TheRusticMystic

Before coming to NA, we used many excuses to justify our use of drugs:  “He yelled at me.”  “She said this.”  “My partner left.”  “I got fired.”  We used these same excuses for not seeking help for our drug problem.  We had to realize that these things kept happening because we kept using drugs.  Only when we made recovery our first priority did these situations begin to change.

We may be subject to the same tendency today, using excuses for not attending meetings and being of service.  Our current excuses may be of a different nature:  “I can’t leave my kids.”  “My vacation wore me out.”  “I have to finish this project so I can impress my boss.”  But still, if we don’t make recovery our first priority, chances are that we won’t have to worry about these excuses anymore.  Kids, vacations, and jobs probably won’t be in our lives if we relapse.

Our recovery must come first.  Job or no job, relationship or no relationship, we have to attend meetings, work the steps, call our sponsor, and be of service to God and others.  These simple actions are what make it possible for us to have vacations, families, and bosses to worry about.  Recovery is the foundation of our lives, making everything else possible.

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Just for today:  I will keep my priorities in order.  Number One on the list is my recovery.

Imagine what might happen if God gave us everything we wanted.  A fabulous new car, straight As, a triple salary raise—all ours without effort, just for the asking.

Now imagine the problems that come along with unearned riches, new luxury cars, and unmerited scholastic recognition.  What would we do with a huge salary raise that had been granted for no reason?  How would we handle our new financial responsibilities?  And how would we live up to that raise?  Could we ever make it appear that we deserve such pay when we know we don’t?

What about that fantastic new car?  Most come with expensive insurance premiums and hefty maintenance costs.  Are we prepared to care for what we’ve asked for?

Academic honors?  Could we perform like A students after we’d been given high marks we hadn’t earned?  What would we do if we were exposed as frauds?

When we talk to God, we need to remember that we live in the real world.  We earn rewards and learn to handle them as we do.  Confining our prayers to requests for knowledge of God’s will, the power to carry it out, and the ability to live with the consequences will ensure that we get no more than we can handle.

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Just for today:  I will pray only for knowledge of God’s will and the power to carry that out in the real world.

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Our program is based on the idea that the application of simple principles can produce profound effects in our lives.  One such principle is that, if we ask, our Higher Power will care for us.  Because this principle is so basic, we may tend to ignore it.  Unless we learn to consciously apply this spiritual truth, we may miss out on something as essential to our recovery as breathing is to life itself.

What happens when we find ourselves stressed or panicked?  If we have consistently sought to improve our relationship with our Higher Power, we’ll have no problem.  Rather than acting rashly, we will stop for a moment and briefly remind ourselves of particular instances in the past when our Higher Power has shown its care for us.  This will assure us that our Higher Power is still in charge of our lives.  Then, we will seek guidance and power for the situation at hand and proceed calmly, confident that our lives are in God’s hands.

“Our program is a set of principles,” our White Booklet tells us.  The more consistently we seek to improve our conscious appreciation of these principles, the more readily we will be able to apply them.

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Just for today:  I will seek to improve my conscious contact with the Higher Power that cares for me.  When the need arises, I know I will be able to trust in that care.

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Intimacy is the sharing of our innermost thoughts and feelings with another human being.  Many of us long for the warmth and companionship intimacy brings, but those things don’t come without effort.  In our addiction, we learned to guard ourselves from others lest they threaten our using.  In recovery, we learn how to trust others.  Intimacy requires us to lower our defenses.  To feel the closeness intimacy brings, we must allow others to get close to us—the real us.

If we are to share our innermost selves with others, we must first have an idea of what those innermost selves are truly like.  We regularly examine our lives to find out who we really are, what we really want, and how we really feel.  Then, based on our regular inventories of ourselves, we must be as completely and consistently honest with our friends as we can be.

Intimacy is a part of life, and therefore a part of living clean—and intimacy, like everything in recovery, has its price.  The painstaking self-scrutiny intimacy calls for can be hard work.  And the total honesty of intimacy often brings its own complications.  But the freedom from isolation and loneliness that intimacy brings is well worth the effort.

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Just for today:  I seek the freedom from isolation and loneliness that intimacy brings.  Today, I will get to know “the real me” by taking a personal inventory, and I will practice being completely honest with another person.

OUR BODY IS A MIRACLE AND MAGIC HAPPENS EVERY DAY DO LISTEN IN AND CONNECT WITH ME

Humility is a puzzling concept.  We know a lot about humiliation, but humility is a new idea.  It sounds suspiciously like groveling, bowing, and scraping.  But that’s not what humility is at all.  True humility is, simply, acceptance of who we are.

By the time we reach a step that uses the word “humbly,” we have already started to put this principle into practice.  The Fourth Step gives us an opportunity to examine who we really are, and the Fifth Step helps us accept that knowledge.

The practice of humility involves accepting our true nature, honestly being ourselves.  We don’t have to grovel or abase ourselves, nor must we try to appear smarter, wealthier, or happier than we really are.  Humility simply means we drop all pretense and live as honestly as we can.

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Just for today:  I will allow knowledge of my true nature to guide my actions.  Today, I will face the world as myself.

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When we take the Third Step, we decide to allow a loving Higher Power to guide us and care for us in our daily lives.  We make the decision to allow this guidance and care into our lives.  Some of us believe that, once we’ve made the Third Step decision, God leads us; from that point on, it’s just a matter of paying attention to where we are led.

The Third Step decision is an act of faith, and asking for God’s help is a way of renewing that act of faith.  Putting faith to work in our daily lives gives us all the courage and strength we need, because we know we have the help of a loving Higher Power.  We trust that our needs will be met.  We can tap into that faith and trust just by asking.

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Just for today:  I will remind myself that I’m not alone by asking my Higher Power for help each step of the way.

HOW ONE DAY IN MY LIFE CHANGED THE WAY I SEE THE WORLD AND TOOK ON CHALLENGES? What takes to be the change?

What do seers do? What is fortune telling?

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As our recovery progresses, we often reflect on what brought us to Narcotics Anonymous in the first place and are able to appreciate how much the quality of our lives has improved.  We no longer have to fear our own thoughts.  And the more we pray and meditate, the more we experience a calm sense of well-being.  The peace and tranquility we experience during our quiet times confirms that our most important needs—our spiritual needs—are being met.

We are able to empathize with other addicts and strengthen our conscience in the process.  We learn to avoid judging others and experience the freedom to be ourselves.  In our spiritual reflection, we intuitively find “the God within us” and see that we are in harmony with a Power greater than ourselves.

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Just for today:  I will reflect upon the gift of recovery and listen quietly for my Higher Power’s guidance.

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As our recovery progresses, we often reflect on what brought us to Narcotics Anonymous in the first place and are able to appreciate how much the quality of our lives has improved.  We no longer have to fear our own thoughts.  And the more we pray and meditate, the more we experience a calm sense of well-being.  The peace and tranquility we experience during our quiet times confirms that our most important needs—our spiritual needs—are being met.

We are able to empathize with other addicts and strengthen our conscience in the process.  We learn to avoid judging others and experience the freedom to be ourselves.  In our spiritual reflection, we intuitively find “the God within us” and see that we are in harmony with a Power greater than ourselves.

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Just for today:  I will reflect upon the gift of recovery and listen quietly for my Higher Power’s guidance.