Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   February 20                      Powerlessness and personal responsibility

     "Through our inability to accept personal responsibilities, we were
                     actually creating our own problems."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 13

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   When we refuse to take responsibility for our lives, we give away all of
   our personal power.  We need to remember that we are powerless over our
   addiction, not our personal behavior.

   Many of us have misused the concept of powerlessness to avoid making
   decisions or to hold onto things we had outgrown.   We have claimed
   powerlessness over our own actions.    We have blamed others for our
   circumstances rather than taking  positive action to change  those
   circumstances.  If we continue to avoid responsibility by claiming that we
   are "powerless," we set ourselves up for the same despair and misery
   we experienced in our active addiction.  The potential for spending our
   recovery years feeling like victims is very real.

   Instead of living our lives by default, we can learn how to make
   responsible choices and take risks.   We may make mistakes, but we can
   learn from these mistakes.  A  heightened awareness of ourselves and an
   increased willingness to accept personal responsibility gives us the
   freedom to change, to make choices, and to grow.

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   Just for today:   My feelings, actions, and choices are mine.   I  will
   accept responsibility for them.