BENEFITS:

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We can wake up in the morning, read for a few minutes in our
meditation book, and feel lifted. We can work a Step and often
notice and immediate difference in the way we feel and function.
We can go to a meeting and feel refreshed, talk to a friend and
feel comforted, or practice a new recovery behavior, such as
dealing with our feelings or doing something good for ourselves, and
feel relieved.

There are other benefits from recovery, though, that we don't see
immediately on a daily or even a monthly basis. These are larger
gains we make in our life.

Over the years, we can see tremendous rewards. We can watch
ourselves grow strong in faith.

We can watch the quality of our relationships improve with family,
friends, and spouses. We find ourselves growing steadily and gradually
in our capacity to be intimate and close, to give and receive.

We can watch ourselves grow in our careers. In our ability to be
creative, powerful, productive people, using our gifts and talents in a
way that feels good and benefits others.

The long-term progress is steady, but sometimes slow, happening in
increments and often with much forward and backward movement.
Enough days at a time of practicing recovery behaviors and pilling
up short-term gains leads to long-term rewards.