Strengthening My Recovery: Meditations for Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families

A more realistic view of serenity is to think of it as a core of acceptance that already resides deep inside us;

As children, we learned to be critical of ourselves and to see ourselves as never being good enough.

For those of us who have children, we wanted to do it better but couldn’t find the language, often believing that praise would give them permission to stop trying. We had repeated the pattern, not realizing that the disappointment in their eyes mirrored our own childhood feelings.

We learned to keep our thoughts and yearnings to ourselves out of fear.

We told ourselves we were being babies, that we were over-reacting, that no one meant us harm: all our concerns were only in our heads. We just needed to toughen up and stop taking everything so seriously. Internalizing these messages for so long left us unable to claim our birthright of serenity, which would allow us to face life’s challenges in a

As part of this process, we begin to grieve and heal the losses we’ve experienced, both because of our own actions and the actions of those who raised us. We learn to give ourselves unconditional love and draw upon the energy of other ACAs and our Higher Power. We embrace this positive support system that can get us through our darkest days.

I will notice the messages replaying from my childhood. I will begin to lower their volume in my life until I can hear the voice of my authentic, True Self instead.

Many of us used to think that making important choices was reserved for those who knew what they were doing, but that wasn’t us. We almost fainted at the prospect of trusting our own intuition about what direction we should take in life. We felt we needed the help of others who were obviously more qualified. We had no faith in our ability to be ind

I understand that when I make a mistake, I don’t have to perpetuate my childhood abuse by beating myself up.