Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   October 1                                 Not just a motivation for growth

        "We learn that pain can be a motivating factor in recovery."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 30

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   "Pain-who needs it!" we think whenever we're in it.   We see no
   good purpose for pain.  It seems to be a pointless exercise in suffering.
   If someone happens to mention spiritual growth to us while we're in
   pain, we most likely snort in disgust and walk away, thinking we've
   never encountered a more insensitive person.

   But what if human beings didn't feel pain-either physical  or
   emotional?  Sound like an ideal world?   Not really.   If we weren't
   capable of feeling physical pain, we wouldn't know when to blink foreign
   particles out of our eyes; we wouldn't know when to stop exercising;  we
   wouldn't even know when to roll over in our sleep.   We would simply
   abuse ourselves for lack of a natural warning system.

   The same holds true for emotional pain.  How would we have known that our
   lives had become unmanageable if we hadn't been in pain?   Just like
   physical pain, emotional pain lets us know when to stop doing something
   that hurts.

   But pain is not only a motivating factor.  Emotional pain provides a basis
   for comparison when we are joyful.   We couldn't appreciate joy without
   knowing pain.

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   Just for today: I will accept pain as a necessary part of life.  I  know
   that to whatever level I can feel pain, I can also feel joy.