The AA 12 steps was birthed on this earth
through the suffering of an Alcoholic named Bill W.
He could not get sober by himself
No will of his own could help him
In desperation, he cried out to God
Little did he know that was all God needed
to “put into motion” a 12 step program
that has spread throughout the world
helping not only the alcoholics and the addicts
but many other support groups which adapted these 12 steps
One of the greatest Act of Love from our creator, God.
Gods loves us even when we have turned our backs on him
God loves us even when we are walking down a path of destruction.
God will provide a way to get back on track.
Our choice to stay lost or get back on the right path.
Some of us are called to shine a light in the darkness.
Bill W. was not given a detailed outline on how to fulfil this vision.
Bill W. started each day with an open mind, heart and spirit to
become aware of others who entered his path to shed their divine light
and wisdom and contribute their piece to the puzzle of the vision.
Each of them were given the divine call and followed through to do their part to bring this spiritual program of AA into existence in 1935.
Many millions of hopeless alcoholics have worked and practiced these 12 steps to stay sober and start living and
walking a spiritual and sober path.
Bill W. just showed up day by day and
asked God what to do and he was shown what to do,
One day at a time
In the process of doing this,
He remained sober
One day at a time
Bill W. followed the call, the vision, and the divine plan of God
for the birth of the 12 steps and 12 traditions and
AA, Alcoholics Anonymous was born.
There was a lot of work to be done and a lot of people
needed to step up to the plate and contribute their part to fulfill
God’s Vision
Many times we are not sure how
to begin the process or what we are to do next.
Just show up for life and keep seeking and
asking God’s Spirit what to do next.
How many people have turned down God’s calling?
I think most of us can admit that we are one of those people.
I have the belief that if one person ignores the calling,
God will find another person
To fulfill his vision and plan on this earth
Pay attention!!!
God may ask you to help Him again soon…
What would have happened if Bill W. if he had decided to ignore the vision
that the Spirit of God gave him?
I guess God would have chosen another person.
Thank you Bill W for hearing the call and for following through.
We are all blessed in one way or another because of your obedience.
Suffering due to Alcoholism was the catalyst to seek help
and receive God’s grace and healing
(undeserved favor or help)
God wants to help us and heal us, and
God wants a personal relationship with us.
We did nothing to deserve it.
God wants to help us anyway.
Are you ready for the Spirit of God to take us further down this path?
If God is the creator of pain as part of our human experience,
then I would deduct that God would be the best entity to go to
-to ask for wisdom and help on how to deal
with pain and suffering.
Pay attention, there is always a message specifically tailored for you.
Open up your spiritual heart, emotions, mind and spirit and
be ready to receive
Pain is necessary for growth.
Pain is necessary to learn from our mistakes.
Pain is a catalyst for growth.
Wow, look where the Spirit is leading us now,
without suffering we would not have humility or compassion.
So I guess it is important that we have humility and compassion
to develop our character
True humility is
strength restrained
Humility is self awareness
Knowing who your are
Definition of humility
• Absence of feeling better than someone else
• freedom from pride or arrogance
• act of submission
Compassion – nurturing yourself
with kindness and love
Compassion looking beyond our pain to see the pain of others
Definition of Compassion
• wanting to help someone else – compassion for others
• wanting to help yourself grow spiritually – compassion for self
• Becoming Aware of Ego (self) driven Pride in ourselves and
• Working on our “stinkin thinking” beliefs and behaviors that are causing pain in ourselves and our relationships
• We can cultivate and develop new behaviors that relieve some of the pains of pride,
thus less suffering.
I am getting the message that if we decrease self-centered pride and increase more humility, there will be less suffering.
So taking action to become aware of and thus changing mindsets
can relieve the suffering and
make life more peaceful.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Here it is again – AAA (Awareness, Acceptance, Action)
Awareness of the pain (aware that the pain is there for a reason)
Accept the pain (honor its presence)
(fighting or rebelling or stuffing the pain – makes it worse)
Action to alleviate the pain
Denial
is the beginning of suffering,
we become aware of the pain and
start to feel the pain and
refuse to accept the pain as real (delusional) and
we ignore it and stuff it and take no action.
The volume on the pain will increase to get our attention
to do something about it
All suffering originates
from craving
from attachment
and
from desire
CRAVING
an intense, urgent or
abnormal desire or longing
People crave attention and
appreciation
Suffering happens when others do not
meet all of our expectations
Obsession
a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an
unreasonable idea or feeling
We can loose ourselves with
a romantic love obsession
We feel like the other person has a hold on us.
That other person does not have that much power
to have the hold on us.
We are giving up our power and ourselves
When we look at our obsession and ask God to Help us
with the obsession, we will get to the root of it (power behind)
the obsession that is holding us captive to the other person.
It is not them who is holding us captive
It is our needy and obsessive need for love.
As long as we keep saying it is them,
we are in denial
No one has that much power over us.
We need to look within…
Wow, I just got one of my answers from the Holy Spirit…
Now I am aware that it is not them, it is me and I will accept it and
I will turn it over to God to help me heal from
this romantic love hook which I thought
was the other person’s doing
The first thing that comes to mind
Is what happens when somebody says something that is mean
If I did not respond right away
I leave and I keep thinking about what they said
over and over again
and keep getting more angry
I am angry at them, however,
most of the time
I am angrier at myself for not taking a stand
As I am writing down this scenario
I became aware that this falls into the suffering category.
If I stop doing this
I will avoid suffering
In early recovery, we get a lot of obsessive thoughts,
and obsessive emotions because we have learned how to drink
them away with alcohol or some other drug.
A lot of suffering with these out of control thoughts and feelings until we learn and keep practicing how to handle these out of control emotions and thoughts.
Guaranteed there is an underlying issue screaming to be healed
Not being able to stop is not due to fear or doubt
It is because the obsession is so powerful
Only God can help us stop it
Wow, to obsess over something prevents one from getting what they
want so desperately
Well look at this, jealousy has entered our path
I grew up in a family of 11 and jealousy was running at full throttle.
To be jealousy is not being grateful for what I have
Wanting what others have
Not being able to be happy for them
even though I did not have it myself
I was so focused on what I did not have
instead of being grateful for what I did have
Is something coming up for you in reference to jealousy?
Is God speaking to you?
How hard it is to be happy for someone else
when they have what you want?
For instance, someone special in their lives to travel with
and share and enjoy retirement with
The message I received earlier in this post was,
in order to avoid the suffering,
Stop wanting it so bad and obsessing on it
Keep the desire in my heart and
I need to Turn it Over to God
Let it Go
And if it comes back to me
It was meant to be
People can get jealous of you because of who you are,
because you may have qualities that they wish they had
Some people can’t stand you being happy
They want you to wallow in their misery
If they have a problem accepting who you are,
then it is ok to stay away from them.
Sometimes we take jealousy of others as rejection.
If it is rejection,
then we need to accept them and let them go and not
take it personally.
This is the other side of the coin of rejection.
Addiction
a compulsive, chronic, physiological need for a habit-forming substance, behavior, or activity having harmful physical, psychological, or social effects and typically causing well-defined symptoms (such as anxiety, irritability, tremors, or nausea) upon withdrawal or abstinence: the state of being addicted.
Addiction can just be a behavior, out of control, or
it can be rooted in a physical craving.
In the case of alcoholism, the medical community believes that
alcoholism can be triggered by a physical craving and
a mental obsession.
Therefore, abstinence is the only cure.
Once alcohol is ingested,
it triggers the physical craving and
the compulsion to over-indulge because
it bypasses the brain and
then overrides the will of the person.
Only divine intervention can break that cycle.
Wow, thoughts of greed, anger, delusion and
allowing them to turn into an obsession and
giving them power, will increase our suffering.
Remember the AAA
Aware of what is causing the suffering
Accept and own that the suffering is real
Action – seek help and take action advice from experts and from
the most powerful healing energy of God
Attachment
Fear and dependency
self-centered love
Expecting others to fill your love needs
Love without attachment
is the purest love
It isn’t about what others can give you
because you are empty,
It is about what you can give others
because you are already full
Always having to be right or have the last word
creates a lot of suffering
Be Kind
Be Open-minded
Be less rigid
Our thoughts and faulty belief systems
can cause a lot of suffering
Suffering because of harmful words that were said by others
and we believed them without checking if true or not
Acceptance is the key once again
Not accepting the reality of things or people in our lives
in the present, the past or the future
sets us up for more suffering
Acceptance is the key to avoiding suffering
Suffering is the resistance to what happens.
Stress happens when the mind resists what is
Problem is with your mind’s resistance to life as it happens
Desire
Attachment to our desires causes undo suffering
Attachments to certain outcomes causes suffering
Pain points out what is out of balance
Do an inventory, to see if the pain is from the mind, body, spirit or emotions?
Pain in our bodies point out that something is not working right
If we ignore the pain in our bodies
The pain will get worse.
We can take a pill and treat the symptoms
Or we can get to the root cause and fix it or treat it
Pain or imbalance in our spirit
Is usually an opportunity to learn a spiritual lesson
Pain or imbalance in our minds
Is usually an opportunity to work through a healing.
Seeking God’s divine wisdom sounds like a good thing to me
Seek experts to help us get to the bottom of the pain
Heal and Release the root cause of the pain
Suffering alone does not make us wise
Suffering needs to be added to
mourning – losses (physical, spiritual, emotional and mental)
understanding– the root causes and choosing healing
patience- seeking and waiting for awareness and correct timing
love- let go of blockages to love (jealousy, envy, fear, hate, unworthy)
openness– learning trust and seeking new solutions, insights
willingness to listen for answers
vulnerable to take chance to get hurt
Mourning
loss of loved one
loss of time
Process of grieving losses
Only cure for grief is to feel the feelings and go through the grieving process, one day at time
Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings
into infinity
We never will be saints; however,
we can learn patience, long-suffering and self-mastery.
Show up for life
Keep asking God to show us his Will.
Acceptance is the key
Accept suffering
Accept and learn from it
Accept the healing it offers
Work through it
Achieve Atonement
What is Atonement?
Reconnect of our spirits to Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit
Because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross
Our mistakes and sins are forgiven
to clear the channel to God
Because of Christ Jesus dying on the cross,
we can ask Jesus for atonement,
which heals our hearts of pain.
It cleanses the mind from doubt and grief.
It fills the mind with relief and hope.
It feeds comfort to our souls.
It fills the soul with Joy
Gives freedom from bondages and captivity
Develops a close bond with Jesus
Fill your heart with the presence of God and you will have Joy
It breaks the bondages that hold us captive
Joy sets our spirits free
Joy is the Presence of God
Wow, the Holy Spirit took us down another path,
and we still did not get to the essence of the 12 steps.
Hope you received the messages and insights
specifically tailor made for you.
We will start again another day and see where it takes us.
Love you all,
Esther Mae. 1-15-2022
12 Steps Recovery spiritual principles 