Position of Neutrality

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe addresses the fundamental challenge many face in recovery: the willingness and ability to be honest with themselves. The Big Book tells us that those who do not recover are usually men and women who...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe dives into the analogy of life as a show where each person, like an actor, attempts to control everything—from the lights and the scenery to the people around them. He reflects on the common delusio...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe passionately emphasizes the importance of being fearless and thorough from the very start of the recovery process. The authors of the Big Book implore us with all the earnestness they can muster bec...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe discusses the concept of carrying a “yoke with a superior ox,” symbolizing the power of walking with a higher power that does the heavy lifting. He emphasizes that we cannot rid ourselves of self-ce...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe delves into the trap of self-pity, where we often demand recognition from others who are not able to see or hear us. He reflects on the times in his own life when he fell into this mindset, only to...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe emphasizes the evolving understanding of a higher power in recovery. He explains that the God we understood when we first came to the program may not be the God we understand today because this unde...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe reflects on the profound shift from hope to certainty that occurs when we truly embrace a power greater than ourselves. He emphasizes that while hope may be fleeting for some, certainty—the absolute...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe discusses the certainty many of us felt in addiction—that a fix would change how we felt, even if it didn’t make us feel better. He reflects on how addiction is often driven by the need for a differ...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe explores the concept of willingness and the deep desire to connect with a power greater than ourselves. He emphasizes that the decision to seek evidence of this power in our lives is the starting po...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe encourages us to get honest with ourselves as we confront the question: are we a “cannot” or a “will not”? He dives into the fears that often hold us back from recovery—whether it’s fear of what oth...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe introduces Chapter 5 of the Big Book, famously read at many AA meetings to outline “How It Works.” This chapter details the suggested manner of living for those who seek recovery, and it sets the fo...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe reflects on the transformative moment when the obsession to use suddenly leaves and how, without knowing it, we become empowered by something greater than ourselves. Many people in recovery have exp...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and honest growth. Recovery doesn’t require grand gestures like handing out leaflets or making public declarations—it requires a deep, personal commitmen...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe explores the power of self-inventory, reminding us that we are not “broken” as we often label ourselves. Instead, our difficulties stem from how we think and react based on fear. The inventory proce...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe focuses on the experience of thousands of men and women who have come to believe in a power greater than themselves. The Big Book highlights that by taking a certain attitude toward this higher powe...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe dives into the complexities of human nature, reminding us that in our efforts to make life work on our terms, we can be both virtuous and flawed. The Big Book teaches that our “actor”—the version of...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe delves into the moment where we stand at the turning point—when we ask for the protection and care of a higher power with complete abandon. This prayer marks a crucial spiritual step, especially for...

Join Joe McDonald as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 3 AA session, Joe emphasizes the power of the Big Book and its process, which has helped countless addicts recover from seemingly hopeless conditions. The authors of the Big Book, including the first 100 members of A...

Join Wayne Giles as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 2 AA session, Wayne touches on a powerful reflection from the Big Book: while we often criticize the world and those trying to fix it, we fail to look at our own shortcomings. We talk about what should be done, but in...

Join Wayne Giles as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 2 AA session, Wayne shares a personal story about a moment of clarity during treatment when his friend DJ told him, “You can do dope if you want, but you can’t do it here.” That simple statement became a turning point...

Join Wayne Giles as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 2 AA session, Wayne reflects on the difficult truth faced by many in recovery: half of the original AA fellowship were atheists or agnostics, and the other half were believers dying in their addiction. Despite their f...

Join Wayne Giles as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 2 AA session, Wayne shares the powerful story of a man who thought he was an atheist, only to experience a dramatic and convincing change of heart. The story of this minister’s son highlights how deeply ingrained beli...

Join Wayne Giles as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 2 AA session, Wayne reflects on how circumstances often bring us to a point of willingness—where we are finally ready to believe in a power greater than ourselves. “It beat me into a state of reasonableness. The circu...

Join Wayne Giles as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 2 AA session, Wayne emphasizes the importance of confronting and sharing honest doubts and prejudices as a crucial part of the recovery process. He encourages participants to think honestly, sweep away their prejudice...

Join Wayne Giles as he reads and expands on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering deeper understanding and practical advice for those on their recovery journey. In this Step 2 AA session, Wayne delves into the significance of belief—whether a person already believes or is simply willing to believe in a power greater than themselves. The Big Book assures us emphatically that the moment a p...