Welcome to the Central Coast Area of Narcotics Anonymous
Serving: Paso Robles, Cambria, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, Santa Maria, Lompoc
Just for today daily meditation
The spiritual core of our disease is self-centeredness. In dealing with others, the only motive our addiction taught us was selfishness--we wanted what we wanted when we wanted it. Obsession with self was rooted in the very ground of our lives. In recovery, how do we root self-obsession out?
We reverse the effects of our disease by applying a few very simple spiritual principles. To counteract the self-centeredness of our addiction, we learn to apply the principle of goodwill. Rather than seeking to serve only ourselves, we begin serving others. Rather than thinking only about what we can get out of a situation, we learn to think first of the welfare of others. When faced with a moral choice, we learn to stop, recall spiritual principles, and act appropriately.
As we begin "doing the right thing for the right reason," we can detect a change in ourselves. Where once we were ruled by self-will, now we are guided by our goodwill for others. The chronic self-centeredness of addiction is losing its hold on us. We are learning to "practice these principles in all our affairs"; we are living in our recovery, not in our disease.
A Spiritual principle a day
Though not all of us arrive in NA with tons of willingness and enthusiasm to change everything about our lives, we tend to be open enough to try something different. We're here, aren't we? So we might as well take that "90 meetings in 90 days" suggestion. We get a home group and take on a commitment. We greet newcomers. With some effort and perseverance, we begin to work a program and to feel better, even renewed.
In time, many of us get to a point where those feelings of renewal get old. The well dries up. We aren't having daily epiphanies of self-realization. Our life is more stable, sure, but is it still getting better? Do we have to keep doing the NA "same old, same old": hearing the same shares, reading the same literature, drinking the same weak tea or bitter coffee?
"Don't leave before the miracle," we've heard our fellow members say time and again. While many of us don't believe in miracles, per se, our experience has shown us that if we stay--stay in the room, stay open-minded, stay available to another addict, stay clean--our lives will continue to improve. And we will be better prepared for those times when life's unpredictability presents us with challenges.
We never know where we're going to hear just what we need to help us through our next phase of recovery. It's often in the meeting we really don't want to go to, the speaker we've heard a thousand times, or the phone call we begrudgingly answer. We may not have even noticed that we were stuck until a message moves us into action. When we can push through our resistance, especially when it comes to helping others, we reap enormous benefits for our spiritual growth. The miracle of this program is continually revealed to us through our perseverance.
WHAT IS THE NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS PROGRAM?
NA is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. This is a program of complete abstinence from all drugs. There is only one requirement for membership, the desire to stop using. We suggest that you keep an open mind and give yourself a break. Our program is a set of principles written so simply that we can follow them in our daily lives. The most important thing about them is that they work.
For more information on Narcotics Anonymous,
please go to the:
Narcotics Anonymous World Services Website,
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