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Petaluma -- Monday 7:00 PM

Please join our temporary online meeting

Apr 01, 2024

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Or, to call in by phone, dial 1-669-900-6833
Then type the meeting ID: 406 879 201
And use password: 140927

Announcements
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Serenity Prayer

Preamble

How Nicotine Anonymous Works

Nicotine Anonymous is people helping each other to quit using nicotine. It is people who have had or currently have an addiction to nicotine, sharing their experience, strength, and hope with each other in groups. It is the combined strength of the group that gives more strength to the individual combating this powerful addiction.

When people come to Nicotine Anonymous, at meetings newcomers hear firsthand information about the struggle, the surrender, and the freedom of recovery. They become more knowledgeable from first-hand information and they begin to learn HOW to live free from this powerful drug. They also learn that they are not alone.

H.O.W. = Honesty, Openness, & Willingness

Honesty is the antidote to the lies we have told ourselves-those excuses we have used to justify and maintain our behavior with nicotine. Honesty is a path of self-discovery, where we find a true sense of ourselves and our potential. In our journey we identify negative concepts that haveaffected beliefs about ourselves and life in general. The more we are honest with ourselves, the more inner trust we develop.

Openness allows us to receive the wisdom of the program, the support from our fellows, and the care of a Higher Power. An openmind invites opportunities. Openness calls upon the courage that facilitates change.

Willingness moves us to act. Action generates hope, explores possibilities, and inspires us beyond the doubts and fears that have imprisoned us in the past. Willingness carries us forward to experience the freedom, joy, and serenity-the bounty of recovery.

Recovery is a process. Each member works at his or her own pace. This is a gentle program, best approached with earnestness.

The Twelve Steps of recovery, which are used by many other successful programs are introduced in Nicotine Anonymous. The Twelve Steps suggest a spiritual approach. Many people have found strength far beyond their own by relying on a Power greater than themselves.

If you have decided that you want to be free of this powerful addiction and that you want what we have, you must be willing to go to any length to get it. Then you are ready to take certain steps. At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier way. But we could not. Half-measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked for God’s protection and care with complete abandon.

Here are the steps we took which are suggested as a program of recovery from addiction to nicotine:

Initially, many of us hesitated at certain Steps or before using all the tools. Some of us wanted an easier way. However, we learned that in order to get free of nicotine, we must become willing to go to any length. Shortcuts left us short of our goal. We stood at a turning point and the Steps provided direction- a spiritual approach to gain and maintain freedom from nicotine.

These are the Steps we work, one day at a time:

Twelve Steps

How it Works (Continued)

Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.”

Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, we are willing to grow along spiritual lines, and to accept a spiritual solution to our problem of nicotine addiction.

When the work began, many of us felt that this program asked too much of us. If you have such feelings, do not be discouraged. At first, you can just listen, then share your story. Read the literature, use the phone list, get a sponsor. Over time, be of service and practice the program’s principles in your daily life as best you can. Our members seek progress, not perfection. What’s important is that you “Keep Showing Up.”

Coming to believe in a Higher Power is a personal process of each member’s understanding. For some, the group becomes one form of a Higher Power. Being open to the care of a Higher Power is a spiritual principle that has helped many get free of the mental and physical bondage of addiction.

The Twelve Steps, together with our personal stories of addiction and recovery, reveal three fundamental truths:

1) We were addicted to nicotine, which put our lives in danger;

2) We could not stop using nicotine on our own;

3) A Power greater than ourselves could help us, if we sought this help in the fellowship of other nicotine addicts.

With this program of recovery, the support of our entire Fellowship, and a Higher Power, we have found a way to live without nicotine. This has been our path to a new freedom. This is how it works for us.

Twelve Traditions

Introductions

Cross Talk

Literature
First Monday is Step Study, from Nicotine Anonymous: The Book
We often read from A Year of Miracles.

Discussion

Promises

Closing

Serenity Prayer


To attend another meeting, go to our meetings page or to World Services.