Recent investigations into the mind illustrate the power of Gratitude in the healing of chronic diseases. “Double Blind” drug trials have long baffled drug researchers when the placebo group often have similar recoveries to those taking real medicine. Speculation is that the minds of the placebo takers assume that it’s the real McCoy, which acts to reduce stress-producing hormones such as Cortisol, in turn, reducing inflammation and other symptoms.
The Big Book and our witness of the lives of fellow members tell us that we have no permanent cure from alcoholism, only a daily reprieve based upon the maintenance of our spiritual condition.
12 Steps and 12 traditions. “Learning daily to spot, admit, and correct these flaws is the essence of character-building, and good living Hazleton Betty Ford Center supports a webpage that extols the Gratitude practices of one of its long-term associates. He was told as a newcomer to get a notebook, write down ten things he was grateful for, and then add three new items on the list every day-He stopped numbering when passing 5,000 items for which he was thankful.” Is this an extreme practice or something we program people should all be emulating?
Our famous serenity prayer (formerly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi) but more recently credited to Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, of Union Theological Seminary), is the most consistently said prayer along with the Lord’s Prayer at most AA meetings across the country. The serenity “to accept the things I cannot change” has become the mantra of most program members granted any meaningful amount of sobriety when dealing with challenges small and large
The Big Book, and the 12 and 12, (twin Bibles of AA) both refer to gratitude although sparingly “….My health is better, I enjoy a fellowship which gives me a happier life than I have ever known, and my family joins me in daily expression of gratitude.” And more prescriptively, “Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. An honest regret for harms done, genuine gratitude for blessings received, and a willingness to try for better things tomorrow will be the permanent assets we shall seek.”
A sign hanging in The First Step House of Orange County, a men’s detox and recovery outreach, is much more unrestrained about the virtues of Gratitude-“Grateful people are happy people-those that aren’t, aren’t.”
To me, encouraging an “attitude of gratitude” in ourselves is a critical component of attaining the most important thing we as alcoholics have got to possess and that is a “…a daily reprieve based on the maintenance of our spiritual condition”. This is a crucial component of what the Twelve Steps of Alcoholic’s Anonymous wished to accomplish in our infamous Spiritual Awakening.
In my experience, the cultivation of an outlook of gratitude on life has involved in a more intentional approach and has become a cornerstone of my daily reflections, prayer, and meditation. An observer might describe my daily “gratitude” routine as a spiritual practice. My own experience of keeping a journal every day for five years, which among other disciplines, lists everything I can be grateful for from the previous day has produced enormous benefits in my happiness. I might even go so far as describe it as the “Peace which surpasses all understanding” referred to by Paul in Philippians 4:7.
More will be revealed 