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Change and Growth

Just for Today - June 27

"When someone points out a shortcoming, our first reaction may be defensive. There will always be room for growth." Basic Text, p. 35

Surrendering Self-Will

Just for Today - June 26

"Our fears are lessened and faith begins to grow as we learn the true meaning of surrender. We are no longer fighting fear, anger, guilt, self-pity, or depression."

Basic Text p. 26

Not Just Lucky

Just for Today - June 25

"The process of coming to believe restores us to sanity. The strength to move into action comes from this belief."

Basic Text p. 24

Tolerance

Just for Today - June 24

"...ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."

Tradition Twelve

Surrender

Just for Today - June 23

"We didn't stumble into this fellowship brimming with love, honesty, open-mindedness, or willingness....When we were beaten, we became willing."

Basic Text, p. 20

Surrender may be the necessary foundation for recovery, but sometimes we fight it. Most of us look back after some clean time and wonder why on earth we fought so hard to deny our powerlessness when surrender is what finally saved our lives.

Accepting Life As It Is

Just for Today - June 22

"In our recovery, we find it essential to accept reality. Once we can do this, we do not find it necessary to use drugs in an attempt to change our perceptions."

Basic Text, p. 87

New Levels of Honesty

Just for Today - June 21

"We have been experts at self-deception and rationalization."

Basic Text, p. 27

Meditation for Beginners

Just for Today - June 20

"For some, prayer is asking for God's help; meditation is listening for God's answer. Quieting the mind through meditation brings an inner peace that brings us into contact with the God within us." Basic Text, pp.44-45

"Be patient when you're learning to meditate," many of us were told. "It takes practice to know what to ‘listen’ for."

A Sense of Humor

Just for Today - June 19

"We find that when we lose self-obsession, we are able to understand what it means to be happy, joyous, and free."

Basic Text, p.103

The laughter in our meetings often surprises the newcomer. As a group, we appreciate the healing that healthy laughter brings. Even if we are deeply troubled, the joy that often fills the meeting rooms allows us, for a time, to have some fun with our recovery. Through humor, we can be temporarily relieved of our obsession with self.

Indirect Amends

Just for Today - June 18

"Indirect amends may be necessary where direct ones would be unsafe or endanger other people."

Basic Text, p.40

When we used, we allowed nothing to stand in the way of that next high. As a result, many of us didn't always know precisely whom we had injured, either financially or emotionally. When it came time to make amends through our Ninth Step, we found that there were so many people we had victimized that we might never remember them all.

Walls

Just for Today - June 17

"Reaching out is the beginning of the struggle that will set us free. It will break down the walls that imprison us."

Basic Text, p.80

Many of us came to NA emotionally shattered. Years of using people and allowing them to use us had taken their toll on our ability to trust anyone, ourselves included. But the love and acceptance we found in Narcotics Anonymous encouraged us to reach out and get close to others.

Accepting Life

Just for today - June 16

"Some things we must accept, others we can change. The wisdom to know the difference comes with growth in our spiritual program."

Basic Text, p.92

It's relatively easy to accept the things we like-it's the things we don't like that are hard to accept. But remaking the world and everyone in it to suit our tastes would solve nothing. After all, the idea that the world was to blame for all our problems was the attitude that kept us using-and that attitude nearly killed us.

Resistance to Change

Just for today - June 15

"Many of us cling to our fears, doubts, self-loathing, or hatred because there is a certain distorted security in familiar pain. It seems safer to embrace what we know than to let go of it for the unknown."

Basic Text, p.33

Maintaining Our Faith

Just for today - June 14

"If we maintain our spiritual condition daily, we find it easier to deal with the pain and confusion."

Basic Text, p. 92

A Full Life

Just for today - June 13

"The program works a miracle in our lives....We become free to live." Basic Text, p. 11

A Vision of Hope

Just for today - June 12

"Yes, we are a vision of hope..."

Basic Text, p. 51

By the time we reached the end of our road, many of us had lost all hope for a life without the use of drugs. We believed we were destined to die from our disease. What an inspiration it was, then, coming to our first meeting and seeing a room full of addicts who were staying clean! A clean addict is, indeed, a vision of hope.

Living Clean

Just for today - June 11

"As we recover; we gain a new outlook on being clean.... Life can become a new adventure for us." Basic Text, p. 88

Changing Motives

Just for today - June 10

"When we finally get our own selfish motives out of the way, we begin to find a peace that we never imagined possible."

Basic Text, p. 44

Old Dreams Needn't Die

Just for today - June 9

"Lost dreams awaken and new possibilities arise."

Basic Text, p. 88

Most of us had dreams when we were young. Whether we dreamed of a dynamic career, a large and loving family, or travels abroad, our dreams died when our addiction took hold. Anything we ever wanted for ourselves was cast away in our pursuit of drugs. Our dreams didn't go beyond the next drug and the euphoria we hoped it would bring.

The Only Requirement

just for today - June 8

"This program offers hope. All you have to bring with you is the desire to stop using and the willingness to try this new way of life."

IP No. 16, "For the Newcomer"

Someone Who Believes In Me

Just for to day - June 7

"Just for today I will have faith in someone in NA who believes in me and wants to help me in my recovery."

Basic Text, p. 96

Not all of us arrive in NA and automatically stay clean. But if we keep coming back, we find in Narcotics Anonymous the support we need for our recovery. Staying clean is easier when we have someone who believes in us even when we don't believe in ourselves.

Recovery Doesn't Happen Overnight

Just for today - June 6

"The Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous are a progressive recovery process established in our daily living."                   Basic Text, p. 96

Honest Prayer

Just for today- June 5

"Although honesty is difficult to practice, it is most rewarding." Basic Text, p. 92

How difficult we find it to be honest! Many of us come to NA so confused about what really happened in our lives that it sometimes takes months and years to sort it all out. The truth of our history is not always as we have told it. How can we begin to be more truthful?

Build, Don't Destroy

Just for today - June 4

"Our negative sense of self has been replaced by a positive concern for others." Basic Text, p. 16

Spreading gossip feeds a dark hunger in us. Sometimes we think the only way we can feel good about ourselves is to make someone else look bad by comparison. But the kind of self-esteem that can be purchased at another's expense is hollow and not worth the price.

Direct and Indirect Amends

Just for today - June 3

"We make our amends to the best of our ability."

Basic Text, p. 40

Sick and Tired

Just for Today - June 2

"We wanted an easy way out.... When we did seek help we were only looking for the absence of pain."

Basic Text, p. 5

Keep Coming Back

Just for Today - June 1

"We don't have to be clean when we get here but, after the first meeting, we suggest that newcomers keep coming back and come back clean. We don't have to wait for an overdose or a jail sentence to get help from Narcotics."

Basic Text, p. 10

Loneliness vs. Being Alone

Just for Today - May 30

"Sharing with others keeps us from feeling isolated and alone."

Basic Text, p. 81

There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being lonely is a state of the heart, an emptiness that makes us feel sad and sometimes hopeless. Loneliness is not always alleviated when we enter into relationships or surround ourselves with others. Some of us are lonely even in a room full of people.

Carry Me

Just for Today - May 29

"We believe that our Higher Power will take care of us" Basic Text, p. 55

We all have times when it seems as though our lives are falling apart. There are days, or even weeks, when it seems that everything that can go wrong is going wrong. Whether it's the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, or the end of a relationship, we doubt that we'll survive the changes taking place in our lives.

As We Understand

Just for Today - May 28

"We examined our lives and discovered who we really are. To be truly humble is to accept and honestly try to be ourselves."

Basic Text, p. 35

As using addicts, the demands of our disease determined our personality. We could be whoever or whatever we needed to be in order to get our "fix." We were survival machines, adapting easily to every circumstance of the using life.

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