Steps Podcast

Perfectionism is often celebrated in our culture, but there are personal costs to maintaining excessively high standards. Lou chats to Grace about how she found working on perfectionism through STEPS.

In this episode Lou chats to Tracy about doing STEPS when you aren't desperate for change, and how going through the process can be much more revealing than expected.

Today Jamie, Lars and Lou finish off our series by sharing what maintaining freedom looks like for them having completed the latest STEPS course.

In this special one off episode, Jamie, Lars and Lou discuss the significance of the serenity prayer. It's a prayer many people know so well, but how can it actually help on a day to day basis? Tune in to hear the STEPS teams reflections on how it guides them. 

In this episode, Jamie Lars and Lou reflect on the last stage of this step 12 journey (though the process never really ends!). They discuss how they have shared their journeys with their village and why it's important to them to share their story. 

In Step 11, "we sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." Jamie, Lars and Lou discuss how they live in light of the spiritual awakening they have experienced. They share how connecting with God as they go about their every day supports their freedom and growth, but not necessarily...

Life is a marathon and not a sprint, and in order to run the race well, we need rhythms that are sustainable. In Step 10 "we continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it". Jamie, Lars and Lou discuss what that looks like for them to make the changes necessary to live more emotionally and spiritually healthy lives. 

In Step 9 "we made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others". The idea of making amends can make many people feel a sense of dread. Here, Jamie, Lars and Lou talk through their experiences of making amends, and how it felt emotionally and practically. Sometimes the amends can be towards others, but sometimes making amends should be self direc...

Step 8 of the 12 step process is when "we made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all." Jamie, Lou and Lars discuss what this part of the process was like for them. They talk about the incremental nature of becoming willing - that for them it didn't come all in one go, and how they practically went through the process of growing in awareness around this.

We often hear the message that we have to fix ourselves and this message can feel so pervasive in our society. In step 7 we "humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings." This time Jamie, Lars and Lou focus on their need to ask for help from God to change instead of relying on themselves. They discuss the need to start thinking of new ways of living rather than relying on old strategies that are n...

Having made their confessions, Lars, Lou and Jamie discuss what it's like to prepare to live differently. In step 6, "We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character". As you will hear, this isn't an easy step, particularly when it involves becoming aware of the character defects that lie behind the unhealthy behaviour. It can feel messy but we also hear about the hope avail...

Jamie, Lars and Lou are back again talking about the all important step 5: confession. Step 5 focuses on "admitting to God, ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs". Is it as awkward as it sounds?! Tune in for their reflections on how they found the confession part of the journey.

In step 4 "we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves" and this can feel painful, but does it need to be one of fear and condemnation? Jamie, Lars and Lou talk about their experiences of working through this step and how they found preparing their inventories.

How do you "make a decision to turn your life and will over to the care of God?" As step three suggests, Jamie, Lars and Lou talk about what this concept of surrender looked like for them in their 12 step journey. Could there be joy in surrender and how do you get there?

Jamie, Lars and Lou are back discussing the second step in the 12 step process, "coming to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity" They talk about what doubt and faith looked like for them in their journeys as they have grappled with trusting in a God in the midst of personal crisis. 

What happens when you realise you need help? In this episode Jamie, Lars and Lou talk about their experiences of starting their 12 step journeys with step 1, where we "admitting our powerlessness over the effects of our destructive patterns - that our lives had become unmanageable". As you'll hear, this is a humbling stage of the process to be at, and they discuss what vulnerability and hope looks...

A special episode of The Steps Podcast, Lou, Lars and Jamie explain what Steps is and what the process looks like.

In this episode Jamie, Lars and Lou share their stories of identifying what to work on in the Steps process.

In this special episode the Steps podcast team explores the question: How do I know if Steps is for me?