1. The Spirituality of Recovery
An interpretation of the 12 Steps as written in
Alcoholics Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

2. Spirituality
from the Latin word for breath, "espirit", meaning the essence of life
occurs when people help people
is about forgiveness and the tolerance of imperfection in ourselves and others.

3. "The spiritual part of our disease is our total self-centeredness
"The spiritual part of our disease is our total self-centeredness." (page 20, Narcotics Anonymous)
An addict spends the day focused on their addiction.
This requires minimizing time around the family.
Addicts allow people to be in their life for what they can do for them.
Concern for others is minimal - the addiction’s needs always taking priority over the needs of themselves and others
Healthy friends leave because they are tired of being used.

4. The Ego
Your ego is your identity and is only concerned about you as separate from others.
Your addiction needs your ego to be in total control of you in order to be alive and well.
Righteous indignation, lust, greed, envy, pride, and other “sins” are products of the ego and keep you separate from being able to love others

5. “Spiritual Experience"
An addict’s “spiritual experience” is anything that gives them pleasure or relief from the stresses of life.
Getting high is the most important experience in an addict’s life.
Even if an addict believes in God, their addiction is what they worship. Their addiction is their god which is a false idol.

6. Step One Admit Powerlessness and unmanageable
An addict may intellectually know that the continued use of his substance is not good for him.
Through rationalization and minimization he believes he can manage his addiction.
One day the unmanageability of his life becomes intolerable.
He then realizes he is helpless by himself to stop his addiction.

7. “Power greater than ourselves…”
Recognizing that there is a power greater than our self does not have to be a complicated concept.
If you are not able to do something such as move a heavy object, and there is someone there that can help you, all you have to do is ask for help.
Once the job is done, you may realize that this was a power greater than you alone

8. Step 2 – Higher Power Belief in a Power greater than ourselves
Awareness of a Power greater than our self is the essence of spiritual experience.
Asking for help and letting people help you is to “walk the walk” of Step 2
Understanding this Power requires willingness, honesty and open mindedness which are the essentials of recovery.
Being honest with others requires being honest with yourself.

9. "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." (Step 2)
Spiritual growth in recovery:
Occurs when you:
- are concerned about the welfare of others
- help other people
- ask for and allow people to help you
Requires you to practice your spirituality.
(in the same way as guitar practice, football practice, and
learning to speak Spanish.)
- attending at least 90 meetings in first 90 days of your recovery
- work actively with your sponsor

10. Why is this Important?
Recovery from the active phase of an addictive disease does not occur without spiritual growth.
The spiritual part of recovery begins when an addict lives life in community with others.
Living in community means:
- You care about the welfare of others.
- You ask others for help in your pursuit
of recovery.
- You let people help you to find recovery.

11. Obstacles to the Higher Power
People relapse because of the lack of a Higher Power.
You cannot expect an addict to abstain from his substance if he does not replace that substance with something better.
A “belief in God” is not enough. Most addicts believed in God before they started addiction.
You must understand how God communicates with you and your personal relationship with God

12. Relapse Risk Factors 1 - Problems in your relationship with God
Worthlessness – You are not worth God’s love. If you prove you are worthless then it does not matter if you get high.
Shame and Guilt – You do not deserve God because you are so bad.
Trauma - You cannot trust anyone including God
Transference of hurts or neglect from your parents. You identify God as a parent.

13. 2- Proving God does not exist:
Self-esteem – You need to prove you can do it by yourself
Narcissism and Grandiosity -Inability to be humble (Step 8 - shortcomings). You deal with the stresses of life by proving that you are more capable than others and do not need their help nor the help of a mystical god.

14. God-consciousness
"Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it "God-consciousness." (page 568, Alcoholics Anonymous)
Spirituality is the energy that drives recovery.

15. God-consciousness is a spiritual transformation from an egocentric consciousness to a concern for others.
It is a consciousness expanding experience which requires: - Admitting you are powerless (acceptance) - A willingness to seek out this Higher Power - Asking for help - Accepting God's direction (surrender).

16. You
Your ego is your personality based on your past experiences, your culture, your family.
Your soul is the immortal essence of you and is somehow connected to God.
As you develop a God-consciousness and feel the presence of God (that has always been there), you realize that God loves you in the same way that he loves everyone else.
When you recognize that this Higher Power is the same for you as it is for others, then you realize that we are all one in God.

17. Separate versus Oneness
You are now able to see others without seeing them as a threat to you.
Judgments and the stories your mind created around the judgments are not necessary so you can live in the present and not in the past.
Keeping yourself in the present, you can love others in this moment.
You will want to help those who are in need which allows them to help you.

18. God
- The ultimate authority figure No one can describe God. We can only describe some of the aspects of God and even then most of the time these descriptions are from our personal relationship with God.

19. As close as you can understand a relationship with God is a relationship with authority figures
Your relationships with those in authority is affected by a transference of your relationship with your parents.
You relate to God in the same way that you
relate to your parents.

20. Step 3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

21. First action step of the 12 Steps. (First 2 Steps are preparatory steps.)
An Addict has to make an informed decision (or all he saying is just words).
Having a God-consciousness is not enough.
Making this decision requires that he knows in general what God is, how God communicates, and he is in the process of developing a personal relationship with God.

22. Transference
We transfer our conflicts with our parents onto our relationship with God.
We make judgments about God and our perception of how God sees us based on this transference.
We weave stories around how God thinks about us based on these judgments.
These judgments and the stories are based on our past experiences with our parents (not on how God loves us).

23. When bad things happen
You finally begin to trust that God is on your side and you “surrendered” your will and your life.
You make this decision each day.
When something bad happens such as the death of a spouse in a car accident, you will see if you truly trust God.
If you have a transference with God around your father, who always let you down, it is going to be hard to turn your will and your life over to God “who” allowed your spouse to die.
Not dealing with your anger with God is a relapse in the making.

24. Serenity Prayer Accept the things I cannot change Change the things I can Have the wisdom to know the difference

25. A belief in a Higher Power, admitting helplessness, and asking for help is the beginning but more is required.
You have to change the things that you can change which includes how you are dealing with your past.
The Fourth Step requires looking at all the
traumas that have happened in your life which
became obstacles to finding and becoming a
part of a Power greater than yourself.

26. Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
First, do a timeline of your life:
events from birth
things you did - bad and good
how you felt about all of this
You are beginning the process of realizing the hurts of the past so that you do not allow them to affect you in the present

27. Steps 4 through 10 Dealing with being human
Moral inventory (Steps 4, 5)
Understanding how you were hurt and how you hurt others
Admitting this to God, yourself and to another person
Amends to others, sin, forgiveness, responsibility (Steps 6,7,8,9,10)
Making amends to those we have harmed
Asking God to remove our shortcomings (Humility)
Continued personal inventory and admitting we are wrong when we are wrong.

28. Step 11 Sought through prayer and meditation
to improve our conscious contact with God
as we understood him,
praying only for knowledge of his Will
and the power to carry that out.
The basic ingredient of all humility
is a desire to seek and do God's will.

29. Spiritual Maintenance
A relationship with God functions under the same universal principles as a relationship with a spouse.
Daily communication – (prayer)
Thankful for what God does for you
(do not take God for granted)
Show through your actions that you need God
by not trying to do those things you cannot do.
Do not have “an affair” by being more in love with clothes, cars, jewelry, and power than with God.

30. Step 12 A spiritual awakening is the love of God
Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps,
we tried to carry this message to alcoholics,
and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.
A spiritual awakening is the love of God
expressed through you.
You + someone else + God will be able to
deal with anything that arises

31. Spirituality restores the Humanness Pathways in our Brain

34. Right Parietal Lobe
Responsible for spacial orientation – “I am here and you are there.” Separateness and organization is necessary for each of us to take care of our self and our environment which is necessary for addiction. ~25% of the mental activity of the brain of most people in western cultures (Europe and United States)

35. Limbic System
All sensory input to our brain first goes to the Limbic System
Decides if the input suggest there is a danger or if the input should be stored as memory.
Controls endocrine reactions:
-“fight or flight”, increase anxiety and fear,
insomnia, physical pains
- release of pleasure centers to give relief
Coupled with overactive Parietal lobe results in a need to protect yourself from others.

36. Left Frontal Lobe 5% of mental activity of brain in Western cultures
Where we feel and think instead of react:
concern for others; we do not see ourselves as separate
close to someone; realization that we are the same; without feeling separate we have joy in the present moment for just being alive

37. Recovery is Balanced Brain Activity
Before recovery most brain activity had shifted to the limbic system (pleasure to relieve anxiety) and the parietal lobe (me as separate from others)
Self-gratification, being alone, empty, loss of
purpose, no relationship with God
After recovery there is less brain activity in the parietal and limbic areas and more in the frontal (up to 20+%.
Self is now part of the whole, concern for others
aware of consequences of behavior, relationships
with others and with God

38. "The Promises" on pages 83-84, in the book Alcoholics Anonymous
Have a new freedom
Have a new happiness
Not regret the past
Not shut the door on the past
Truly understand serenity and will know peace
See how our experiences can benefit others
Not feel useless or have self-pity
Lose interest in selfish things
Gain interest in our fellows
Have a completely different outlook on life
Not fear people
Not fear economic insecurity
Know how to handle situations which use to baffle us
Realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves

39. In recovery, a great transformation takes place in us and we radiate love and compassion. ___________________________
Through our awareness of the love of God
we feel the joy of life
are able to live in the moment;
to live with what is; to live life on life's terms
Regrets of the past and fears of the future will not cause us to waste the joy of each moment.

40. As you take this knowledge to other addicts and to non-addicts, they will feel your joy of life because of your spiritual awakening which is the love of God expressed through you.