All Addictions
12-Step Study
Workshop
12-Step Study
Workshop
5/29/2014 0 Comments Recording For May 29, 2014Today’s reading: Big Book p. 60 beginning paragraph 2 “Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas” … until end of paragraph 3: “Being convinced, we were at Step Three, which is that we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood him. Just what do we mean by that, and and just what do we do?” Look up: convinced, care. Q1) Are you convinced you are ready to take Step Three? Q2) (a) When I say ‘yes’ (to something asked of me), have I looked at it? (b) Have I looked at all the ramifications of saying ‘yes’? (c) Am I any less of a recovered person if I say ‘no’ to doing a (any of the) service (positions)? (d) Why would I be any less? (e) Why wouldn’t I? Q3) Are you convinced that you are an alcoholic (using ‘alcoholic’ as a broad term)? *Write down: Move a muscle, change a thought. Moving a muscle changes our thinking. THINK: I am powerless over my thinking. Therefore, I must have a Higher Power in the equation to change a thought. I have to ask God to help me move a muscle. Then I will be able to change my thought (i.e. of going to my addiction or another destructive behavior). We have a nanosecond to change a thought, IF we are willing to trust and rely on a Higher Power. Some tools of muscle movement are: getting on a phone meeting, calling your buddy, calling someone from the Thursday group. We have to be able to give up the idea that me/ I/ self is powerful enough to change an idea we are having. *Write down: Actions speak louder than (our) thoughts/ decisions. Step Three has 2 components: (a) the commitment (b) the integrity of following through on our commitment(s) That’s why Stephanie is so big on Action Plans (strategies) – as the tool to following through. Without an action, following through on a commitment FALLS through. AND commitments without actions are self-abuse, according to Stephanie. Step Three necessitates making the decision to have (the) integrity to follow through on commitments; Step Three necessitates being ready to do the work.
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5/22/2014 0 Comments Recording For May 22, 2014A special Thank-You goes out to our Secretaries, Angela and Ashira. Your commitment to volunteering for this Step Study Workshop is greatly appreciated.
Announcements: Using the AA Reflections book. We will read the day’s reading, then write and meditate on it and lastly share our experience of this. It is not about the 12 steps, nor is it a 12-step workshop. It is how Stephanie does her Quiet Time and after doing it for three years she had a dramatic experience with the God of her understanding. In a few weeks will look for a volunteer to co-lead with Angela. The only requirement is a commitment to show up no matter what. 2010 Trust & Rely Workshop 641 715 3900 pin 235934# summary part one, 578290# part two. 95 minutes each. If you are going to break your sobriety go to the four-year-old Trust & Rely Workshop. Listen to the summary (parts 1 2 3.) Listen to the powerlessness, of going to a Higher Power rather than your addiction. Stephanie finds it very helpful to listen to when feeling down and depressed. She finds it really makes a big difference and tells you what to expect. She explains: “I am powerless. I am going to feel like I am going to go back. But I made a decision and I am going to carry out that decision because I have a loving God”. On first Thursday of the each month (except September when abroad), Stephanie will stay on the meeting until 9.15am EST to answer our questions. This is especially important as we go into the third, fourth and fifth steps. She says: “You need good generalship. Well you can look at me as your general. A general leads the troops. Doesn’t mean the general is a better person or more recovered. Just a general has more experience. They suit up they show up and that’s me.” You can also text, call or e-mail her with any questions: 617 774 7916 stephaniew [email protected] Taking the Third Step. Stephanie says, “I wish I could tell you exactly when we will be doing the third step. We are really going slow on steps 1, 2 and 3. I don’t know how to do it any other way. I love you enough to give you everything I know. As we get closer I will tell you. If you cannot make it, I will take you through the step individually by making a a 15-minute appointment with you during the week.” We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. There are no ‘cannot’s. Saying I can’t can be a real racket, a cop-out and excuse. A way that your disease gets you to believe that you cannot. The antidote is to say: “No God I can’t do that on my own, but (‘but’ discounts everything said before) I can with you God and I am going to ask your help.” Today’s reading: Big Book p. 60 paragraph 1, next to last sentence: ” The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than perfection. Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear these pertinent ideas: (a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. (b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. (c) That God could and would if He were sought.” Q1) Where is our description of the alcoholic in the Big Book? Q2) Take each of the above statements- a, b, and c- and write them out, inserting your own particular addiction(s) into statement ‘a’. (a) Are you willing to admit that you cannot manage your own life? (b) What constitutes human power for you? Write on this. (c) Share with each other your personal (success) stories. Learn about each other. Q3) (a) Where are you at- (a), (b), or (c) in today’s reading? (b) Are you still doubting that you cannot manage your own life? (c) What human power are you trying to use to relieve your addiction? (d) Or, are you willing to come to the end of yourself and believe that a HP can really help you? Q4) Where are you in this process? (a) Are you having trouble with surrender? (b) With your Quiet Time? 5/15/2014 0 Comments Recording For May 15, 2014Week 124) 15 May 2014 12-step study Big Book workshop
Big Book: Chapter 5 How It Works page 60 all of first paragraph: Many of us exclaimed, ‘What an order! I can’t go through with it.’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. the principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. 3rd July: Step 3 commitment. Stephanie will be staying on as long as anybody needs and will be taking people through a commitment of step 3. This part of the meeting will not be recorded. Soul work Write down: Move a muscle, change a thought. And: I am going to turn my life (which is all my actions) and my will (which is my thinking), over to my Higher Power. Look up: discouraged, adherence, principles Many of them exclaimed, What an order! I can’t go through with it.” Do not be discouraged. Q1. What in your life are you thinking ‘What an order! I can’t go through with it?’ Q2. Are you discouraged today and if so, what are you discouraged about? Are you willing to make an action plan so you can get up and out of your discouragement? Q2. Are you trying to live the principles of the 12 steps perfectly? Or trying to live them to the best of your ability? Q3 Are you focused on the right hand trying to be perfect or on the left discouraged and giving up? In the middle is an action plan. Do you have one? Q4 Are you a lone wolf, physically? What do you for your physical action plan? a. Do you have any accountability around your health boundaries? c) Are you a lone wolf with your emotions? Do you have healthy boundaries? i. What about spiritually? Do you do your Quiet Time? Are you a lone wolf or do you have a spiritual buddy (or any type of buddy) that walks beside you? 5/8/2014 0 Comments Recording For May 8, 2014(week 123) 8 May 2014 12-step Study Big Book Workshop
Big Book: Chapter 5 How It Works p.58: ‘Half measures availed us nothing.’ Until end of Step 12 on page 60 ‘…and to practice these principles in all our affairs.’ 3rd July Step 3 commitment. Stephanie will be staying on as long as anybody needs and will be taking people through a commitment of step 3. This part of the meeting will not be recorded. If you are joining today you do not have to go back to step one. You are right where you are supposed to be. If you want to listen to the previous workshops go to 12stepstudyworkshop.weebly.com If you are new or a long time member and need a buddy, contact [email protected] who will send you the members’ list and put your request out there. Summary of steps 1, 2 and 3 – all we have covered since January 2012. Listen as part of an action plan especially if you are shaky in your sobriety in any program. 641 715 3900 part one pin 235934# part two pin 578290# (each part approx. 1.5 hours) Soul work Here are the steps we took which are suggested as a program of recovery. The word ‘suggested’ taken like this: you are in an airplane and the engines fail and the pilot suggests you put on your parachute. Then suggest at the appropriate time you jump out of the door and pull the parachute rip cord. That is the seriousness of this suggestion. Q1. Copy out this story and then write on it. a. Have you ever not taken a life-changing, life-preserving suggestion? Write on it. b. Have you taken one? Write on it. c. Write about how you would work with someone in recovery asking for help and how you would explain that these are the steps that are suggested? Q2. Look up: ‘recovery’ in the dictionary. Then write your own definition. What does recovery mean to you? Q3. Look up ‘unmanageable’. Then write your own definition. What does it look like in your own life? Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Q4a). What does that word ‘could’ mean to you? (He can, he may, he could?) b) What does it take for your Higher Power to create and restore sanity in you? Is HP going to knock on your door and say: ‘Hi, I’ve come to restore you to sanity?’ c) What do you have to do to make that ‘could’ into ‘would’ restore you to sanity? Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Q5a) What does ‘making a decision’ (any type of decision) mean to you? a. What does it mean to turn your will over to your Higher Power? b. To make a decision to turn your life (really different from your will) over to the care of God. What does that mean? d) How much is God going to care about you personally? Does God care if you turn you will, your life, your family, your food, your addiction over? f) What happens when you make a decision and you don’t make an action plan? g) Have you seen the correlation between not sticking to your decision and not having an action plan? * If you make a decision and have an action plan but have no accountability, how does that affect your decision to do your action plan? * What is your definition of an accountability person? Are they your policeman, somebody that you feel shame if you don’t live up to your commitment? Do you want them to push, pull, prod, cajole, dominate and dictate you? Or do you have accountability that is really a witness before your Higher Power? Or have you not yet reached that point? Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory. Over the word ‘moral’ write ‘truthful’. Under ‘truthful’ write: ‘as honest as I can be when I am writing it.’ Step 10. ” Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” You will know today when you are wrong. When you do, admit it. Just say: ‘I shouldn’t have said that; I’m sorry’ – without pointing any fingers. Just make a turnaround. Get and stay clean from this moment on. Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. circle: to improve our conscious contact… 5/1/2014 0 Comments Recording For May 1, 2014(week 122) May 1 2014 12-step study Big Book Workshop ANNOUNCEMENTS: *Get a study buddy via (our Sec’y) Sue c/o: [email protected] *Donations to the website can be sent to: Stephanie Whiting POB 531 N. Pembroke, MA 02358 BIG BOOK: CHAPTER 5 HOW IT WORKS p.58: ‘Remember that we deal with alcohol – cunning, baffling, powerful. Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power – that One is God. May you find Him now! Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.’ Write down: Definition of physical, emotional and spiritual boundaries: They are for the exact purpose of keeping others safe from my character defects, ego and selfishness. Soul work How it works (H.O.W.): Honesty, Open-mindedness and Willingness. Q1. Do you have Honesty, Open-mindedness and Willingness? Q2. How does being 100% honest about 100% of your life bring you to open- mindedness? Q3. How does open-mindedness bring you to willingness? Q4. How does willingness bring you back to 100% honesty? Q5. Do you have 100% honesty, open-mindedness and willingness? Q6. How do you get 100% honesty, 100% open-mindedness and 100% willingness? Where do you go and what do you do? Q7. What if you don’t have the honesty, open-mindedness and willingness? Or you have honesty and open-mindedness but you don’t have the willingness? Write an action plan for getting the honesty, open-mindedness and/or willingness. Q8. How it works. What does ‘it’ mean? Q9 What is your response when you see the word ‘work’? What does it mean to you? Without help it is too much for us. Q10. Where do you get your help from today? Make a list of all the entities. Q11. Without help it is too much for us. What is the ‘it’ that is too much for us? Write about who gives you your help and what you need help with. But there is one who has all power – that one is God. Q12. What does that ‘One’ mean to you? ‘Half measures availed us nothing.’ What does this mean to you? Q13. Write about it this a whole week after you last did. ‘We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.’ Q14. Before you get to your study buddy group need to meditate and ask yourself: Am I willing to ask my Higher Power’s protection and care with complete abandon? |
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March 2024
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Our live phone meetings are every Tuesday at 8:00 AM EST. The phone number for these live meetings is (712) 775-7031, and the meeting ID number is 714744988#.
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P O Box 531 North Pembroke MA 02358 |
You can listen to our recorded meetings at (641) 715-3900, pin 95666# for our Tuesday Big Book Step Study workshop. You can also hear our Thursday Big Book Study recordings at (641) 715-3900, pin 298913#. These meetings can be accessed at any time.
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