​Week #265 All Addictions Big Book Step Study

No text reading today.

Exercise in How To Do a Spot-check Inventory:
(1)Take out a piece of paper and write
T.H.I.N.K. on it.
T- was it Thoughtful?
H- was it Honest?
I- was it Intelligent?
N- was it Necessary?
K- was it Kind?

(a) Ask yourself: ‘Do I owe an amend?’
Say T.H.I.N.K. to yourself and if you can say ‘no’ to any of those questions, you need to make an amend.

(b) Take something that’s happened in the last 24 hours that you don’t think went well and now write out a spot-check inventory on it using the tool of
T.H.I.N.K.
Note: Keep it simple, don’t over-analyze; we did the deep digging and analyzing in Steps Four through Nine. Just answer the 5 questions T.H.I.N.K. conjures up.
(If u don’t come up with something that happened within the past 24 hours, go back to something you feel still needs your amends.)

T.H.I.N.K.ing is really the essence of
Step Ten (“Continued to take personal
inventory and when we were wrong
promptly admitted it.”).
​
We now have a tool for different language in making amends, naming what we’ve done rather than saying
‘I’m sorry’ for these constant drips (chronic problems, constant irritations) we have in our daily lives.
The ‘I’m sorry’just doesn’t cut it anymore; it’s not believable anymore when it’s a constant problem.
But, when we be specific and name what we did, we’re being honest (H.- honest) with ourselves and the other person in the relationship.

​Week 264, All Addictions, Thursday Big Book Step Study Workshop

Today’s reading:
AA 12&12 p.91 para 1- through para 2 end of sentence 3.
“In all these situations we need self-restraint, honest analysis… a willingness
to admit…to forgive… We need not be discouraged… We shall look for progress, not perfection.
Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint. …When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant evaporates on the spot.”

Q(1)My reaction is my responsibility.
(a) Write on that.
(b) What would have been a healthy reaction to situations in the past that you did not handle very well? (Now you can bring them to QT and meditate on them.)

Q(2) “…willingness to forgive… .”
(a) Write on that.
(b) And, on a scale of 1-10, with the last person you had a difference, where is your forgiveness?

Q(3)Write on this:
“We need not be discouraged when we fall into the error of our old ways… .”
(Getting discouraged, when I’m anything but perfect, is part of the disease. It happens when the great ‘I wanted to be’
[our ego] gets in the way.)

Q(4) “…, for these disciplines are not easy.”
( p. 91 para 1, next to last sentence)
[“…these disciplines…”, says Stephanie, refer to (a) when we accept ourselves
coupled with (b) accepting life on Life’s terms.]
Are you accepting yourself right where you are?

Q(5)(a)Write on: “We shall look for progress, not for perfection.”
That is how we start our nightly review and also our spot-check inventory. But people use that as an excuse for not trying to be the best they can be.
(b)Have you done that in the past,
rested on your past progress but ceased to look for your goal of perfection?

Q(6)(a)Taking everything Stephanie just discussed and described about herself in this workshop (regarding cancelling going today to her new exercise class due to not feeling well/ up to par), where are you? What would you have done in this situation?
(b)Write about such a situation in your life. And write out a spot-check inventory.

About Meditations: Always come out of meditation
gently. Be gentle with yourself; God is a gentle God. People may be harsh, but God is gentle.
And, if in your meditations you realize a relationship in your life is not sweet, do a spot-check inventory on it and make amends, if necessary.
​
There’s no reason for our relationships not to be sweet.

​Week 263
Thursday Big Book Step Study

Today’s reading:
AA 12&12 p.90 last paragraph – through p. 91 paragraph 1, end of first sentence.
“”A spot-check inventory taken in the midst of such disturbances can be of very great help in quieting stormy emotions. … In all these situations we need self-restraint, honest analysis of what is involved, a willingness to admit when the fault is ours, and an equal willingness to forgive when the fault is elsewhere.”

Look up: self-restraint

Q (1a) Did you need to make a spot-check inventory this week?
(b) Did you have an instance where people or new events threw you off balance and tempted you to make a mistake?
(c) Or did u make a mistake and make a spot-check inventory?
Write on it.
And if you didn’t in this past week, write on the most recent time you did (where a person or an event threw you off balance and you knew you needed to make an amend).
(d) And if you didn’t (make the amend), how can you rectify it?

Q (2) Write on this:
“In all these situations we need self-restraint, honest analysis of what is involved…”
(a) What does that mean to you? and for you?
(b) What is self-restraint?
(c) When is the time you used self-restraint? And when is the time you didn’t?
(d) And what is the honest analysis?
You have 7 steps with which to honestly analyze the situation. Then you have to pray for the ‘willingness to admit when the fault is (y)ours’ and pray again for “an equal willingness to forgive when the fault is elsewhere.”
​
Q (3) Then, write on the entire paragraph(AA 12&12 p. 91 para 1), ESPECIALLY the willingness part.

No notes available.