The anonymous groups 12 steps programme has helped countless people to start looking beyond their addictions and ways to improve their lives. The Programme emphasises spiritual awakenings and learning to accept and move forwards.
Ultimately the 12 steps are a guideline that serves as daily reminders and a free roadmap to recovery across a spectrum of addictive disorders both physical and emotional.
Originally what started as a conversation between two drunks lead to a movement that changed the lives of millions around the world. Today the 12 steps are adapted iterations of the original conversation these adaptions expand the scope and aim to not alienate individuals that suffer from addictions beyond alcoholism.
This is a version, there are many more.
- 1st We admitted we were powerless over addiction and that we could not handle our own lives.
- 2nd We came to the realization that a power greater than ourselves could restore us our sanity.
- 3rd We decided to turn our will and our lives over to God as we understood Him.
- 4th We conducted a thorough and fearless moral inventory.
- 5th We admitted to our higher power, to ourselves and to another human beings, exactly how it behaved with our mistakes.
- 6th We were entirely ready to have a higher power remove all these character flaws.
- 7th We humbly asked him to remove all our fault.
- 8th We made a list of all persons we have harmed and we were willing to make amends.
- 9th We went directly to these people if we do so would injure them or others.
- 10th We continued our self-examination and when we were wrong admitted it immediately.
- 11th We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our higher power as we understood Him, praying to get to know what was his meaning to us and to have the strength to perform it.
- 12th When we, as a result of these steps had a spiritual awakening, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in everything we did.
In a previous post we listed the many mantras that exist within the recovery community but what is obvious to the 12step process is that one needs to make the personal choice to improve your own life and that you need to seek a community that supports and champions your vision and new direction.
The 12 step process is about taking this responsibility back and working in a format that brings peace or “serenity” to your life without substances.
12Steps for Everyone
It is not a practical guide to addiction recovery so much as a conceptual guide on how to start on the journey to recovery. In a nutshell the 12 steps are recovery guide that teaches, the principals of cognisance and self-examination. It teaches humility and gratefulness. It teaches acceptance and kindness. The rest is up to you to piece together.
12 Steps can be used by anyone.
While many may think the 12 steps are exclusively for alcoholics and addicts people in all walks of life use 12 step principals in recovering from many things. We have seen marketing gurus apply 12 step principals to to marketing campaigns, coaches using 12 step principals to inspire football teams and construction engineers use 12 step principals to manage large scale construction sites. So it’s really about how you interpret the steps and apply them in your life to move forward.
12 Steps and GOD
12 Steps contain a lot of God right. Agnostic addicts and alcoholics tend to read the God and get all upset on the religion debate. It’s not a debate in the recovery groups.
So you pick your own higher power.
The 12 steps does not care who that higher power is. It’s about the spiritual awakening that is required to separate you from an addictive or destructive behaviour. The “higher power” plays a role in this and the groups have only one purpose.
To get you clean / sober and back on track.
Summary of the 12 steps.
Need help with addiction recovery please feel free to call our help line and chat to a counsellor.