BP44

Yesterday my sponsor said that since I could no longer find any grey areas in my drinking history, my unmanageability, or the way out, my first step is complete. Well, I've got to say this is a first. It was a long month of rigorous, honest self examination and with a sponsor. I left my first sponsor and my first home group in 1994 because he called me out on trying to work a 13th step on one of his wife's sponsees. I had not even completed the 1st step. I would eventually be before the first drink again, and without defense because my behavior, my pride, my ego took me away from the lifeboat. I can't tell you how glad I am to be back. And to think it was the last place I wanted to come back to. On to the second step.

Tazman53

BP44 odd you should mention the 2nd step, I will be working with my sponsee on the 2nd step this week and working my 10th & 11th with my sponsor on Thursday. BP man I can tell you the promises do come true if we work the steps with a sponsor, happy, joyous and free really rocks.

miss communicat

wonderful! May you always rememeber Step 2.

I seem to work steps 1-2-3 perennially. Need to .....

CarolD

For those interested in Step work
we have a special Forum

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/step-study/

laurie6781

BP good for you.

Just remember:

2nd Step says "could" be restored to sanity not that we are, rofl. My 'insanity' lasted several years into recovery, and SLOWLY got better. "Progress not perfection."

The simple definition of "INSANITY" is:

The repetition of acts or actions EXPECTING different results.

Hope this will give you a 'starting point' to work on your second step.

Miss C, even after all my ODAATs, I STILL drag out 1-2-3 as a great tool to keep me centered.

Yes Taz, I do a 10th step daily and not always at bedtime. If during the day I get that "niggling" feeling I go back over the previous hours to see if I said or did something that might be 'misconstrued' and quickly try to correct it.

BP you are on an INCREDIBLE JOURNEY. The life awaiting you is far beyond anything you could ever imagaine.

WELCOME to the WONDERFUL WORLD of recovery.

Love and hugs,

GlassPrisoner

"But it will be different this time......."

That's the insanity.

Tazman53

laurie my first sponsor told me to read over the 10th and 11th steps and try to live them the first time we talked, he told me that it would make the upcoming steps easier because I would not be piling on to my 4th step inventory and my 9th step amends. He was right and for that I am thankful.

SaTiT

yeah..for me the first step wasn't really that hard
beuase in the process of hitting bottom..somewhere
alone the line I knew already knew it was a problem.
Actaully it was so bad that i use drugs and alcohol
as a means of trying to kill myself...obviously it was
unmanagable or all mess up...somewhere in ther gerneral
area..of i didn't cared anymore one way or the other.

those words..RESTORE TO SANITY..jumped out at me.
I kind of knew already i wasn't totally thinking straight.
becuase I didn't want to think staight or sane or come
back to earth and live with the human beings...

so for me step #2 wasn't really that hard..becuase
i simply didn't wanna..be sane
Or was it actaully hard to want to be sane.
Yes..yes..i read all the books of veriouse ways to do step #2
or came to belive..
How can an insane person make ant kind of sane decisions..
Holy schmoly...it started to get too complicated for me..lol

So i'm one those people..aaahh f-it...
I'm taking a leap of faith (step #3)...you all figure it out.lol

I guess that's how I came to belive...lol
it was too complicate...

SaTiT

But here's the kicker thou..
My sponsor especifically told not to work the steps...
what da ????....maybe he knew i was a rebelious punk
and don't listen and do the opposite...lol
All he told he to do was make a gradtitue list
and a desperation list and go to meetings everyday
and call him everyday.

Out of the blues he ask me to start writing an inventory.
He told me step 1,2,3 aren't actions steps.

So he told me a liitle story about frogs..
3 frogs sitting on a log
2 frogs made a decisions to jump into the water.
how many frogs still in the log..

the answer is... 3
You can make decisions all day long...
the question is...what are you going to do about it.

as far as step #3 was consern he told a story
about 3 blinde men touching an elephant
1 touching the smooth trunk
1 touching the rough belly
1 touching the hairy tail

I wanted a HP like his..but he told me NO..
everybody has ther own perceptions of what a HP is
and my HP would communicate in ways that I can comprehend.

He simply told me to work the 4th and more would be revealed
to me.

barb dwyer

"came to believe"...

(oops! hit 'post' before I even said anything - )

I didn't have any probs with a HP at all ...
what MY problem was ...
was believeing I mattered at all to It.

Or that I 'could' matter.
Or that I 'might'.

To Anything.
Much less any One.

When I finally FINALLY 'did' come to believe ....
absolutely everything changed.

good for you BP!!!!!!
*applause*

NoelleR

When I was a newcomer both my sponsor, and all the rest of the old-timers told me that while I might be doing in-depth step by step work, as a newcomer, I could always work 'at' all the steps with '1' in them: 1 and 10 and 11 and 12..... (o:

I've always been a 'keep it simple' kinda person, so for me step-2 was just that for me.....simple. I knew that I could return to sanity; that I could be restored to sanity, but although everyone says one's HP needs to be something outwside oneself....well....for me my HP was me....the me I would be tomorrow as long as I didn't pick up today.....I guess one could paraphrase to be 'sobriety' was my HP, but for me it was 'my' sobriety, and nobody elses'...The me of tomorrow is definitely a higher power than the me of today, as long as I don't pickup today.....But......whatever floats yer boat....keep it simple; besides, I luv stirrin the pot.....lol

For me, the best description, and VERY simple too, for the first three steps came from Father Martin, who was a speaker at the first round-up I attended (my sponsor was BIG on service and I was to go and volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.....lol).....

After that intro.....here's how Father Martin stated the first three steps:

1) There's a poblem;
2) There's a solution; and
3) Take your pick/You get to choose


Still Keepin it Simple

NoelleR
DOS: 6/23/86

collinsmi

Let me know how the 2nd step is working out BP44, and what kind of stuff you do for it.

My sponsor had me start on 10 and 11 a few weeks after I started on 4. Thought he was piling on at the time, but my life seemed to be unraveling fast. Was desperate enough to try it and my perceptions began to change. It's when I really started seeing that doing step work would improve my life.

fraankie

"go for it"


best
fraankie