Hitting the mark living the principles of recovery can at times be difficult. Often, while we may have made a thorough and heartfelt third step by “turning our will and our lives over to a power greater than ourselves,” little by little a desire for control can sneak back into our motivations. When this happens, living by these principles can seem difficult, even overwhelming. We can easily identify with the personification of the newcomer in the Big Book who proclaims “what an order, I can’t go through with it!”
There is a huge difference between living the steps rigidly and living them mindfully. Recently in a post on the relevance of the 12 Steps for at risk teens, Rita Argiros highlighted the following relevant passage from the Big Book:
“And acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake. Until I accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, forth edition, pg 417)
A mindful integration of the 12 steps into our daily lives becomes evident in a person by the presence of the hallmark attitudes of recovery: open-mindedness, acceptance, and gratitude.
Comments on this entry are closed.