Great Quote/Reminder about Living in the Present

I keep this small, but powerful, daily meditation book handy in my house, and I read it pretty often, "Just For Today."

It's from NA, not AA, but of course the lessons are the same for any addiction. The full title is "Just for Today: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts by Narcotics Anonymous World Services"

I love picking it up and searching for the current date and then absorbing that days' words.

What I want to share today is the helpful words from the page for January 19th.  The title immediately grabbed me and impacted me:

"When we stop living in the here and now, our problems become magnified unreasonably."

It's so true, right?!

I just loved that sentence so much - it is worded (to me personally) in such a very powerful way. I actually have a to-do note to print this quote and put it on my bathroom mirror as a great every morning reminder!

And I'm sharing this several months later because I really need to listen to these words this week, as my mind is racing about future unknowns at work and I'm getting depressed about it. Already helping!

Here is the full page:

Making mountains into molehills, January 19

"When we stop living in the here and now, our problems become magnified unreasonably."
Basic Text, p. 99

Some of us seem to make mountains out of molehills with our problems. Even those of us who've found some measure of serenity have probably blown a problem far out of proportion at some time in our recovery and if we haven't done so yet, we probably will before long!

When we find ourselves obsessed with a complication in our lives, we will do well to sharply remind ourselves of all that is going right. Perhaps we're afraid we won't be able to pay our bills for the month. lnstead of sitting at the calculator, adding our financial liabilities over and over, we can take stock of our efforts to reduce expenses. Following this mini-inventory, we continue with the task at hand and remind ourselves that as long as we are doing the footwork, a loving Higher Power will care for our lives.

Mountain-sized problems happen sometimes, but we don't need to create them. Trust in a loving God of our understanding will put most of our problems in their proper perspective. We no longer need to create chaos to feel excited about our lives. Our recovery gives us countless real-life opportunities for excitement and drama.


Just for today: I will take a realistic look at my problems and see that most of them are minor. I will leave them that way and enjoy my recovery.