12 Step Workshop - Fast Track To Sobriety
Introduction to Part 2:
HAVE YOU DISCOVERED THAT YOU ARE A REAL ADDICT?
HAVE YOU ADMITTED YOU ARE POWERLESS OVER THE ADDICTION AND YOUR LIFE IS UNMANAGEABLE?
If you have answered YES to both questions then you are ready to take the next steps to recovery!
WHAT WE WILL COVER IN PART 2: Steps 2, 3, 4
- Am I insane?
- When will sanity be restored?
- Powerlessness doesn't mean Helplessness
- If acting-out is not my real problem then what is?
- The real purpose of doing the 12 steps
- The true meaning of 'fearlessness'
- The most Hopeful paragraph in the book
- The Step 3 promises
- Why we can't stay sober
- Our Deal with G-D
- How do we know when we are self-deluded?
- Why we have to die to ourselves!
- How to acquire peace of mind
- How free do we want to be?
Once again, this workshop is only for you if you are desperate and want to get sober - and stay sober!
This is a 'simple but not easy' program and therefore you need to be willing to actively work these steps.
Before beginning the next part of this series, it is strongly recommended that you get yourself a sponsor (someone who has been through the program and can guide you), and that you read until page 44 in the Big Book (as much as you can).
Please also find here a step 4 inventory worksheet, which you should have ready for the coming session.
STEP 2
P.59: "We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
P.46/last paragraph: “As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps.”
When taking step 2 we can be quite disappointed because we will probably not yet feel sane!
But if we look at step 2 carefully, we will see it says ‘COULD’ not ‘WILL’.
So to give us a glimpse of what to look forward to, let's jump ahead to step 10 on P.84
At this stage in the book we are at step 10, which means that we have already taken the following actions:
a. Already done a moral inventory
b. Taken our exact nature of our wrongs to G-D
c. Have compiled our list of people we harmed
d. Are actively making amends
So providing we have done that, this is what we are going to experience in step 10.
P.84 at the bottom: “And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even acting-out. For by this time sanity will have returned.”
Chapter 4: ‘We Agnostics’ is entirely devoted to step 2
P.44: “In the preceding chapters you have learned something of acting-out. We hope we have made clear the distinction between the addict and the non-addict”
Notice that the authors are recapping step 1, as it is absolutely necessary to have done step 1 before moving on to step 2.
“If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when acting-out, you have little control over how far you go, you are probably an addict. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.”
Again, the authors are reminding us what the only solution is.
Q: Are we willing to believe that we are suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer?
Consider that for a moment.
P.45/paragraph 1: “Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power?”
In a moment we’re going to answer those 2 questions. We are going to find out WHERE we can find this Power and HOW we are going to find it.
That’s what’s so great about this book. It gives such clear and simple instructions.
Look at the next line …
“Well, that's exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.”
Here the authors are telling us the whole purpose of this book.
What is our problem?
On P.23 it tells me what our problem is … it’s our THINKING! It’s not the acting-out.
Acting out was our solution. It became a problem, but it was originally our solution. Our main problem is - and always has been - our thinking.
So the authors are telling us that the object of the book is to find a Power that will help us with that.
Now they are talking about finding a G-D of OUR understanding. Not of our our mother’s or father’s or Rabbi's - but OUR understanding.
So the main object of the the 12 steps must be to help us find a G-d of our understanding.
Now let’s answer those 2 questions. The ‘where’ and the ‘how’.
Turn to page 55/paragraph 2: “Sometimes we had to search fearlessly, but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were.”
So the ‘how’ is by searching fearlessly. Keep in mind that to do something fearlessly does not mean to have absence of fear. It simply means going ahead and doing something even though we are afraid. If we ask a fireman “Are you not afraid of going into a burning building?” He would say “Absolutely, I’m terrified!” we ask “then why do you do it?” to which he replies “Because those people need help”.
So we see he has COURAGE to go into a burning building even though he may be afraid. If there is no fear, there is no need for courage. Does it take courage to brush our teeth in the morning?
Searching fearlessly means having the COURAGE to seek this Higher Power.
Now let’s look at ‘where’ we can find this Power …
“Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of G-d. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there… We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found”
The authors are letting us know that G-d is ‘deep down within us’. He always has been. Our ‘Self’ has been blocking us from recognizing Him!
P.46/middle of page: “We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God.”
The keyword here is WILLINGNESS. The authors are making a promise that we will start to get results as long as we become willing.
Willingness is an attitude. It does not require any action.
In step 2, we are only required to have a willingness to believe.
Also take notice of how it is impossible to FULLY understand G-D.
P.47/paragraph 1: “When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God”
It’s important to realize that this book is not based on any single religion. It is about spiritual growth, whatever religion we happen to practice.
P.53/middle of the page: “When we became … crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't. What was our choice to be?”
A few questions to consider:
Q: Were we crushed by a SELF imposed crisis?
In other words, we did it to ourselves. Nobody else did it to us. Not our parents, our teachers, our boss, our neighbor nor our tax man … We must take 100% responsibility for our own fate.
Q: Are we willing to make the choice that G-D is either everything or He is nothing?
In order to take step 2, let us answer these 2 questions:
Q1: Are we willing to believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves?
Q2: Is G-D everything or is He nothing?
If we are ready to take step 2 then we will say “Yes, we are willing to believe, and G-D is everything.”
Congratulations!
Ok, let’s move on to step 3