En hier nog wat andere slogans van de AA AA Slogans We are not God's gift to AA; AA is "His " to us. We are not reformed drunks - but informed alcoholics. We're here for a reason - not for the season. An AA group will be judged by the worst behavior of its Members. When you clean up after your group, you leave the signature of AA behind you. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together in sobriety may call themselves an AA group. AA is a check-up from the neck up. AA is not a sentence, it is a reprieve. A.A. is a self-help program but you can't do it by yourself. A.A. stands for Always Available Attitude Adjustment Altered Attitudes Acknowledge Acceptance Avoid Anger AA won't open the gates of heaven to let you in, but it will open the gates of hell to let you out. I have become a pupil of A.A. rather than the teacher I thought I was. Just accept, don't expect Acceptance is knowing the past will never get better. Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it. They're just doing it, they're not doing it to you. Turn it over. You can't change the wind, but you can adjust the sails. Action alleviates anxiety. Action: Lazy works twice. Action: Utilize, don't analyze You have to act right in order to feel right Remember Al-Anons: The quicker, the sicker, the sooner, the better!!! Al-anon: Known in Ireland as the Provisional Wing of AA. Alcoholic A piece of crap the universe revolves around. An alcoholic is someone who wants to be held while isolating. I may not be much, but I'm all I think about. I only drank on days beginning with "T"-Tuesdays, Thursdays, Today, Tomorrow... If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a...duck. If you drank enough to get to AA, you drank enough. Alcohol provokes the desire but takes away the performance. It's not what or how much you drank, it's what it did to you. Alcoholics Terminal uniqueness! They didn't make a glass big enough for me to have one drink. An alcoholic alone is slumming. An alcoholic is not a guy who thinks he's had one too many. He's usually the guy who thinks he's had one too few. Being a "little bit alcoholic" is like being a "little bit pregnant." Every alcoholic's favorite brand: More! If you think you are an alcoholic, chances are, you are. The destiny of every alcoholic is to be locked up, covered up or sobered up. You can carry the message, but not the alcoholic. You're probably an alcoholic if: You think spilling beer is alcohol abuse. We alcoholics either go to Yale or jail Alcohol went from being my best friend to my worst enemy. An alcoholic can be in the gutter, yet still look down on people. Guilt of yesterday, fear of tomorrow, shame of today. High bottoms have trap doors. If the cure works, chances are, you have the disease. If you drank long enough to get to an A.A. meeting, you drank long enough. Once you are a pickle, you can't ever be a cucumber again. But once you are a pickle, you can be a newcomer. The three most dangerous words for an alcoholic-"I've been thinking" We are not bad people becoming good, but sick people becoming well. Your bottom just may be six feet under. Your disease progresses even when you are not drinking. Active alcoholism is like an elevator; you can get off at any floor. Alcoholism doesn't come in bottles; it comes in people. Alcoholism is a self-diagnosed disease. Some people think alcoholism is a two-fold disease--more and right now. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It's not alcoholwasm; it's alcoholism. I can go from grateful to hateful in a second. If I don't "pause when agitated", I might use my "paws when agitated We are only as big as the smallest thing that makes us angry. Anger is but a mask for fear. Justifiable anger is best left to those able to handle it. Those who anger you, conquer you. H.A.L.T. Don't get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired I don't say things to make you angry, I say things that make you angry. The second A in AA is precious; it is the word in our name that sets us apart from all other alcoholics. Who you see here, what you hear here, let it stay here. A T T I T U D E 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100% You can wake up and say "Good morning, God" or "Good God, it's morning!" Attitude: You get what you expect in life. Attitude in life is everything! Keep an attitude of gratitude. BE a human being not a human doing. Be better than you were! Be here now. Don't know-be. If It's To Be, It's Up To Me! What will be...will appear. You are still becoming. Being humble means being teachable. We came, we came to, we came to believe. The liar's punishment is not that they are not believed, but that they can believe no one else. If you want to hide something from an AA member, put it in the Big Book. The Big Book: One of those rare books that gets smarter every time I read it. You may be the only copy of the Big Book some people ever see. Blame, character defects: You spot it, you got it. Blame: Don't point a finger; point the whole hand (reach out). When you point a finger at someone, there are three pointing back at you. May you be blessed with a slow recovery. No one comes to AA on a good day. When things get worse faster than you can lower your standards. My bottom is where I put my shovel down. The longer I'm in the program, the lower my bottom seems to get. Program bumper stickers belong on the dashboard, not the bumper. Daily meditation for about 20 minutes is recommended for all in recovery; unless, of course, you're very busy-then you should meditate for an hour. When someone's pushing your buttons, hit the "MUTE" on your remote. Take care of your body. If you don't, where else are you going to live? Change: A suggestion is a subtle command. Everything after "but" is BS. If you don't change, you'll be begging for change. If you are eating a shit sandwich, chances are, you ordered it. If you have God in one hand and the fellowship in the other hand, you can't get drunk today. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, you'll keep getting the same thing over and over. If you stole horses when you were drinking, and you expect to get sober, you not only quit drinking, but you quit stealing horses. If you want to keep feeling how you're feeling, then keep doing what you are doing. If you want what you never had, you have to do what you've never done. Life begins right outside your comfort zone. Make no major changes in the first year. Put down the weapons, pick up the tools. Change is inevitable, Growth is optional God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, thecourage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. How many alcoholics does it take to change a light bulb? Change? What do you mean, change? If you don't change, nothing changes. If you fail to change the person you were when you came in, that person will take you out. Learn to change, change to learn. There are only two things an alcoholic doesn't like the way things are, and change. When one door shuts, another opens. Give a damn; be a channel. If Nothing Changes, nothing changes. \ Chapter Five is called "How It Works," not "Why Me?" Character is how we act when we think no one is watching. Fear is the mother of all character defects. Today, we have a choice. Coincidences are God's way of staying anonymous. There are no coincidences. The willingness to be uncomfortable leads to being comfortable. We drink to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Just keep coming. Keep coming back, it works! Keep coming back, it works...don't go away; it works even better! Identify, don't compare. Are you comparing your insides to someone else's outsides? Complacency kills. If you have to control your drinking, it must be out of control. If you have to control your drinking, what's the point of drinking? When you see "CRAZY" coming, hurry up and cross the street! Walk a mile in another's shoes before you criticize the courage to change the things I can... Daily meditation for about 20 minutes is recommended for all in recovery; unless, of course, you're very busy - then you should meditate for an hour. When you dance with a gorilla, it's the gorilla who decides when to stop. One day at a time. When you don't know what to do, don't do anything. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. The difference between us and God is that God knows the end of the story. It's a cinch by the inch; it's hard by the yard. We can disagree without being disagreeable, we can argue without being difficult. Negativity is my disease asking me to come out and play. When you do good, you never know how much good you do. When you don't know what to do, do nothing. There are two kinds of people in this world - the doers and the done tos. Doormat: Don't ever be someone's slogan because you are poetry. We came to these rooms not because we drank a lot, but because we drank too much. Trying is what got me drunk; doing is what keeps me sober. I drank to stimulate thought and blacked out; I drank to make conversation and tied my tongue; I drank for warmth and lost my cool; I drank to forget and became haunted; I drank for freedom and became a slave; I drank for power and became powerless; I drank to erase problems and saw them multiply; I drank to cope with life and invited death...or worse; I drank because I had the right and everything turned out wrong. A drink is only an arm's-length away. A free drink is often the most expensive. Don't drink and go to meetings. Nothing is so bad that a drink won't make it worse. The person takes a drink, the drink takes a drink, the drink takes the person. Pick up the telephone before you pick up a drink. Poor me, poor me, pour me another drink. Sitting in a bar and asking yourself not to drink is like trying to sneak sun-up past a rooster. The ultimate defense against the first drink is a spiritual one. We don't want to drink like gentlemen; we want to drink like pigs and be treated like gentlemen. Drinking didn't drown my problems, it irrigated them. I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy, than to have to have a bottle in front of me. I came for my drinking and stayed for my thinking. If drinking were our only problem, rehabs would turn out winners. If you have to control your drinking, it must be out of control. If you have to control your drinking, what's the point of drinking? If you think you have a drinking problem, chances are, you do. Waking up in strange places with strange faces. Get out of the driver's seat. Anything you did drunk, you can do better sober. If you want to see who the drunk is, look for who's shouting for the manager. The first drink gets you drunk. My worst day sober was better than my best day drunk. Some say if you can't remember your last drunk, you may not have had it. Easy does it. Easy does it (but do it). The highest I can go in AA is sober. I may not be much, but I'm all I think about. It's not that you think too well of yourself, but that you thinkonly of yourself. The sum total of false ideas about myself. We are all important, but not for the reasons we think. Ego is our separation from God and others. I don't want my ego to be the first thing people see when I walk onto a room. Egoism isn't necessarily thinking a lot of yourself just thinking of yourself a lot. The only thing I can do to help my loved one is to let him help himself. Remember to give and receive ES&H: Encouragement, Strength, and Hope My net worth is not myself worth. Everything in God's time. Everything is all right. Everything is as it should be. Everything is as it should be right now. Everything that is happening is God's plan for you today. Expectation is premeditated resentment. Faith is hope in things unseen. Fear doesn't have to mean Forget Everything And Run. To overcome fear means to Face Everything And Recover. Failure isn't fatal; success isn't permanent. Faith can't be taught; it can only be caught. Faith conquers fear. If you don't believe, than make believe. If I have faith in God, it doesn't make much difference if I have faith in myself. Faith was the first medicine known to man Fake it 'til you make it. My parents know how to push my buttons. they installed them. Fear has no power unless I give it power. Fear is absence of faith. Fear is what keeps you from God's plan for you.--sent in by Emily M., Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered; there was no one there. Procrastination is fear in five syllables. Turn fear into faith. If you want to feel better right away, ask God to help you be of service. If you want to keep feeling how you are feeling, keep doing what you are doing. If 2 million plus recovering alcoholics are wrong, I'm screwed. If you have one hand in the fellowship and one hand in God, you can't get drunk today. First things first. The first drink gets you drunk. The first-time sober is a gift; why waste it? Keep the focus on yourself. The person who forgets is doomed to repeat. Forgiveness of others is a gift to yourself. The number one way to relieve pain is to forgive. Today is a gift; that's why it's called the present. At first we thought the 'God thing' was a crutch. Turns out to be stilts. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. God has three answers to everything-yes, no, and if you insist. God help me! (Step 1, short form) God is my employer (and I never have trouble with money. God is doing for us what we can not do for ourselves. God is upstairs in church on Sunday morning, but at night he's downstairs in the AA meeting. God won't fail you (people will). God's will: You can't do his will, your way. You can't sit in a closet and pray to God to bring you a hot dog. God's will, not mine, be done. I can't, God can, why don't I let Him? (Steps 1-3, short form) If you want to make God laugh, tell him YOUR plans for the day. If you're looking for God, you'll never see God more at work than at an AA meeting. I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that Hedidn't trust me so much. Is it odd, or is it God? Listen to your heart often, God lives there . There is only one thing you need to know about God, you are not Him What is God's will for me today? When I ask for patience, God gives me a traffic jam. When God made time, He made plenty of it. It is easier to live your way into good feeling than to feel your way into good living. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more than God already does. There nothing we can do wrong that will make God love usany less. Get off the throne and give it back to God. The grace of God will never take me where the grace of God will notprotect me. There but for the grace of God, go I. When you lay down, lay on your back and look up, for God is there all the time. Grateful alcoholics don't drink, and drinking alcoholics aren't grateful. Gratitude: To be grate-ful is to be grace-filled. If your heart is full of gratitude, there is no room for resentment. Keep an attitude of gratitude. Show up to grow up. If small things make you angry-how big are you? It's not so important why you are an alcoholic Just be on the side of the angels, it doesn't matter what rank you are. Pain is mandatory, suffering is optional. Sometimes the good is the enemy of the best. The opposite of joy is not sorrow, the opposite of joy is cynicism. When the pain of where I am is worse than the discomfort of where I am going, then I'll move. HP is not against me because of my addiction. HP is for me and against my addiction Happiness isn't getting everything you want. It's wanting what you've already got. Happiness is an inside job. . Happiness is appreciating what you have, not getting what you want. True happiness is found in service. If you are not happy with what you have, what makes you think you would be happy with more? If you aren't happy today, what are you waiting for? Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be Would you rather be right, or happy? If you pray for honesty, the chances of your lying go 'way up. When one door closes, another door opens. It's being in the hallway that's hell. How high you bounce is more important than how hard you fall. Worry is an ironic form of hope. Being humble means being teachable. Get humble, or be made humble. When you feel it's your job to humble others, you may in for a ...stumble, fumble, or crumble. Humility is like venereal disease. If you have it, you don't talk about it Before you become too proud to be a member of AA, make sure AA is proud to have you as a member. Egotism is not thinking well of yourself; it's thinking only of yourself. Halos can turn into nooses. If you are having trouble getting down on your knees to pray in the morning, put your shoes under the middle of the bed the night before. It doesn't matter so much who is right, but what is right. Remember Rule 62 (don't take yourself so darn seriously)! The bigger my head, the easier the target. You can't save your face and your ass at the same time. Humility is humanity. Humility is not humiliation. Humility is that virtue which reduces a man to the proper size Without degrading him, there by increasing him in statue without inflating him. Unless oneattains some degree of humility, one is condemned to drink again. If it weren't for a small deficit in my humility, I'd be perfect. Just when you think you have humility, you've lost it. Identify, don't compare. Don't just take an inventory; let it take you. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Insanity is the seeming inability to learn from past mistakes. The trouble with staying home and isolating is you get a lot of bad advice. ISOLATION: It's the darkroom where I develop my negatives. A job is something that happens to you on the way to a meeting. The journey is the destination. When I demand justice, I'd better think of the consequences. Keep the memory green. Knowing why is the booby prize of life. It isn't what I don't know that gets me in trouble; it's what I absolutely do know - and just isn't so! Learn to listen, listen to learn. Life is fragile; handle with prayer. Life on life's terms. God gave you two ears and only one mouth for a reason. Take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth. Live and let live. Live in the moment. Live in the solution. An alcoholic is someone who treats loneliness with isolation. If you can't take it, leave it. If you can't leave it, love it. God only lends us people when we need them. Love is less a feeling than a thousand tiny acts of kindness. If love has conditions attached, it's not love, it's barter. Love is a verb. Love is an action. Love isn't love until you give it away. It isn't "me" and "you" anymore; it's "we" and "us." Bring your body, your mind will follow. Meetings: AA is like a raffle; you must be present to win. Meetings: Meeting makers make it. Meetings take the bastard out of me. Jack Meetings: Those who get around, stay around. Meetings: You start to skip, you start to slip. A meeting a day keeps the detox away. A meeting lasts from preamble to prayer. A meeting lasts from preamble to prayer. After each meeting, clean up the wreckage of the present. If you only need one meeting a week, you may have to go to five of them in that time to find out which one it is. If you think you don't need a meeting, chances are, you do. Get smart feet; go to meetings. Go to enough meetings and you still may not stop drinking; Your drinking, however, will be ruined. Token takers take it and meeting makers make it. Meetings are not enough. Meetings, meetings, meetings. People who don't go to meetings don't find out what happens to people who don't go to meetings. Seven days without a meeting makes one weak. We go to the meetings for all sorts of reasons, but we don't know what they are, so we keep going to meetings. When you are in a meeting, your disease is outside doing push-ups. You only have to go to meetings until you want to go to meetings. Carry the message, not the mess. The message is under the ashtray. The message is up front. I am not allowed in my mind without an adult! The mind can cure the mind. Misery is optional. Negativity is my disease asking me to come out and play. Take the cotton out of one ear, put it in your mouth. so what you hear won't whistle through that empty cavity. Newcomers are like rum fruitcakes. You can take out the rum, but you still have a fruitcake. What comes after ninety days? Ninety-one! Ninety meetings in ninety days. Nonalcoholic beer is for nonalcoholics. Now: Live in the moment. Is it odd, or is it God? Do not regret growing old; it is a privilege denied many. One day at a time. One drink is too many, and a thousand isn't enough. Keep an open mind. Those of the opposite sex may pat your rear end, but often those of the same sex will save it. In sobriety, you are given permission to be ordinary. Beauty and truth are admired; pain is obeyed. A pain shared is a pain cut in half. Not facing pain can prolong it. Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. If your ass falls off, put it in a wheelbarrow and take it to a meeting. It's either suffering or service. The only avoidable pain is the pain we endure in the process of trying to avoid pain. Pass it on. This, too, shall pass. Patience: Everything in God's God give me patience--now! When I ask for patience, God gives me a traffic jam. People, places, and things. Get off the pity pot. A periodic is an alcoholic. Period. Plan, but don't plan the outcome. Plan, don't project. Plan Plans, Not Results. . Prior Planning Prevents Problems! When you point a finger at someone, there are three pointing back at you. Everything we have is on loan from God. Powerless over people, places and things; it's a two-way street. Strength in powerlessness. Be careful what you pray for...you just might get it. If you are having trouble getting on your knees to pray in the morning, put your shoes under the middle of the bed the night before. If you pray don't worry. If you worry don't pray. Pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depends on ourselves. Ask God not for things to enjoy life, but rather life that you may enjoy all things. If you pray for potatoes, better plant a garden. If you're going to pray, why worry? Tears are liquid prayers. A day without prayer is a day unfulfilled. Hit him them with a prayer, not a chair. Prayer is not a device for getting my own way, but rather a means to become what I should be. We don't pray to change things; we pray to change us. Today is a gift; that's why it's called the present. You can't get indigestion from swallowing your pride. I was a problem drinker; every time I drank, I had a problem. Procrastination is fear in five syllables. A.A. has no musts but it has a lot of "have-to's". Don't worry, if you don't get the program right away, it will get you. I came to the program and became focused instead of mocused. The longer I'm in the program, the lower my bottom seems to get. The program is for those who want it.
