Steps to the Spirit

Send us Fan Mail In this final episode in this series of the steps, I will talk about practicing these principles in all my affairs . It is no longer something I work at, at least not consciously, during my days. It seems, at long last, to have become a sort of ‘rote’ thing. A lot has changed in my personality, my humanity, if you will. I have learned to ‘be myself’, which, unless tempered by the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I’ll talk about the last of the maintenance steps, as well as the last step of the 12 steps. I dislike referring to step 12 as the last step because, to me, it is so much more. It seems more like the saying, the first step of the rest of my life . If I have been fearless and thorough from the very start , then I now have had a spiritual experience. Simply doing th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I want to speak about the second part of step eleven, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out . I know I told you that these are my version of the steps, mostly to make them ‘mine’, and they are, as far as I know, the original steps from the first edition of the Big Book. I really wanted to remove the words ‘prayer’ and ‘medit...

Send us Fan Mail I am limiting this step to two podcasts. I aired five episodes in season one, about step eleven. I looked them over recently and they seem fairly good so why rehash the same thing. I believe they were episodes 23-28 of season 1, (I believe episode 24 was about depression).  I do, however, want to do two episodes this season. The first is about the first half of the step, I sought...

Send us Fan Mail We will take a brief look at the second half of this step, “when I was wrong, I promptly admitted it”. This phrase reminds me of my constant battle with my nemesis, ego, and its constant companions, rationalization, and procrastination! When I identify a character defect or shortcoming, my ego, (which is always working to get me to think I am looking good), automatically goes into...

Send us Fan Mail Steps 10, 11, and 12 are referred to as the maintenance steps. In step ten, we are actually doing a, (hopefully), lighter version of the fourth step. A lot of work has been put into getting well in the first nine steps, and now we are going to keep a vigilant eye on ourselves … through our Spirit and try to immediately spot any tendency to revert to our old, unwanted behaviors. In...

Send us Fan Mail This is the part of this step that is absolutely made for my two archenemies, Mr. Ego and his sidekick, Master Rationalization! The questions I must ask myself are the following. Will I truly feel that making amends to that person will do more harm than good (for them )? Or am I simply trying to protect myself? This can be a gray area but, if I truly am concerned, (for the right r...

Send us Fan Mail In theory, much of this step has been done when we did step 4. It would be hard to imagine any people or institutions that would not automatically transfer to the 9th step list. However, like it or not, we are human and subject to pangs of conscience or plain old forgetfulness. In any event, we need to go over this list of folks we have harmed, (in any way), because the more wreck...

Send us Fan Mail Now that I have this list of al l of the persons I have harmed, what’s next? Here I am, excited and looking forward to my new way of life, a life lived under the care and direction of my Spirit, and BAM! I thought the hardest steps were behind me. Steps 4 & 5, while ultimately a blessing, were the toughest ‘action’ steps so far. I had to dig deep to overcome the protests of my...

Send us Fan Mail Step 8 is all about interpersonal relationships and how our behaviors caused others harm. There are many, many ways we cause harm. There are, of course, the things we say or do to others. We might lie, steal, or cheat. We not only hurt people by what we say to them but just as much, if not more, by what we say about them. When doing this list, it was also necessary for me to think...

Send us Fan Mail I believe we all know the meaning of humility, even if we might not want to face our lack of it in our lives. For me, there has even a lack of spiritual humility, especially when I am convinced by my ego that I can ‘go it alone’, and not need the guidance of my Spirit. This striking-out on my own, this crazy attempt at independence, is the exact opposite of humility. I’m saying, I...

Send us Fan Mail Humility: Once you think you have it … you don't! This is my way of remembering what humility is. This step is all about being humble. I have brought all the previous steps together and this is the place to which they have brought me – humbly, on my knees! If you have been working at this 12-step program, you know that to get to this point, it has been a 'super-human&apo...

Send us Fan Mail As I said in the previous episode, this step does not require a whole lot of explanation. In episode 24 I spoke about the gift of readiness and that I really needed to take a hard look at my willingness to surrender. Now, I would like to spend just a few minutes on what I am willing to surrender. I have this list of character defects and I would like to refer to it as my ‘baggage...

Send us Fan Mail This is, basically, a step of reflection and introspection. After finishing step 5, they say it is good to go to a quiet place and really think about what has transpired. They say that we can feel like a great weight has been lifted from us. They are correct, at least that’s the way it was for me. I felt like I could finally use the word ‘honest’ in the same sentence as my own nam...

Send us Fan Mail This is the last part of this step and I want to talk about the phrase, ‘the exact nature of my wrongs’. In the fourth step, it is a good idea to take a moral inventory of both the god and problematic traits we possess. Now, however, I am not here to blow my own horn. I am here to lay my issues on the table and get some insight and suggestions about improvements. Notice, these are...

Send us Fan Mail I have thoroughly examined those parts of this step that have to do with my honesty with myself and my willingness to level with God about what I have done with my life. Now is the time to tackle sharing my discoveries about myself with another person. If you find this to be a nerve wracking and daunting task, well, welcome to your ego. Many of us get to this point in spiritual re...

Send us Fan Mail In this 2nd episode, or 2nd part of this step, I am going to look at just what is meant (to me), to admit these wrongs to myself. Whereas the last part had to do with taking an honest look at my relationship with God, and basically, making sure we are on the same page, this part helps me to take a hard look at the human me. Please, understand, these parts are not mutually exclusiv...

Send us Fan Mail Please pardon my humor in the title. Yet, you may want to keep it in mind as you look for the right person to share you4th step. In this and the next three episodes, I’m going to talk about four parts of this step. This first episode has to do with ‘admitting to God’ the exact nature of our wrongs. At first blush, it seems a little unnecessary, sacrilegious, even, that I think the...

Send us Fan Mail Just to wrap up this this 4th step, I would like to speak a little about looking toward the next step, step 5. In a nutshell … DON’T! I know that those of you who are involved with these steps are, as a rule, bright folks. You are not doing each step in a vacuum. You have, as I did,  looked ahead at the steps that follow. If you are like me, you may have said to yourself, “Uh, oh,...

Send us Fan Mail In this 3rd episode about step 4, I talk about the words “searching and fearless”.  These words were the antithesis of any morality I had back in the day. My words back then would have been more like, “complacent and ‘scared to death’” My Spirit, on the other hand, substitutes ‘love’ for any of my words! When I said YES to God, all vocabulary became useless, at least in a spiritua...

Send us Fan Mail I am going to skip around a little in this step. In this 2nd episode about step 4, I’ll talk about the word “moral”. What does moral mean? Well, here is what it means to me when I am trying to use these steps as a spiritual guide for my life. Morals are those guidelines, a spiritual yardstick, if you will, that I apply to the actions I have performed in my life to evaluate whether...

Send us Fan Mail This step is the perfect example why the steps are in this order. When I was in the throes of my addiction and even when I became addiction free, this 4th step was a huge challenge. It was like asking a person with a mental illness, (insanity, if you will), to make a rational judgement about their life. They usually can’t, unless they start to clear up what is causing their mental...

Send us Fan Mail It can’t get any better than this! With my little human mind, I have the incredible opportunity to align myself with God, the Creator of everything, and the source of perfect love! I have made the decision. I have surrendered. I have affirmed my consecration to God by saying, with my entire being, the eternal, miraculous, and spiritual, YES ! My life (and yours, if you have joined...

Send us Fan Mail The following is a definition I found of ‘will’, and it works for our purposes here: Will: the power of control over one's own actions or emotions For me, this has been no less than surrender, and I think that word/idea really explains it. So, what does surrender mean to you? Is it like opening an artery and letting your life as you know it flow out of you? Or, on the other h...

Send us Fan Mail Exactly what does the phrase, ‘turn it over’, mean? We see this used in 12 step programs and it is obviously from this 3rd step. I may even have seen a poster saying, “Turn It over’. Of course, the best saying that exemplifies this step is, ‘Let Go and Let God’! In this episode, I will talk about how this phrase is used and what it means to me.