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JFT June 6 Recovery doesn't happen overnight
(Preview)
"The Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous are a progressive recovery process established in our daily living." Basic Text, p. 99 = After some time in recovery, we may find we are faced with what seem like overwhelming personal problems, angry feelings, and despair. When we realize wh...
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Dave R
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2
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412
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JFT June 5 Honest prayer
(Preview)
"Although honesty is difficult to practice, it is most rewarding." Basic Text, p. 96 = 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...
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Dave R
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1
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308
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JFT June 4 Build, don't destroy
(Preview)
"Our negative sense of self has been replaced by a positive concern for others."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 tha...
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Dave R
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1
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290
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JFT June 3 Direct and indirect amends
(Preview)
"We make our amends to the best of our ability." Basic Text, p. 40 = The Ninth Step tells us to make direct amends wherever possible. Our experience tells us to follow up those direct amends with long-lasting changes in our attitudes and our behavior--that is, with indirect amends. F...
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Dave R
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1
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296
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When does support cross the line?
(Preview)
I am new to NA - the problem, the process, the whole thing. My husband of 4 years had told me about his addiction and recovery that occurred 11+ years ago - and besides him, I have never had anyone in AA or NA in my daily life. He had a relapse in January of this year while he was out of town visiting a friend - h...
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Blindsided1206
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3
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376
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JFT June 2 Sick and tired
(Preview)
"We wanted an easy way out.... When we did seek help, we were only looking for the absence of pain." Basic Text, p. 5 = Something's not working. In fact, something's been wrong for a long time, causing us pain and complicating our lives. The problem is that, at any given moment, it alway...
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Dave R
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1
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333
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JFT June 1 Keep coming back
(Preview)
"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 Anonymous." Basic Text, pp. 10-11 = Very few of us arrive in NA brimmin...
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Dave R
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1
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465
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JFT May 31 Keep it simple
(Preview)
"We live a day at a time but also from moment to moment. When we stop living in the here and now, our problems become magnified unreasonably." Basic Text, p. 99 = Life often seems too complicated to understand, especially for those of us who've dodged it for so long. When we stopped using...
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Dave R
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1
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267
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I'm glad I'm here
(Preview)
Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a while. Most of you know I have been struggling for a long time with staying clean, anger, depression etc but today I am a new person. I have been going to outpatient rehab for a couple months now and it's going great. While I'm there I see a therapist once a week to wo...
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LizC
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5
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385
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JFT May 30 Loneliness vs. being alone
(Preview)
"Sharing with others keeps us from feeling isolated and alone." Basic Text, p. 85 = 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...
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Dave R
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1
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269
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JFT May 29 Carry me
(Preview)
"We believe that our Higher Power will take care of us." Basic Text, p. 58 = 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 l...
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Dave R
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1
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289
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JFT May 28 As we understand
(Preview)
"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. 36 = 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. ...
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Dave R
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1
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356
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JFT May 27 Meeting the day's challenge
(Preview)
"...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...
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Dave R
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1
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603
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JFT May 26 The power in the group
(Preview)
"Our understanding of a Higher Power is up to us.... We can call it the group, the program, or we can call it God." Basic Text, p. 24 = Many of us have a hard time with the idea of a Higher Power until we fully accept the depth of our own powerlessness over addiction. Once we do, most of us are at l...
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Dave R
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2
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327
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No more hate
(Preview)
So an extreme violation of trust by Someone given a second chance has rocked my family. The level and degree of deceit is shocking. What is surprising is how I feel. No hate to speak of just sorrow. Especially for those closest to the situation.
I lived with the hate for so long it was debilitating. Onl...
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Davethewave
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4
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395
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JFT May 25 "Good" and "bad" feeling
(Preview)
"A lot happens in one day, both negative and positive. If we do not take time to appreciate both, perhaps we will miss something that will help us grow." IP No. 8, Just for Today = Most of us seem to unconsciously judge what happens in our lives each day as good or bad, success or failure. W...
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Dave R
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1
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269
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JFT May 24 Risking vulnerability
(Preview)
"As we grow, we learn to overcome the tendency to run and hide from ourselves and our feelings." Basic Text, p. 85 = Rather than risk vulnerability, many of us have developed habits that keep others at a safe distance. These patterns of emotional isolation can give us the feeling we are h...
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Dave R
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1
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342
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Service at the Group Level
(Preview)
I am the Vice Chair of my Home Group. There was a heated discussion and the Chair stepped down for the rest of the meeting to have an opinion. My question is Can the Chair step back into position? Am I automatically positioned as Chair-or does the Group as a Whole have to discuss the behavior??? And mo...
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jamieb7518
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3
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382
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JFT May 23 Amends and sponsors
(Preview)
"We want to be free of our guilt, but we don't wish to do so at the expense of anyone else." Basic Text, p. 40 = Let's face it: Most of us left trails of destruction in our wakes and harmed anyone who got in our way. Some of the people we hurt most in our addiction were the people we loved most. I...
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Dave R
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1
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284
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JFT May 22 Symptoms of a spiritual awakening
(Preview)
"The steps lead to an awakening of a spiritual nature. This awakening is evidenced by changes in our lives." Basic Text, p. 49 = We know how to recognize the disease of addiction. Its symptoms are indisputable. Besides an uncontrollable appetite for drugs, those suffering exhibit...
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Dave R
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1
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311
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JFT May 20 Coming out of isolation
(Preview)
"We find ourselves doing and enjoying things that we never thought we would be doing." Basic Text, p. 102 = 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 non-addict...
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Dave R
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2
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373
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JFT May 22 Keep coming bacl!
(Preview)
"Meetings keep us in touch with where weve been, but more importantly, with where we could go in our recovery." Basic Text, p. 56 = In many ways, addicts are different. When we came to Narcotics Anonymous we found others like ourselves, people who understood us and whom we could underst...
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Dave R
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1
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296
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JFT May 19 A growth inventory
(Preview)
"We review our past performance and our present behavior to see what we want to keep and what we want to discard." Basic Text, p. 29 = As each day winds to a close, many of us reflect on the past twenty-four hours and consider how we can live differently in the future. It's easy for our though...
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Dave R
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1
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292
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JFT May 18 Friends and amends--keeping it simple
(Preview)
"We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others." Step Nine = In every relationship, we don't always handle things the way we would have hoped. But friendships don't have to end when we make mistakes; instead, we can make amends....
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Dave R
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1
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385
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JFT May 17 "Defects"
(Preview)
"We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character." Step Six = After taking the Fifth Step, many of us spend some time considering "the exact nature of our wrongs" and the part they'd played in making us who we were. What would our lives be like without,...
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Dave R
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1
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277
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JFT May 16 Our Higher Power's will
(Preview)
Page 142 "God's will for us becomes our own true will for ourselves." Basic Text, p. 48 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 con...
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Mike M
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1
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309
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JFT May 15 Fear of the Fourth Step
(Preview)
"As we approach this step, most of us are afraid that there is a monster inside of us that, if released, will destroy us." Basic Text, p. 27 = Most of us are terrified to look at ourselves, to probe our insides. We're afraid that if we examine our actions and motives, we'll find a bottomless...
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Dave R
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1
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326
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JFT May 14 Oops!
(Preview)
"Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." Basic Text, p. 23 = Mistakes! We all know how it feels to make them. Many of us feel that our entire lives have been a mistake. We often regard our mistakes with shame or guilt--at the very least, with frustr...
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Dave R
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1
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358
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JFT May 12 Living with spiritual experiences
(Preview)
' "For meditation to be of value, the results must show in our daily lives." Basic Text, p. 47 = In working our program, we are given many indirect indications of a Higher Powers presence in our lives: the clean feeling that comes to so many of us in taking our Fifth Step; the sense that we are f...
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Dave R
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1
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304
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JFT May 13 Onward on the journey
(Preview)
"The progression of recovery is a continuous uphill journey." Basic Text, p. 83 = The longer we stay clean, the steeper and narrower our path seems to become. But God doesn't give us more than we can handle. No matter how difficult the road becomes, no matter how narrow, how winding the...
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Dave R
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1
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290
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