Intro Step 12

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This is an online Step Study. Each of the 12 steps will have its own thread, so you can participate at whatever level you are comfortable and discuss your own experience with concepts in each step. It’s a combination and compilation of step studies – some from Al Anon, some from Nar Anon and some from CODA.

Sources include Paths To Recovery, Al-Anon’s Steps, Traditions and Concepts ©1997and How Al Anon Works for Families and Friends of Alcoholics ©1995, along with some readings from Courage to Change, One Day at a Time in Al Anon II ©1992.

Each of us works the steps in our time, and in our own manner. Most often, step work is done by those who attend face-to-face meetings and have a sponsor. That doesn’t mean that you MUST, it’s just a suggestion. Please don’t feel as though you must rush thru these steps… it took some of us a few years in the program before we began, and we found ourselves stuck on at least one of the steps for a year or more. The questions and postings here will be an outline, a framework from which you can begin your journey. If nothing else, the questions will provoke some thought and self-reflection, and some great discussions and dialogue.

Others who have worked the steps before may find that they wish to do the steps again. Many people who work one step per month every year – 12 steps for 12 months. The more you learn about yourself, the more you know, and the more you wish to learn!

Step 12- Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of this step, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


Courage to Change ODAT in Al-Anon II 1/26

I’d read the Twelfth Step many times before I saw it. But there it was: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps. . .“ What a promise! If I worked these Steps, I’d have a spiritual awakening! There was hope, even for me!

Now that’s not why I first came to Al-Anon. Like many, I came to find out how to make someone stop drinking. It was much later when I realized that my life was missing a sense of direction only a Higher Power could provide.

Those wonderful Twelfth Step words gave me the encouragement I needed to begin at the beginning. Slowly, sometimes painfully, I worked my way through the Steps. In time, something amazing happened. I was filled with a sense of my God and His love for me. I felt whole. I knew I’d never be the same again.

Today’s Reminder

The Steps offer me a road map for living that leads to a spiritual awakening and beyond. I can’t skip ahead to the end of the journey—which can at times be a hard one—but I can put one foot in front of the other and follow the directions I’ve been given, knowing that others who have gone before me have received more along the way than they had ever dreamed.

“The first time I ever heard the Twelve Steps read at a meeting, I became very still. I felt I was not breathing. . . I was just listening with my whole being.. . I knew deep within me that! was home.”
As We Understood…


Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

It can be said that the entire Al-Anon program is summed up in Step 12. We acknowledge the results of our efforts - a spiritual awakening - commit ourselves to sharing the gifts we have received and recognize that living a spiritual life is an ongoing process.

In our Al-Anon meetings, we share our experience, strength and hope with others on this path to recovery. In meetings and with our Al-Anon friends, we practice the Al-Anon principles together. Practicing these principles “in all our affairs” is the real test of recovery and the challenge that keeps us coming back. Life continually provides us with the challenges and opportunities to put our Step work into action.

There are many spiritual awakenings and many ways to carry the message. Al-Anon members offer these ideas and questions to help us explore the meaning of the Twelfth Step.

Have I experienced a spiritual awakening? Describe.

In what ways do I down play my spiritual growth? What can help me to acknowledge it?

What have I received from Al-Anon that I would most like to share?

What are the different ways I can carry this message to others?

Did I see a friendly face early in my recovery? What can I do to be a friendly face to someone else?

What is the difference between carrying the message and giving advice?

When trying to carry the message, what have I experienced?

How can I recognize a cry for help without meddling in other people’s affairs?

How can I best carry the message to my family members, especially those who resist the idea ?

What can I practice these principles in my financial affairs? Is my job merely a means of earning money or an opportunity to practice my recovery?

What does the Twelfth Step say to me about Al-Anon service work?

What part has service to Al-Anon played in my recovery?

What would change if I viewed service as my goal in every area of my life?

What are “these principles”?

How can apply them in my daily life?

In what areas of my life do I need to start practicing these principles? What can I do this week to make a beginning?

How am I living the message of the program?

How am I a good example of Al-Anon recovery?