Definition of Just for today:
Thoughts on recovery, living life without using.
Synonyms of Just for today:
The present time, at this time, promptly, etc.
These notes are from recovery in AA and/or related 12 step programs. Readers are encouraged to click external links for more detail. We hope you find them helpful.
Love in fellowship.
The last thing we expected was an awakening of the spirit. We don’t have to spend the rest of our lives in a spiritual coma.
We may not like to get up in the morning but, once out of bed, we’re almost always glad we did. | More…
We don’t have to spend the rest of our lives in a spiritual coma. We may not like to get up in the morning but, once out of bed, we’re almost always glad we did. –Just For Today | More…
Like a loud alarm clock, the First Step brings us to semi-consciousness—although at this point, we may not be sure whether we want to climb out of bed or maybe sleep for just five more minutes.
The gentle hand shaking our shoulders as we apply the Second and Third Steps causes us to stand up, stretch, and yawn. We need to wipe the sleep from our eyes to write the Fourth Step and share our Fifth.
But as we work the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Steps, we begin noticing a spring in our step and the start of a smile on our lips. Our spirits sing in the shower as we take the Tenth and Eleventh Steps.
And then we practice the Twelfth, leaving the house in search of others to awaken. — Just For Today | More…
As long as I take it easy and make a commitment with my Higher Power to do the best I can, I know I will be taken care of today. –Just For Today | More…
Few of us came to our first meeting aching to take a personal inventory or believing that a spiritual void existed in our souls. We had no inkling that we were about to embark on a journey which would awaken our sleeping spirits. –Just For Today | More…
As long as the ties that bind us together are stronger than those that would tear us apart, all will be well. –Just For Today | More…
Instead of living our lives by default, we can learn how to make responsible choices and take risks –Just For Today | More…
Personality change was what we really needed. Change from self-destructive patterns of life became necessary –Just For Today | More…
It would be tragic to write out an inventory (only to) shove it in a drawer. These defects grow in the dark and die in the light of exposure. –Just For Today | More…
Our defects only have power as long as they stay hidden. If we want to be free of those defects, we must uncover them. Secrets are only secrets until we share them with another human being. –Just For Today | More…
The Power that brought us to this program is still with us and will continue to guide us if we allow it. –Just For Today | More…
Any form of success was frightening and unfamiliar. When we share our successes with others, they often begin to believe that they can achieve their goals as well. –Just For Today | More…
Rude awakenings often disclose barriers that block us from making spiritual progress in our recovery. Once those barriers are exposed, we can work the steps to begin removing them. –Just For Today | More…
It will not make us better people to judge the faults of another. It will make us feel better to clean up our lives… –Just For Today | More…
In our addiction, we were dependent upon people, places, and things. We looked to them to support us and supply the things we found lacking in ourselves –Just For Today | More…
The purpose of a searching and fearless moral inventory is to sort through the confusion
and the contradiction of our lives so that we can find out who we really are. –Just For Today | More…
We have many choices. Our new life is rich and full of promise. While we cannot forget the past, we don’t have to live in it. We can move on. –Just For Today | More…
Our best qualities are what we want others to notice. In the same way, our fellow recovering addicts want to be well thought of. –Just For Today | More…
Our program of recovery asks us to look positively at life. The more we concentrate on the positive qualities in others, the more we’ll notice them in ourselves. –Just For Today | More…
We need to take action every day to keep our relationship with a Higher Power alive. One way we do this is by applying the Eleventh Step. –Just For Today | More…
In recovery we may find that we do not know how to identify our feelings. What we may be feeling as rage may only be frustration. What we perceive as suicidal depression may simply be sadness. –Just For Today | More…
These are the times when we need to seek the assistance of our sponsor or other program members. Talking about what is happening can help us to face our feelings instead of running from them in fear. –Just For Today | More…
We want to see our past for what it really was, and release it so we can live today.” We need to remember that “justified” resentments are just as burdensome as any other resentment. –Just For Today | More…
Treating our illness involves much more than mere abstinence. We use the Twelve Steps, and though they don’t “cure” our illness, they do begin to heal us. And as we recover, we experience the gift of life. –Just For Today | More…
The more we struggle to rid ourselves of a particular defect, the stronger that shortcoming seems to become. It is truly humbling to realize that not only are we powerless over our addiction, but even over our own defects of character. –Just For Today | More…
So many of us sought the rewards of hard work without the labour. We learned the hard way that serenity comes only from working the steps. –Just For Today | More…
No matter how hectic our schedule, we make meeting attendance our priority. –Just For Today | More…
Many of us find our old ways of thinking were dominated by fear. We feared discovery, arrest, and incarceration.
Further down the list were fears of financial problems, homelessness, overdose, and illness. Our fear controlled our actions. –Just For Today | More…
We must find the willingness to change our old ways of thinking. What has worked for others can work for us — but we must be willing to try it. –Just For Today | More…
As we continue our recovery, we can get side-tracked by complacency, intolerance, or dishonesty. When we do, we need to recognize the signs quickly and get back on our path—the open road to freedom and growth. –Just For Today | More…
As we work the steps, we’re bound to discover some basic truths about ourselves. As we attain a new understanding of ourselves, we’ll want to adjust our behavior accordingly. We want to be genuine examples of who we are. –Just For Today | More…
When we work the Twelve Steps to the best of our ability, we find that we can become the type of people who are capable of finding employment, sustaining loving relationships, and helping others. We stop serving our disease, and begin serving God and others. The Twelve Steps are the key to transforming our lives. –Just For Today | More…
Working the Twelve Steps teaches us to accept ourselves and our lives. Spiritual principles like surrender, honesty, faith, and humility help relieve us of the burden of our past mistakes. –Just For Today | More…
The program does not promise us that we will find good jobs, loving relationships, or a fulfilling life. But when we work the Twelve Steps to the best of our ability, we find that we can become the type of people who are capable of finding employment, sustaining loving relationships, and helping others. We stop serving our disease, and begin serving God and others. –Just For Today | More…
Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways:
1, I will do somebody a good turn & not get found out; if anybody knows of it, it will not count
2, I will do at least two things I don’t want to do-just for exercise.
3, I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt; they may be hurt, but today I will not show it.
Just for today I will have a program. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests: hurry & indecision.
We want and demand that things always go our way. We should know from our past experience that our way of doing things did not work. At this point, we have two choices.
We can continue in our slavery to self-will, making unreasonable demands and becoming frustrated because the planet doesn’t spin our way. Or we can surrender, relax, seek knowledge of God’s will and the power to carry that out, and find our way back to a condition of peace with the world.
Thinking, taking initiative, making responsible plans—there’s nothing wrong with these things, so long as they serve God’s will, not merely our own. –Just for Today | More…
Despite the fact that our new life in recovery is rewarding, the urge to use can sometimes be overwhelming. When everything in our lives seems to go wrong, a return to using can seem like the only way out.
But we know what the consequence will be if we use—the loss of our carefully nurtured spirituality. We have travelled too far along the spiritual path to dishonour our spirit by using.
Snuffing the spiritual flame we have worked so hard to restore in our recovery is too dear a price to pay for getting high. –Just for Today | More…
Conceit and complacency can land us in deep trouble. When we find that “applying the principles” on our own power just isn’t working, we can practice what worked for us in the beginning: surrender.
When we find we are still powerless, our lives again unmanageable, we need to seek the care of a Power greater than ourselves. And when we discover that self-therapy isn’t so therapeutic after all, we need to take advantage of “the therapeutic value of one addict helping another. –Just for Today | More…
Dreams that we gave up long ago can now become realities. Some of our members share that when they compare the ambitions they had when they first got clean with what they have actually achieved in recovery, they are astounded. In recovery, we often find more dreams come true than we could ever have imagined. –Just for Today | More…
Our disease always resurfaced or continued to progress until, in desperation, we sought help from each other. Desperation is what finally drives many of us to ask for help.
Once we’ve reached this state, we can turn around and start anew. Just as the desperate, hunted animal seeks a safe haven, so do we: in Narcotics Anonymous. –Just for Today | More…
Low self-esteem doesn’t go away overnight. Sometimes it takes years for us to really get in touch with ourselves. But with the help of other members of NA who share our same feelings, and by working the Twelve Steps, we blossom into individuals whom others and, most importantly, we ourselves respect. –Just for Today | More…
All human beings struggle with self-centeredness. The variety of people we encounter in our day and the quality of our relations with them determines, to a great extent, the quality of our very lives.
Love, humour, excitement, caring—the things that make life worth living derive much of their meaning from being shared with others. Understanding this, we want to discover the true nature of our relationships with other people and mend whatever breaks we may find in those relations. We want to work the Eighth Step. –Just for Today | More…
We share comfort and encouragement with others. Many times we feel like we can’t take another step in recovery.
Just like a child learning to walk, we sometimes stumble or fall. But our Higher Power always awaits us with outstretched arms.
And like the child’s brothers and sisters shouting their encouragement, we, too, are supported by other NA members as we walk toward a full life in recovery. –Just for Today | More…
We all have two things in common: addiction and recovery. When we listen carefully, we hear others tell of suffering from the same disease we have suffered from, regardless of their specific backgrounds. When we open our ears, we hear other addicts talk of applying spiritual principles that promise hope to us as well, regardless of our personal goals. –Just for Today | More…
Just for today, I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appal me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.
Just for today, I will be happy. This assumes to be true what Abraham Lincoln said, that “most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Just for today, I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.
Just for today, I will adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my “luck” as it comes, and fit myself to it.
Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways: Just for today I will do somebody a good turn, and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don’t want to–just for exercise. I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt; they may be hurt, but today I will not show it
Just for today, I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, act courteously, criticize not one bit, not find fault with anything and not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.
Just for today, I will have a program. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests: hurry and indecision.
Just for today, I will have a quiet half hour all by myself, and relax. During this half hour, sometime, I will try to get a better perspective of my life.
Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful, and to believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me. –Kenneth L. Holmes/NH Al Anon
MORNING HELPERS 