NicA Norcal Home
Nica Norcal Home
Nica Norcal Home

Tools for Recovery

Meetings

The power of meetings is the group support we receive. We have a remarkable similarity of experience and a shared goal of freedom from nicotine. In meetings, we share our experience, strength, and hope. Most of us have found that at every meeting someone, somehow, has said something that touches us. Someone with our same weakness has shown us a way to be strong; someone who was without hope has been inspired to hope and then sparked our own hope; someone has used humor to overcome a difficulty, and reminded us to keep a light touch in our own lives.

Meetings are a powerful tool in our program. Attending on a regular basis strengthens our resolve and commitment to be nicotine free. We experience acceptance and support as we share without fear of cross talk, unsolicited advice, or criticism. We learn to keep the focus on ourselves and to share with honesty and love. We do not need to analyze the recovery process. We only know it works, so we keep coming back!

See more Northern California meetings

See more worldwide meetings


The Phone List

The phone list includes first names and phone numbers of all group members who are willing to offer and receive support between meetings.

For those groups that offer lists, the customary etiquette is to call during the day or early evening. Even calls at unusual hours are forgiven if you are in urgent need of support to maintain your abstinence. Some groups also include e-mail addresses.


Literature

Our literature includes several pamphlets, and the books: Nicotine Anonymous: The Book, Nicotine Anonymous: Newcomers Booklet, Nicotine Anonymous: Step Study Workbook, Our Path To Freedom, 90 Days, 90 Ways (daily meditations), and The Twelve Traditions (booklet). These materials have been written by recovering nicotine users who have volunteered their services. All literature with the Nicotine Anonymous logo was approved at Nicotine Anonymous World Services Conferences. The pamphlets cover a variety of issues and help to explain aspects of this program. Nicotine Anonymous: The Book includes the section "Our Story". has much to offer the recovering nicotine user, including a full text about each of the Twelve Steps. Our Path To Freedom contains the stories of members who offer their experience with nicotine and recovery.

Newcomers are encouraged to read as much of the literature as interests them. We have found that rereading the literature at a different stage of our abstinence and recovery can sometimes strike a new chord within us and provide new insights.

Much of our literature can be downloaded or purchased from World Services here, here, here, and here.

Literature translations are available through the World Services home page.


Sponsorship

Sponsors are members who are committed to abstinence and are willing to share their experience on a one-to-one basis. They live the Twelve Steps to the best of their ability. Sponsors act as a guide in the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of recovery up to the level of their experience. A sponsor passes along that which he/she has received from others in the program and finds this as the best way to keep his/her gift of recovery.

To find a sponsor you can approach someone you believe has what you need to help you achieve ongoing abstinence. After several meetings, if you have not successfully arranged for a sponsor, talk with your chairperson. He or she may be able to suggest someone to sponsor you. Temporary sponsorships are sometimes arranged. Each person decides for him/herself. E-mail sponsors may also be arranged when available for those without access to traditional sponsors.

If you are interested in sponshorship, a booklet can be ordered at our web store.


Service

Carrying the message of freedom from nicotine to nicotine users who still suffer is the basic purpose of our Fellowship. We look for ways to inform people that Nicotine Anonymous is available. However, we remain mindful that this is a program of attraction, not promotion. We do not try to persuade people, only to inform them. Any service, no matter how small, that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery.

Our presence and sharing our experience, strength and hope at meetings is our most important service in carrying the message. In addition, setting up a meeting room, maintaining literature inventories, welcoming newcomers, posting meeting announcements, doing whatever needs to be done in the group or for Nicotine Anonymous as a whole, gives back what we have so generously been given. We do what we can when we can. We gain as we give and thus learn the value of service as another tool of our recovery.

Enhance your recovery through service. Ask about open service positions at your meeting.


Fellowship

One-to-one discussion before or after meetings can be helpful in making progress toward recovery. Our best thinking can often benefit from the healthy ideas of others. We might find solutions for problems that have long troubled us.

Socializing at organized gatherings can also help to forge bonds between recovering addicts and to replace some of the unhealthy socializing we might have done when we were active nicotine users. Northern California typically organizes a summer picnic and a winter potluck in Marin County. The upcoming Northern California events will be announced here. The World Services Conference is held in a different location every year, affording opportunities to guide the organization toward success and to find fellowship with recovering addicts. The upcoming World Services Conference will be announced at World Services




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