Welcome to the Burlington County Area of Narcotics Anonymous
“The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using”…Tradition 3
DRUG PROBLEM? CALL OUR HELPLINE: 1-800-992-0401
UPCOMING MEETINGS
The NA White Booklet
If you are new to Narcotics Anonymous, we recommend the Narcotics Anonymous White Booklet, also known as “The Little White Book” and as NA’s first piece of Literature. It’s a great introduction to the program to get you started! Click on the image to download the booklet. You can also explore one of the other informational pamphlets found on the Literature page of this website..
What is NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS?
~ Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text, page 9.
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Narcotics Anonymous is an international, community-based association of recovering drug addicts with over 58,000 weekly meetings in over 131 countries worldwide
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Recovery from addiction is possible and available through the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Narcotics Anonymous.
Just For Today
In active addiction, the world probably looked like a horrible place. Using helped us tolerate the world we saw. Today, however, we understand that the world's condition wasn't really the problem. It was our ideas and attitudes about the world that made it impossible for us to find a comfortable place in it.
Our attitudes and our ideas are the eyeglasses through which we see our lives. If our "glasses" are smudged or dirty, our lives look dim. If our attitudes aren't well focused, the whole world appears distorted. To see the world clearly, we need to keep our attitudes and ideas clean, free of things like resentment, denial, self-pity, and closed-mindedness. To insure our vision of life is in focus, we have to bring our ideas in line with reality.
In addiction, our best thinking kept us from clearly seeing either the world or our part in it. Recovery serves to correct the prescriptions in our attitudinal eyewear. By stripping away our denial and replacing it with faith, self-honesty, humility, and responsibility, the steps help us see our lives in a whole new way. Then the steps help us keep our spiritual lenses clean, encouraging us to regularly examine our ideas, our attitudes, and our actions.
Today, seen through the clean lenses of faith and recovery the world looks like a warm, inviting place to live.
Spiritual Principle a Day
Thoughtfulness is baked into the culture of NA meetings. We take turns sharing, and we share the time. The rest of us participate by listening, though that doesn't necessarily mean we do so in silence. Many of us find healing in the laughter we share. That phrase--"participate by listening"--is sometimes used as a polite way to decline when called upon to share. But it's more than that--it's a real and valid option. Listening is an act of love.
When we're new, our chameleon-like instincts set us up for thoughtful and empathetic listening. Even as we focus on blending in, we find ourselves responding instinctively with laughter, knowing nods, tearful eyes, or words of affirmation and encouragement. We bring the body, and the mind follows; we might start by faking empathy, only to realize we're acting our way into better thinking. We find ourselves establishing new values. When we thoughtfully listen and engage, we show ourselves and each other that our stories matter.
Practicing thoughtfulness can really be as simple as "kind thoughts, kind words, kind deeds," as one member put it. "My outlook changes when I'm looking for that magic moment when some small act will make a difference for someone else. When I lift someone else up, we both feel better." Our thoughtfulness is a gift we give and receive. It contributes to our sense of belonging and helps us to experience unity.