The Simple Approach to the 12 Steps

[MajestyJo]

The Simple Approach to the 12 Steps
Keep things simple

Step 1: There's a power that will kill me.
*The Problem - Powerlessness

Step 2: There's a power that wants me to live.
* The Solution - A Greater Power

Step 3: Which do I want? (If you want to die,stop here. If you want to live go on.
* The Decision Between step 1 & 2

Step 4: Using examples of your own life, understand that selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear control your actions.

Step 5: Tell all your private, embarrassing secrets to another person.

Step 6: Decide whether or not you want to live that way any more.

Step 7: If you want to change, ask a power greater than yourself to change it for you. (If you could have changed it yourself, you would have long ago.)

Step 8: Figure out how to make right all the things you did wrong.

Step 9: Fix what you can without causing more trouble in the process.

Step 10: Understand that making mistakes is part of being human. (Whether you make a mistake, fix it, immediately if you can.)

Step 11: Ask for help to treat yourself and others that way you want your higher power to treat you.

Step 12: Don't stop doing Steps 1 through 11.

Take what you like and leave the rest, or as I was told take what you hear, and if you don't need it, put it on a shelf until you find someone else who does need it and you can pass it forward.

From another site.

This shows me that I have a disease that is indeed cunning, baffling and powerful and the only defence is a spiritual solution.

Many people relapse and they wonder why. For many it is because they haven't had a spiritual awakening or experience sufficient to bring about recovery.

You can't lose what you never had. You can't know what you never learned. You can't live what you have not been taught or experienced.

[MajestyJo]

Many peoplee think they know the way the Steps should be worked. I feel that it is something between the person and the God of their understanding.

I remember asking for directions, and people saying, "keep coming back."

Personally, I had to read the Steps, get to know my disease, to apply what I read to my life, and just try to the best of my ability, one day at a time.

As I kept coming, I started to heal. As I healed, my awareness grew and my ability to apply these tools to my life grew and I was able to practice, practice, practice.

To me it is a living program, there is no end. When I get to Step Twelve, where do I need to go?

For me I do the Step One, Two, Three every morning. I can't, God can, just for today I choose to let Him.

Steps Four to Nine, I practice when my past shows up in today. That mean writing and sharing my feelings and emotions as they appear and make themselves known. Most of it was rooted in my childhood, and through the years gained compounded interest, today I try to make payments by applying them to the principle instead of the arrears.

Steps Ten to Twelve I try to live on a daily basis, no matter what. They are my daily maintenance.

I was told to keep it simple. Don't use, go to meetings and work the Steps into your life.



Keep It Simple for Serenity!