Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   May 15                                             Fear of the Fourth Step

   "As we approach this step, most of us are afraid that there is a monster
              inside of us that, if released, will destroy us."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 27

                           ----=----

   Most of us are terrified to look at ourselves, to probe our insides.
   We're afraid that if we examine our actions and motives, we'll find a
   bottomless black pit of selfishness and hatred.  But as we take the Fourth
   Step, we'll find that those fears were unwarranted.  We're human, just
   like everyone else-no more, no less.

   We all have personality traits that we're not especially proud of.  On a
   bad day, we may think that our faults are worse than anyone else's.
   We'll have moments of self-doubt.  We'll question our motives.  We may
   even question our very existence.  But if we could read the minds of our
   fellow members, we'd find the same struggles.   We're no better or
   worse than anyone else.

   We can only change what we acknowledge and understand.   Rather than
   continuing to fear what's buried inside us, we can bring it out into the
   open.  We'll no longer be frightened, and our recovery will flourish in
   the full light of self-awareness.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I fear what I  don't know.  I will expose my fears and
   allow them to vanish.