Just for Today

[MajestyJo]

NA Just for Today readings are included in the Daily Readings.

I miss posting them, but not able to spend the extra time on the computer.

http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2

[MajestyJo]

NA Just For Today

The Big Picture

"All spiritual awakenings have some things in common. Common elements include an end to loneliness and a sense of direction in our lives."
Basic Text p. 48

Some kinds of spiritual experiences take place when we confront something larger than we are. We suspect that forces beyond our understanding are operating. We see a fleeting glimpse of the big picture and find humility in that moment.

Our journey through the Twelve Steps will bring about a spiritual experience of the same nature, only more profound and lasting. We undergo a continual process of ego-deflation, while at the same time we become more conscious of the larger perspective. Our view of the world expands to the point where we no longer possess an exaggerated sense of our own importance.

Through our new awareness, we no longer feel isolated from the rest of the human race. We may not understand why the world is the way it is or why people sometimes treat one another so savagely. But we do understand suffering and, in recovery, we can do our best to alleviate it. When our individual contribution is combined with others, we become an essential part of a grand design. We are connected at last.

Just for today: I am but one person in the entire scheme of things. I humbly accept my place in the big picture.

We are part of the whole. No one is greater than, no one is less than. May we continue to walk together on the road to recovery.

[MajestyJo]

Daily Recovery Readings – April 17
Just For Today
April 17
Priority: Meetings

“I initially felt that it would be impossible to attend more than one or two meetings a week. It just wouldn’t fit in with my busy schedule. I later learned that my priorities were [180] degrees reversed. It was the everything else that would have to fit into my meeting schedule.”
—Basic Text p. 204

Like today's reading, realized it too late or I would have called my friend Bert and gone to his group with him tonight.

He is AA, but a drug is a drug. A sure sign that I need a meeting is when I start to cuss, whether it is cussing out myself or another, quietly or verbally, it is still acting out in my dis-ease.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
April 23
A God Of Our Own Understanding

“Many of us understand God to be simply whatever force keeps us clean.”
Basic Text, p. 25

Some of us enter recovery with a working understanding of a Higher Power. For a lot of us, however, “God” is a troublesome word. We may doubt the existence of any sort of Power greater than ourselves. Or we may remember uncomfortable experiences with religion and shy away from “the God stuff.”

Starting over in recovery means we can start over in our spiritual life, too. If we’re not comfortable with what we learned when we were growing up, we can try a different approach to our spirituality. We don’t have to understand everything all at once or find the answers to all our questions right away. Sometimes it’s enough just to know that other NA members believe and that their belief helps keep them clean.

Just for today: All I have to know right now about my Higher Power is that it is the Power that helps keep me clean.

This reminds me of what a friend shared at a meeting many years ago. I came to recovery, I came to, and I came to believe that the program would work for me.

The God or the Higher Power is something that we each need to find for ourselves. I firmly believe it is a personal thing, something we each need to do for ourselves. I was raised in the church. I had to come to a new understanding and build a new relationship with God. For most of my life I walked in fear and felt that the wrath of God would strike me down any time. I had to find the Love of God. I had to find that I was lovable.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
April 25
Embracing Reality

“Recovery is a reality for us today”
Basic Text, p. 97

Pain and misery were realities in our using lives. We were unwilling either to accept our living situation or to change what was unacceptable in our lives. We attempted to escape life’s pain by taking drugs, but using only compounded our troubles. Our altered sense of reality became a nightmare.

Through living the program of Narcotics Anonymous, we learn that our dreams can replace our nightmares. We grow and change. We acquire the freedom of choice. We are able to give and receive love. We can share honestly about ourselves, no longer magnifying or minimizing the truth. We accept the challenges real life offers us, facing them in a mature, responsible way.

Although recovery does not give us immunity from the realities of life, in the NA Fellowship we can find the support, genuine care, and concern we need to face those realities. We need never hide from reality by using drugs again, for our unity with other recovering addicts gives us strength. Today the support, the care, and the empathy of recovery give us a clean, clear window through which to view, experience, and appreciate reality as it is.

Just for today: A gift of my recovery is living and enjoying life as it truly is. Today, I will embrace reality.

Had a smile when I read this, because my first thought was 8 months until Christmas. Yikes!

My reality is that I just finished dinner at 10:15 p.m. and this is suppose to be a morning meditation, or so I am lead to believe; which tells me, meditation is good any time. I am sitting here typing this out waiting for a pan of brownies to bake and anxiously awaiting for them to finish in the next 15 minutes, so I can take them out, let them cool and eat them. The reality is that I am a diabetic, and although some is good, more is not better, and I will have a WHOLE pan of brownies facing me when they are done. This is when I call on my God to give me the courage, strength and fortitude to give me the willingness to be willing to have that treat, a brownie, which does not constitute a 1/4 of the pan or 1/2 for me and the other 1/2 for when my son comes tomorrow. In the past it would be, he left, that's his problem, all the more for me. Chocolate and brownies can be just as much a drug as any other substance I choose to pick up. The fact that I can sit here and talk about it, and see it as something I need to control because I KNOW that I shouldn't have bought it in the first place. The fact that I debated with myself, told myself that I could manage not eating them all at once, and now that my son is no longer living with me, I didn't have to rush and eat my share so I didn't miss out, or he would eat mine and his, is all poppy cock and an excuse. I can have dark chocolate as a diabetic. Yet it is the amount of chocolate, I am pretty sure it doesn`t mean a whole pan of brownies as much as I would like to think so and as many times as I tell myself. One day I might even believe it, even if I don`t convince you. Thanks for letting me share.

[MajestyJo]

NA Just For Today

Are We Having Fun Yet?

"In time, we can relax and enjoy the atmosphere of recovery."

Basic Text, pp. 53-54

Imagine what would happen if a newcomer walked into one of our meetings and was met by a group of grim-faced people gripping the arms of their chairs with white knuckles. That newcomer would probably bolt, perhaps muttering, "I thought I could get off drugs and be happy."

Thankfully, our newcomers are usually met by a group of friendly, smiling folks who are obviously fairly content with the lives they've found in Narcotics Anonymous. What an enormous amount of hope this provides! A newcomer, whose life has been deadly serious, is strongly attracted by an atmosphere of laughter and relaxation. Coming from a place where everything is taken seriously, where disaster always waits around the next corner, it's a welcome relief to enter a room and find people who generally don't take themselves too seriously, who are ready for something wonderful.

We learn to lighten up in recovery. We laugh at the absurdity of our addiction. Our meetings—those rooms filled with the lively, happy sounds of percolating coffee, clattering chairs, and laughing addicts—are the gathering places where we first welcome our newcomers and let them know that, yes, we're having fun now.

Just for today: I can laugh at myself. I can take a joke. I will lighten up and have some fun today.

Recovery is life and death, and our life depends on our focusing on our recovery, yet we don't have to take ourselves so darn seriously. We can look at ourselves and look at the insanity of our disease and realize that just because we did and do silly things, doesn't mean we are stupid people, in fact far from it. We can lighten up and have fun and enjoy recovery and if we aren't, what are we doing wrong. We are given a second chance at life. Why are we not celebrating it?

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
May 16
Our Higher Power’s Will

“God’s will for us becomes our own true will for ourselves.”
Basic Text, p. 46

The Twelve Steps are a path to spiritual awakening. This awakening takes the form of a developing relationship with a loving Higher Power. Each succeeding step strengthens that relationship. As we continue to work the steps, the relationship grows, becoming ever more important in our lives.

In the course of working the steps, we make a personal decision to allow a loving Higher Power to direct us. That guidance is always available; we need only the patience to seek it. Often, that guidance manifests itself in the inner wisdom we call our conscience.

When we open our hearts wide enough to sense our Higher Power’s guidance, we feel a calm serenity. This peace is the beacon that guides us through our troubled feelings, providing clear direction when our minds are busy and confused. When we seek and follow God’s will in our lives, we find the contentment and joy that often elude us when we strike out on our own. Fear or doubt may plague us when we attempt to carry out our Higher Power’s will, but we’ve learned to trust the moment of clarity. Our greatest happiness lies in following the will of our loving God.

Just for today: I will seek to strengthen my relationship with my Higher Power. I know from experience that knowledge of my Higher Power’s will provides a sense of clarity, direction, and peace.

How the program works. I can't, the God of my understand can, and just for today I choose to ask for His good orderly direction accept it as a part of my life.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
May 20
Coming Out Of Isolation

“We find ourselves doing and enjoying things that we never thought we would be doing.”
Basic Text, p. 98

Active addiction kept us isolated for many reasons. In the beginning, we avoided family and friends so they wouldn’t find out we were using. Some of us avoided all nonaddicts, fearing moral backlash and legal repercussions. We belittled people who had “normal” lives with families and hobbies; we called them “uncool” believing we could never enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Eventually, we even avoided other addicts because we didn’t want to share our drugs. Our lives narrowed, and our concerns were confined to the daily maintenance of our disease.

Today, our lives are much fuller. We enjoy activities with other recovering addicts. We have time for our families. And we’ve discovered many other pursuits that give us pleasure. What a change from the past! We can live life just as fully as the “normal” people we once scorned. Enjoyment has returned to our lives, a gift of recovery.

Just for today: I can find pleasure in the simple routines of daily living.

We isolate our spirit as well as our bodies.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
May 27
Meeting The Day’s Challenge

“…the decision to ask for God’s help is our greatest source of strength and courage.” Basic Text, p. 26

A challenge is anything that dares us to succeed. Things new and unfamiliar serve as challenges, whether those things appear good or bad to us. We are challenged by obstacles and opposition from within ourselves and from without. New and difficult things, obstacles and opposition, all are a part of “life on life’s terms” Living clean means learning to meet challenge.

Many of us, consciously or unconsciously, took drugs to avoid meeting challenge. Many of us were equally afraid of failure and success. Each time we declined the day’s challenge, we suffered a loss of self-esteem. Some of us used drugs to mask the shame we felt. Each time we did that, we became even less able to meet our challenges and more likely to use.

By working the NA program, we’ve found the tools we need to successfully meet any challenge. We’ve come to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, a Power that cares for our will and our lives. We’ve asked that Power to remove our character defects, those things that made our lives unmanageable. We’ve taken action to improve our conscious contact with that Higher Power. Through the steps, we’ve been given the ability to stop using drugs and start living.

Each day, we are faced with new challenges. And each day, through working our program of recovery, we are given the grace to meet those challenges.

Just for today: I will ask my Higher Power to help me squarely meet today’s challenge.

If it wasn't for my Higher Power, I would not have made it through today. I am reading this after the fact, and it is nice to read it and have your day affirmed.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
May 30
Loneliness vs. Being Alone

“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.

Many of us came to Narcotics Anonymous out of the desperate loneliness of our addiction. After coming to meetings, we begin to make new friends, and often our feelings of loneliness ease. But many of us must contend with loneliness throughout our recovery.

What is the cure for loneliness? The best cure is to begin a relationship with a Higher Power that can help fill the emptiness of our heart. We find that when we have a belief in a Higher Power, we never have to feel lonely. We can be alone more comfortably when we have a conscious contact with a God of our understanding.

We often find deep fulfillment in our interactions with others as we progress in our recovery. Yet we also find that, the closer we draw to our Higher Power, the less we need to surround ourselves with others. We begin to find a spirit within us that is our constant companion as we continue to explore and deepen our connection with a Power greater than ourselves. We realize we are spiritually connected with something bigger than we are.

Just for today: I will take comfort in my conscious contact with a Higher Power. I am never alone.

We are never alone. It is up to be to reach out or take time to go within.

[MajestyJo]

Just For today
June 14
Maintaining Our Faith

“If we maintain our spiritual condition daily, we find it easier to deal with the pain and confusion.”
Basic Text, p. 92

When we first began searching for a Power greater than ourselves, many of us got stuck in old beliefs or ideas. These ranged from the fear of a punishing or vengeful God to no belief at all. Some of us felt we had done such terrible things that a loving Power would never have anything to do with us. Others were convinced that the “bad” things that happened to us would not have occurred if a loving Power had actually existed. It took time, effort, open-mindedness, and faith to acquire a working belief in a loving Higher Power that would guide us through life’s challenges.

Even after we come to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, our old ideas can come back to haunt us. Major setbacks in our lives and the insecurity such events can trigger may give rise to the return of our old, inadequate ideas about God. When this happens, we need to assure ourselves that our Higher Power has not abandoned us but is waiting to help us make it through the hard times in our recovery. No matter how painful our loss may be, we will survive our setback and continue to grow if we maintain the faith our program has given us.

Just for today: I have worked hard to build my faith in a loving, caring Higher Power that will guide me through life’s challenges. Today, I will trust that Power.

Faith in my God has allowed me to work through the fear I felt when I was told about my health issues.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
June 20
Meditation For Beginners

“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.”

We’re glad someone told us that, or many of us would have quit after a week or two of meditating. For the first few weeks, we may have sat each morning, stilled our thoughts, and “listened”, just as the Basic Text said-but “heard” nothing. It may have taken a few more weeks before anything really happened. Even then, what happened was often barely noticeable. We were rising from our morning meditations feeling just a little better about our lives, a little more empathy for those we encountered during the day, and a little more in touch with our Higher Power.

For most of us, there was nothing dramatic in that awareness – no bolts of lightning or claps of thunder. Instead, it was something quietly powerful. We were taking time to get our egos and our ideas out of the way. In that clear space, we were improving our conscious contact with the source of our daily recovery, the God of our understanding. Meditation was new, and it took time and practice. But, like all the steps, it worked – when we worked it.

Just for today: I will practice “listening” for knowledge of God’s will for me, even if I don’t know what to “listen” for yet.

Nice to get affirmation. I was talking to the owner of the Holistic Center and his assistant today on my way home from the doctor's.

We talked about this thing, taking time to listen after have put in a prayer request. We pray and then often go running off not waiting for the answer to catch up to us, and we keep praying and praying, when in fact, the answer has already been given. We either ignore it because we don't like the answer, we don't hear because we didn't listen, or our internal chatter is so loud, we can't hear our Higher Power's reply. Prayer is asking, meditation is listening for the answers. We don't need to put our life on hold waiting for God. He is on a different time table.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today
July 14
An “Inside Job”

“Social acceptability does not equal recovery.”
Basic Text, p.21

One of the first things that happens to many of us in recovery is that we start to look better. We get healthier; we bathe; we dress more appropriately. And without the goading of active addiction, many of us finally stop stealing, lying, and hustling. We start to look normal – just by removing the drugs.

Looking normal is very different than being normal. Acceptability in the eyes of the world is a benefit of recovery; it is not the same thing as recovery. We can enjoy the benefits of recovery, but we must take care to nurture their true source. Lasting recovery isn’t found in acceptance from others, but in the inner growth set in motion by the Twelve Steps.

Just for today: I know that looking good isn’t enough. Lasting recovery is an inside job.

I had to learn to go within instead of looking for something outside of myself to make me feel better. I was told that I need to heal from the inside out. A scar may heal on the surface, but it take a long time for it to heal internally. The roots run deep and I found them to be often connected to a lot of issues, past and present.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today August 10

Regular Prayer And Meditation

“Most of us pray when we are hurting. We learn that if we pray regularly, we won’t be hurting as often or as intensely.” Basic Text, p.44

Regular prayer and meditation are two more key elements in our new pattern of living. Our active addiction was more than just a bad habit waiting to be broken by force of will. Our addiction was a negative, draining dependence that stole all our positive energy. That dependence was so total, it prevented us from developing any kind of reliance on a Higher Power.

From the very beginning of our recovery, our Higher Power has been the force that’s brought us freedom. First, it relieved us of our compulsion to keep taking drugs, even when we knew they were killing us. Then, it gave us freedom from the more deeply ingrained aspects of our disease. Our Higher Power gave us the direction, the strength, and the courage to inventory ourselves; to admit out loud to another person what our lives had been like, perhaps for the first time; to begin seeking release from the chronic defects of character underlying our troubles; and, at last, to make amends for the wrongs we’d done.

That first contact with a Higher Power, and that first freedom, has grown into a life full of freedom. We maintain that freedom by maintaining and improving our conscious contact with our Higher Power through regular prayer and meditation.

Just for today: I will make a commitment to include regular prayer and meditation in my new pattern of living.

Without it I wouldn't have stayed clean and sober.

[MajestyJo]

Just For Today

August 12

Enough!

“Something inside cries out, ‘Enough, enough, I’ve had enough; and then they are ready to take that first and often most difficult step toward dealing with their disease.”

Basic Text, p.203

Have we really had enough? This is the crucial question we must ask ourselves as we prepare to work the First Step in Narcotics Anonymous. It doesn’t matter whether or not we arrived in NA with our families intact, our careers still working for us, and all the outward appearances of wholeness. All that matters is that we have reached an emotional and spiritual bottom that precludes our return to active addiction. If we have, we will be truly ready to go to any lengths to quit using.

When we inventory our powerlessness, we ask ourselves some simple questions. Can I control my use of drugs in any form? What incidents have occurred as a result of my drug use that I didn’t want to happen? How is my life unmanageable? Do I believe in my heart that I am an addict?

If the answers to these questions lead us to the doors of Narcotics Anonymous, then we are ready to move on to the next step toward a life free from active addiction. If we have truly had enough, then we will be willing to go to any lengths to find recovery.

Just for today: I admit that I have had enough. I am ready to work my First Step.

So many times I have said to myself, "Enough already!" When is enough, enough? When we get honest with ourselves, it isn't easy, we can see how we qualified long before we sought help.