In recovery, we go through the steps with our sponsor. However, the steps also must be worked in our daily lives. As the Twelfth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous suggests, we must practice these principles in all our affairs. Powerlessness In everyday life, powerlessness is constantly affecting us. Specifically, we must always remember our powerlessness over our [...]
Tag Archives: alcoholics anonymous
Amending Behavior
The Ninth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous suggests that we make amends to those we have harmed. We make direct amends wherever possible, focusing on the exact nature of our wrongs. We take accountability for our actions. However, there is far more to amends than just making a direct amends. Living amends is the practice of changing [...]
Working a Personal Program
Each one of us works our own individual program. In twelve-step programs we are given many suggestions, but there is only one requirement: the desire to stop drinking. Attending meetings or speaking with our fellows, we see how differently each of us works our program. It is a beautiful thing that we are encouraged to [...]
Seeking Outside Help
Alcoholics Anonymous provides us with many great tools. We suddenly are given an amazing support network, a spiritual program of action, and wonderful opportunity to grow. Although Twelve-Step programs offer us so much, there are certainly things that we may find outside of Alcoholics Anonymous. The stigma surrounding this prevents many people in the program [...]
Relationships in Sobriety
Being in an intimate relationship in sobriety is difficult to say the least. Relationships are like steroids for my character defects; they cause them to grow more powerful than I imagined possible. From jealousy to control issues, my need to be right to my need to know everything, my character defects really come to light [...]
Alcohol Addiction
Alcohol is by far the most commonly abused substance in the world. For many, alcohol use is social, fun, innocent, and inconsequential. However, the effects of alcohol cause some users to become alcoholics. The road from problem drinker to full alcohol can vary, but there are general signs of alcohol addiction. Upon recognizing the symptoms [...]
What is a “Spiritual Experience?”
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous states in the second Appendix, “The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms… Most of our experiences are what [...]
The Three Jewels vs. The AA Triangle
There are numerous ways in which people compare Buddhism and Twelve-Step programs. One of the easiest similarities to see between Buddhism and recovery is in the Three Jewels and the AA Triangle symbol. A simple connection to make, these two ideas from two different spiritual programs tie together beautifully. The Three Jewels of Buddhism The [...]
Big Book Quote of the Day – p. 25
“There is a solution. Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living [...]
Big Book Quote of the Day – p. xxvi
“Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can [...]
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