Until we experience the healing effect that the Twelve Steps have on our lives, we will hardly find anything that represents us more than the above phrase. Most of us come to NA feeling unbearable shame, constantly analyzing the past and wanting more than anything to turn back time and change it. Our expectations and projections of the future can be so outrageous that we make a new acquaintance and our minds immediately go to the breakup. Almost everything that happens in our day wakes us up from the past or causes our mind to run into the future.
To begin with, staying in the moment is difficult. We feel like our mind will never stop. It's hard for us to feel good about ourselves. Whenever we realize that our thoughts are not focused on the present, we can pray and ask a loving God to help us out of this situation. If we regret the past, we make amends by living today in a different way. If we dread the future, we look to do our best today.
We will notice that this will happen to us less and less as we work the Steps and pray whenever we catch ourselves not living in the present. Faith helps us live only for today. There will come whole hours or even days when our attention will be focused on the here and now, instead of living regretting the past or dreading the future.
