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daily meditation

August 24, 2009
Seeking God's will
Page 246


"I will surrender my expectations, look to my Higher Power for guidance, and accept life."


In our active addiction, we usually did not pray for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry it out. On the contrary, most of our prayers were for God to get us out of the mess we had made for ourselves. We expected miracles on demand. That kind of thinking and praying changes when we begin practicing the Eleventh Step. The only way out of the trouble we have made for ourselves is through surrender to a Power greater than ourselves.

In recovery, we learn acceptance. We seek knowledge in our prayers and meditation of how we are to greet the circumstances that come our way. We stop fighting, surrender our own ideas of how things should be, ask for knowledge, and listen for the answers. The answers usually won't come in a flash of white light accompanied by a drum roll. Usually, the answers will come merely with a quiet sense of assurance that our lives are on course, that a Power greater than ourselves is guiding us on our paths.

We have a choice. We can spend all our time fighting to make things come out our way, or we can surrender to God's will. Peace can be found in accepting the ebb and flow of life.


Just for Today: We learn to be careful of praying for specific things.


Basic Text p. 45

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Avatar universal
i am moving this thread over to this forum
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/new_with_new_subject?forum_id=465
that way the people who are not interested do not have to see these everyday and the people who are interested know where to go

todays meditation is all about staying in the now, not looking back on the past, keeping ourselves present in today, cool stuff if you ask me
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thank you medhelp family for helping me through my failures!! peace and love
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Right back up
Page 281


"There is something in our self-destructive personalities that cries for failure."


Basic Text, p.77


"Poor me; woe is me; look at me, my life is such a mess! I've fallen, and no matter how hard I try, I continue to fail!' Many of us came to NA singing this sad refrain.

Life isn't like that anymore. True, sometimes we still stumble; at times we even fall. Sometimes we feel like we can't move forward in our lives, no matter how hard we try. But the truth of the matter is that, with the help of other recovering addicts in NA, we find a hand to pull us up, dust us off, and help us start all over again. That's the new refrain in our lives today.

No longer do we say, "I'm a failure and I'm going nowhere!' Usually, it's more like, "Rats! I hit that same bump in the road of life again. Pretty soon I'll learn to slow down or avoid it entirely!' Until then, we may continue to fall down occasionally, but we've learned that there's always a helping hand to set us on our feet again.


Just for Today: If I begin to cry failure, I'll remember there is a way to move forward. I will accept the encouragement and support of NA.

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September 26, 2009
Seeing ourselves in others
Page 280


"It will not make us better people to judge the faults of another."


Basic Text, p.37


How easy it is to point out the faults of others! There's a reason for this: The defects we identify most easily in others are often the defects we are most familiar with in our own characters. We may notice our best friend's tendency to spend too much money, but if we examine our own spending habits we'll probably find the same compulsiveness. We may decide our sponsor is much too involved in service, but find that we haven't spent a single weekend with our families in the past three months because of one service commitment or another.

What we dislike in our fellows are often those things we dislike most in ourselves. We can turn this observation to our spiritual advantage. When we are stricken with the impulse to judge someone else, we can redirect the impulse in such a way as to recognize our own defects more clearly. What we see will guide our actions toward recovery and help us become emotionally healthy and happy individuals.


Just for Today: I will look beyond the character defects of others and recognize my own.


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Avatar universal
remember 12step programs are not religious, you can take the God out and pray to whatever you have in your life that is keeping you clean
hope everyone has a wonderful day!




September 21, 2009
Prayer
Page 275


"Prayer takes practice, and we should remind ourselves that skilled people were not born with their skills."


Basic Text, p.45


Many of us came into recovery with no experience in prayer and worried about not knowing the "right words!' Some of us remembered the words we'd learned in childhood but weren't sure we believed in those words anymore. Whatever our background, in recovery we struggled to find words that spoke truly from our hearts.

Often the first prayer we attempt Is a simple request to our Higher Power asking for help in staying clean each day. We may ask for guidance and courage or simply pray for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out. If we find ourselves stumbling in our prayers, we may ask other members to share with us about how they learned to pray. No matter whether we pray in need or pray in joy, the important thing is to keep making the effort.

Our prayers will be shaped by our experience with the Twelve Steps and our personal understanding of a Higher Power. As our relationship with that Higher Power develops, we become more comfortable with prayer. In time, prayer becomes a source of strength and comfort. We seek that source often and willingly.


Just for Today: I know that prayer can be simple. I will start where I am and practice.

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942290 tn?1252618549
your an angel,mtgoat !!!
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230262 tn?1316645934
i am reading these...thanks for posting!!!!
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Avatar universal
September 15, 2009
Filling the emptiness
Page 269


". . .we think that if we can just get enough food, enough sex, or enough money, we'll be satisfied and everything will be alright."


Basic Text p.77


In our addiction, we could never get enough drugs, or money, or sex, or anything else. Even too much was never enough! There was a spiritual emptiness inside us. Though we tried as hard as we could to fill that emptiness ourselves, we never succeeded. In the end, we realized that we lacked the power to fill it; it would take a Power greater than ourselves to do that.

So we stopped using, and we stopped trying to fill the emptiness in our gut with things. We turned to our Higher Power, asking for its care, strength, and direction. We surrendered and made way for that Power to begin the process of filling our inner void. We stopped grabbing things and started receiving the free gift of love our Higher Power had for us. Slowly, our inner emptiness was being filled.

Now that we've been given our Higher Power's gift of love, what do we do with it? If we clasp that gift tightly to ourselves, we will smother it. We must remember that love grows only when it is shared. We can only keep this gift by freely giving it away. The world of addiction is a world of taking and being taken; the world of recovery is a world of giving and being given. In which world do we choose to live?


Just for Today: I choose to live in the fullness of recovery. I will celebrate my conscious contact with the God of my understanding by freely sharing with others that which has been freely shared with me.


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Avatar universal
i feel silly posting these meditations, i would like to contribute to medhelp in someway, oh well i have been called retarded on more than one occasion, so who cares if its a silly thread


September 05, 2009
Not hopelessly bad
Page 259


"I am grateful that I have a treatable disease, not a moral dilemma. I will continue applying the treatment for the disease of addiction by practicing the NA program. "


For many of us, Narcotics Anonymous was the answer to a personal puzzle of long standing. Why did we always feel alone, even in a crowd, we wondered? Why did we do so many crazy, self-destructive things? Why did we feel so badly about ourselves so much of the time? And how had our lives gotten so messed up? We thought we were hopelessly bad, or perhaps hopelessly insane.

Given that, it was a great relief to learn we suffered from a disease. Addiction-that was the source of our problems. A disease, we realized, could be treated. And when we treat our disease, we can begin to recover.

Today, when we see symptoms of our disease resurfacing in our lives, we need not despair. After all, it's a treatable disease we have, not a moral dilemma. We can be grateful we can recover from the disease of addiction through the application of the Twelve Steps of NA.


Just for Today: We find that we suffer from a disease, not a moral dilemma. We were critically ill, not hopelessly bad.

************************************************************************************************

theres hope everyone addiction is a treatable disease!!!
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Avatar universal
here is the meditation for today, but i wanted to also see if there was a meditation dedicated to loss of a friend, i am taking down my journal which was a news article about a friend who was shot and dumped last week, i would like to replace it with some type of spiritual liturature, so if anyone can share a good meditation or spiritual quote with me on grieving that would be great, for some reason these have really helped me stay clean over the past 5 yrs, no matter what i was going through it seems like these stupid little quotes have made a profound inpact on my life

September 04, 2009
Cluttered spirits
Page 258


"We try to remember that when we make amends we are doing it for ourselves. "


Basic Text p.40


As long as we still owe amends, our spirits are cluttered with things we don't need. We're carrying the extra load of an apology owed, a resentment held, or unexpressed remorse. It's like having a messy house. We could leave so we don't have to see the mess, or maybe just step over the piles of debris and pretend they aren't there. But ignoring the disorder won't make it disappear. In the end, the dirty dishes, the crumb-filled carpet, and the overflowing wastebaskets are still there, waiting to be cleaned up.

A cluttered spirit is just as hard to live with as a messy home. We always seem to be tripping over yesterday's leavings. Every time we turn around and try to go somewhere, there is something blocking our path. The more we neglect our responsibility to make amends, the more cluttered our spirits become. And we can't even hire someone to clean up. We have to do the work ourselves.

We gain a deep sense of satisfaction from making our own amends. Just as we would feel after we've cleaned our homes and have time to enjoy a bit of sunshine through sparkling windows, so will our spirits rejoice at our freedom to truly enjoy our recovery. And once the big mess is cleaned up, all we have to do is pick up after ourselves as we go along.


Just for Today: I will clear away what's cluttering my spirit by making the amends I owe.

***************************************************************************************************

i guess the biggest amend i have to offer my family and myself is getting clean, i believe it is called a living amends
addicts seem to go through peoples life like a destuctive forest fire, some of the bridges i burned could only be fixed once i took the drugs out
after all how can i appoligize for behavior i exhibited, if i am still taking the exact thing that made me act like a arse in the first place



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Avatar universal
i am a little burned out with this meditation book, but there maybe someone here at medhelp who would like to keep reading these daily meditations, so i will try my best to keep these going
if you are new to recovery, welcome, this is my way  of sharing how i have stayed clean over the last 5 years

September 03, 2009
Humility expressed by anonymity
Page 257


"Recovery is its own reward; I don't need to have mine approved of publicly. I will maintain and cherish my anonymity. "


Many of us may not have understood the idea that "anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions." We wondered how this could be. What does anonymity have to do with our spiritual life?

The answer is, plenty! By guarding and cherishing our anonymity, we earn spiritual rewards beyond comprehension. There is great virtue in doing something nice for someone and not telling anyone about it. By the same token, resisting the impulse to proudly announce our membership in NA to the world-in effect, asking everyone to acknowledge how wonderful we are-makes us value our recovery all the more.

Recovery is a gift that we've received from a Power greater than ourselves. Boasting about our recovery, as if it were our own doing, leads to prideful feelings and grandiosity. But keeping our anonymity leads to humility and feelings of gratitude. Recovery is its own reward; public acclaim can't make it any more valuable than it already is.


Just for Today: Humility is a by-product that allows us to grow and develop in an atmosphere of freedom and removes the fear of becoming known by our employers, families, or friends as addicts.

***************************************************************************************************

i can relate to this, when i first got clean i told my employer i was in recovery, went out of my way to let people i used to use with know that i was clean, i was also spending a good bit of time convincing my family that i was now a changed women
i started placing value on my privacy after i told a neighbor i was in recovery who later spred the news like gossip, now i only tell those who are activly involved in my life,
i no longer spin my wheels trying to prove how much better i am without drugs, its wasted energy
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September 02, 2009
Higher Powered
Page 256


"Daily practice of our Twelve Step program enables us to change from what we were to people guided by a Higher Power."


Basic Text p.83


Who have we been, and who have we become? There are a couple of ways to answer this question. One is very simple:

We came to Narcotics Anonymous as addicts, our addiction killing us. In NA, we've been freed from our obsession with drugs and our compulsion to use. And our lives have changed.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg. Who have we really been? In the past, we were people without power or direction. We felt like we had no purpose, no reason for living. Our lives didn't make any more sense to us than they did to our families, our friends, or our neighbors.

Who are we really becoming? Today, we are not merely clean addicts, but people with a sense of direction, a purpose, and a Power greater than ourselves. Through daily practice of the Twelve Steps, we've begun to understand how our addiction warped our feelings, motivations, and behavior. Gradually, the destructive force of our disease has been replaced by the life-giving force of our Higher Power.

Recovery means more than cleaning up-it means powering up. We have done more than shed some bad habits; we are becoming new people, guided by a Higher Power.

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September 01, 2009
Real values
Page 255


"We become able to make wise and loving decisions based on principles and ideals that have real value in our lives."


Basic Text p.101


Addiction gave us a certain set of values, principles we applied in our lives. "You pushed me" one of those values told us, "so I pushed back, hard." "It's mine" was another value generated by our disease. "Well, okay, maybe it wasn't mine to start with, but I liked it, so I made it mine' Those values were hardly values at all-more like rationalizations-and they certainly didn't help us make wise and loving decisions. In fact, they served primarily to dig us deeper and deeper into the grave we'd already dug for ourselves.

The Twelve Steps give us a strong dose of real values, the kind that help us live in harmony with ourselves and those around us. We place our faith not in ourselves, our families, or our communities, but in a Higher Power-and in doing so, we grow secure enough to be able to trust our communities, our families, and even ourselves. We learn to be honest, no matter what-and we learn to refrain from doing things we might want to hide. We learn to accept responsibility for our actions. "It's mine" is replaced with a spirit of selflessness. These are the kind of values that help us become a responsible, productive part of the life around us. Rather than digging us deeper into a grave, these values restore us to the world of the living.


Just for Today: I am grateful for the values I've developed. I am thankful for the ability they give me to make wise, loving decisions as a responsible, productive member of my community.

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Gratitude
Page 253


"Hopeless living problems have become joyously changed. Our disease has been arrested, and now anything is possible."


Basic Text p.102


The NA program has given us more freedom than we ever dreamed possible. Sometimes, though, in the daily routine, we lose track of how much we've been given. How, exactly, have our lives changed in Narcotics Anonymous?

The bottom line of recovery, of course, is freedom from the compulsion to use. No longer must we devote all our resources to feeding our addiction. No longer must we endanger, humiliate, or abuse ourselves or others just to get the next "fix:' Abstinence itself has brought great freedom to our lives.

Narcotics Anonymous has given us much more than simple abstinence-we've been given a whole new life. We've taken our inventory and have identified the defects of character that bound us for so long, keeping us from living and enjoying life. We've surrendered those shortcomings, taken responsibility for them, and sought the direction and power we need to live differently. Our home group has given us the personal warmth and support that helps us continue living in recovery. And topping all this off, we have the love, care, and guidance of the God we've come to understand in NA.

In the course of day-to-day recovery, we sometimes forget how much our lives have changed in Narcotics Anonymous. Do we fully appreciate what our program has given us?


Just for Today: Recovery has given me freedom. I will greet the day with hope, grateful that anything is possible today.

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Don't look back
Page 251


"The steps offer "a big change from a life dominated by guilt and remorse. Our futures are changed because we don't have to avoid those who we have harmed. As a result... we receive a new freedom that can end isolation."


Basic Text p.38


Many of us come to Narcotics Anonymous full of regrets about our past. Our steps help us begin to resolve those regrets. We examine our lives, admit our wrongs, make amends for them, and sincerely try to change our behavior. In doing so, we find a joyous sense of freedom.

No longer must we deny or regret our past. Once we've made our amends, what's done is truly over and gone. From that point on, where we come from ceases to be the most important thing about us. It's where we are going that counts.

In NA, we begin to look forward. True, we live and stay clean just for today. But we find that we can begin to set goals, dream dreams, and look ahead to the joys a life in recovery has to offer. Looking forward keeps us centered in where we are going, not remorseful or regretful about our past. After all, it is hard to move forward if we are looking back.

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i missed a few days of meditaions, maybe if i keep posting them it will help me remember to read them, if any of you read daily meditations please share with me here
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August 26
Tenth Step Inventory
"We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."

Step Ten

A daily Tenth Step keeps us on a sound spiritual footing. While each member asks different questions, some questions have been found to be helpful to almost everyone. Two key Tenth Step questions are, "Am I honestly in touch with myself, my actions, and my motives? And have I prayed for God's will for me and the power to carry it out?" These two questions, answered honestly, will lead us into a more thorough look at our day.

When focusing on our relationships with others, we may ask, "Have I harmed anyone today, either directly or indirectly? Do I need to make amends to anyone as a result of my actions today?" We keep it simple in our inventory if we remember to ask, "Where was I wrong? How can I do it better next time?"

NA members often find that their inventories include other important questions. "Was I good to myself today? Did I do something for someone else and expect nothing in return? Have I reaffirmed my faith in a loving Higher Power?" Step Ten is a maintenance step of the NA program. The Tenth Step helps us to continue living comfortably in recovery.

Just for today: I will remember to review my day. If I have harmed another, I will make amends. I will think about how I can act differently.
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August 25
The Ninth Step - Reclaiming Life
"We are achieving freedom from the wreckage of our past."

Basic Text p. 45

When we start the Ninth Step, we've reached an exciting stage in our recovery. The damage done in our lives is what led many of us to seek help in the first place. Now, we have a chance to clean up that wreckage, amend our past, and reclaim our lives.

We've spent a long time and much effort preparing for this step. When we came to NA, facing the debris of our past was probably the last thing we wanted to do. We started doing it privately with a personal inventory. Then, we opened our past up to the scrutiny of a select, trusted few: ourselves, our Higher Power, and one other person. We took a look at our shortcomings, the source of much of the chaos in our lives, and asked that all those defects of character be removed. Finally, we listed the amends needed to set our wrongs right - all of them - and became willing to make them.

Now, we have the opportunity to make amends-to acquire freedom from the wreckage of our past. Everything we've done so far in NA has led us here. At this point in the process of our recovery, the Ninth Step is exactly what we want to do. With the Twelve Steps and the help of a Higher Power, we are clearing away the rubble that for so long has stood in the way of our progress; we are gaining the freedom to live.

Just for today: I will take advantage of the opportunity to reclaim my life. I will experience freedom from the wreckage of my past.
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