Many of us draw great comfort and strength from inspirational quotes and sayings. This Sober Toolbox is a space for sharing any favourite motivational words that lift your spirits and offer encouragement and support. If you're looking for more discussion, interactions and feedback, head inside our Members Feed. That's where the real-time conversations take place.
In the end it has always come down to one single thing. Choice. When we talk to ourselves with our inner voice, someone in that conversation has to be strong, honest and compassionate. We can be loved by many, provided so much support in so many ways. But it will always come down to yourself. You are the only one that can give you a victory over your addiction. It is hard. Hard emotionally, hard spiritually, and for me it was and is lonely. Each day was my fight, my honest conversation with myself. I had to be my best disciplinarian as well as my best friend. Part of what made my struggle so hard and twisted was how much I would browbeat myself when I relapsed. And I relapsed often. I would then begin again a slow but steady spiral into my darker self. In feeling bad, I would pour in more beer trying to feel better, only to feel worse. With time, and much older, my journeys with my drinking became progressively longer, darker, sadder, and it took so much more effort and mental gymnastics to climb out.
Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. – C.S. Lewis
Great quote !!
wow! thank you for sharing this
Early days for me but this hit home…
I am sorry for the
person I became.
I am sorry it took me
so long for me to change.
I am ready to be sure,
that I never become
that way again,
‘Cos who I am hates
who I’ve been.
If you don’t like the road you’re on, start paving a new one
I don’t know Who, or What, put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But, at some moment, I did answer Yes to Someone, or Something, and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender had a goal.
With That Moon Language
Admit something:
Everyone yo see, you say to them,
“Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud;
Otherwise,
Someone would call the cops.
Still though, think about this,
this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one
Who lives with a full moon in each eye
that is always saying
With that sweet moon
Language
What every other eye in this world
Is dying to
Hear.
-Hafez
I love my children more than I love my bottle
Love that!
Being happy does not mean every thing is perfect it means I have decided to see beyond the imperfections
You were GIVEN this life, because you are strong enough to live it!
Love the story
I feel like an eagle flying in the sky
Floating on the current soaring up on high
The power within me rushes through my veins
So I fly on even higher
My feathers wet with rain
My heart pumps louder
I feel like a new me
No more drinking
I feel I am set free
RUMI
I prayed for change, so I changed my mind
I prayed for guidance and learned to trust myself
I prayed for happiness and realised I am not my ego
I prayed for peace and learned to accept others unconditionally
I prayed for abundance and realised my doubt kept it out
I prayed for wealth and realised it is my health
I prayed for a miracle and realised I am the miracle
I prayed for a sole mate and realised I an the ONE
I prayed for love and realised it’s always knocking, but I have to allow it in
At a meeting the other night, I was 3 days out of rehab and afraid of a future where I might drink again. I was sat there, listening to the share, all feared up and drowning inside. Then, as if it was meant to be, the guy ended his share with this;
“Your attitude to recovery really depends on your relationship with fear. How do you define FEAR? Is it ‘F*** Everything And Run’, or ‘Face Everything And Recover’? Because the attitude you choose is the game-changer.”
This is not my work. It’s just something I really liked so I want 2 share it with ya’ll.
I drank for joy and became miserable.
I drank to be outgoing and became self centered.
I drank to be sociable and became lonely.
I drank for friendship and made enemies.
I drank to soften sorrow and wallowed in self-pity.
I drank for sleep and awakened without rest.
I drank for strength and felt weak.
I drank for relaxation and got the shakes.
I drank for confidence and felt unsure
I drank for courage and became afraid
I drank for assurance and became doubtful
I drank to forget thoughts and had blackouts
I drank for conversation and tied my tongue
I drank to be in heaven and I came to know hell
I drank to forget and became haunted
I drank for freedom and became a slave (of alcohol)
I drank to ease problems and saw them multiply
I drank to cope with life and invited death.
I drank because I had the ‘right’ to and everything turned out wrong.
Said this fellow, ‘It must have taken a bunch of booze to get you in this shape?
I said, ‘Just one. For me one is too many and a thousand isn’t enough.’
by Ruby Mae Heard
“To whom do I owe my greatest apology? No one has been crueler than I’ve been to me.”
Alanis Morissette
I like that one. So much truth to it.
“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”
-Napoleon Hill
“No one is ever too broken, too scarred, or too far-gone to create change. Never stop fighting. Never lose faith.”
“I may not be there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday. One step can make all the difference.”
-Unknown
“You’ve seen my descent. Now watch my rising.”
-No clue…
That is awesome, love it!!
I am a huge quotes guy so here’s one I really liked and I think relates to what we all are going through:
“If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.”
-Benjamin Alire Saenz
Course won’t be easy but we can do it.
“I find I’m so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at a start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”
-The Shawshank Redemption
@Wvlheel Classic movie, incredible quote.
This one I found in a book called Twelfth Angel. Not about alcohol or recovery but still inspirational.
“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
-Emile Coue
I saw another one I really liked while I was looking for the first quote:
“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.”
-Albert Schweitzer
I’ve only been on this site for a day but you all have rekindled my light.
I read tis on a recovery site, I wish I could credit the source. “When it comes to my addiction, I think genetics loaded the gun, but the decisions I made, my behavior, pulled the trigger.”
I will be as happy today as I make up my mind to be.
If we live with one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow we are pi**ing all over today.
i would say I found this page by fate as i was looking locally,im in NZ.i could do with ALOT of advice and guidence/abuse and hard words if needed.im hitting 40 in nov,have been a drinker and heavy smoker since about the age of 12 (smoking) 14-15(drinking)..i gave up tobacco 12mths ago now have a vapour they are just as bad!!but still tend to hide behind the booze…and as a result another relationship is starting to suffer…..if this site is the real deal and someone/people want to offer there words of wisdom/guidence or advice i will go into more detail on my situtation..thank you.
Wanted to share this with you all this morning…
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blessed,
but the seeds of all things are blessed.
The blessing is in the seed.
– Muriel Rukeyser
What motivates most of us far more than material success or recognition is our desire to be true to ourselves and live our lives in ways that demonstrate our personal values and beliefs
Hi everyone just checking in!
Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free. – anonymous
Thought I would share, this was on the wall in the room I was in while detoxing :
Serenity means that I no longer recoil from the past, live in jeopardy because of my behaviour now or worry about the unknown future. I seek regular times to re-create myself and I avoid those times of depletion which make me vulnerable to despair and to old self-destructive patterns.
Accepting change means that I do not cause suffering for myself by clinging to that which no longer exists. All that I can count on is that nothing will be stable – except how I respond to the transforming cycles in my life of birth, growth and death.
Which means remembering that to give up my attempts to control outcomes does not require I give up my boundaries or my best efforts. It does mean my most honest approach of the limits of what I can do.
Wisdom becomes the never forgotten recognition of all those times when it seemed there was no way out, and new paths opened up like miracles in my life.
And how did you get on?
Illegitimi non carborundum – Don’t let the bastards grind you down
I am in my 60’s and my sister gave me this quote when I was at school 45+ years ago. It has always been a great tool to recite when someone has said something that has upset me. I have said it to myself on many occasions and passed it on to others.
Life is too short, and too beautiful, so spend another day at war with yourself.
Want to find out who your true friends are? Get sober…
I can get through this!!!
I am enough.
please forward quotes my way. i will use alot in our discussions at our meetings
The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.
“Drunkiness reveals what soberness conceals”
‘However hard the evenings, the mornings never are’
I have never woken up sober and hangover-free wishing I’d been drunk the night before.
Thank you! I need to keep that in mind as I begin my journey. – Day one/.
So true. While I’ve done the reverse many, many times. Day 78 for me.
saying yes or saying no can change the trajectory of everything
One day at a time is my inspiration. Even after more than 14 years sober.
Wasn’t quite sue which section to put this in, but these are very inspirational
http://www.buzzfeed.com/shannonrosenberg/negativity-is-like-so-last-year?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BuzzFeed+114&utm_content=BuzzFeed+114+CID_cf4e17d88d61fe7c5f26c846d0066679&utm_source=BuzzFeed%20Newsletters&utm_term=.glBWqn7wkl#.emwJg0zjDL
If I do not change my way of thinking, my actions will not change.
If your not working on recovery, you’re working on a relapse.
If you remember today the mistakes from yesterday then you won’t repeat them tomorrow.
Nothing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real. – Deepak Chopra
Hello my new frenz. Looking foward to sharing & learning experiences about living sober. Happy dayz are here again…one day at a time…
Courage doesn’t always ROAR.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying.. “I will try again tomorrow”
-Mary Anne Radmacher
One of my favorites when I am on the fence about something is “Do or do not, there is no try” – YODA from Starwars