SURVIVAL

Definition of Survival: the state of continuing, an ordeal, or difficult circumstances.

Synonyms of Survival: continuity, durability, endurance, continuance, etc.

These notes are from recovery in AA and/or related 12 step programs. Readers are encouraged to click external links for more detail. We hope you find them helpful.

Love in fellowship.

Just as sacrifice means survival for the individual alcoholic, so does sacrifice mean unity and survival for the group and for A. A.’s entire Fellowship. False pride can be inflated through prestige but, by living Tradition Six, I receive the gift of humility instead.

Cooperation without affiliation is often deceiving. If I remain unrelated to outside interest, I am free to keep A. A. autonomous. Then the Fellowship will be here, healthy and strong for generations to come. –Daily Reflections | More…

In our belief, any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes wholly to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. Release from alcohol, and not flight from it, is our answer.

“Faith without works is dead.”
How appallingly true for the alcoholic!

For if an alcoholic fails to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he cannot survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he does not work, he will surely drink again, and if he drinks, he will surely die.  Then faith will be dead indeed.–As Bill Sees It p.188 | More…

People rescue someone by doing something they don’t want to do, or it’s not their business to do. Then they get angry and persecute the person. Then they walk away, feeling like a victim. Again. Many of us were survivors at one time.

We either genuinely didn’t have a choice or convinced ourselves we didn’t. So we clung to whoever and whatever came along our path.

You may have survived what you went through, but you’re not a survivor anymore. You’re living now. You’re living fully and freely. Choose what you want. –More Language of Letting Go/Melody Beattie | More…

Our spirituality has been the key for our people making it through all past tests. Our prayers are strong. Indian people have also been able to adjust to change and still keep their culture and spirituality. Today, we should be grateful to the Creator for the present and for the lessons of the past. May our future be guided by the Great Spirit. –Elders Meditations | More…