12 Step Program
Acceptance and Surrender
It has become almost something of a cliche in society nowadays to use the adage that you cannot cope with a problem unless you first admit it. Not that this is a new or novel […]
AA Literature
12 Step Program
The Need to Question Gratitude
Quite often in an AA meeting or similar, you will hear someone announce themselves as my name is so-and-so and I’m a grateful alcoholic/ addict, or I’m a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict. Equally, you are quite […]
12 Step Program
The Myth of Tough Love
Tough love is one of those expressions that has crept into the vocabulary of mental health and 12-step recovery in recent years. It sort of implies that an action or directive is being given or […]
12 Step Program
Why People Struggle with Being Vulnerable
People quite often like to categorise emotions as being good or bad, with emotions such as anger and self-pity being thought of as bad or weak. Emotions such as gratitude and a positive outlook are […]
12 Step Program
What Does it Mean to Respect Boundaries?
Quite a simple question in many ways, but one that many people struggle with, both in terms of trying to set boundaries of their own, and dealing with other people who don’t respect, or don’t […]
12 Step Program
What Does Rigorous Honesty Really Mean?
The term rigorous honesty is used a lot in Alcoholics Anonymous, and in the 12-step recovery world generally. Its original intent was to make clear the need for people to own and take responsibility for […]
12 Step Program
Pray As You Can, Not As You Can’t
The phrase ‘pray as you can not as you cannot’ isn’t terribly well known to a lot of people, but to those who do know it and use it as a literal guide to prayer, […]
12 Step Program
Why do People find it Hard to Believe in God?
Most people have normally been asked at some point in their life if they believe in God or not. In AA and 12 step recovery generally, people are likely to be asked this question more […]
12 Step Program
Why can Meditation be Difficult?
There is a paradox about meditation, in that most types of meditation of themselves are fairly simple to do, but many people find meditation as a practice, or a process, fairly difficult. Sometimes people put […]
12 Step Program
Willing To Go To Any Lengths……
Anyone familiar with this phrase will recognise it from the early part of chapter five of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, which sets out the 12-step program which is the cornerstone of AA’s recovery process. As […]