|
|
JFT November 15 Letting go
(Preview)
"Take my will and my life. Guide me in my recovery. Show me how to live."Basic Text, p. 26=How do we begin the process of letting our Higher Power guide our lives? When we seek advice about situations that trouble us, we often find that our Higher Power works through others. When we accept that we don...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
370
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 14 Not just surviving
(Preview)
"When we were using, our lives became an exercise in survival. Now we are doing much more living than surviving."Basic Text, p. 52="I'd be better off dead!" A familiar refrain to a practicing addict, and with good reason. All we had to look forward to was more of the same miserable existence. Our ho...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
500
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 13 Not perfect
(Preview)
"We are not going to be perfect. If we were perfect, we would not be human."Basic Text, p. 31=All of us had expectations about life in recovery. Some of us thought recovery would suddenly make us employable or able to do anything in the world we wanted to do. Or maybe we imagined perfect ease in our int...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
298
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 12 Our own story
(Preview)
When we honestly tell our own story, someone else may identify with us. Basic Text, p. 98 = Many of us have heard truly captivating speakers at Narcotics Anonymous conventions. We remember the audience alternating between tears of identification and joyous hilarity. Someday, we may think, I'...
|
Dave R
|
2
|
481
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 11 From surrender to acceptance
(Preview)
We surrender quietly and let the God of our understanding take care of us." Basic Text, p. 26 Surrender and acceptance are like infatuation and love. Infatuation begins when we encounter someone special. Infatuation requires nothing but the acknowledgment of the object of our infatuati...
|
Dave R
|
2
|
322
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 10 Fear or faith?
(Preview)
"No matter how far we ran, we always carried fear with us."Basic Text, p. 14=For many of us, fear was a constant factor in our lives before we came to Narcotics Anonymous. We used because we were afraid to feel emotional or physical pain. Our fear of people and situations gave us a convenient excuse t...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
311
|
|
|
|
|
How to address a 13th Stepper..??
(Preview)
Hello everyone, I am a male GSR for a group that has an old-timer (20+ years clean) who has been making women uncomfortable and our meeting has been slowly turning into all men. I was suspicious of what was going on...and then had my suspicions confirmed by a few female members and also an outside group...
|
poi
|
2
|
305
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 9 The best-laid plans
(Preview)
It is our actions that are important. We leave the results to our Higher Power. Basic Text, p. 91 = There's an old saying we sometimes hear in our meetings: If you want to make God laugh, make plans. When we hear this we usually laugh, too, but there's a nervous edge to our laughter. We wonder if all...
|
Dave R
|
2
|
356
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 8 Freed from insanity
(Preview)
"Do I believe it would be insane to walk up to someone and say, "May I please have a heart attack or a fatal accident?'"Basic Text, p. 24=We've heard it said that unless were in love, we can't remember what love feels like. The same could be said of insanity: Once we're freed of it, we may forget how trul...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
331
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 7 Feeling God's will
(Preview)
"I sincerely believed that a Higher Power could restore my sanity and that I would stop trying to figure out what God's will was, just accept things for what they were, and be grateful."=The longer we stay clean, the less surely we know what our Higher Powers will for us is--and the less it matters. Kno...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
331
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 6 Understanding humility
(Preview)
"Humility is a result of getting honest with ourselves."Basic Text, p. 36=Humility was an idea so foreign to most of us that we ignored it as long as we could. When we first saw the word "humbly" ahead in Step Seven, we may have figured it meant we had quite a bit of humiliation in store. Perhaps we chose...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
295
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 5 God's guidance
(Preview)
"Our Higher Power is accessible to us at all times. We receive guidance when we ask for knowledge of God's will for us."Basic Text, p. 95=It's not always easy to make the right decision. This is especially true for addicts learning to live by spiritual principles for the first time. In addiction, w...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
286
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 4 Exchaning love
(Preview)
"...we give love because it was given so freely to us. New frontiers are open to us as we learn how to love. Love can be the flow of life energy from one person to another."Basic Text, p. 105=Love given, and love received, is the essence of life itself. It is the universal common denominator, connecti...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
292
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 3 No matter what
(Preview)
"We eventually have to stand on our own feet and face life on its own terms, so why not from the start?"Basic Text, p. 88=Some of us feel that we should protect newcomers by telling them that, while everything used to be horrible, now that we're in recovery it's all wonderful. We feel that we might scare...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
298
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 2 Living with unresolved problems
(Preview)
"It makes a difference to have friends who care if we hurt."Basic Text, p. 56=For most of our problems, the solution is simple. We call our sponsor, pray, work the steps, or go to a meeting. But what about those situations where the burden is ongoing and there's no end in sight?Most of us know what it'...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
303
|
|
|
|
|
JFT November 1 Awakening
(Preview)
"God helps us as we help each other."Basic Text, p. 52=Our addiction caused us to think almost exclusively of ourselves. Even our prayers--if we prayed at all--were self-centered. We asked God to fix things for us or get us out of trouble. Why? Because we didn't want to live with the problems wed c...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
284
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 31 Our relationship with our higher power
(Preview)
"Ongoing recovery is dependent on our relationship with a loving God who cares for us and will do for us what we find impossible to do for ourselves."Basic Text, p. 99=Working the Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous gives us a fresh start in life and some guidance for living in the world. But the step...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
325
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 30 Courage
(Preview)
"Our newly found faith serves as a firm foundation for courage in the future."Basic Text, p. 96=Narcotics Anonymous is no place for the faint of heart! Facing life on life's terms without the use of drugs isn't always easy. Recovery requires more than hard work; it requires a liberal dose of cour...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
338
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 29 Living in the now
(Preview)
"Living just for today relieves the burden of the past and the fear of the future."Basic Text, pp. 94=Thoughts of how bad it was--or could be--can consume our hopes for recovery. Fantasies of how wonderful it was--or could be--can divert us from taking action in the real world. That's why, in Nar...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
293
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 28 Attitudes
(Preview)
"We can also use the steps to improve our attitudes."Basic Text, p. 55=Ever have a day when everything seems to be working against you? Do you go through periods when you are so busy taking people's inventories you can barely stand yourself? What about when you find yourself snapping at your cowo...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
343
|
|
|
|
|
HEY where have i been lol
(Preview)
Wandering the globe>? no Lost in a maze? almost Comatose? nearly well im still alive thats all i know good to see a few of you still hanging around. Im doing the Hep C harvoni right now its gotten rough and I had the Ablation done on my heart about 3 months ago so its been a roller coaster. I'll be back lat...
|
BigV
|
2
|
204
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 27 Living in the present
(Preview)
"We want to look our past in the face, see it for what it really was, and release it so we can live today."Basic Text, p. 29=For many of us, the past is like a bad dream. Our lives aren't the same any more, but we still have fleeting, highly charged emotional memories of a really uncomfortable past. The...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
279
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 26 The path to self-acceptance
(Preview)
"The most effective means of achieving self-acceptance is through applying the Twelve Steps of recovery."IP No. 19, Self-Acceptance=Our addiction has been a source of shame to many of us. We have hidden ourselves from others, sure that if anyone got to know who we really were they would reject u...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
301
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 25 Principles before personalities
(Preview)
"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."Tradition Twelve="Principles before personalities." Many of us chant these words along with the reader whenever the Twelve Traditions are read. The fact that these wo...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
297
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 24 Responsibility
(Preview)
We are not responsible for our disease, only for our recovery. As we begin to apply what we have learned, our lives begin to change for the better.Basic Text, p. 91=The further we go in recovery, the less we avoid responsibility for ourselves and our actions. By applying the principles of the Narc...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
287
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 23 Surrender
(Preview)
By surrendering control, we gain a far greater power.Basic Text, p. 44=When we were using, we did everything we could to run things our way. We used every scheme imaginable to bring our world under control. When we got what we wanted, we felt powerful, invincible; when we didn't, we felt vulne...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
328
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 20 Freedom to choose
(Preview)
Enforced morality lacks the power that comes to us when we choose to live a spiritual life.Basic Text, p. 45=In our active addiction, many of us lived our lives by default. We were unwilling or unable to make choices about how we wanted to act, what we preferred to do, or even where we would live. We...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
1167
|
|
|
|
|
New to NA (this site)
(Preview)
Hi All, I'm new to this particular site but not to NA. This site seems a bit inactive unless I'm doing something wrong. In the forum stats, it says there were 152 member views today alone and yet I don't see any posts for today. Is that common here? If so, I may choose a more active NA message board. Thanks al...
|
Eschia
|
6
|
267
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 19 Standing for something
(Preview)
...we could feel time, touch reality, and recognize spiritual values long lost to many of us.Basic Text, p. 88=In our active addiction, we were prepared to compromise everything we believed in just to get our hands on more drugs. Whether we stole from our families and friends, sold ourselves, or l...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
376
|
|
|
|
|
JFT October 18 We all belong
(Preview)
Although politics makes strange bedfellows, as the old saying goes, addiction makes us one of a kind.Basic Text, p. 87=What a mixture of folks we have in Narcotics Anonymous! In any given meeting on any given night, well find a variety of people who probably never would have sat down in a room togeth...
|
Dave R
|
1
|
312
|
|
|