Just for Today: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts (Hazelden Meditations)

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Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is and not force everything to adjust to my own desires. I will accept my family, friends, my business, my circumstances as they come. Scientists and psychologists are increasingly finding that self-talk is an essential part of mental health and positive self-talk is even more important. Requests for alternative formats of our book-length literature, if needed, can be sent to [email protected]. Booklets The fact that it’s just for today makes that list of goals seem that much more achievable. Anyone can do anything just for one day. Even if the list is long, the short time period it covers can work to alleviate any stress that might crop up if we start to think of these promises more like long-term, ongoing chores. There are also plenty of apps designed to offer JFT-style meditations and other helpful tools for recovering addicts.

Watching yourself say the words not only activates even more areas of your brain, amplifying the power of the meditation even more but leaves an even deeper psychological impact, by letting you see yourself make those proclamations. By reciting the Just for Today prayer, you’re literally making a promise to yourself and when you look yourself in the eyes while making those pledges, they hold that much more weight. Just for Today: I will allow knowledge of my true nature to guide my actions. Today, I will face the world as myself. Our program is based on the idea that the application of simple principles can produce profound effects in our lives. One such principle is that, if we ask, our Higher Power will care for us. Because this principle is so basic, we may tend to ignore it. Unless we learn to consciously apply this spiritual truth, we may miss out on something as essential to our recovery as breathing is to life itself. In this way, when we’re reciting the Just for Today prayer, we’re literally building a positive thought pattern in our minds. The pathway is formed by the repetition of the act and fortified by associating those positive words with the positive feelings they bring us. It’s strengthened even more when those positive feelings help us create more positivity in the world by letting go of stress, loving ourselves a little more, and finding times and ways to help and love others.

These goals can be, and usually are, centered around the smaller day-to-day details that add up to the big-picture ways we deal with daily stressors. Most of the time, each promise is structured so the reciter is pledging to let go of or accept these small things, in the name of their recovery, mental health, and inner peace. Again, there can be nearly infinite versions of the Just for Today meditation. Even when recited at NA meetings, the pledge is still a personal tool, and can take on any number of personal goals. The Just For Today ritual is a form of daily meditation, often administered at NA meetings (and other self-help groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous), in which a list of daily goals and affirmations are recited. Each line starts with the phrase “Just for today,” making the prayer almost like a daily spiritual to-do list. That one is a bit all-encompassing, asking us to focus on gratefulness above all else. But there are nearly as many versions of the Just for Today prayer as there are days or people.

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 want all that life has to offer me and all that recovery can provide. Today, I will take a risk, try something new, and grow. When we know we’re going to pledge ourselves anew tomorrow, we can more honestly feel that it’s okay to not reach all of our goals today. The most important thing is trying our best, and pledging to try our best again tomorrow. Are There Other Options For Daily Meditation? I will do at least two things I don’t want to do – just for exercise. I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt; they may be hurt, but today I will not show it.The reading is a great reminder for anyone in the programme that as people in recovery we need to keep things in the day. Within such a short reading, It contains simple messages of mindfulness, happiness, acceptance, purpose, perspective and the importance of living a life of spiritual principles. We can consider the trade: Do we want to live the rest of our lives in our well-defined little world, safe but perhaps stifled? Or do we wish to venture out into the unknown, take a risk, and reach for everything life has to offer? You might hear it called the Just For Today Meditation or Just For Today Prayer, or see it simplified in writing as the JFT. But it all amounts to the same helpful concept. 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. The ‘Just for Today’ reading has become a very important part of my personal programme of recovery. According to some sources it was written in the 1920’s before Alcoholics Anonymous was founded, however was adopted and approved for publication by AA in the 1970’s.