Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Study

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable Who cares to admit complete defeat? Admission of powerlessness is the first step in liberation. Relation of humility to sobriety. Mental obsession plus physical allergy. Why must every A.A. hit bottom? View Publication

  Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. What can we believe in? A.A. does not demand belief; Twelve Sep are only suggestions.Importance of an open mind. Variety of ways to faith. Substitution of A.A. as a Higher Power. Plight of the disillusioned. Roadblocks of indifference and prejudice. Lost faith found in A.A. Problems of intellectuality and self-sufficiency. Negative and positive thinking. Self-righteousness. Defiance is an outstanding characteristic of alcoholics. Step Two is a rallying point to sanity. Right relation to God. View Publication

  Made a decision to our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him. Step Three is like the opening of a door. How shall we let God into our lives?  Willingness is the key.  Dependence as a means of independence, Dangers of self-sufficiency. Turning our will over to Higher Power. Misuse of willpower. Sustained and personal exertion necessary to conform to God’s will. View Publication

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. How instincts can exceed their proper function. Step Four is an effort  to discover our liabilities. Basic problem of extremes in instinctive drives. Misguided moral inventory can result in guilt, grandiosity, or blaming others. Assets can be noted with liabilities. Self-justification is dangerous. Willingness to take inventory brings light and new confidence. Step Four is beginning of a lifetime practice. Common symptoms of emotional insecurity are worry, anger, self-pity, and depression. Inventory reviews relationships. Importance of thoroughness. View Publication

 Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Twelve Steps deflate ego. Step Five is difficult but necessary to sobriety and peace of mind. Confession is ancient discipline. Without fearless admission of defects, few could stay sober. What do we receive from Step Five? Beginning of true kinship with man and God. Lose sense of isolation, receive forgiveness and give it; learn humility; gain honesty and realism about ourselves. Necessity of complete honesty. Danger of rationalization. How to choose the person in whom to confide. Results are tranquility and consciousness of God. Oneness with Gid and man prepares us for the following Steps. View Publication

  Were entirely ready t have God remove all these defects of character. Step Six necessary for spiritual growth. The beginning of a lifetime job. Recognition of difference between  striving for objective–and perfection. Why we must keep trying . “Being ready” is all important. Necessity of taking action. Delay is dangerous. Rebellion may be fatal.Point at which we abandon limited objectives and move toward God’s will for us. View Publication

  Humbly Him to  remove our shortcomings. What is humility? What can it mean to us? The avenue to true freedom of the human spirit. Necessary aid to survival. Value of ego-puncturing, Failure and misery transformed by humility. Strength from weakness. Pain is the admission price to new life. Self-centered fear chief activator of defects. Step Seven is change of  attitude which permits us to move out of ourselves toward God. View Publication

Made a list of all persons we hassd harned, and became willing to make amends to them all Thia and the next two steps are concerned with personal relations. Learning to live with others is a fascinating adventure. Obstacles: reluctance to forgive; nonadmission of wherongs to others; purposeful forgetting. Necessity of exhaustive survey of past. Deepening insights result from thoroughness. Kinds of harm done to others. Avoiding extreme judgements. Taking the objective view. Step Eight is the beginning of the end of isolation. View Publication

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. A tranquil mind is the requisite for good judgement. Good timing is important in making amends. What is courage? Prudence means taking calculated  chances. Amends begin when we join A.A. Peace of mind cannot be bought at the expense of others. Need for discretion. Readiness to take the consequences of our past and to take responsibility for well-being of others is the spirit of Step Nine. View Publication

 Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it Can we stay sober and keep emotional balance under all conditions? Self-searching becomes a regular habit. Admit, accept, and correct defects.  Emotional hangover. When past is settled with, present challenges can be allmet. Variety of inventories: Anger, resentments, jealousy,  envy,  self-pity, hurt pride–all lead to the  bottltioe. Self-restraintment is the first objective. Insurance against “big-shotism.” Lets look at credits as well as debits. Examination of motives. View Publication

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. Meditation and prayer main channels to Higher Power. Connection between self-examination and meditation and prayer. An unshakeable foundation for life. How shall we meditate? Meditation has no boundaries. An individual adventure. First result is emotional balance. What about prayer? Daily petitions for understanding of God’s will and grace to carry it out. Actual results of prayer are beyone question. Rewards of meditation and prayer. View Publication

  Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Dependence upon  God necessary to recovery of alcoholics. “Practicing these  principles in all our affairs”: Domestic relations in A.A.  Outlook upon material matters changes. So do feelings  about personal importance. Instincts restored to true purpose. Understanding is key to right attitudes, right action  key to good living. View Publication

Our common welfare should come first; personal re covery depends upon A.A. unity. Without unity, A.A. dies. Individual liberty, yet great unity.  Key to paradox: each A.A.’s life depends on obedience to  spiritual principles. The group must survive or the individual will not. Common welfare comes first. How best to live  and work together as groups. View Publication

  For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.  Where does A.A. get its direction? Sole authority in A.A.  is loving God as He may express Himself in the group  conscience. Formation of a group. Growing pains. Rotating committees are servants of the group. Leaders do  not govern, they serve. Does A.A. have a real leadership?  “Elder statesmen” and “bleeding deacons.” The group conscience speaks.  View Publication

The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire  to stop drinking.  Early intolerance based on fear. To take away any alcoholic’s chance at A.A. was sometimes to pronounce his  death sentence. Membership regulations abandoned. Two  examples of experience. Any alcoholic is a member of A.A.  when he says so.  View Publication

Each group should be autonomous except in matters  affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole. Every group manages its affairs as it pleases, except when  A.A. as a whole is threatened. Is such liberty dangerous?  The group, like the individual, must eventually conform to  principles that guarantee survival. Two storm signals—a  group ought not do anything which would injure A.A. as  a whole, nor affiliate itself with outside interests. An example: the “A.A. Center” that didn’t work. View Publication

Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its  message to the alcoholic who still suffers.  Better do one thing well than many badly. The life of  our Fellowship depends on this principle. The ability of  each A.A. to identify himself with and bring recovery to the newcomer is a gift from God… passing on this gift to  others is our one aim. Sobriety can’t be kept unless it is  given away.  View Publication  

  An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the  A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise,  lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us  from our primary purpose. Experience proved that we could not endorse any related  enterprise, no matter how good. We could not be all things  to all men. We saw that we could not lend the A.A. name  to any outside activity. View Publication

Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.  No A.A. Tradition had the labor pains this one did.  Collective poverty initially a matter of necessity. Fear  of exploitation. Necessity of separating the spiritual  from the material. Decision to subsist on A.A. voluntary  contributions only. Placing the responsibility of supporting A.A. headquarters directly upon A.A. members.  Bare running expenses plus a prudent reserve is head quarters policy. View Publication

 Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special  workers. You can’t mix the Twelfth Step and money. Line of cleavage between voluntary Twelfth Step work and paid-for  services. A.A. could not function without full-time service  workers. Professional workers are not professional A.A.’s.  Relation of A.A. to industry, education, etc. Twelfth Step  work is never paid for, but those who labor in service for us  are worthy of their hire. View Publication

A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may  create service boards or committees directly responsible  to those they serve. Special service boards and committees. The General  Service Conference, the board of trustees, and group  committees cannot issue directives to A.A. members  or groups. A.A.’s can’t be dictated to—individually or  collectively. Absence of coercion works because unless  each A.A. follows suggested Steps to recovery, he signs  his own death warrant. Same condition applies to the  group. Suffering and love are A.A.’s disciplinarians. Dif ference between spirit of authority and spirit of service.  Aim of our services is to bring sobriety within reach of  all who want it. View Publication

 Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside is sues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into  public controversy.  A.A. does not take sides in any public controversy. Reluc tance to fight is not a special virtue. Survival and spread of  A.A. are our primary aims. Lessons learned from Washingtonian movement. View Publication

 Our public relations policy is based on attraction rath er than promotion; we need always maintain personal  anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films. Public relations are important to A.A. Good public relations save lives. We seek publicity for A.A. principles,  not A.A. members. The press has cooperated. Personal  anonymity at the public level is the cornerstone of our  public relations policy. Eleventh Tradition is a constant reminder that personal ambition has no place in  A.A. Each member becomes an active guardian of our  Fellowship. View Publication

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.  Spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Subordinating personal aims to the common good is the essence of  all Twelve Traditions. Why A.A. could not remain a secret  society. Principles come before personalities. One hundred  percent anonymity at the public level. Anonymity is real  humility. View Publication