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

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Humility is a puzzling concept. We know a lot about humiliation, but humility is a new idea. It sounds suspiciously like groveling, bowing, and scraping. But that's not what humility is at all. True humility is, simply, acceptance of who we are. 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.

There are also plenty of apps designed to offer JFT-style meditations and other helpful tools for recovering addicts. Requests for alternative formats of our book-length literature, if needed, can be sent to [email protected]. Booklets 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.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. 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. 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.

On that note, repetition is another important physiological aspect of the Just For Today meditation. Numerous studies have found that repeating an action can not only form muscle memory within our body but actually rewire neurological pathways in our brains. 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. Our program is a set of principles," our White Booklet tells us. The more consistently we seek to improve our conscious appreciation of these principles, the more readily we will be able to apply them.As often as our thoughts inform our words, our words can likewise inform our thoughts. And while thinking positively offers plenty of cognitive benefits in itself, saying these thoughts out loud offers even more. 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? 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.

The practice of humility involves accepting our true nature, honestly being ourselves. We don't have to grovel or abase ourselves, nor must we try to appear smarter, wealthier, or happier than we really are. Humility simply means we drop all pretense and live as honestly as we can. This is even more effective if you can incorporate the meditation into a morning or evening routine, like when you’re brushing your teeth, so you can have access to your bathroom mirror.

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 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. Scientists and psychologists are increasingly finding that self-talk is an essential part of mental health and positive self-talk is even more important. 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. 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. All of us had expectations about life in recovery. Some of us thought recovery would suddenly make us employable or able to do anything in the world we wanted to do. Or maybe we imagined perfect ease in our interactions with others. When we stop and think, we realize that we expected recovery would make us perfect. We didn’t expect to continue making many mistakes. But we do. That’s not the addict side of us showing through; that’s being human.Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.