Just For Today - May 14 2026

Oops!

“Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”

Basic Text, p. 23

Mistakes! We all know how it feels to make them. Many of us feel that our entire lives have been a mistake. We often regard our mistakes with shame or guilt—at the very least, with frustration and impatience. We tend to see mistakes as evidence that we are still sick, crazy, stupid, or too damaged to recover.

In truth, mistakes are a very vital and important part of being human. For particularly stubborn people (such as addicts), mistakes are often our best teachers. There is no shame in making mistakes. In fact, making new mistakes often shows our willingness to take risks and grow.

It’s helpful, though, if we learn from our mistakes; repeating the same ones may be a sign that we’re stuck. And expecting different results from the same old mistakes—well, that’s what we call “insanity!” It just doesn’t work.

Just for today: Mistakes aren’t tragedies. But please, Higher Power, help me learn from them!

A DAY AT A TIME - April 16 2026

Reflection for the Day
I once heard it said that “the mind is the slayer of the real.” Looking back at the insanity of those days when I was actively addicted, I know precisely what that phrase means. One of the Program’s important fringe benefits for me today is an increasing awareness of the world around me, so I can see and enjoy reality. This alone helps diminish the difficulties I so often magnify, creating my own misery in the process. Am I acquiring the sense of reality which is absolutely essential to serenity?

Today I Pray
May I be revived by a sharpened sense of reality, excited to see—for the first time since the blur of my worst moments—the wonders and opportunities in my world. Emerging from the don’t- care haze of addiction, I see objects and faces coming into focus again, colors brightening. May I take delight in this new-found brightness.

Today I Will Remember
To focus on my realities.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation

ONE DAY AT A TIME #essentialsofrecovery

INSANITY

“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

~ Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ~

Everyday I get up and fight the fight of ‘I am not good enough.’ Nevertheless, I know I am who I am and that’s what counts. I may never be what others expect me to be and many times those expectations were so great that I used to beat myself up over my failures.

That is the insanity of the compulsion that I am being healed from. I now have a mirror in my bedroom! I now can go without cleaning my house compulsively for those who visit me and now I can stand up for myself. Why? Because I love ME!

Program has given me back who I am. The person I love. My welfare comes first! Above all I am grateful for my sponsor, my Higher Power and this program. I am also grateful to the many men and women who have inspired my life because if it were not for all of these, I would still be in that insanity.

One day at a time …

I will not require everyone’s approval; I will not continually beat myself up when I expect more of myself than I can give; I will continue to love ME and all the good things about me.

~ Rosehips ~ 

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DAILY REFLECTIONS #essentialsofrec #insanity #Recovery

GIVING UP INSANITY
. . . where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.

~ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 38 ~

Alcoholism required me to drink, whether I wanted to or not. Insanity dominated my life and was the essence of my disease. It robbed me of the freedom of choice over drinking and, therefore, robbed me of all other choices. When I drank, I was unable to make effective choices in any part of my life and life became unmanageable.

I ask God to help me understand and accept the full meaning of the disease of alcoholism.

Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc

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ONE DAY AT A TIME #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Insanity #OA

INSANITY

“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

~ Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ~

Everyday I get up and fight the fight of ‘I am not good enough.’ Nevertheless, I know I am who I am and that’s what counts. I may never be what others expect me to be and many times those expectations were so great that I used to beat myself up over my failures.

That is the insanity of the compulsion that I am being healed from. I now have a mirror in my bedroom! I now can go without cleaning my house compulsively for those who visit me and now I can stand up for myself. Why? Because I love ME!

Program has given me back who I am. The person I love. My welfare comes first! Above all I am grateful for my sponsor, my Higher Power and this program. I am also grateful to the many men and women who have inspired my life because if it were not for all of these, I would still be in that insanity.

One day at a time …

I will not require everyone’s approval; I will not continually beat myself up when I expect more of myself than I can give; I will continue to love ME and all the good things about me.

~ Rosehips ~

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KEEP IT SIMPLE #essentialsofrec #Sanity #Step2 #Madness

Sanity is madness put to good use.

~ George Santayana 

In Step Two we come to believe a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. In a way, as we work Step Two, we’re praying that our madness can be put to good use. This is just what happens. Addiction was wrecking our life. But it’s also our addiction that forced us into a new way of life.

As long as we remember what our madness was like, we can put it to good use. When we feel like giving up, let’s remember our madness. It will help us go on. When we see someone suffering from the illness of addiction, let’s remember our own days of madness. It will help us be there for that person. It’s also good to remember that our madness is only a pill or a drink away.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, I believe You can put my madness to good use. I give up my madness; do with it what You want.

Action for the Day

I’ll list a couple ways my Higher Power and I have changed my madness into sanity.

Copyright © 1988 by Hazelden Foundation

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JUST FOR TODAY #essentialsofrec #Recovery #NA #Fun

Fun!

“In recovery our ideas of fun change”

~ Basic Text, p. 102 ~

In retrospect, many of us realize that when we used, our ideas of fun were rather bizarre. Some of us would get dressed up and head for the local club. We would dance, drink and do other drugs until the sun rose. On more than one occasion, gun battles broke out. What we then called fun, we now call #insanity.

Today, our notion of fun has changed. Fun to us today is a walk along the ocean, watching the dolphins frolic as the sun sets behind them. Fun is going to an #NA picnic, or attending the comedy show at an NA convention. Fun is getting dressed up to go to the banquet and not worrying about any gun battles breaking out over who did what to whom.

Through the grace of a Higher Power and the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous, our ideas of fun have changed radically. Today when we are up to see the sun rise, it’s usually because we went to bed early the night before, not because we left a club at six in the morning, eyes bleary from a night of drug use. And if that’s all we have received from Narcotics Anonymous, that would be enough.

Just for today: I will have fun in my recovery!

© 1991 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services Inc

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Just For Today #essentialsofrecovery

Oops!

“Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”

Basic Text, p. 23

Mistakes! We all know how it feels to make them. Many of us feel that our entire lives have been a mistake. We often regard our mistakes with shame or guilt—at the very least, with frustration and impatience. We tend to see mistakes as evidence that we are still sick, crazy, stupid, or too damaged to recover.

In truth, mistakes are a very vital and important part of being human. For particularly stubborn people (such as addicts), mistakes are often our best teachers. There is no shame in making mistakes. In fact, making new mistakes often shows our willingness to take risks and grow.

It’s helpful, though, if we learn from our mistakes; repeating the same ones may be a sign that we’re stuck. And expecting different results from the same old mistakes—well, that’s what we call “insanity!” It just doesn’t work.

Just for today: Mistakes aren’t tragedies. But please, Higher Power, help me learn from them! 

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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

Reflection For The Day

I once heard it said that “the mind is the slayer of the real.”  Looking back at the insanity of those days when I was actively addicted, I know precisely what that phrase means.  One of The Program’s important fringe benefits for me today is an increasing awareness of the world around me, so I can see and enjoy reality.  This alone helps diminish the difficulties I so often magnify, creating my own misery in the process.  Am I acquiring the sense of reality which is absolutely essential to serenity?

Today I Pray

May I be revived by a sharpened sense of reality, excited to see — for the first time since the blur of my worst moments — the wonders and opportunities in my world.  Emerging from the don’t-care haze of addiction, I see objects and faces coming into focus again, colors brightening.  May I take delight in this new-found brightness.

Today I Will Remember

To focus on my realities. 

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DAILY REFLECTIONS #essentialsofrecovery

GIVING UP INSANITY

. . . where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.
~ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 38 ~
Alcoholism required me to drink, whether I wanted to or not. Insanity dominated my life and was the essence of my disease. It robbed me of the freedom of choice over drinking and, therefore, robbed me of all other choices. When I drank, I was unable to make effective choices in any part of my life and life became unmanageable.

I ask God to help me understand and accept the full meaning of the disease of alcoholism.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc

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Daily Reflections #essentialsofrecovery

GIVING UP INSANITY

. . . where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.

 –ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 38

Alcoholism required me to drink, whether I wanted to or not. Insanity dominated my life and was the essence of my disease. It robbed me of the freedom of choice over drinking and, therefore, robbed me of all other choices. When I drank, I was unable to make effective choices in any part of my life and life became unmanageable. I ask God to help me understand and accept the full meaning of the disease of alcoholism.

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Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

INSANITY


“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

–Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Everyday I get up and fight the fight of ‘I am not good enough.’ Nevertheless, I know I am who I am and that’s what counts. I may never be what others expect me to be and many times those expectations were so great that I used to beat myself up over my failures.

That is the insanity of the compulsion that I am being healed from. I now have a mirror in my bedroom! I now can go without cleaning my house compulsively for those who visit me and now I can stand up for myself. Why? Because I love ME!

Program has given me back who I am. The person I love. My welfare comes first! Above all I am grateful for my sponsor, my Higher Power and this program. I am also grateful to the many men and women who have inspired my life because if it were not for all of these, I would still be in that insanity.

One day at a time …

I will not require everyone’s approval; I will not continually beat myself up when I expect more of myself than I can give; I will continue to love ME and all the good things about me.

~ Rosehips

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JUST FOR TODAY #essentialsofrecovery

Freed From Insanity

Do I believe it would be insane to walk up to someone and say, “May I please have a heart attack or a fatal accident.”

Basic Text p.23 

We’ve heard it said that unless we’re in love, we can’t remember what love feels like. The same could be said of insanity: Once we’re freed of it, we may forget how truly bizarre our insane thinking can be. But to be grateful for the degree of sanity to which we’ve been restored in Narcotics Anonymous, we need to remember just how truly insane we’ve been.

Today, it may be hard to imagine saying something as ridiculous as, “May I please have a heart attack or a fatal accident?” No one in their right mind is going to ask for such things. And that’s the point. In our active addiction, we were not in our right mind. Each day we practiced our addiction, we courted fatal disease, degradation, exploitation, impoverishment, imprisonment, death by violence, even death by sheer stupidity. In that context, the idea of asking for a heart attack or a fatal accident doesn’t sound all that far out. That’s how insane we’ve been.

The program, the fellowship, and our Higher power-together, they’ve worked a miracle. The Second Step is not a vain hope – it is reality. Knowing the degree of the insanity we’ve experienced, we can appreciate all the more the miraculous Power that has restored us thus far to sanity. For that, we are truly grateful.

Just for today: I will take some time to recall how insane I’ve been while practicing my addiction. Then, I will thank my Higher Power for the sanity that’s been restored to my life.

© 1991 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services Inc                                                                      

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrecovery

A.A. Thought For The Day
We have this choice every day of our lives. We can take the path that leads to insanity and death. And remember, our next drunk could be our last one. Or we can take the path that leads to a reasonably happy and useful life. The choice is ours each day of our lives. God grant that we take the right path. Have I made my choice today?

Meditation For The Day

Your real work in life is to grow spiritually. To do this you must follow the path of diligently seeking good. The hidden spiritual wonders are revealed to those who diligently seek this treasure. From one point to the next, you have to follow the way of obedience to God’s will until finally you reach greater and greater spiritual heights. Work on the material plane should be secondary to your real life’s work. The material things that you need most are those that help you to attain the spiritual.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may keep growing spiritually. I pray that I may make this my real life’s work.

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JUST FOR TODAY #essentialsofrecovery

Freed From Insanity

Do I believe it would be insane to walk up to someone and say, “May I please have a heart attack or a fatal accident.”

~ Basic Text p.23 

We’ve heard it said that unless we’re in love, we can’t remember what love feels like. The same could be said of insanity: Once we’re freed of it, we may forget how truly bizarre our insane thinking can be. But to be grateful for the degree of sanity to which we’ve been restored in Narcotics Anonymous, we need to remember just how truly insane we’ve been.

Today, it may be hard to imagine saying something as ridiculous as, “May I please have a heart attack or a fatal accident?” No one in their right mind is going to ask for such things. And that’s the point. In our active addiction, we were not in our right mind. Each day we practiced our addiction, we courted fatal disease, degradation, exploitation, impoverishment, imprisonment, death by violence, even death by sheer stupidity. In that context, the idea of asking for a heart attack or a fatal accident doesn’t sound all that far out. That’s how insane we’ve been.

The program, the fellowship, and our Higher power-together, they’ve worked a miracle. The Second Step is not a vain hope – it is reality. Knowing the degree of the insanity we’ve experienced, we can appreciate all the more the miraculous Power that has restored us thus far to sanity. For that, we are truly grateful.

Just for today: I will take some time to recall how insane I’ve been while practicing my addiction. Then, I will thank my Higher Power for the sanity that’s been restored to my life.

© 1991 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services Inc

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Step by Step #essentialsofrec

“I did not know that I had no power over alcohol, that I, alone and unaided, could not stop; that I was on a downgrade, tearing along at full speed with all my brakes gone, and that the end would be a total smash-up, death or insanity. I had already feared insanity for a long time …I was not just drunk, I was crazy.”

 –Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch. 13 (“Stars Don’t Fall”), p 408.

Today, let me not forget that my drinking propelled me not into mere drunkenness but into a blackened fog that defies any definition of responsible conduct. As such, my recovery hinges not only on total abstinence but also on spiritual and emotional repair of the dysfunctional thought and behavioral patterns that were either acquired by my drinking or worsened by it. And, as stated in the above passage from the Big Book, even if I tell myself I am still unconvinced of a Higher Power, let me thank whatever force pulled me back from the “crazy” to find this Program and let me not claim “credit” for finding it alone. Likewise, just as I did not come into the Program on my own strength, let me accept that not drinking also cannot depend on my own strength. May I cling to whatever it was that rescued me so that I can progress in the Program and in sobriety. Today, let me remember that I am doomed to repeat my past if I don’t learn from it, and the most important lesson that I have is to continue trusting whatever force salvaged me from the “crazy.” And our common journey continues. 

Step by step. – Chris M.

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FR.LEO'S DAILY MEDITATION #essentialsofrec #Madness #FRLeo #Recovery

MADNESS

“The madman who knows he is mad is close to sanity.”

~ Juan Ruiz de Alarcon 

Alcoholics who continue to drink, addicts who continue to use, and overeaters who continue to eat compulsively are committing suicide. This is pure madness; it is like stabbing yourself with a knife and asking “Why am I bleeding?” The definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result. Today I behave as a person in recovery behaves; I do what is necessary to stay sober for twenty-four hours. And I fully expect to be successful.

I accept my past destructive behaviour and aim to change it on a daily basis. Spirituality is loving myself enough to see the writing on the wall and do something about it.

God, You seem to have given me a dose of insanity. Let me use it for Your glory.

© 2008 Leo Booth

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ONE DAY AT A TIME #essentialsofrec #compulsion

  15

November

STEP TWO

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

While in the grip of my disease I tried many things to deal with my compulsive overeating. I tried many, many diets, fasting, exercise programs, treatment, therapy, church and even resorted to weight loss surgery. I did the same thing over and over again – I tried outward solutions to fix an inward problem. And the sad thing was I somehow thought that I would get different results: a permanent change of my compulsive overeating. But it did not work that way. It was acting with insanity. I was frustrated and very, very sad. All along, I knew there was something wrong with me, that I was not “normal”, but I didn’t know what to do about it.

Then the blessing of the program came to me. I learned about Step Two: “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” I came to believe that was true. I finally was doing something different. Never before had I approached my compulsive overeating on three levels all at the same time. I had never seen my disease as a physical, emotional and spiritual disease that needed addressing at the same time, one day at a time. I began to slowly learn how to do this through the steps and the tools, with the help of sponsors and friends in the program. I found myself doing something different and getting different results. I found my sanity returning, piece by piece.

One Day at a Time . . .

I will do something different, knowing I will get different results.

~ Carolyn

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Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Recovery #AA #Insanity

10
August

“I did not know that I had no power over alcohol, that I, alone and unaided, could not stop; that I was on a downgrade, tearing along at full speed with all my brakes gone, and that the end would be a total smash-up, death or insanity. I had already feared insanity for a long time …I was not just drunk, I was crazy.”

 –Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch. 13 (“Stars Don’t Fall”), p 408.

Today, let me not forget that my drinking propelled me not into mere drunkenness but into a blackened fog that defies any definition of responsible conduct. As such, my recovery hinges not only on total abstinence but also on spiritual and emotional repair of the dysfunctional thought and behavioral patterns that were either acquired by my drinking or worsened by it. And, as stated in the above passage from the Big Book, even if I tell myself I am still unconvinced of a Higher Power, let me thank whatever force pulled me back from the “crazy” to find this Program and let me not claim “credit” for finding it alone. Likewise, just as I did not come into the Program on my own strength, let me accept that not drinking also cannot depend on my own strength. May I cling to whatever it was that rescued me so that I can progress in the Program and in sobriety. Today, let me remember that I am doomed to repeat my past if I don’t learn from it, and the most important lesson that I have is to continue trusting whatever force salvaged me from the “crazy.” And our common journey continues.


Step by step. – Chris M.

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Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Steps

8
July

“Long since I had come to believe I was insane because I did so many things I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to neglect my children. I loved them, I think, as much as any parent. But I did neglect them. I didn’t want to get into fights, but I did get into fights. I didn’t want to get arrested, but I did get arrested. I didn’t want to jeopardize the lives of innocent people by driving an automobile while intoxicated, but I did. I quite naturally came to the conclusion that I must be insane.”

 – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 2 (“He Had to be Shown”), p 199.

Today, I need to reach into yesterday to remember and keep always that I did all I thought I could not to drink but that my intentions were little more than the best laid plans of mice and men. In remembering yesterday so as not to repeat today and tomorrow what I did then, may I also recognize and admit that I am powerless over alcohol. And with that admission, I have taken the First Step toward recovery. With that Step comes power and control to say I do not have to submit to what I cannot control – alcohol – and that my intention not to do what I don’t want to do is in my control. Today, I seize control of what overpowers me by declaring no more. And our common journey continues.

 Step by step. – Chris M.

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