NA JUST FOR TODAY - AUGUST 2014
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My sponsor and spiritual adviser told me, "You didn't get this way overnight, you don't get better overnight. It is a process, one day at a time. Just for today, I choose not to use people, places, and things. I have to let go and allow myself to heal. |
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Gratitude Checklist 1. Did you wake up this morning? 2. Were you able to see when you opened your eyes? 3. Were you able to stretch any part of your body (your whole body or your arms or your legs)? 4. Were you sleeping on a bed? 5. Did you have a sheet and or blanket covering you during the night? 6. Were you wearing a night shirt or pj’s to keep you warm (if you wanted to)? 7. Did you have something available to eat when you woke up? 8. Was the sun shining outside and/or was there snow on the ground and/or was it raining outside? 9. Did you have a bathroom available to use? 10. When you counted your fingers and toes this morning were they all there? 11. Are you finding yourself able to breathe? 12. When you turned on your computer this morning did it work? 13. Is your electricity working? 14. If it is cold outside, do you have heat today? 15. Is there at least one person in this world who you care about? 16. Is there at least one person in this world who cares about you? 17. Is there a place nearby where you can take a walk, or if you are in a wheelchair, is there a place outside where you can go for a stroll in your chair? 18. Do you have access to a phone or email? 19. Do you have Internet access? 20. Are there phone or in-person meetings you can go to this Thanksgiving if you are alone? 21. Is there a book you haven’t read yet that you could get your hands on today and enjoy? 22. Is there a child you love that you could call on the phone and say hello to? 23. Is there someone in your neighborhood or calling range who could use a hello who you could reach out to so they will have a better Thanksgiving Day? 24. If you have to work today, will you have the opportunity to smile at, enjoy, and delight others who you come in contact with? 25. If you are alone today, is there someone you can reach out to in friendship, kindness, or love? 26. If you are alone today, can you for a moment at least, enjoy the stillness, the quiet time, the peace? 27. If you are cooking for a whole lot of people, can you enjoy the opportunity to bring your attitude of gratitude and your joy of recovery to those you love, not through telling them about it, but just through your state of being? 28. If you are exceptionally tired right now, can you feel that exhaustion and know it is a sign of being very much alive and a part of this world? 29. If you have people you’ve lost, can you feel the gratitude for what they gave you during your time together? 30. If you have people in your life who are alive but caught in the throes of addiction, can you think of a happy time you shared or of something you love about them regardless of their habit, and be grateful for that? 31. If so many things are going right in your life, but something really big is very wrong and it’s shaken your world, can you acknowledge that thing, breathe through it, know it is there, and spend at least a few moments whenever you can to put your focus on the things that are going right? 32. Do you have a pet you love or did you have one who brought you joy that you can remember in gladness and gratitude for the gifts he or she gave you? 32. Can you think of at least five other things to be grateful for today? (start by thinking of your five senses and go from there) Put this here because I had no gratitude before recovery. My attitude was that the world owed me a favour and aren't I so hard done by. No thought that I could over come life's situations let alone that they were often of my own creation and that i had a disease of perception. You may be tired of hearing me saying it, but as my sponsor use to say "A grateful alcoholic/addict will never have a reason to pick up." It doesn't matter if your drug was liquid, solid, powdered or the flesh and blood variety, it all leads to the same soul sickness. |
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With me, what you see is what you get. If you met me in person, you would know me. That is why I had difficulty not getting out to meetings. My friend B. is celebrating next Friday and has asked me to go with him. I think it is the big 3 0, this year, or the one just before it. I am going to make the effort even though it isn't wheel chair accessible and has lots of stairs. I know it will put me down for the count for a couple of days, but that is okay, I choose to support him. I am responsible when anyone anywhere who reaches out for help, I want the hand of recovery to be there, no matter what fellowship it is. I qualify for a lot of them. I found that they are all based on AA, so try to keep it basic. It isn't the substance that is the problem, it is the thoughts behind why I used and what took me to active addiction, and kept me on the insanity of active addiction, until I came to a decision to change and found the willingness to reach out and ask for help. I was addicted to pills (dried up alcohol), alcohol, food, men, work, relationships, gambling (Nevada Tickets and Bejewelled 1, 2, and 3) and my computer, or any other person, place or thing that becomes 'more' and I know I am in addiction, and heading for a relapse. When you walk into a meeting of recovery, you are taking the first part of Step One. |
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A very good reason to go to a meeting and call your sponsor. |
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Over the years in recovery, I can still feel that enough is enough already. That means back to basics and Step One. As they say in Al-Anon, "Let It Begin With Me." It isn't about someone else,it is about me and my recovery. |
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My sponsor told me that I would learn two things at a meeting, how to work your program and how not to walk your program. I like the fact that I don't do hissy fits much any more and I don't go up one side and down the other and tear strip's off with my tongue. My tongue is for healing today and no longer a weapon. I was one of those difficult people. I am a walking miracle. I was one of the really sick ones. |
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If I tell myself I can't, there is a good chance that I won't. |
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I know if you tell the truth, you don't have to remember which lie you told at any given time. For the most part I was truthful, unless I figured the person didn't want to hear the truth. I have softened it if it was going to hurt someone. Like a lady asking me if her dressed looked good on her and did I like it? I would say things like, the colour looks good one you or like the way the skirt fits you, anything other than telling her I thought it was ugly. You don't have to put someone down to make yourself right. The person I lied to was myself, self-honesty took time. The blanket of denial seemed to be the easiest way to cover up and not deal with reality. |
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The issue that can get to me is my son, that he may O.D. and choose to carry the message, "To use is to die." |
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The Spirit of the Fellowship, will not keep you clean and sober, if you don't learn to apply the program to your life. Your p;rogram can be anything you feel you need for your recovery. How can you change if you don't know what is there? How can you change if nothing changes? I found myself reflected in the people around me, especially in the rooms of recovery. https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...s81kAc5GWnHQpQ |
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I am reminded of Tradition 7, Every N.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. The Traditions are applicable to our life outside of any group we go to. I was told they belonged in my home, my work, and the community. I have taken many studies and gone to many groups, but on thinking, it would hurt to have a review. My sponsor told me it wasn't all about giving money, it is about giving time and energy too. If you don't have $2. someone else will give for you, and you can be supporting in other ways. Just being at a meeting, is giving. It isn't all about taking, occupying a chair and not getting involved in your home group. Unless you didn't know, it is about being in the kitchen and setting up the meeting and taking it down. For me it was about my group, but the highest service position was Hospitals and Institution Chair in NA and General Service Rep in AA. I went to AA because of my denial about my alcoholism, in NA I knew I was an addict, no questions there. |
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The 12 Steps are a tool to a spiritual way of life. They are a healing tool that not only helps in my growth, but heals my past, and allows me to make the decision to not use, just for today. |
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When I pray, I ask for what I need for my Higher Good and for what is good for the whole, not just me, but the people around me. |
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The steps we do in order, but Steps 10, 11, and 12 are maintenance steps, the kept me in today and in the moment. |
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