NA Daily Meditations

NA Meitations

Feel free to read one of our 2 daily meditations.

Just For Today
Spiritual Principle A Day

Just For Today

September 03, 2026

Humility expressed by anonymity

Page 257

“Humility is a by-product that allows us to grow and develop in an atmosphere of freedom and removes the fear of becoming known by our employers, families, or friends as addicts. “

Basic Text, pp. 75-76

Many of us may not have understood the idea that “anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions.” We wondered how this could be. What does anonymity have to do with our spiritual life?

The answer is, plenty! By guarding and cherishing our anonymity, we earn spiritual rewards beyond comprehension. There is great virtue in doing something nice for someone and not telling anyone about it. By the same token, resisting the impulse to proudly announce our membership in NA to the world–in effect, asking everyone to acknowledge how wonderful we are–makes us value our recovery all the more.

Recovery is a gift that we’ve received from a Power greater than ourselves. Boasting about our recovery, as if it were our own doing, leads to prideful feelings and grandiosity. But keeping our anonymity leads to humility and feelings of gratitude. Recovery is its own reward; public acclaim can’t make it any more valuable than it already is.

Just for Today: Recovery is its own reward; I don’t need to have mine approved of publicly. I will maintain and cherish my anonymity.

Spiritual Principal A Day

September 04, 2026

Choosing Freedom

Page 256

“We are free to change our minds, to change our perspective, and to change our lives. Freedom means that we are no longer living by default.”

Living Clean, Chapter 3, “Awakening to Our Spirituality”

In active addiction, we lived in a kind of default mode. We neglected responsibilities and disregarded the consequences of our actions or inaction. We were utterly vulnerable to our defects. We self-destructed and harmed others. A member offered this metaphor: “I was on an amusement park ride that started off fun . . . until it made me sick. But by then, I couldn’t get off of it.”

Although living by default made us miserable, even the slightest suggestion that we could change would elicit a defensive “That’s just how I am!” Trapped is how we were! Trapped by our resistance to getting off the “ride” we were on. Fearing and avoiding change, still today, we’re sometimes trapped by our willful denial and rigidity.

Outside ourselves, change is inevitable. Recovery helps us deal with this fact. Within ourselves, change is a net positive. It’s a dynamic force exercised through the freedom of choice we now have. “Freedom isn’t just a state of being,” the member continued. “We practice it by choosing to change. We’re no longer trapped on a nauseating ride. We leave the active addiction amusement park behind. Life in recovery is a whole different park!”

As we realize our true selves, we achieve some freedom in NA. Maybe it’s less that we change and more that we become who we truly are. We grow less attached to our story; we can write a new one. We can reexamine aspects of ourselves we never thought to question–our religion, political leanings, musical tastes, even the food we eat. We get to be curious. We’re free to not be so cool.

Being clean allows us to challenge our belief systems and behavior patterns, to be and to feel a little less trapped. We don’t act on impulse as often; a breath provides a moment to respond with love, not fear. At our best, we are flexible, evolving, able to be influenced by others. There’s freedom in open-mindedness. We learn how to say no and to say yes. Though there will be times when we fall back to default mode, we don’t have to linger there. We have a new life to live.

I will live this day consciously and with purpose. In choosing to change, I’m choosing to be myself. I’m choosing freedom.