One Day at a Time in Al-Anon:
In Al-Anon we hear many warnings against harboring resentment. It is a rare person who does not yield to resentment when he feels wronged by someone. Or we resent our fate, our bad luck, our lot in life.
No amount of self-discipline can heal us of resentment. Sometimes it seems the more we struggle against it, the more it sneaks up on us, surging like a dark sickness into the mind, plunging our emotions into turmoil.
We know it’s destructive; we may earnestly want to free ourselves from it. What can we do?
First we think of our own personal good. Does it hurt the person we are resenting? Or does it hurt us? Then we reflect that this damaging emotion comes from not understanding its cause. Let’s dissect it and find out what, inside us, made us react the way we did.
Today’s Reminder:
I have no room for resentment in my new Al-Anon way of life. I will not fight it with grim determination, but will reason it out of existence by calmly uncovering its cause. An Al-Anon member wrote: “The best antidote for resentment is the continual practice of gratitude.”
“Nothing on earth consumes a man more completely than the passion of resentment.” — Friedrich Nietzsche