The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery by Martha Cleveland

Author:Martha Cleveland [Cleveland, Martha]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: AA. Agnostic, Alcoholism, 12 Step Recovery
ISBN: 9780991717477
Publisher: AA Agnostica
Published: 2014-11-10T05:00:00+00:00

Be entirely ready to acknowledge our abiding strength and release our personal shortcomings.

Today I will feel my abiding strength. I will focus on one of my shortcomings and consider the possibility of living without it.

Step 7

Work honestly, humbly and courageously to develop our assets and to release our personal shortcomings.

Principles: Personal responsibility, Involvement in change, Courage, Humility, Self-discipline

• • • • • •

We can't be a changed person unless we are willing to make changes. Step 7 actually involves us in personal change. As we use this Step, we go further than becoming willing to risk change. We do risk and we do change. We risk, we try, we fail, we start again. We act and our actions change our lives. In Steps 4 and 5 we discover our assets and our shortcomings. In Step 6 we become psychologically prepared to deal with these qualities. Step 7 finds us ready to act.

Humility Comes First

When we become entirely ready to make changes, our abiding strength is stronger than our shortcomings. And humility is a crucial part of this spiritual readiness. We know we have learning to do and we undertake our lessons with humility and self-reverence. We measure our progress in relation to who we have been, instead of measuring ourselves against other people. We are taking our own journey. We acknowledge our strength and use it with humility, looking only for an honest way of living in an honest reality.

Then Work...

First we accept humility. Then we begin to work. So let's be sure we know what we mean by “work.”

All of us can identify an action as work when it's deliberate or physically strenuous. Splitting wood is work. So is consciously gathering our courage to say no to the request of a friend when our guilts insist that we say yes. It may be harder to realize that we are doing important work when we let down old barriers and open our minds to new ways of thinking. It's work to allow ourselves to fail. It's work to stand up for ourselves. It's work to be patient. It's work to put up with the emotional discomfort of new ways. We can't judge something as work by whether it feels like work. We can't judge it by whether it results in the outcome we hope for. To work simply means to use our energy to be disciplined and committed in pursuit of our goal.

Effort And Action Bring New Freedom

We begin to change by actively letting go of our shortcomings, our actions and feelings that are liabilities. We cut our losses and start again. We begin by discarding old patterns of acting and old ways of thinking. We let go with slow, cautious and reluctant moves. No one lets go of shortcomings all at once. They disappear as we become aware of them, one at a time, over a period of years.

Our new rule becomes, “If it feels familiar, watch out. I'd better stop and look at this.” When a friend hurts us, we stop before we try to comfort her and relieve her guilt.

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