Big Book Living Alive

Meet Joe & Charlie In the premiere episode of the new Big Book Comes Alive podcast and videocast. A series dedicated to bringing the legendary `Big Book Seminars` done by Joe & Charlie to modern audiences. Available on most podcast platforms, Big Book Comes Alive offers a fresh and convenient way to explore the timeless wisdom of Joe and Charlie. Where we work to bring the insights of this...

And wisdom to know the difference. It works. But you have to work at it and share it. And, if you practice these steps you should have the spiritual awakening that will bring the relief from alcohol and the addition to it. Remember that the only way to keep it is to give it away. This is where the spiritual awakening shines. We now know that service and working with others is the best way to keep...

Daily inventory and quiet meditation with a God of our understanding keeps us grounded and on the path.  Prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. Pg 87 - Conlude your mediation with a prayer. But this is prayer for help with what we need, not a request or shopping list of what we want. There is no bargain, or fox hole prayers here. And when we are willing to do his will we...

The spiritual experience should be upon us if we have finished step 9, but we need to understand that we only have today for this reprieve from alcohol. We need to continue our daily maintenance to make sure we don't side back. We need to continue to make amends when necessary and keep our side of the street clean. And we can do that anytime of the day. Additional promises on page 84 and 85. We ar...

The Promises: page 83 1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. 2. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. 3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. 4. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. 5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experienc...

Working the amends process can be, and should be, harder than we think. This is the process of clearing our wrongs, or facing what we to others and ourselves. We heal ourselves by clearing the past the fixing the broken relationships during this process. That will, and can, bring an inner peace that we are now at the design for living stage of our lives and when we move forward, we do it without h...

Steps 8 & 9 are about getting right with the world. These steps work on the Guilt and Remorse of how we behaved.  page 77 second paragraph of the Big Book explains to us how to approach someone to make amends I pray for the right attitude to make my amends, Being ever mindful not to harm others in the process. I ask for Your guidance in making indirect amends. Growing in spiritual progres...

Step 7 - Removing defects of character My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen - Step 7 prayer Just because your higher power can remove our defects of character it d...

After a huge step like 5 where we have shared our past and hopefully had a spiritual experience we need to stop and contemplate on what has happened Remove from us all our shortcomings. We ask our higher power to make us willing to let these things go. This is how we can let our past go. Who are we without our defects. Letting the defects goes allows us to make room for all the better things that...

Big Book Living Alive: Episode 49 - Into Action We finish the last part of step 4 and move into step 5. This is where we can let the actor go. The actor that lies and manipulates others. The way we behave when in active addiction. Finishing step 4 we make another list and this will be the sheet for everything else.  This makes sure we don't let things slip between the cracks. We take our 4th...

Tolerance and patience -- changes from the steps are happening. Faith is doing for us what we can't do for ourselves. We close out step for seeing the time we have harmed others with our controlling or demanding in the sex area. And we see why we did that in the past. And, as we finish this inventory we can see the way we used to be, and we start to see what we can change to relieve us of the past...

What happens when the married person steps out? Who have they hurt with their sexual activities. Spouse, children, family of other person involved... Sometimes the use of sex is not for the actual act, but more about the control of the act. We need to see if we have done this to others or any other reason we maybe using sex as a tool fulfill some other need or want. Step 4 columns col 1 - who did...

How does our drinking impact our sexuality. How are the early thoughts and impression of our sexuality are formed, or corrupted by our drinking. This week we take a rooftop view of sex and how it can be a source of our resentment. It's cause and affect on us. And when and where and why it is a nature part of our nature but how do we view it. Step 4 columns col 1 - Type of fear col 2 - Cause of fea...

We cannot let fear can dominate our thinking Step 4 columns col 1 - Type of fear col 2 - Cause of fear col 3 - What is threatening a basic instinct of life col 4 - What is the wrong or what was done We are in the world to do as he designs / faith = courage 4th step prayer: "Dear God, please help me to honestly take stock. Help me to search out the flaws in my make-up which caused my failure. Help...

lather rinse repeat... break that cycle Lets add some order to our 4th step. Everyone seems to know how to do a 4th step on tv, but there is more than just saying I see this problem. Once you define a resentment you need to tell someone. This is step 5 and you don't do it and step 6 where you reflect and grow on the experience then you really don't get the benefits of the exercise. Use your resent...

Break the cycle of self will run riot - they block us from the sunshine of the spirit This is a Big Book centric week. We can have all the benefits of a happy and resentment free life by looking inward. We don't need to buy special potions, or subscripe to monthly scented candle memberships. I don't down play the imporatnce of professional help. I don't personally discount the value of rehab....

We need to find the underlying reason why we have resentments towards others. We can do this by looking at what our part in the situation is and take responsibility for what we did. Column 4: What is the exact nature of my wrongs, faults, mistakes, defect, shortcomings What was MY Part: Selfish / Dishonest / Self-seeking & Frightened / Inconsiderate Are we guilty if we are dishonest about our...

What fixes anger and resentments ...love and prayers. Working to achieve piece of mind isn't easy and it can take time because we are human. That is why we strive to achieve spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection, page 551. Remove resentments and filling that void with love/patience/tolerance is not easy. Resentments build like a tidal wave and hit unexpectedly, that is why we spend so much...

Ever get that itch, the itch to pick a fight. Wheather it's the co-worker, spouse or other we all get out of sorts at times. We all have this when feel threatened to one of our basic instinct. But, if we lean on our higher power we can learn to deal with it. We learn in step 4 that the basic instinct of our fears and insecuritis are what we find are the reason for our resentments. When we see some...

If your resentments control you then you cannot let God guide you. The 4th step is all about people / places / institutions / principles that we have a resentment with. The things that we get angry and upset with. But, why are we angry? what is the cause? what was result?   There are form online to assist with the list and causes for working a 4th step. Or, you can just use page 65 in the Big...

We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves . And we can start doing that by clearing our past resentments. This will then allow room for new thoughts. When start letting  our higher power in, it is amazing how much freedom one can feel. Here is the hard part, you have to first write them down. We are programmed to only handle one thing at a time. It doesn't matter if someone can multi-taak....

We have to search for flaws, because the good deeds don't make us drink, it is the resentments that will do us harm if allowed to fester and grow. 'Free your mind, and the rest will follow' - En Vogue You May Also Like:  ✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est. Website: https://bigbooklivingalive.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bblivin...

One must move forward and not delay to the 4th step. The first 3 steps freed us of the self made bonds of our addiction, now is the time to find out who we are, what we have done, and what our responsibilty were.  Charlie has the best analogy, if you don't inventory a business then the store fills up with old, outdated and un-sellable goods. Sound familiar?? Facing our actions then and who we...

We finish talking about the basice instints with a discussion of the sex fear as it relates to self will. Then we need to see how we are when we live  a self centered life. The fourth step give us a chance to see how our selfishness caused us to behave mad, or scared or hurtful towards others. We work the 4th step becasue we need to make some sort of inventory of what we have done. Then we ca...

There is work to be done before starting step four. We need to do a self assesment so that we have a starting point to work on.  The 12 & 12 talks about the 3 basic instincts of life: Social Security Sex This week we talk about the first two.  Social acceptance is a powerful part of our idea of self. We all want to be accepted and popular.  But, shortcuts and running on self-wil...