Na Living Clean Book
Last Updated - August 11, 2020
NA FOUNDATION GROUP CHRONOLOGY ADDICTIONARY
'it begins with an open mind...'
NA Writing Zone
In the Spirit of those who wrote the NA Basic Text, we welcome all who wish to contribute writing that frees our members and shows a way forward in the darkest of days. Fortunately, addicts thrive on adversity, so we're in great shape although it may not feel that great! As material comes in, we will make a place for it and may have a table of subjects to help readers select subject to read about. It is a fine time to air out questions and misunderstandings. We must become informed together if we plan to stand together. It is a comfort to know where we stand on issues as it becomes socially acceptible to have your own views and beliefs. It is part of what makes us important and unique. I personally believe that all life moves in waves - up and down, then up again. We do not want copyrighted material unless special arrangements are made to protect your rights.
We live in a period of great change. If we are alert and informed, these changes can be for the best. There is no doubt that the better we are informed, the better our choices will be, for ourselves and those we care about. The Program and People of NA enrich us and we grow. As we grow, we become complacent. Just human. Important to maintain surrender and deepen the source of our empowerment. If we let it go to our head, we can slide back to being powerlessness. No great man or great woman is that different from you. They just had their interior together.
Living Clean ‐ The Journey Continues is a new book we are compiling about how we live the program through our challenges and successes. We are all working together to write this book, collecting our experience as a fellowship practicing the principles in our daily lives. To make this book a reality we need you.
- Narcotics Anonymous Living Clean The Journey Continues. NA’s message has three parts: Any addict can stop using, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live. Living Clean: The Journey Continues is about finding a new way to live—the practice of recovery in our daily lives, in our relationships, and in our service to others.
- Where do calls go? Calls to numbers on a specific treatment center listing will be routed to that treatment center. Additional calls will also be forwarded and returned by one of our treatment partners below.
NA has been growing since the Basic Text came out. The status of group conscience processing has diminished since professionals took charge. Paid employees are taken more seriously than 12 Step member to the detriment of both. Much is known yet not written. Perhaps it could be similar to teenagers learning to work on cars. Ten or fifteen kids are working on cars together and they begin to talk about the importance of tightening nuts. Most nuts are simply tightened until the nut no longer turns. One of the older kids mentions the variation of tention be Bob the Big Guy and Sammy the Small Guy. There are cases where the degree of tentitiion is so important there is even a special tool with a tension scale. Amends can be so casual they are not even noticed. Tears in the eyes and stop all action means you are more sincere. - Bo S.
UPDATE
After more than three years of being lost in a web-fog, this website is again resurrected! I thought I had paid the domain registration, but it was a scammer who stole my money! A friend helped resolve the problems and da-da, the site reappeared. After years of inaction, I began to study and research .html and even breezing through some Wordpress tutorials. The August 11, 2020 date begins the review to reset information and supply new information for several websites. I have forgotten how to do this editing and limp towards renewed ability, with the help of a Loving God! It is a strange play on the the rejuvenating power of surrender! I have more energy available when I stop fighting!
Free-writes to include: Visions, retakes, structure, new words. And, surely, more.
NASALDEN
A dear friend baggered me to start a site that specialized in 'just books' without commentary or other elements that may serve only to complicate. We are all on a learning which leads us from what we know to what we need to know. Begun in May of 2016, I was able to get together $15,000 to establish the original inventory. With an initial mark-up of 10% which was upgraded to 15% this year on group conscience items only, I included books like Bob Stone's 'My Years with NA' which is a sort of joke for those who knew Bob's sense of humor: MYNA. I also included 'Matter of Principle' by my friend Jim Miller who helped write the Basic Test. I send a quiet check to his widow in his honor from time to time. I hope someday to include a number of autobiographies. If we have learned one thing, it is that the more people know, the better they can make good decisions. The general public knows much more about NA and will soon know more as we move forward together. I should dare to hope that some of our wondrous stories will become motions pictures since we are such entertaining and colorful people!
You can visit the Nasalden online store here: nasalden.org
ARNA
As members grew bolder by learning to make their own booklets, most were denied a listing on their local meeting schedules. The idea was that addicts would die from random information on recovery that failed to meet the protective editing provided by our world service corporation. It was decided somewhere that only 'proper' and 'paid' employees could be trusted with the precious and corrrect information which met with corporate approval. This amazing departure from good sense resulted in years of damaging changes in our service structure and the Fellowship's knowledge and understanding or NA 12 Steps and 12 Traditions. Spiritual principles were pushed aside in favor or financial gain. Today is a new day. Groups denied a listing on local meeting schedules got together and formed a regional service committee and called themselves the Automous Region of NA. Please go to www.arna.world for more information. A plan goes forward to build a new publication designed to inform and encourage our membership. In these times the corporate structure which has emphasized money over the needs of people is being slowly dismantaled. It has taken forth years to re-assert the spiritual nature of our Fellowship. Don't fear change. Change is the movement of the hands of our Higher Power.
Workshop on Principles - ARNA
12th Step
eye on the ball
Group purpose ahead of personal preference
trusted servants worthy of trust
Matter of form - essential in technical work
Secrecy causes disorders<
Trust bonds
Power grabs
group dynamics
service is applied love and care
rules of services
addictive mode in service replaces principles of love and gratitude
endorphines - high on power
disease in charge
road rage - endorphine high
keep clean date but chase adrenaline high
some mistake esteem of the group - mob
self service - like chair carries no vote
cliche - power group forms over group conscience
third category - outside influence over group served
the greater good
power grabs
social rituals
pomp and ceremony
third category - outside influence over group served
the greater good
power grabs
social rituals
pomp and ceremony
ARNA Magazine
“Our goal is not to make ourselves look good, but to edify and present the vigor and energy of our Fellowship. Since none of us seek recompenseationa, our goal is to keep our readers up to date on the growth and development of our Membership. Spiritual and scientific breakthroughs deepen and widen our potential abilities and the make known our accomplishments. Addiction deadens and depresses our goals for a happy future clean and paints addicts in colors of fear and shame. Recovery emboldens and encourages our happiness and our ability to accept good things in our lives. Recovery has the ability to remake our pasts in the light of a new understanding.”
Contents: (sections or chapters )
What’s New (place to have brief items from ARNA minuttes, general breakthroughs, specific reports on items of importance)
Essays (personal statements of concerns, sharing of viewpoints, questions that need answers from the general membersip top to bottom)
Members (hope for stories of member's experience 12 Stepping, staying clean in the workplace, getting with sponsor, families)
Artwork ( from time to time important new takes on expressing NA subjects for events, topics, logos anything of interest)
Over Seas ( reports on events or developments overseas like newsletters, zoom meetings, writings on new Fellowships)
eventts ( of interest to members, especially ARNA events, etc.)
science
H & I ( already have some great stories on staying clean on hte inside, getting ready for release, carrying the message in jail.
Nudge to the Judge
Drug Court information on NA
NA is not affiliated with any other organizations or law enforcement groups.@ Statement to thsi effect read at each and every meeting of NA. There is a conflict between your sending criminals to NA and our published statements. When those you sendd hear these words read, they realize someting is amiss.
Over years of experience, suffering addicts seeking recovery in NA, we have come to believe that addiction is a disease characterized by obsession and compulsion along with denial and general confusion. We call this the ADisease Concept.@
Essential to our recovery is an atmosphere of recovery. The presence of people who do not admit their addiction or their need for help interrupt tis atmosphere and spoils the meeting for those who are seeking recovery.
Forced attendance may actually help some addicts awaken tho their addicton and need for help. The opposite effect is when our members no longer feell safe and flee such meetings. Of course we do not hear from these members.
Our recovery is based on a simple set of Steps and involves surrender, belief, relief from defects and unmade amends, prayer and meditation. These Steps lead to an awakening of the spirit tht changes a person=s mindset and behavior. This is the aim of total abstinence and ongoing recovery in NA.
NA is not a classroom for Drug Court. We provide a mindset, vocabulary and proven program of recovery. If we are not respected, we cannot help addicts.
- New Writings from Friends in NA -
Speaking with members, we sometimes go into areas where I ask for an essay. These essays will appear in the ARNA Magazine when it is ready to begin publication. The idea for the ARNA Magazine is that many members write a variety of articles on different subjects. Over time the readers develop the background and mindset to swim in the deep waters of NA service. It is what we learn after we think we know it all thatcounts.
I'll get it rolling. It is now early November and the nights will soon become cooler. I am sorta stuck in my home because my Honda Civic blew a head gasket and the cure is replacing the engine! Ain't the clean life grand? The most interesting thing is the shifts among my many friends, here and over seas. It seems my mind and heart is settling and I seem to be able to get around to doing small things around the house. The Twelve Steps are really coming home. Wondrous to feel the deeper side of the Steps reveals itself. I just celebrated Forty-six years in July coming up on seventy-six years chronological. A dear friend pointed out how fortunate I am in so many ways. I have found my life mission and get to play a role to help things along. My mission is writing things that illuminate the way for others. Any time I get drawn into things of the world my Higher Power seems to keep me on the sacred path. Since my mid-teens I have sought things money cannot buy.
That doesn't mean God doesn't provide for me. It just mean I don't get hung up on things. Working on a chapter in the NA Way of Life devoted to families seems to take me ever deeper into the wonderous ways we are able to rebuild our lives through the 12 Steps. If we lost a parent, the Fellowship provides. If we did not pursue things of the spirit, things seem to come clear and understand manifests on a daily basis. The government has finally admitted a Unidentified Areal Phenomenon was not built on our planet. A plan to free us of our addiction to fossil fuels seems underway in a fantastic manner. The North Sea and California shores are carpeted with oil tanders since people are not burning so much gasoline. How's that? It takes time to see God's Will in the works. When I learned how to slow down and pay attention. God always finds a way. - Bo S.
P.H.
DANGER OF POWER PLAYS IN NA
The message has been lost. Somehow the unity disappeared. It is not so much group conscious as a power play. People addicted to power are drawn to positions of power. And they don’t even realize it. Once in, they take the bull by the horns and start making decisions. This infuriates the group members who rebel against the power addict. One tell take sign of this is people overloading themselves with commitments. Another is not running things past the committee to leave them in the loop. Often the power grabber is shunned and feels hurt that the group has turned against them.
The cycle seems to go on ever picking up speed. Why? Could be no service workshops. Monkey see, monkey do. Leaders with bad habits are the new teachers with others learning from them. In my area, the 40 minute meeting is the rage. Once everyone has shared, the meeting is ended and everyone runs out of the room.
* Fellowship Literary Work in Progress *
YOU are the NA way of life! It is your love and dedicated gratitude that keeps NA alive.
The Impending Crisis
(NEW UPDATE - FREE DOWNLOAD .pdf )
Send note to Lester O. to get Newsletter
lester1444@hotmail.com
NA Society Journal A place to discuss your experience, strength and hope! | NArchives Gigantic new database for NA Archives The idea is your read the minutes, you ask your questions, you get the answers and draw your own conclusions. That way, we all benefit. | |
'Dream realization takes action. | You make all the difference in the world. When you change for the better, the whole world gets better. Only you.... | Tell me - I forget, |
PLEASE GIVE US INPUT BY SENDING EMAIL TO NAWOL@NAWOL.ORG
FIND INPUT DISPLAYED ON LINK BELOW...
General Input
An item listed for input to the NA Basic Text in the Handbook for NA Lit Committees, the Long Form of the AA 12 Traditions are included for your consideration. Surely they are included in the gift from AA of the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions from which our NA Program was founded.
NA REFORMATION
What we need in NA is a reformation movement to restore some of the things that were so attractive to our early growth and expansion while retaining some of the efficiency and protocol developed by world services during the dark period. Lessons can be learnt from this so that others do not repeat the mistakes of the past twenty years. There need be no repercussions as everyone was pretty confused and blame is hard to access among people disadvantaged by their leadership. In other words, it is a no-fault situation brought about be rapid growth of our NA Fellowship and expansion of money, property concerns and the prestige that comes with service at the world level. Where is the top of the mountain? The Home Group! Time to get Back to Basics! - Ed
1) Everyone has a say in NA. Democratic principles give you a voice in your program.
2) Trusted servants at every level are trained to understand and appreciate the beauty of overcoming personal boundaries through learning self-lessness. Big egos need not apply!
3) Study materials are prepared and distributed under the direction of NA members active in the NA society. People can't be blamed for not knowing that which cannot be read and studied. We have to write the study materials if our side is to be in evidence.
4) Books and role models populate our service structure and recovery meetings.
NA Foundation Group
164 Privette Road
Marietta , GA 30008 USA
404.312.5166
Free Download:
2012 Form
Review Forms Available
NEW 5.5x8.5' format at $17 + S&H $5
2012 FORM:Thanks for the fine NA members who sent in edits.
New form entering compositon stage.
- Love, Bo S.
Gratitude is not a chance - it is a choice!
Letters of support
(click to view)
Please send us your reactions and responses to the various books displayed on this website. Feel free to copy and share. We have been working for almost two decades on this book. And now we have three more books to work on. It is obvious that our method is sound and includes a wide variety of NA members from all over. We know there are many members who support our work and have already been using the new material for purposes of recovery for quite a few years. There have been many emails thanking us and expressing gratitude and joy for the miracle of writing new material in the time honored NA way!
Of course, there are still many members who have not read the book and think is it somehow out of order for addicts to combine efforts to work a collective 12th Step in this manner. Please send us letters of support by snail or email fit to be displayed on this website. Some members are just freaked out by new writing. They missed out on the 'Book Years' in NA and don't realize we have every right to write. You don't have to get permission from anyone to work your 12th Step. We want to be gentle and loving but firm in our dedication to doing our part to see that the NA message is carried and heard.
Thanks for all your love and support for 'OUR BOOK.'
-- In Loving Service, Bo S.
Check out new French Canadian Translations of
Traditions War: a pathway to peace
new article comparing 3rd R and 5th
12 recovery stories - latest addition 7.1.09 NA Twenty Plus Long Clean Time Stories | New Book Download The Spirit of NA |
Our Symbol
by Greg Pierce
IS THIS AN OUTSIDE ISSUE?
Imagine sitting in a circle and having an NA meeting where the topic was discussion of written recovery material. As the material is being read, all members present have prayed to be used as instruments of a Loving God and listen to the letter and the spirit of the writing. This is a literature review meeting.
Is this outside literature if the subject matter is our written message of recovery? There is a big difference between writing recovery material in a group setting and reading outside literature. How else could our written message be created? We may not have a future is we can’t update our program with new literature. The disease of addiction never slowed down.
Reading, discussing and editing in a group setting after prayer is the basic formula for NA literature, right? Do we hire people to write for us or do we write our message down in groups of members?
THE FELLOWSHIP IN 2008 MAY NOT KNOW
THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO WRITE - SPREAD THE WORD!
UNDERSTAND THIS : WE CAN'T DO IT FOR YOU - ONLY ADDICTS CAN WRITE NA LITERATURE IN OPEN, PARTICIPATORY CONFERENCES. WE HAVE SEEN LITERATURE WRITTEN WITHOUT FULL PROCESSING AND THE CHANGES THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN MADE BY CLEAN ADDICTS WERE LEFT UNDONE IN MATERIAL APPROVED AT THE WSC, WEAKENING OUR WRITTEN PROGRAM OF RECOVERY. ONLY LITERATURE THAT HAS BEEN FULLY PROCESSED BY FELLOWSHIP CAN REALLY BE CALLED 'NA APPROVED.' - ED
To participate in this writing, print out a single chapter, read it in a setting of NA members after SP, mark comments on one copy and snail mail it to us. List first names and last initials of members work-shopping, location of workshop, and date. Will either be utilized right away or reviewed at next conference. - Ed
ONLY YOU CAN MAKE THIS YOUR BOOK! 'IT' WON'T GET BETTER - Writing helps set things right. | We need your help! Write like someone's life depended on it - because it does. |
Click on the one you want! |
|
'BY ADDICTS, | Visitors for 2012 | Open, Participatory Recovery Writing in spiritual state induced by prayers for selflessness and guidance. |
Imitation is the highest form of flattery! | Tell your Friends! |
|
Learn the principles of writing recovery Literature: | It is your Heritage! | (...this means you can help write the book. - Ed) |
The N.A. Way of Life
2012 Form
The Large Book
Section One: Orientation
Chapter 1 NA Society | Chapter 2 Disease Concept | Chapter 3 Power Greater than Ourselves |
Chapter 4 Spiritually Clean | Chapter 5 Personality Change | Chapter 6 Recovery Process |
Chapter 7 Trust | Chapter 8 Learning to Live | Chapter 9 Personal Responsibility |
Section Two: Issues
Chapter 10 Emotional Pain | Chapter 11 Loneliness and Reaching Out | Chapter 12 Getting Over Abuse and Neglect |
Chapter 13 Bitter Ends - New Beginnings | Chapter 14 When it gets Tough | Chapter 15 Life Threatening Illness |
Section Three: Applications
Chapter 16 Relationships | Chapter 17 Sex | Chapter 18 Gender and the Message | Chapter 19 Youth in Recovery |
Chapter 20 Parenting | Chapter 21 Midlife Crisis | Chapter 22 Employment | Chapter 23 Compulsive Spending |
Section Four: Evidence
Chapter 24 Miracles | Chapter 25 History & Origins | Chapter 26 Service |
Step One | Step Two | Step Three | Step Four |
Step Five | Step Six | Step Seven | Step Eight |
Step Nine | Step Ten | Step Eleven | Step Twelve |
Tradition One | Tradition Two | Tradition Three | Tradition Four |
Tradition Five | Tradition Six | Tradition Seven | Tradition Eight |
Tradition Nine | Tradition Ten | Tradition Eleven | Tradition Twelve |
Principle One Hope | Principle Two Surrender | Principle Three Acceptance | Principle Four Honesty |
Principle Five Open-mindedness | Principle Six Willingness | Principle Seven Faith | Principle Eight Tolerance |
Principle Nine Patience | Principle Ten Humility | Principle Eleven Unconditional Love | Principle Twelve Sharing and Caring |
NA Way of Life
TRADITIONS WAR: |
Now includes translation into French Canadian
and INPUT for some chapters.
Chapter 1
| Chapter 2 How Service Took its form
| Chapter 3 The Book
| Chapter 4 Money, Property and Prestige
| Chapter 5 The Growth Through Our Book | ||||
Chapter 6 History Movement Starts Madison, Alabama | Chapter 7 Allentown History Conference | Chapter 8 Montgomery - Celebration Two | Chapter 9 Baby Blue | Chapter 10 History Committee Folds | ||||
Chapter 11 The World Service Inventory | Chapter 12 The Superboard | Chapter 13 The Internet | Chapter 14 The Disenfranchised | Chapter 15 Changes | ||||
Chapter 16 Vocal Minority | Chapter 17 Twelve Concepts | Chapter 18 Political Correctness | Chapter 19 Traditions War Memorial | Chapter 20 Pathway to Peace |
To participate in this writing, print out a single chapter, read it in a setting of NA members after SP, mark comments on one copy and snail mail it to us. List first names and last initials of members workshopping, location, and date. Will either be utilized right away or reviewed at next conference. Right now, conferences are planned in Knoxville late April, 2005 and Draper, Virginia June, 2005
NEWEST VERSION 2005
310 PAGES due to better formatting
New book to focus on the spirituality found in NA that has worked so tirelessly in the background from our earliest beginnings through the present. Anyone knows that loud people get attention and those members busy working their 12 Steps, living the program and honoring the 12 Traditions are not noisy. But they are the men and women who keep NA alive and make the program worth coming back to! Trouble makers, mis-matchers, are often much more visible and vocal than those who plug in the coffee pots, lay out the literature and stay up last talking about NA with newcomers and other members. So, let's hear it for those who love us as they learn to love themselves.
In Loving Service,
Bo S.
Conferences and Workshops
from 1991 to 2002
click to view
We have sought throughout this effort to involve members from all over in the process of reading, editing and collecting new material. This section gives you a chance to see the group conscience process in action. We value this inclusive approach because we believe those who have to live the program should be the ones to authenticate written recovery material. No service board or committee can do this because that would be dictating group conscience. We believe dictating group conscience is a contradiction in terms. - Ed
N.A. FOUNDATION GROUP
~ World Wide Home Group ~
Smyrna, Georgia
Middletown, Connecticutt
Toronto, Ontario
Knoxville, Tennessee
Jacksonville, Florida
LET US KNOW IF YOU FORM A GROUP
nawol@nawol.org
To Form Group Register Group with WSO, get two or more members to commit for year, concentrate on recovery in meetings, care about people, stay clean, carry NA message of recovery. | 52 Members Contacts NEW Members! These people can help you find out more. Add your name to the list! - Ed | TN-ON-FL-CT several sample NAFG Formats START A NEW NAFG MEETING TODAY! |
Order Form Order copies w/s&h NA Way of Life Book $16.00 softcover | First, they will ignore us Then they will ridicule us Then they will attack us Then we will win. - Gandi |
na, nawol, wol, NA Way of Life, spiritual principles, addiction, recovery, |
Updated: March 3, 2012
Visitors for 1996 - 1,040
Visitors for 1997 - 3,327
Visitors for 1998 - 5,653
Visitors for 1999 - 9,627
Visitors for 2000 - 9,554
Visitors for 2001 - 8,840
Visitors for 2002 - 12, 467
Visitors for 2003 - 18,063
Visitors for 2004 - 20,966
Visitors for 2005 - 23,310
Visitors for 2006 - 20,794
Visitors for 2007 - 18,581
Visitors for 2008 - 20,287
Visitors for 2009 - 21,649
Visitors for 2010 and 2011 - 33,952
Visitors for 2012 -
Reprinted from the
Narcotics Anonymous Way of Life,
Traditions War: a pathway to peace,
The Spirit of NA
or NA Twenty Plus
being edited on this site.
Amazon Na Living Clean Book
N.A. FELLOWSHIP USE ONLY
Copyright © December 1998
Victor Hugo Sewell, Jr.
NA Foundation Group
164 Privette Road - Marietta, GA 30008
404.312.5166
Last Updated - August 11, 2020
Living Clean Na Book Quotes
All rights reserved. This draft may be copied by members of Narcotics Anonymous for the purpose of writing input for future drafts, enhancing the recovery of NA members and for the general welfare of the Narcotics Anonymous Fellowship as a whole. The use of an individual name is simply a registration requirement of the Library of Congress and not a departure from the spirit or letter of the Pledge, Preface or Introduction of this book. Any reproduction by individuals or organizations outside the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous is prohibited. Any reproduction of this document for personal or corporate monetary gain is prohibited.