Step 4: Distinctions Between Selfish and Self-Seeking in AA
Looking for the difference between selfish and self-seeking? Read this…
Tag Archives: alcoholism
You Don’t Say (to an addict)
When tied is a good thing.
Functional Alcoholic Signs
It’s so tricky to diagnose that I had friends telling me I couldn’t be alcoholic, even though I knew I was.
Step 1: Raising The White Flag
When I first quit drinking, I had a friend in AA that would wish ‘pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization’ on his drinking buddies.
What Do They Mean…Do The Next Right Thing?
Some people just naturally know what their NRT is. Do you?
Step 3: Part 6 The Director
It’s not my role to direct others. It’s my role to love them, support them by listening, and pray for them to find God’s direction
Step 3: Part 5 Lessons From The 70s on Willingness
My life lesson plan was handed to me with my bed tray at the age of 23!
Step 3: Part 4 Flat-Out Decision
The way out was to get a clue! I thought I was supposed to be in charge of my own life, so I was.
Step 3 Part 2: ABCs of AA
Bill’s principles of AA… I laughed out loud when I heard this. (Learn what hit the editor’s floor.)
Step 3: Part 1 Connected
My life wasn’t happy, but I felt like I was in control. For some reason, that made sense to me.
Step 3: Self-willed and Controlling? Who…Me?
I don’t understand the intricate workings of denial, but I’m at the same time, well-acquainted with it.
Step 3: Examine Inconsistencies
Here’s the confession: When I’m doing well, it’s not really me doing it. It’s the power within.
Finding Someone to Sponsor
Jot these questions in your cell so you’re prepared.
Do You Have the Necessary Tools For Sponsorship?
Should you be a sponsor?
To Quote My Favorite Philosopher, “NIP IT!”
She said, “Heidi, I don’t know why anyone calls you when they’re having problems.”
Google Me Alcoholic
What do you mean, alcoholic?
90 Meetings?
Are we keeping the gate closed?
Welcome To Recovery of Action
WHICH WAY?
Clean Sweep
Pick up a broom and give it a whirl!
What Is God’s Will?
I no longer feel I have to ‘prove’ anything to you or to me
Anxiety: Part 2 Hey There! Hold On A Sec!
There’s a lot of ‘holding’ going on during the last three points.
Anxiety: Part 1 Pull on the Nail
Can you find something that weighs on your mind?
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
My life would make a better movie than it does a life.
STOP…GO…STOP!
So what do we do if we can’t trust our thinking?
Step 4: Column 5 Character Defects and The Foul Four
Putting out of our minds the wrongs other had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes.
Step 4: Column 4 Ya But…
Ya but… (wheeze) the other guy is the problem! You’re just the victim, here.
Step 4: Column 4 Tattletale
So, what’s wrong with being a Tattletale?
Step 4: Are You A Friend Among Friends?
I was not. I’m still learning. At one time I thought I had the perfect life but it was built upon the proverbial shifting sand of illusions about myself. The […]
Step 4: Column 2 The Cause Knot
Now that we have the first column naming people, institutions and principles we can move on to the second column.  (Refer to the Not Scary Resentments Worksheet of Step 4 in […]
Step 4: Why It Works Like a Sticky Trap For Rats of Resentment
Do you have an inexplicable feeling of pending doom? Do you feel deep down lonely…
Step 4: Column 1 Resentments, The Number One Offender
Take a good look at anything that riles you. What are your pet peeves?
Step 4: Dirty Urchins, Raggedy People and Drunks
Everything was dirty, broken, piled up and rusty. I kept gagging…
Step 4: As Long As You’re Green You’re Growing…
as soon as you’re ripe, you rot! There’s a lot of ripe ones out there…
Step 2: AA Drifter Returns to the Bunkhouse of Childhood Faith
I have the clearest memory of childhood discussions and a collection of bunkhouse adventures with God. This skinless friend was more real …
Step 3: What Grows in the Dark?
What keeps you awake at night?
Step 3: The Key To Making Decisions
Step 3 is not the action of turning our will and lives over, it’s deciding to do so. Let’s get specific. Which decision making elements do you usually use?
Step 3: Questions and Directions
There is something in me that rebels against familiar authoritarianism. Do I really want someone else to tell me what to think again? I hope not.
How Did I Set My Password For AA Serenity?
During early sobriety it seemed that all the characters around the table except me had a secret password that allowed them to log into a new life of peace and serenity. I’d never seen anything like these hooligans.
Step 3: Whistling In The Dark
Do I miss drinking? Sometimes. I miss it to the extent that I’m still insane. I was not created for self-destruction but alcohol is a one way ticket to that insanity. It waits.
Step 3: I Can Skip This if I’m a Christian, Right?
The question I should have asked when I dropped into AA was, Is there a difference between step 3 and salvation for a Christian?
Step 11: Do You Meditate In Color?
This is my prayer corner. The colored pencils are from Iowa. I bought them at an art supply store when I started coloring during prayer. Bear with me. I can explain…maybe.
Is Your God Silent? Are you?
Before I got sober at the age of 55, I was trapped by an ice storm at an abbey near Dubuque, in NE Iowa. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. […]
Step 4: Fearless Moral Inventory Shortcut
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. That’s Step 4, perhaps the scariest few words Bill W strung together in this 12 Step program. It seems to me […]
No Disk
My addiction started harmlessly.
Unconflicted and Better Than a Hallelujah
I agree with Chaz and his Unconflicted post. I am unconcerned about Bill’s personal life. He was a tool for getting the Biblical principles into our hands. I was not […]
Step 3: Gargantua Tarantula
It’s 12 Steps, not 2. The Old Timers I love and respect are those who have serenity gained from taking all 12 and continuing to live in the principles.
Peace on Earth to (Sober) Men
Peace started for me during Step One when I admitted I was not all-powerful; that alcohol had me by the throat!
Victim Veins Revisited
You call it love. For years, all I wrote was bad, tragic and tearful poetry. Then life got better because I got sober and I gave up poetry. Suddenly, this […]
After Stepping Fourth!
The truth will set you free, to the extent that you recognize it and cooperate with it.
Forgiveness and Murder
Mary Johnson befriended the man who murdered her only son and then invited him to come live next door
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