"The good times can also be a trap; the danger is that we may forget that our first priority is to stay clean."
Basic Text, p. 42
Things can get really good in our recovery. Perhaps we've found our "soul mate" built a rewarding career, started a family. Maybe our relationships with our family members have healed. Things are going so well, we barely have time to attend meetings. Perhaps we begin to reintegrate into society so successfully that we forget that we don't always react to situations like others do.
Maybe, just maybe, we've put some priorities ahead of themselves. Is meeting attendance still a priority with us? Do we still sponsor? Do we phone our sponsor? What step are we working? Are we still willing to drag ourselves out of bed at some ungodly hour for a Twelfth Step call? Do we remember to practice principles in all our affairs? If others in NA reach out to us, are we available? Do we remember where we came from, or have the "good times" allowed us to forget?
To stay clean, we must remember that we are only one drug away from our past. We stay grateful for the good times, but we don't let them divert us from our continuing recovery in Narcotics Anonymous.
Just for today: I'm grateful for the good times, but I've not forgotten from where I've come. Today, my first priority is staying clean and growing in my recovery.
Glad I read this topic today Yes, meetings are still a priority for me, and so is stepwork and fellowshipping. First I need to stay clean and be in recovery to be able to be in a relationship or to work at all. The very thing that I put ahead of my personal recovery is the next thing I get to lose. This has revealed itself through my personal experiences on a few occasions in my recovery.
Recovery comes first, and the rest of my life just happens once the Steps are the principles that I live by Just For Today. My sufficiency is of God
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"If we do an honest examination of exactly what we are giving, we are better able to evaluate the results we are getting."Chapter 10 - Emotional Pain - NA Way of Life.