Hi Everyone!
Thank you for your participation and sharing during our meeting this week.
The telephone conference numbers for our group are:
Telephone conference number: (712) 775-7031 Access Code: 397-681-282
Playback recording number is: (712) 775-7029 Access Code: 397-681-282#
Playback reference number: 37
Steps 6 & 7 In Action
Here is the link for the MP3 of our meeting. Participants can also download the meeting directly from the conference line. The link will only be available for a limited time.
To listen to past recorded meetings, please go to the Recordings tab on the blog.
Our meetings are stored on Media Fire, a cloud storage service.
As a reminder, our group takes place on Sunday mornings at 5:30 AM EST.
Please join us as we “trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.” (AA Big Book 164:3)
This week, we continued our study on Steps 6 and 7. We read and discussed Drop the Rock until page 30:0.
This continues to be a very worthwhile book. Our discussions have been a wonderful combination of thoughtful and deep, and yet still practical and concrete.
Below are some of my notes from our meeting. Please forgive me, but, I am not listing individually who said what.
We are not our character defects. We may have a resentment, but our resentments are not who we ARE.
We are seeking a quiet mind. But, we cannot quiet our minds on our own. We must have God’s help.
Two great questions were asked:
Why is the book discussing prayer and meditation with respect to taking Steps 6 and 7? And, how did we get into Steps 10 and 11 during a discussion on Step 6?
We observed and discussed that although we study each step individually, the steps are really a fluid process that interact and overlap with each other. Over time, recovery is the process of integrating the principles and actions of all of the steps into who we are. This is a design for living!
We discussed the similarities between the action steps for doing a perfect Step 3 in the worksheet by Jeremy B. and the action steps described in Drop the Rock for how to practice Step 6.
The goals and actions required to do each step mirror the same process. In fact, the goals and actions for all the steps are really the same.
For clarity, the Big Book lists each step as being separate and distinct from each other. But in reality, the 12 Step program of recovery as outlined in the AA Big Book just repeats the same thing multiple times in different ways.
Goal of all the steps are: ego deflation and to become God-centered rather than self-centered.
The actions required are:
- Asking for help
- Taking suggestions
- Prayer
- Meditation
- Practicing acceptance
- Doing an inventory
In Jeremy B’s worksheet, he described symptoms of coming from self-will or from being God-centered:
So, how do we know if we are God-centered?
We are calm, we are not plagued by stories, we feel no need to justify our actions, we are focused on the next right thing, we are open to help and we can let go and take suggestions without fear.
How do we know if we are self-centered and being willful?
We are getting upset, we are telling endless stories in our head, we are always justifying our actions to ourselves and others, we are making lots of plans, we think that we can — or should handle everything on our own, and we argue with or reject the suggestions of others.
Next week, we will continue reading the book Drop the Rock and our discussion on Steps 6 & 7.
Thank you all for sharing your experience, strength and hope. I am so grateful to be sharing this journey with all of you!
“Together we can do what we can never do alone.”
In love and service,
Shira
