us find a Spiritual Awakening. They also point us in the right direction to heal our wounds.
A member shares:
“I am experiencing every one of the Fifteen Questions about Compulsive Debting. I am just learning to get help in DA.
My spouse is upset with me because I emptied my retirement account on lavish gifts and vacations. I feel ashamed, but I have hope the program of recovery from debt addiction will help.
“My sponsor told me to focus on my recovery. I can’t worry about my spouse all the time. It just feeds my low self-esteem and makes it harder for me to do the things necessary to get better.
“I am starting by tracking my numbers and asking my Higher Power for help in every area. This process is scary, but I feel at least I am not alone, and there is a solution.”
Letting go when life is darkest:
DA is a simple program for complicated people. We come in driven to our knees over a problem around money.
Looking past causes, we find release only when we let go and trust a Higher Power to begin a conversation in our hearts.
Life can be scary. DA can help.
Ask:
Am I including my Higher Power in my current problems?
Meditation for today:
When a conflict happens, we can detach ourselves from it. We are never required to get upset. Each situation is different, but often a calm mind works through it best.
Let’s forget about our problem for a while, turning it over to our Higher Power. When we return to it in the morning, we will at least have a new perspective. And our Higher Power is up all night anyway.
Affirmation for today:
“There is nothing that can separate me from my Higher Power.”
“I am a powerful, prosperous, generous and loving person.“
Recommended reading:
DA’s Eighth Tool is D.A. and A.A. Literature: “We study the literature of Debtors Anonymous and of Alcoholics Anonymous to strengthen our understanding of compulsive disease and of recovery from compulsive debting.”
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Copyright 2015, PlentyOfTimeMoneyAndLove.com.
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