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When I first entered the Program of AA, I had no idea of what hope or gratitude really was. I didn’t hold out much, if any, thought that hope was for me. I was down so low that I had to look up to see the belly of a snake. Today I am truly a… Continue reading Spirituality and How to become entirely Grateful

When gut-wrenching anger, jealousy, shame, or other negative emotions overcome me, the last thing I want to do is embrace them. The opposite of embracing is resisting and this resistance only solidifies them. The memory of the painful events that caused them becomes a permanent part of my experience. The way I feel about any… Continue reading Spirituality and How to become Happy, Joyous, and Free (when all around me seems to be swimming in turmoil)

“Spirituality is great for the AA Program but it might hinder my enjoyment and ability to carry on my everyday life.” “Do you expect me to think about Spirituality all day long?” “Thinking about Spirituality takes the fun out of everything.” These and more, similar thoughts were front and center of my mind when I… Continue reading Spirituality and How to live Everyday Life

Having the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, I can see that there was always a God in my life. (Step 2) I had just refused to acknowledge It. I was existing but I wanted to really live my life. My life was just about completely unmanageable and I was powerless over a lot of things including… Continue reading Be happy with the fact that you can now truly live your life and enjoy it

The Dalai Lama said “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” And Ernest Holmes adds “The individual who will learn how consciously to change his thinking processes can remold his destiny.” We have discussed before about the power of thoughts. Being happy, like love and sobriety, is a conscious CHOICE that… Continue reading Spirituality and How to become Happy, Joyous, and Free

Step 9 says “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” “OK, so this is the step where I tell everyone how sorry I am.” NOT!!! Nowhere in this step does it say we say “I’m sorry.” We have worn that one out when we… Continue reading Spirituality and How to make amends

Step 10 continues adding Spirituality to our minds by saying “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” If you have gotten to the 10th Step you are probably feeling much better about yourself and life in general. You have flushed many of your secrets away that were weighing so… Continue reading Spirituality and How to take responsibility for our actions

Step 6 states “We were ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Notice that this step says remove ALL these defects of character. It does not say just some of them or “I am going to save a few otherwise I just wouldn’t be me.” Yes, I have heard both said too,… Continue reading Spirituality and How to get rid of character defects

We have taken an inventory of ourselves and now what do we do with this? Some of it is very painful. This can be a very heavy load. When faced with carrying a heavy object, such as a big carton, we sometimes ask another for assistance and the two or so of us carry it… Continue reading Spirituality and How to become relieved after the inventory

I have attended AA meetings seating from 75-100 people to much smaller numbers. At the meetings, many would concentrate on the steps. They would have signs on the tables signifying the number of the step to be discussed there. Most of the time the 4th Step table, or Inventory Step, would be empty. Newcomers to… Continue reading Spirituality and How to work your inventory without being afraid

The AA Program is a remarkable 12 Step Program that can be used by everyone to better ones life. Step 3 says “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.” If we accepted the 1st Step that we were alcoholics and our lives… Continue reading Spirituality and How to turn your life over to God

We all know and use and believe the Physical Law of Gravity. Just as real is the Spiritual Law of Attraction. This law tells us that we get out of life exactly what we put into it. When we look into a mirror on the wall, we see exactly what image we put into it,… Continue reading Spirituality and How to use the Law of Attraction

The 2nd Step of the remarkable AA Program says “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” I didn’t have any religious background when I came into AA. I didn’t even know about a God. I thought He was a bearded man sitting on a golden throne “up there… Continue reading Spirituality and How to come to believe in a Higher Power

I had a reminder recently of all that I have to be grateful for. I was reminded that, since I have joined AA and began working the Program to the best of my ability, I now have choices. Looking back, I don’t think that I had choices before the Program showed me that there was… Continue reading Spirituality and How to reap the rewards of Gratitude

Step 1 says “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.” Webster defines Admit as “ to concede as true or valid.” Being new to the program, I didn’t have a clue as to what I was getting myself into. I did not know if I believed that others… Continue reading Spirituality and How to become Happy, Joyous, and Free

The 3rd Step of the AA Program states “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” As many of you know, the 3rd Step is a very basic, important part of my program of practicing these principles daily in all my affairs. Recently,… Continue reading Spirituality and how to turn your will and life over to the care of God

I have heard since I was very young that when something happened, especially if it was very tragic, “It was the will of God” and “It was just meant to happen.” This was another reason why I was confused about God. This didn’t sound very loving to me. If I heard it from my parents… Continue reading Spirituality and How is it that the right thing always happens?

We have talked before about our being not the same person we were when we were in the madness. We have been given a resurrection. This came after we discovered sobriety and now do our best to work our program 24/7/365. We are aware from our high school biology that most of our cells change… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Achieve Our Emotional Resurrection

What, really, is it? Unconditional love, simply put, is love without strings attached. It’s love offered freely. This is love like a pet gives. You don’t base it on what someone does for you in return. You simply love them and want nothing more than their happiness. Agape Love, another term for unconditional love, is… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Attain Unconditional Love

What do you really want from this Program? What do you really desire in your heart of hearts to get here? Do you really crave to say “I’m right and you are wrong in your thinking?” Or do want to say, with meaning, “I am so blessed in my life” and no more? When my… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Be Happy, Joyous, and Free ALL THE TIME

When I was in the madness, I don’t believe that this was one of my questions. Why, you may wonder? Because any time that I had time off, or on for that matter, I drank and let the chips fall wherever they may. My plans were very short lived and rarely accomplished because they always… Continue reading Spirituality and How to not fear this upcoming weekend

I have a very short but accurate answer to the first part of this topic. EVERYTHING! I was physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually bankrupt when I came into the AA Program. But by being willing to go to ANY lengths to get the program and finally really working it to the best of my ability… Continue reading Spirituality and What does sobriety mean to me and How to get it

I have heard, probably most of my life, “You gotta do this.” “You gotta do that.” “You have to do this or that” even in AA. “You have to do this or that or you will get drunk.” When I hear that I Gots to do something, I instinctively pull back and maybe rebel. I… Continue reading Spirituality and How to not Gots to but Gets to!

As we have discussed in the recent past, Spirituality is the foundation of this remarkable AA Program. This may be daunting to the AA newcomer or the AA veteran who is attending the meetings but not really working the Program. At no place in the 12 Steps, Big Book, or any other approved AA concept… Continue reading Spirituality and How To Successfully Work The AA Program

After I had been in the program for a while and worked the first 3 steps I started to feel better about everything. It came to me that I was having trouble making some decisions and handling my life pretty much in general. It seemed like I had more problems since stopping drinking than I… Continue reading Spirituality and Why am I doing worse now than before

What really is Serenity? Webster says “marked by or suggestive of utter calm and unruffled repose or quietude.” I remember when I was very new to the program and white knuckling it people saying “This too shall pass.” I wanted to pass 5 across their lips. If you are new to the program, are you… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Achieve Serenity

Probably the most powerful part of our beings is our thoughts, no matter how physically fit we are or how many muscles we have. This is whether we have Alcoholism or not. Of the 12 Steps of the AA Program, only the 1st half of the 1st Step even mentions alcohol. The other 11 1/2… Continue reading Spirituality and How to go from practicing alcoholism into being truly blessed!

CBA means what? First, we Conceive, then we Believe, and then we WILL Achieve our goals. We have recently discussed Spirituality and Fear. Now that we know that fear is the foundation of ALL of our character defects and shortcomings, what can we do about them? “If you had, coming up, the same thing that… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Best Utilize CBA

Many newcomers to the AA Program have a disdain for any references to religious thoughts or ideas. This leads them to shutting themselves off from listening to anything related to religion. Even after being told that this is not a religious program but is a spiritual program, I wondered what is the difference. Also, why… Continue reading Spirituality and How to obtain Faith

We touched on the I Am recently before and it brings so much to mind thinking what words would I use after the two words “I Am.” Think about it. What your response is may well be a forecaster for your entire life. I Am sober. This should mean that I am Happy, Joyous, and… Continue reading Spirituality and How to follow saying I AM