The Twelve Step Promises
‘Beloved, one thing I know is that you have great strength and courage – you never give up hope. This part of you that never gives up, is the part that is “sick” and keeps you stuck. The other side of never giving up, means we don’t surrender. Spirit requires us to surrender – often. And it’s often the things we love (and are attached/corded to) the most.’ – Tiffany Harelik
Bill W was a drunk, a stockbroker, a Sagittarius, and a Spiritualist who visited Lily Dale several times. Alongside Dr. Bob, he founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 in Akron, Ohio. Both had been hopeless alcoholics and recovered through the below steps. There are now many recognized twelve step groups. You can work the steps of recovery over anything (not just alcohol) – but you will need a sponsor. I encourage you to attend meetings and ask for support by finding a sponsor who you are naturally attracted to according to what they share in the meeting.
The Twelve Promises
Promise 1: We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
Promise 2: We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
Promise 3: We will comprehend the word serenity.
Promise 4: We will know peace.
Promise 5: No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
Promise 6: The feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
Promise 7: We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Promise 8: Self-seeking will slip away.
Promise 9: Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Promise 10: Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
Promise 11: We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
Promise 12: We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
The Twelve Steps
In step one, if you are not an alcoholic but are suffering greatly – insert the topic of your suffering there. Example: We admitted we were powerless over relationships – that our lives had become unmanageable. Or, we admitted we were powerless over money, etc.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that “our lives had become unmanageable.”
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. We 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.
12. We had had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
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