Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women

By Karen Casey

The Book of Spiritual Meditations that Pioneered the Women’s Recovery Movement 

"Karen Casey tells truth and tells it well."—Marianne Williamson

#1 New Release in Spiritual Meditations

First published in 1982, Karen Casey’s signature and genre-defining work, Each Day a New Beginning, broke ground as the first daily meditation book for women in alcoholism recovery. Forty years later, over four million copies have been sold and people around the globe continue to turn to this renowned classic for morning motivation, afternoon escape, and night-time reflection.

Engage with effective healing meditation practices. Karen Casey offers invaluable wisdom with every page, encouraging women in recovery to learn the art of compassion, acceptance, creativity and more. Spiritual meditation exercises are peppered throughout the book, allowing you to heal with each coming day. 

Recognize the importance of community in recovery. Recovery is not linear and absolute, but meandering and ambiguous. From personal experience, Karen Casey knows this to be true. In Each Day A New Beginning, inhabit a collective space for women in recovery for spiritual meditation, reflection, learning, and connection. 

Gain wisdom from exceptional female role models. Each day, enjoy an inspirational quote from extraordinary women, ranging from Anne Morrow Lindbergh to Dorothy Bryant to Evelyn Mandel. Meditation practices follow each quote, allowing you to supplement your healing experience with mindfulness exercises. 

Each Day a New Beginning is the perfect gift for women during any stage of their recovery journey. It is designed to help you: 

• Gain deeper insight into the recovery process
• Celebrate your personal strength and dedication towards recovery 
• Practice mindfulness through daily meditation exercises 

If spiritual meditation and daily affirmation books like Meditations on Self-Love, Badass Affirmations, or Practicing Mindfulness inspired you, you’ll love Each Day a New Beginning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781642507973

Karen Casey

Karen Casey has sold over 3 million books that draw upon meditations, motivations, and religion to guide and support women throughout the world. Based in Minneapolis since 1964, Casey is an elementary school teacher turned Ph.D. Casey published the first of twenty-eight books, Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women, with Hazelden Publishing in 1982. Casey has spoken to tens of thousands world-wide over her forty years as a writer. Through each new experience, her gratitude and commitment grow to continue doing what brings joy to her life. Additional notable works from Karen Casey include 52 Ways to Live the Course in Miracles: Cultivate a Simpler, Slower, More Love-Filled Life, Let Go Now: Embrace Detachment as a Path to Freedom, and A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance.

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Copyright © 2022 by Karen Casey.

Originally published in 1982 by Hazeldon.

Published by Conari, a division of Mango Publishing Group, Inc.

Cover Design: Elina Diaz

Cover Photo/illustration: radenmas.stock.adobe.com

Layout & Design: Elina Diaz

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The Twelve Steps are reprinted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint the Twelve Steps does not mean that Alcoholics Anonymous has reviewed or approved the contents of this publication, nor that AA agrees with the views expressed herein. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism. Use of the Twelve Steps in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after AA, but which address other problems, does not imply otherwise.

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Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2021952882

ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-796-6, (ebook) 978-1-64250-797-3

BISAC category code: SEL006000, SELF-HELP / Substance Abuse & Addictions / Alcohol

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

About the Author

Foreword

Each Day a New Beginning was first published in the early 1980s, the same period when I began giving lectures on A Course in Miracles. Those were days when spiritual seeking outside the confines of institutional religion was somewhat unique, even exotic. What Karen found in Alcoholics Anonymous, and I found in the Course, was a path to God that wasn’t waylaid by religious dogma.

Neither of us were seeking spiritual careers—at that time, neither one of us could even have imagined the books we would write or the lives we would one day live because of them. What we felt was simply despair with the lives we had been living, and deep yearning for something better. Both of us prayed to be shown another way, and both of us felt God heard us and responded.

What grew from Karen’s hunger to know God was a compilation of thoughts and reflections that became this book, a publishing wonder that has touched the lives of millions. In a world of falsehood it’s a friendly reminder of what’s deeply true. You can’t read it in the morning and not be prepared for a better day.

I know in my own life that I have a distinctly different day when I have meditated in the morning than on a day when I have not. In a world where we are tempted to reach first for the phone, or the computer, or some other electronic equipment or newspaper through which we chronically download our stressful input for that day, nothing is more powerful than to cultivate a different habit altogether. We can reach first for God. Instead of the phone next to your bed, you can keep a book of inspiration or meditation. And none would be better than the one you’re about to read.

French philosopher Blaise Pascal said every problem in the world stems from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. Between social media and the events of the day, our nervous systems are frayed, our impulse control is nil, and our minds are too often disordered. A book of meditations is like medicine for the soul. Daily thoughts such as those in Each Day a New Beginning are the salve we need, to remind us of who we are, why we’re here, and what is truly going on beyond the illusions of the world.

Each day’s meditation begins with a quote to savor, to think about, to reflect upon. Karen has clearly chosen them with purpose and with love, like a bit of inspiration she’s handing you just before you walk out the door. If we read them before we head into the day, we’re so much more prepared to endure and transform the day’s bustle. And that truly is a new beginning.

Karen Casey was desperate to find God when she first wrote this book; I share her hope that it will find its way into the hands of anyone searching now as she was searching all those years ago. May this edition itself be for her, and for them, a new beginning.

—Marianne Williamson

New York Times bestselling author and spiritual leader

Preface

For the Fortieth Anniversary Edition

of Each Day a New Beginning, 2022

I sit here today astounded to be writing a preface for the fortieth anniversary edition of my first book, Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women. I could not have imagined back in 1981, when I started penning (ballpoint penning, in fact), those thoughts that a book would come to fruition. My search was for God. I wasn’t intent on writing a book at all. But I needed to feel His presence and He seemed right there when I sat in my very old, hand-me-down brown recliner and put pen to paper. I never fully understood the process, but I simply didn’t question it, and let the flow of it carry me. And I knew, at an unspoken level, that God was carrying me, too, during those precious moments.

My own struggle to know God was paramount when I first entered the twelve-step rooms. I seemed to be surrounded by people who had the kind of relationship with God that I yearned for, but I simply didn’t understand how to make the connection. I read books, of course. One that meant so much was The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, a book given to me by my dear mother-in-law, Ruth, who worried so about me and my struggle to feel God’s presence. I loved Brother Lawrence’s words and felt warmly comforted while reading them, but then the magic would dissipate and I’d feel desperately alone again.

Another book that had an impact was On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear by Matthew Fox. Just make God your friend and companion, he said. His words were so gentle and accessible. I loved doing what he suggested and, while cozily sitting in my brown recliner, I felt like my friend showed up with words of encouragement day in and day out. But unfortunately, those words didn’t sustain me when I rejoined my husband or other friends. The sense of aloneness was the constant of my life.

What I have come to understand, and to treasure in my forty-six years of recovery, is that God was always carrying me, even before I believed in the concept of God. I love the realization I now have that He always believed in me whether I believed in Him or not. That’s the beauty of God, isn’t it? He can’t leave our side ever because He is always within us. He has no choice! And neither do we. Hallelujah.

That the writings that comprised Each Day a New Beginning ever became a book owes all to Harry Swift, the director of Hazelden at the time of my angst. I was working there, and for some reason (perhaps his assignment from God), he took an interest in my recovery and my life. I shared with him my struggle to connect with a Higher Power and told him about the writing I was doing to try to find Him. Surprisingly, he asked to see what I had written, and the rest is history, as they say. He was confident that other people might relate to my dilemma. I really hadn’t ever considered that. It wasn’t about my being selfish, but rather, I felt pretty sure that what I had to say wouldn’t mean anything to others. God and I were making a special connection. That’s all I knew. And I hungered for it daily.

No one was more surprised than me that, when the book was published in December of the following year, it flew off the shelves. And now more than 4 million copies later, it still strikes a chord with many people. I’m not so sure it’s due to any special wisdom I had then or have now, but my yearning to know God was felt and understood by many souls who were wandering the same path that so clearly had captivated me.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that even though we are all different in many respects, we are all the same, too. My words, throughout Each Day a New Beginning, really formulated by the God of my understanding, comforted so many—not just me. And that’s what we all have learned during our time on this planet: our words, our experiences, aren’t just for our sole edification, but for helping others, too.

That’s the real beauty of our lives. We are always here to be truly helpful, in one way or another. And let’s never forget that that’s our true assignment in this experience of living. I am simply so grateful that God called me to attention so many years ago to be His channel for a path many could follow. I am so glad he called me to attention again and again to sit and listen while He dictated the words that have filled all the books I have written since Each Day a New Beginning. I am grateful to know that there had to be the first book in order for me to continue trusting His words over and over again. And I thank each of you for joining me on this path of many words. I pray that our journey to wholeness and peace of mind continues, one day at a time.

Karen Casey, 2022

Introduction

For years I struggled to believe in my worth, my capabilities, my strength. And on many occasions I failed to meet the test. Because I didn’t understand the source of all strength and goodness, I turned to men first, and then to alcohol and drugs. I expected to find my security, but found instead an even deeper level of despair. In 1974 I found Al-Anon and two years later I walked through the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The program has given me roots where none existed before. It has given me courage to dare to do that which I shuddered before in years gone by. It has given me a sense of belonging to the human race. I no longer feel that I’m outside of the fishbowl looking in.

And the additional and very fortunate gift which has accompanied my program involvement is friendship with women. For years I had been leery of women, assuming they were after my boyfriends, husband, and lovers. I was always quite certain that women were not to be trusted. Coming together with women in meetings, hearing how much alike we all are, eased my anxieties. But more importantly, it offered me the opportunity to love women as sisters, as equal travelers on our parallel spiritual journeys.

From so many women these last few years I’ve received just the message I needed at the time. The more I’ve learned to turn in a woman’s direction as she speaks, the greater my desire has grown to hear what women in all walks of life, all experiences, all times in history, have said. Thus, it seemed only fitting when I wrote this book to let the wise words of many women—close at hand and far away, some recovering, some still suffering, some free from any particular struggles but who struggled nonetheless—set the tone for a book that speaks to us all. I’ve taken the liberty to quote from people who represent the full spectrum of feminine expression, believing that what is spoken by any one of us is sacred, meaningful, and necessary to the fuller development of at least one person someplace in time.

I wrote the meditations to complement the quote chosen for each day. So often I’ve needed to hear the right message in order to move forward when inside I was all a-jitter—something to center on which could invite the Spirit within to take charge for me. I hope these meditations may bridge whatever gap exists, on any one day in your life, between you and your Spirit. Their sole intent is to make life easier for you; to give you hope when all seems lost. Please accept each day’s meditation as an offering of my hand to you. I’ve learned that when we travel together, nothing is too great for us to bear. And each day can be a new beginning.

I want to offer my thanks to all women for making this book possible. The efforts of the women all around me to live, to survive, to succeed, gave me strength to push ahead one day at a time.

I offer a special thanks to a woman friend and excellent editor who smoothed the rough spots so these words could touch your life in a more certain way. To my family, friends, and spouse I say thanks for being patient when my writing took precedence over all else. My need was great to write a book that I believed was needed by my sister travelers on this journey we share.

January

January 1

We don’t always understand the ways of Almighty God—the crosses sent us, the sacrifices demanded… But we accept with faith and resignation the holy will with no looking back, and we are at peace.

—Anonymous

Acceptance of our past, acceptance of the conditions presently in our lives that we cannot change, brings relief. It brings the peacefulness we so often, so frantically, seek.

We can put the past behind us. Each day is a new beginning. And each day of abstinence offers us the chance to look ahead with hope. A power greater than ourselves helped us to find this program. That power is ever with us. When we fear facing new situations, or when familiar situations turn sour, we can look to that power for help in saying what needs to be said and for doing what needs to be done. Our higher power is as close as our breath. Conscious awareness of its presence strengthens us, moment by moment.

The past is gone. Today is full of possibilities.

With each breath I will be aware of the strength at hand.

January 2

I believe that true identity is found…in creative activity springing from within. It is found, paradoxically, when one loses oneself. Woman can best refind herself by losing herself in some kind of creative activity of her own.

—Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Creative activity might mean bird watching, tennis, quilting, cooking, painting, writing. Creative activity immerses us fully in the here and now, and at the same time it frees us. We become one with the activity and are nourished by it. We grow as the activity grows. We learn who we are in the very process of not thinking about who we are.

Spirituality and creativity are akin. There is an exhilaration rooted deep within us that is a lifeline to God. Creative activity releases the exhilaration, and the energy goes through us and out to others. We find ourselves and our higher power through the loss of our self-conscious selves while creating—a picture, a sentence, a special meal.

Creativity is a given. It is another dimension of the spiritual presence guiding us all.

I’ll get out of its way today.

January 3

Like an old gold-panning prospector, you must resign yourself to digging up a lot of sand from which you will later patiently wash out a few minute particles of gold ore.

—Dorothy Bryant

Sometimes we feel buried in sand, blocked, clogged, unable to move. Then we must remember that we are not alone. Help is at hand, if only we will ask for it. If we invoke our higher power, our source of spiritual strength can help us to believe that there is gold somewhere in all this sand, and that the sand itself is useful.

No one and no thing is good all the time. Let us remember that if we expect nothing but gold, we are distorting life, getting in our own way. We don’t want to falsify the texture of our lives; the homespun quality helps us to appreciate the gold when it appears.

I will find some gold among the sand today.

January 4

Once I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had made myself into one. I did not understand that wanting doesn’t always lead to action. Many of the women had been raised without the sense that they could mold and shape their own lives, and so, wanting to be an artist (but without the ability to realize their wants) was, for some of them, only an idle fantasy, like wanting to go to the moon.

—Judy Chicago

There are probably not many of us, in this recovery program, who grappled with life as straight on as Judy Chicago did. It is likely we didn’t understand that we could mold and shape our lives. How lucky we are to be learning that now with the help of the Twelve Steps and one another. Each day we are confronted with many opportunities to make responsible choices, reasonable decisions. These choices and decisions are the molders, the shapers, of who we are becoming. Our identity is strengthened each time we thoughtfully make a choice. The action we take through making each choice gives our identity more substance—our wholeness is guaranteed through these choices.

Many opportunities to make choices will arise today. I can be thoughtful and make choices that will lead to my greater wholeness.

January 5

Instead of concentrating on why we can’t do a thing, we would be wise to change our Yes, but… attitude to a more positive one. Saying yes means I really do want to change my life for the better.

—Liane Cordes

We truly can do these things that are our hearts’ pure desires. However, most of us look at the whole task and feel overwhelmed. We need, instead, to look at the task’s many parts. One part at a time, one day at a time, we can accomplish any goal we set for ourselves. I know a recovering woman who wrote a three-hundred-page dissertation, the final achievement to obtain her PhD. When asked at a meeting how she ever did it, her reply was, One word at a time. That’s wonderful advice. No matter how many goals were missed or plans dashed when we were still using, now that we are recovering, each of us can do whatever is in our hearts—if we do it little by little, not all at once, today.

Today, I will do one small task that will contribute toward

the achievement of a life goal.

January 6

There are as many ways to live and grow as there are people. Our own ways are the only ways that should matter to us.

—Evelyn Mandel

Wanting to control other people, to make them live as we’d have them live, makes the attainment of serenity impossible. And serenity is the goal we are seeking in this recovery program, in this life.

We are each powerless over others, which relieves us of a great burden. Controlling our own behavior is a big enough job. Learning to behave responsibly takes practice. Most of us in this recovery program have behaved irresponsibly for much of our lives. Emotional immaturity is slow to depart, but every responsible action we take gives us the courage for another—and then another. Our own fulfillment is the by-product of the accumulation of our own responsible actions. Others’ actions need not concern us.

Today, I will weigh my behavior carefully.

Responsible behavior builds gladness of heart.

January 7

The greatest gift we can give one another is

rapt attention to one another’s existence.

—Sue Atchley Ebaugh

We all want to matter to others. Very often in the past—and sometimes in the present—our behavior has screamed for the attention we seek from others. Perhaps, instead of trying to get attention, we ought to give it. The program tells us we have to give it away in order to keep it. Wisdom of the ages also dictates that in life there are no accidents. Those people close to us and those just passing through our lives have reason to be there. Giving attention to another’s humanity is our calling.

I will fully attend to another person I have occasion to be with today.

She will matter to me, and my attention will matter to her.

January 8

When people make changes in their lives in a certain area, they may start by changing the way they talk about that subject, how they act about it, their attitude toward it, or an underlying decision concerning it.

—Jean Illsley Clarke

Acting as if is powerful. It leads the way to a changed attitude. If we are self-conscious in crowds and fearful about meeting new people and yet act poised and extend our hands in friendship, we’ll not only behave in a new way, but feel good about it, too. Each act we take in this way brings us closer to the individual we are behaving like. Each positive change we make builds our self-esteem. Realizing that through our own actions we are becoming the kind of people we admire gives us the strength, in fact, encourages the excitement in us that’s needed to keep changing. Making positive changes in our lives is the stuff that comprises self-esteem. Each gain makes the next one easier to attempt.

I will accept an opportunity today to act as if

I can handle a situation I used to run from.

January 9

The Chinese say that water is the most powerful element, because it is perfectly nonresistant. It can wear away a rock and sweep all before it.

—Florence Scovel Shinn

Nonresistance, ironically, may be a posture we struggle with. Nonresistance means surrendering the ego absolutely. For many of us, the ego, particularly disguised as false pride, spurred us on to struggle after struggle. Can’t they see I’m right? we moaned, and our resistance only created more of itself. Conversely, flowing with life, bubbling with the ripples, giving up our ego, releases from us an energy that heals the situation—that smooths the negative vibrations in our path. Peace comes to us. We will find serenity each time we willingly humble ourselves.

Resistance is more familiar. Nonresistance means growth and peace.

I’ll try for serenity today.

January 10

A complete revaluation takes place in your physical and mental being when you’ve laughed and had some fun.

—Catherine Ponder

Norman Cousins, in his book Anatomy of an Illness, describes how he cured his fatal illness with laughter. Laughter recharges our entire being; every cell is activated. We come alive,