Ken L

JULY 13 Reflection for the Day

These days I go to meetings to listen for the similarities between me and others in Gamblers Anonymous – not the differences. And when I look for the similarities, it’s amazing how many I find, particularly in the area of feelings. Today I go to meetings thinking that I’m here not because of anyone else’s…[Read more]

Just wanted to share this info for folks working on their recoveries.

Relapse Prevention: Planning for Success
When you decided to quit drinking, using other drugs or gambling, you took the first step towards recovery. This step was the beginning of an important change in your life.
You may have expected all your problems to go away when you…[Read more]

JULY 12 Reflection for the Day

In many respects, the Fellowship of Gamblers Anonymous is like a reasonably happy cruise ship or, in time of trouble, like a convoy. But in the long run, each of us must chart his or her own course through life. When the seas are smooth, we may become careless. By neglecting Step Ten, we may get out of the habit of…[Read more]

JULY 11 Reflection for the Day

Someone once defined the ego as “the sum total of false ideas about myself.” Persistent reworking of the Twelve Steps enables me gradually to strip away my false ideas about myself. This permits nearly imperceptible but steady growth in my understanding of the truth about myself. And this, in turn, leads to a…[Read more]

JULY 10 Reflection for the Day

The Gamblers Anonymous Program is a road, not a resting place. Before we came to this Program – and, for some of us, many times afterward – most of us looked for answers to our living problems in religion, philosophy, psychology, in theories of self-control and personal growth. Often these explorations of ours…[Read more]

JULY 9 Reflection for the Day

Samuel Johnson wrote: “…he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything other than his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.” Today I understand that I am not the evil person I once thought I was, only that I…[Read more]

JULY 8 Reflection for the Day

When we speak with a friend in the Gamblers Anonymous Program, we shouldn’t hesitate to remind him or her of our need for privacy. Intimate communication is normally so free and easy among us that even a friend or sponsor may sometimes forget when we expect him to remain silent. Such “privileged communications” have…[Read more]

Coping with Urges to Gamble
Suggestions for Coping with Urges to Gamble

Many compulsive gamblers, especially those in early stages of recovery, experience urges to gamble. Repetition of the gambling behavior over a relatively long period of time, combined with thoughts of gambling and associated pleasurable feelings, causes the compulsive…[Read more]

JULY 7 Reflection for the Day

What wonderful things could happen in my life if I could get rid of my natural impulse to justify my actions. Is honesty so deeply repressed under layers of guilt that I can’t release it to understand my motives? Being honest with ourselves isn’t easy. It’s difficult to search out why I had this or that impulse and,…[Read more]

JULY 6 Reflection for the Day

Some people in the Gamblers Anonymous Program feel that they can’t do the things they want to do. They doubt their own ability. But actually, every person has untapped ability. We’re children of God, which should give us a strong clue as to the infinite nature of our ability. As spiritual beings, we’re unlimited. We…[Read more]

JUNE 5 Reflection for the Day

The Gamblers Anonymous Program teaches me that not too many people can truthfully assert that they love everybody. Most of us have to admit that we’ve loved only a few, and that we’ve been quite indifferent to many. As for the rest, well, we’ve really disliked or hated them. We in Gamblers Anonymous find we need…[Read more]

JULY 4 Reflection for the Day

It’s time for me to become willing to do what is takes to recover my personal responsibility, even if that means giving over the financial reins to another. Just as there are paradoxes in the Steps – admitting my life’s unmanageability in order that it become manageable again, surrendering to a Higher Power in order…[Read more]

JULY 2 Reflection for the Day

During our days of active addiction, many of us displayed almost dazzlingly fertile powers of imagination. In no time at all, we could dream up more reasons – or excuses – for pursuing our addiction than most people use for all other purposes in their entire lives. When we first come to Gamblers Anonymous, our…[Read more]