Welcome to the County Line Area
of Narcotics Anonymous
Serving: Agoura Hills, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake Village in Ventura County, California
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Serving: Agoura Hills, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake Village in Ventura County, California
NA is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. This is a program of complete abstinence from all drugs. There is only one requirement for membership, the desire to stop using. We suggest that you keep an open mind and give yourself a break. Our program is a set of principles written so simply that we can follow them in our daily lives. The most important thing about them is that they work.
There are no strings attached to NA. We are not affiliated with any other organizations. We have no initiation fees or dues, no pledges to sign, no promises to make to anyone. We are not connected with any political, religious, or law enforcement groups, and are under no surveillance at any time. Anyone may join us regardless of age, race, sexual identity, creed, religion, or lack of religion.
We are not interested in what or how much you used or who your connections were, what you have done in the past, how much or how little you have, but only in what you want to do about your problem and how we can help. The newcomer is the most important person at any meeting, because we can only keep what we have by giving it away. We have learned from our group experience that those who keep coming to our meetings regularly stay clean.
For more information on Narcotics Anonymous,
please go to the: Narcotics Anonymous World Services Website
June 20, 2026 |
Meditation for beginners |
| Page 178 |
| "For some, prayer is asking for God's help; meditation is listening for God's answer...Quieting the mind through meditation brings an inner peace that brings us into contact with the God within us." |
| Basic Text, pp. 46-47 |
| "Be patient when you're learning to meditate," many of us were told. "It takes practice to know what to 'listen' for." We're glad someone told us that, or many of us would have quit after a week or two of meditating. For the first few weeks, we may have sat each morning, stilled our thoughts, and "listened," just as the Basic Text said--but "heard" nothing. It may have taken a few more weeks before anything really happened. Even then, what happened was often barely noticeable. We were rising from our morning meditations feeling just a little better about our lives, a little more empathy for those we encountered during the day, and a little more in touch with our Higher Power. For most of us, there was nothing dramatic in that awareness--no bolts of lightning or claps of thunder. Instead, it was something quietly powerful. We were taking time to get our egos and our ideas out of the way. In that clear space, we were improving our conscious contact with the source of our daily recovery, the God of our understanding. Meditation was new, and it took time and practice. But, like all the steps, it worked--when we worked it. |
| Just for Today: I will practice "listening" for knowledge of God's will for me, even if I don't know what to "listen" for yet. |
We may have hoped for easy answers to our drug problem when we attended our first meeting. We'd hoped for a quick fix, some simple formula to provide relief from our troubled existence; with that, we could be on our way. "I was hoping you'd cast a spell on me and then send me off with a reminder to take cold showers and sleep with a chicken bone under my pillow," one addict joked. To our disappointment, no one promised us instant liberation. Worse, it was clear that working all Twelve Steps would take some time.
Although the simple equation we sought proved elusive, we warm up to the idea that recovery is less like math and more like one of Grandma's unwritten recipes--a little of this, some of that, and so on. Our longing for respite or connection or awakening gets us to meeting after meeting. Without our fully recognizing it, willingness shows us the way.
We hear a member celebrating 30 days clean explain, "I went to meetings every day and didn't take anything in between." Duly noted. Could this be the formula we were looking for? It seems almost too simple and also impossible. But maybe it's a good start--hello, open-mindedness! We're willing to give it a try.
As our heads start to clear, we awaken to the possibilities of a better life. We gravitate toward another formula that seems doable: "Go to meetings, get a sponsor, read the literature." Check, check, and check. We willingly take these actions and practice humility by keeping things simple. We're handed a pink card with the "Just for Today" reading and, as we read it aloud, another light comes on. This seemed like a practical approach and we were willing to try it.
Our experience at 30 days reveals the value of taking action. We made it this far! Holding up our keytag, we share, "I'm celebrating 30 days today because I went to meetings every day and didn't take anything in between. I picked up the Basic Text and got a sponsor and I'm finding that there is life after drugs. As much as I wanted to figure out this recovery thing, I'm learning to just do what you do, and it seems to work." And just like that, we're carrying the message and offering hope to every addict in the room.