GSRs and Area Service Committee Links

NWA GSR Report Form (save a copy via Google Sheets)

NWA ASC Motion Form (save a copy via Google Sheets)

GSR Basics (from na.org Local Service Resources)

Service Resume (save a copy via Google Sheets)

Area Service Committee Contacts

Request to Update Meeting List

Submit an Event or Subcommittee Meeting for the Website

NWA Area Activities Contact: activities@naofnwa.org

NWA Area Hosptitals & Institutions / Phonelines / Public Relations Contact: hippr@naofnwa.org

World Service Local Service Resources – Material and Info

Local Service Resources can be downloaded from na.org

Just For Today

February 01, 2025

Hardships

Page 33

"We felt different... Only after surrender are we able to overcome the alienation of addiction."

Basic Text, p. 22

"But you don't understand!" we spluttered, trying to cover up. "I'm different! I've really got it rough!" We used these lines over and over in our active addiction, either trying to escape the consequences of our actions or avoid following the rules that applied to everyone else. We may have cried them at our first meeting. Perhaps we've even caught ourselves whining them recently.

So many of us feel different or unique. As addicts, we can use almost anything to alienate ourselves. But there's no excuse for missing out on recovery, nothing that can make us ineligible for the program--not a life-threatening illness, not poverty, not anything. There are thousands of addicts who have found recovery despite the real hardships they've faced. Through working the program, their spiritual awareness has grown, in spite of--or perhaps in response to--those hardships.

Our individual circumstances and differences are irrelevant when it comes to recovery. By letting go of our uniqueness and surrendering to this simple way of life, we're bound to find that we feel a part of something. And feeling a part of something gives us the strength to walk through life, hardships and all.

Just for Today: I will let go of my uniqueness and embrace the principles of recovery I have in common with so many others. My hardships do not exclude me from recovery; rather, they draw me into it.

Spiritual Principle A Day

February 01, 2025

Listening Leads to Acceptance

Page 33

"Listening to other addicts share without judging them is the beginning of listening to our own heart without judgment or punishment."

Living Clean, Chapter 1, "Growing Pains"

We do our best to silence our inner critics as we listen to other members share in meetings. We focus on their words and the feelings behind them. We practice acceptance by listening with care and attention. We set aside our own ideas about their lives and their recovery, even if it's just for the moment.

One member shared, "I can connect to anyone's story as long as I filter it through the message." When we listen for the message, it helps us relate on an emotional level. We can recall our attempts to stop using and the process of losing the desire to use. We find it easier to stop judging and start accepting our fellow members when we recognize all of our struggles as part of finding a new way to live.

We realize that being judgmental sours our ability to empathize, even when we don't give voice to such thoughts. After recognizing the obstacle this creates in our own recovery, we stop silently condemning other people's behavior. When we listen without judgment, we get a glimpse of freedom from the punishing thoughts we've lived with for so long. One of the gifts of NA recovery is that we learn to quiet our minds so we can listen with our hearts.

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Today, thanks to NA, I will quiet my inner monologue and practice applying the principle of acceptance to myself and others.