Narcotics Anonymous, Bangladesh, Turag (2026)

03/08/2022

Just For Today

August 3

Trusting people

“Many of us would have had nowhere else to go if we could not have trusted NA groups and members.”

Basic Text, p. 84

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Trusting people is a risk. Human beings are notoriously forgetful, unreliable, and imperfect. Most of us come from backgrounds where betrayal and insensitivity among friends were common occurrences. Even our most reliable friends weren’t very reliable. By the time we arrive at the doors of NA, most of us have hundreds of experiences bearing out our conviction that people are untrustworthy. Yet our recovery demands that we trust people. We are faced with this dilemma: People are not always trustworthy, yet we must trust them. How do we do that, given the evidence of our pasts?

First, we remind ourselves that the rules of active addiction don’t apply in recovery. Most of our fellow members are doing their level best to live by the spiritual principles we learn in the program. Second, we remind ourselves that we aren’t 100% reliable, either. We will surely disappoint someone in our lives, no matter how hard we try not to. Third, and most importantly, we realize that we need to trust our fellow members of NA. Our lives are at stake, and the only way we can stay clean is to trust these well-intentioned folks who, admittedly, aren’t perfect.

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Just for today: I will trust my fellow members. Though certainly not perfect, they are my best hope.

03/08/2022

Spiritual Principle A Day

AUGUST 3

Unity in Our Shared Purpose
Our ability to survive as a fellowship and to reach others depends on our unity.

—It Works, Tradition One, “Applying spiritual principles”

We bring all our old beliefs with us when we come to NA. Being intolerant and even hostile to people from different backgrounds may have been part of our identity when we were using. Some of us held prejudices based on race, ethnicity, or culture. Others held negative views about certain religious or nonreligious beliefs or sexual and gender identities. Our judgments about age, disability, income, and even what neighborhoods people lived in influenced how we felt about them.

It takes time to realize that our old ways of thinking may not serve us in this new life. And it takes even more time to change our thinking and behavior. We often encounter opportunities for growth as we do service in NA. One member shared about bumping heads with a fellow home‐group member. “He was so rigid and seemed to be against anything I was for,” the addict grumbled. Many of us have found ourselves similarly frustrated.

Especially in early recovery, it’s almost a reflex to assume that our way is best and they— whoever “they” may be—must be wrong.

Fortunately, our sponsors can talk us down from that tree. They help us see that we’ve taken it for granted that others should think, feel, and communicate as we do. As we get to know people from a variety of backgrounds, we start to see the value of our inclusivity. Life is more interesting when viewed from multiple perspectives. We adopt a mindset of goodwill, and unity shows us how to put we before me as we focus on our common welfare. United by the ties that bind us together, we let go of our prejudices and embrace diversity as an asset.

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I need NA to thrive, so today I will choose to practice the principle of unity by letting go of my old ideas and accepting all my fellow members.

01/08/2022

Just For Today

August 1

Freedom from guilt

“Our addiction enslaved us. We were prisoners of our own mind and were condemned by our own guilt.”

Basic Text, p. 7

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Guilt is one of the most commonly encountered stumbling blocks in recovery. One of the more notorious forms of guilt is the self-loathing that results when we try to forgive ourselves but don’t feel forgiven.

How can we forgive ourselves so we feel it? First, we remember that guilt and failure are not links in an unbreakable chain. Honestly sharing with a sponsor and with other addicts shows this to be true. Often the result of such sharing is a more sensible awareness of the part we ourselves have played in our affairs. Sometimes we realize that our expectations have been too high. We increase our willingness to participate in the solutions rather than dwelling on the problems.

Somewhere along the way, we discover who we really are. We usually find that we are neither the totally perfect nor the totally imperfect beings we have imagined ourselves to be. We need not live up to or down to our illusions; we need only live in reality.

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Just for today: I am grateful for my assets and accept my liabilities. Through willingness and humility, I am freed to progress in my recovery and achieve freedom from guilt.

01/08/2022

Spiritual Principle A Day

AUGUST 1

The Power of Creative Action

Creative action keeps us moving forward.

—Guiding Principles, All Will Be Well

One way for us to examine the power of creative action is to take a clear look at its spiritual polar opposite: destruction. In our active addiction, instead of building up our lives, we knocked them down. We demolished relationships, careers, and property. We self‐ destructed, harming our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. In many cases, our destructiveness resulted in losing our freedom.

As melodramatic as it may sound, we can rise from the rubble, fumes, and bloodshed of our self‐destruction! We destroyed a lot, but we didn’t destroy everything. Because we’re alive and we’re clean, we have the opportunity to rebuild. Most simply, creative action is everything we do to reconstruct our lives and elevate our communities. It includes all the actions we take to build our self‐esteem, strengthen our relationships, and bolster our integrity.

It’s important to note that some of us use our creativity to build only our outsides—getting our looks back, doing our time and being released, finishing the degree, or retiring in style— but deny our spiritual needs. That neglect can lead us down a path of destruction. We may not relapse, but we risk destroying some of the good we’ve built in our time clean. The creative actions we take to stay engaged in our recovery, give of ourselves in service, and nurture a relationship with our Higher Power will sustain our spirits even as we thrive in other ways.

We will make mistakes and may experience massive failures beyond our control. We are bound to take actions that undermine our progress and hurt others. We aren’t perfect. But, again, we can rebuild. Our capacity to engage in creative action during times of adversity is key to our progress. Learning how to be grateful for life’s hard‐hitting lessons is the ultimate protection against our destructiveness.

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I’m going to take this moment to examine my destructive tendencies. Today I’ll find an opportunity to consciously and creatively prevent them from taking over.

31/07/2022

Just For Today

July 31

Freedom from active addiction

“Narcotics Anonymous offers only one promise and that is freedom from active addiction, the solution that eluded us for so long.”

Basic Text, p. 106

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NA offers no promises other than freedom from active addiction. It is true that some of our members meet with financial success in recovery. They buy nice houses, drive new cars, wear fine clothes, and form beautiful families. These outward signs of prosperity are not the lot of all of our members, however. A great many of us never achieve financial success. This does not necessarily reflect on the quality of our recovery.

When we are tempted to compare ourselves to these other, seemingly more affluent members, it is good to remember why we came to the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous. We came because our lives had fallen down around us. We were emotionally, physically, and spiritually defeated. Our Basic Text reminds us that “in desperation we sought help from each other in Narcotics Anonymous.” We came because we were beaten.

For addicts, even one day clean is a miracle. When we remember why we came to Narcotics Anonymous and in what condition we arrived, we realize that material wealth pales in comparison to the spiritual riches we have gained in recovery.

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Just for today: I have been given a spiritual gift greater than material wealth: my recovery. I will thank the God of my understanding for my freedom from active addiction.

31/07/2022

Spiritual Principle A Day

JULY 31

Simplicity Is Key!

Clarity and simplicity are keys to our message. Narcotics Anonymous, all

by itself, is enough. We promise freedom from active addiction.

—Guiding Principles, Tradition Ten, Opening Essay

Tradition Ten is pretty simple: Addicts have opinions, but NA does not. Topics like politics and religion create unnecessary controversy and conflict. While civic involvement and participation in our faith communities may certainly help us as individuals to get and stay clean, NA is mute on these topics. To maintain an atmosphere of recovery for everyone, we do our best to leave potential distractions at the door.

Relatedly, here’s a good one that we’ve heard often: “Narcotics Anonymous is a simple program for complicated people.” And then there’s this gem: “Opinions are like belly buttons. Everybody’s got one—but that doesn’t mean they’re useful.” While that statement may ring true, it’s not an NA “opinion,” so let’s move straightaway to the NA message.

Our NA message is clear and simple. Any of us can stop using and stay stopped. Our obsession to use will dissipate. And we can find a new way to live our lives. Freedom from active addiction is our only promise.

The program of NA has enough to keep us busy—no need to overcomplicate it. We have Steps, Traditions, and Concepts—twelve of each. We have spiritual principles. We have service, literature, and our Higher Power. We have a vision of making NA accessible to addicts around the world. And we have each other. We need each other to stay clean and to find freedom from active addiction and the complicated mess that goes along with it. Keep it simple.

One disease, one program, one promise.

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NA is enough to keep me clean and free. I’m grateful for all my human complexities, for the outside support I may have, and for the activities and worlds I engage with. But I need to keep my recovery simple. I can commit to that for my own healing—as well as for everyone else who’s seeking freedom in the room with me today.

30/07/2022

Just For Today

July 30

Regular inventory

“Continuing to take a personal inventory means that we form a habit of looking at ourselves, our actions, attitudes, and relationships on a regular basis.”

Basic Text, p. 42

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Taking a regular inventory is a key element in our new pattern of living. In our addiction, we examined ourselves as little as possible. We weren’t happy with how we were living our lives, but we didn’t feel that we could change the way we lived. Self-examination, we felt, would have been a painful exercise in futility.

Today, all that is changing. Where we were powerless over our addiction, we’ve found a Power greater than ourselves that has helped us stop using. Where we once felt lost in life’s maze, we’ve found guidance in the experience of our fellow recovering addicts and our ever-improving contact with our Higher Power. We need not feel trapped by our old, destructive patterns. We can live differently if we choose.

By establishing a regular pattern of taking our own inventory, we give ourselves the opportunity to change anything in our lives that doesn’t work. If we’ve started doing something that causes problems, we can start changing our behavior before it gets completely out of hand. And if we’re doing something that prevents problems from occurring, we can take note of that, too, and encourage ourselves to keep doing what works.

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Just for today: I will make a commitment to include a regular inventory in my new pattern of living.

30/07/2022

Spiritual Principle A Day

JULY 30

Open Mind, Open Heart, Open Spirit

Open‐mindedness leads us to the very insights that have eluded us during our lives.

—Basic Text, Chapter 9: Just for Today—Living the Program

When many of us arrive in NA, we fancy ourselves as reasonably open‐minded people. For one thing, many of us tried lots of different drugs! More seriously, we may have an anything goes or live and let live type of attitude and have been tolerant toward others who aren’t like us. But were our minds even a tiny bit open to others’ insights and opinions or to feedback about our behavior? Could we even listen? Were we able to admit that we might be wrong or didn’t know something? Did we believe that we needed to change—and even if so, did we believe we actually could? Probably not so much.

Our experience tells us that open‐mindedness is at the very foundation of change for us. While some NA members may insist that we have to “change everything about ourselves,” practicing open‐mindedness does not mean that everything we know—or think we know— is worthless. Instead, we gain some carefully wrought insight into what behaviors and perspectives we want to keep in our lives and what is no longer serving us today—and we learn to share these insights with others. Asking questions, listening to the answers, and then letting those answers resonate helps us to identify our old ideas and patterns, see our behavior more clearly, and act differently when it’s called for.

Open‐mindedness is also one of the most indispensable tools for carrying the message to other addicts and for having productive discussions regarding NA service. We learn to listen more to our sponsees and service buddies, rather than planning out what we want to say. In the process, hopefully, we grow more comfortable with the concept of I don’t know. As one member put it, “We’re not here to be right, we’re here to be better.”

Open‐mindedness prevents us from running away from problems, ourselves, and each other. Many of us believe that striving to be open‐minded keeps us closer to our Higher Power or to the higher self we want to be.

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I aim to keep my mind and my heart open. I will listen more and speak less. And I will allow my insights and opinions to evolve as my recovery does.

29/07/2022

Just For Today

July 29

Expectations

“As we realize our need to be forgiven, we tend to be more forgiving.”

Basic Text, p. 39

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Our behavior toward other people in our life is a mirror of our behavior toward ourselves. When we demand perfection of ourselves, we come to demand it from others around us, too. As we strive to repair and heal our lives in recovery, we may also expect others to work just as hard and to recover at the same pace as we do. And just as we are often unforgiving of our own mistakes, we may shut out friends and family members when they don’t meet our expectations.

Working the steps helps us understand our own limitations and our humanity. We come to see our failures as human mistakes. We realize that we will never be perfect, that we will, at times, disappoint ourselves and others. We hope for forgiveness.

As we learn to gently accept ourselves, we can start to view others with the same accepting and tolerant heart. These people, too, are only human, trying to do their best and sometimes falling short.

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Just for today: I will treat others with the tolerance and forgiveness I seek for myself.

29/07/2022

Spiritual Principle A Day

JULY 29

Being Prudent with Our Obligations
. . we learn to take on obligations thoughtfully to ensure that we can follow through on what we’ve promised.

—Living Clean, Chapter 6, “Money”

Looking back at our active addiction, most of us can see a clear theme: Moderation was not a strength for us. If something is enjoyable, worthwhile, valuable in any way—why not get as much as we possibly can of that thing? The fact that we never seem to be satisfied was a crippling weakness for most of us. We drew lines in the sand for ourselves over and over, and then we stumbled across them by doing things we said we would never do. In recovery, some of us find our lack of satisfaction can be almost like a hidden superpower: We raise the bar higher and higher for ourselves, leaping over past achievements by doing things we thought we could never do. Being difficult to satisfy can prompt some of us to achieve a lot in recovery.

However, we are still addicts, and we run the risk of spreading ourselves too thin. We may be inclined to think of prudence as being careful with our money, which is a difficult lesson most of us must learn at some point in our recovery. However, prudence can apply to any resource we have, including our time and attention. One member found himself struggling to fulfill his NA commitments because “people told me I could never say ‘no’ to NA requests.” He recalls his sponsor telling him, “If you’re feeling overcommitted, practice prudence by learning to say ‘no’ to NA requests that get in the way of fulfilling other commitments you’ve already made.”

Our disease tells us if one is good, more is better. Prudence helps us to say “no” or “not yet” when that positive, fulfilling thing we want to do or be doesn’t fit on our full plate. If we finish what we have, we can go back for seconds!

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I cannot be everywhere or do everything. I will practice prudence in my commitments by acknowledging my limitations.

28/07/2022

Just For Today

July 28

Secrets and intimacy

“We feared that if we ever revealed ourselves as we were, we would surely be rejected.”

Basic Text, p. 32

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Having relationships without barriers, ones in which we can be entirely open with our feelings, is something many of us desire. At the same time, the possibility of such intimacy causes us more fear than almost any other situation in life.

If we examine what frightens us, we’ll usually find that we are attempting to hide an aspect of our personalities that we are ashamed of, an aspect we sometimes haven’t even admitted to ourselves. We don’t want others to know of our insecurities, our pain, or our neediness, so we simply refuse to expose them. We may imagine that if no one knows about our imperfections, those imperfections will cease to exist.

This is the point where our relationships stop. Anyone who enters our lives will not get past the point at which our secrets begin. To maintain intimacy in a relationship, it is essential that we acknowledge our defects and accept them. When we do, the fortress of denial, erected to keep these things hidden, will come crashing down, enabling us to build up our relationships with others.

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Just for today: I have opportunities to share my inner self. I will take advantage of those opportunities and draw closer to those I love.

28/07/2022

Spiritual Principle A Day

JULY 28

Inviting Generosity

When we allow another person to step up and help us, we give them a chance to express their own love and generosity.

—Living Clean, Chapter 7, “Being of Service”

Railroading newcomers into service is an age‐old tradition in NA. We do it with love, remembering our own reluctance to volunteer, and with gratitude for what early service opportunities gave us. We complied back then since the people suggesting that we make coffee, set out literature, or greet people at the door were clean, after all. We trusted that they knew a thing or two, so we surrendered to doing as they suggested.

Years later, we’re the ones nominating newcomers for those same lifesaving commitments. By then, we recognize that some of the benefits we derive from service come from practicing love and generosity. Service often gives us our first sustained exposure to the good feelings that come with giving of ourselves. As we support other members, meetings, and service bodies—and rope others into doing the same—our generosity is evident in our contributions.

Longtime members assure us that this is no accident. Generously serving each other and NA develops our capacity; we grow as human beings, and NA grows as a Fellowship. We open doors for others to practice generosity; in turn, they reach out to bring others along. An interlinked series of relationships define the history of almost every NA community.

We are the direct beneficiaries of our predecessors’ vision and generosity. And yet, the names of those still with us might not come to mind when we need to recruit panelists for H&I, hosts for the convention’s hospitality room, or facilitators for the newcomer orientation. We may assume that our most seasoned members are above such tasks or that they’d volunteer if they were interested. One member had this to say: “I’ve grown old in NA—which beats the alternative—but I’m not as plugged into what’s happening in NA beyond my home group and sponsees. My phone doesn’t ring like it used to. But I’ll tell you this: Being asked to help never gets old. I still have more to give.”

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I will practice generosity by inviting another member—new, old, or in between—to help me or to serve NA.

Narcotics Anonymous, Bangladesh

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