Step Twelve

[caressa]

When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe that which he could not do before on his unaided strength and resources alone. He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being. He has been set on a path which tells him he is really going somewhere, that life is not a dead end, not something to be endured or mastered. In a very real sense he has been transformed, because he has laid hold of a source of strength which, in one way or another, he had hitherto denied himself. He finds himself in possession of a degree of honesty, tolerance, unselfishness, peace of mind, and love of which he had thought himself quite incapable. What he has received is a free gift, and yet usually, at least in some small part, he has made himself ready to receive it.

Isn't this a marvelous statement. I can't, God can. I couldn't do this, but through my Higher Power, I can achieve things I was never able to attain before. If I am open to receive, that Good Orderly Direction is there, one day at a time, to show me the way to recover.

I also like the fact that it is a free gift. The price was paid long before I got here. The biggest cost was my sense of self and low self-worth into this being that my God cares for and Loves unconditionally.

I didn't even have to understand it, know how it worked, all I had to do was know it was there and that I could tap into the source daily. Keep it simple. Ask for help, live my day and give thanks at night and stay clean and sober, no matter what! The courage, strength, direction, love and support was there if I reached out and asked for help.

To be continued...

[caressa]

A.A.'s manner of making ready to receive this gift lies in the practice of the Twelve Steps in our program. So let's consider briefly what we have been trying to do up to this point: Step One showed us an amazing paradox: We found that we were totally unable to be rid of the alcohol obsession until we first admitted that we were powerless over it. In Step Two we saw that since we could not restore ourselves to sanity, some Higher Power must necessarily do so if we were to survive.

As I have stated before, recovery is a process. It is a working of the Steps, listening to other share, taking it what we can in at the moment, continuing to grow and shape ourselves into who we are and work toward who we want to be.

I had to surrender to win. Until I could recognize my problem, I could do nothing about it. Having found out I had a problem, it was what I needed to overcome it. I had been trying my way, and it hadn't worked. I could stop, but I couldn't stay stopped.

I thought I knew who God was and wasn't too sure I wanted anything to do with Him and didn't believe that He was willing to speak to me; because according to the church, I had broken every rule in the book. How could I trust this God to do for me what I could not do for myself. I wasn't sure I wanted to do things His way, it is what I had rebelled for most of my life. I had to go on a spiritual quest and make God personal. I had to find out who God was to me and start to build a relationship with Him/Her.

To be continued....

[caressa]

Consequently, in Step Three we turned our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. For the time being, we who were atheist or agnostic discovered that our own group, or A.A. as a whole, would suffice as a higher power. Beginning with Step Four, we commenced to search out the things in ourselves which had brought us to physical, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy.

Learning to turn things over was not easy and it needed lots of practice. For me, it wasn't just a one time deal, often not just a daily thing, but any time I came upon something that I felt like I need a helping hand on. My God speaks through people, places and things and I don't see myself as an agnostic or an athiest. I see myself as a person who continually builds on a relationship with my God and God is as He reveals Himself to me in today. This is a spiritual program not a religious one. My religous beliefs certainly enhanced my spiritual ones. My spiritual beliefs enhanced my religious ones. So no matter what your religious beliefs or lack of, the spiritual principles of the program are applicable to all. No one excluded and we are all covered under the blanket of Spiritual freedom to live clean and sober.

When I have fear in Step 4, I found I needed to go back to Step 3 to reinforce my faith in this new Higher Power. Instead of looking at the Step as doom and gloom and something too fearful to attempt, all I need to remember is I am not alone. It is an inventory of what is there, what is no longer there, and what is need in order to recover.

I was told I didn't have to list every 'sin' that I ever committed, I just had to acknowledge that I did it. For me, sin means "Soul in need." When I was needy, I reached out to pills, alcohol, food, men, and anyone or thing I could reach out to, that would take me out of myself and change my reality.

To be continued...

[caressa]

We made a searching and fearless moral inventory. Looking at Step Five, we decided that an inventory, taken alone, wouldn't be enough. We knew we would have to quit the deadly business of living alone with our conflicts, and in honesty confide these to God and another human being. At Step Six, many of us balked--for the practical reason that we did not wish to have all our defects of character removed, because we still loved some of them too much. Yet we knew we had to make a settlement with the fundamental principle of Step Six. we decided that while we still had some flaws of character that we could not yet relinquish, we ought nevertheless to quit our stubborn, rebellious hanging on to them. We said to ourselves, "This I cannot do today, perhaps, but I can stop crying out `No, never!' " Then, in Step Seven, we humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings such as He could or would under the conditions of the day we
asked.

When I looked at this, my thought was, "...and then we trust the process." I was told by a priest who has long term recovery that our inventory should always be about today. This is a one day at a time program. Things that come into my present that is affected by my past. Things that are part of the old me that I want to change. Things I need to bring out of the darkness and into the light so I can truly look at them and find self-honesty.

Defects of character that make themselves known and affect my life in today. Things that block me from the Sunshine of the Spirit, that prevent me from that obsessive compulsive thinking and way of life.

Trusting the process, knowing that it works. For me, these were the healing Steps. How can I change what I don't know I have? Why shold I want to continue acitng out in my dease when I am clean and sober?

to be continued...

[caressa]

Whenever I go to share my story at a meeting, a recovery home, in a detox center, or just around the table at a discussion group, I always say the Serenity Prayer to ask for help, followed by the Third Step prayer that I may be a channel and asking for God's will not mine, and then following it with the Seventh Step prayer, to get out of the way so my God can work through me.

Since I haven't been feeling well, I have not known how much truth is mine and how much is my God's, and on something like this that is so important to me, I have waited until I was feeling better. It may have turn out all right, especially if I asked for help, but when I was on the Gabapentin, I felt as though my thinking was sometimes off and had further proof when my bridge game wasn't up to par. Not saying it is going to be any better or worse, just saying that with no pain now thanks to the new medication, I don't have to think through it for the words to come out. Of course, with the Cymbalta, my thought could still be messed up.

[caressa]

In Step Eight, we continued our housecleaning, for we saw that we were not only in conflict with ourselves, but also with people and situations in the world in which we lived. We had to begin to make our peace, and so we listed the people we had harmed and became willing to set things right. We followed this up in Step Nine by making direct amends to those concerned, except when it would injure them or other people. By this time, at Step Ten, we had begun to get a basis for daily living, and we keenly realized that we would need to continue taking personal inventory, and that when we were in the wrong we ought to admit it promptly.

These are further healing steps. A lot of the people that I owed amends to were long gone out of my life. There have been occasion when someone has reappeared, and I was able to make that amend.

I found there were several ways to make an amend. Face to face with the person harmed, writing a letter, with the decision to mail it, burn it or throw it away, or doing service work. This was great for me and others, it was passing it forward. Some people were not willing to accept the amend, and that is okay, by doing service, I was able to help another.

The best amend to myself was to come into recovery and stay clean and sober. The best amend to my family and friends was to stay clean and sober. Amend isn't saying I'm sorry, it is changing me and my way of living and not repeating the same words and deeds again and again.

Step 10 allows me to be ever watchful of this new life so that I don't slip back into old patterns and behaviors. I am not sober when I am still going around acting out in my disease.

To be continued...

[caressa]

In Step Eleven we saw that if a Higher Power had restored us to sanity and had enabled us to live with some peace of mind in a sorely troubled world, then such a Higher Power was worth knowing better, by as direct contact as possible. The persistent use of meditation and prayer, we found, did open the channel so that where there had been a trickle, there now was a river which led to sure power and safe guidance from God as we were increasingly better able to understand Him.

Isn't that an awesome thought. Step 11 is my favorite Step. It doesn't matter what time of the day it is, you can stop and take a moment to tap into the resources that are available to you.

As Osho says, "You can meditate while doing housework, or doing any other task in the day," all you have to do is be centered and balanced in the moment, enjoy what you are doing and know that God is with you.

A sponsor once said to me, 'I think you talk to your God through music." I also think that is a two way street, He talks to me through music." The resources are endless. The rewards are priceless.

to be continued...

[caressa]

So, practicing these Steps, we had a spiritual awakening about which finally there was no question. Looking at those who were only beginning and still doubted themselves, the rest of us were able to see the change setting in. From great numbers of such experiences, we could predict that the doubter who still claimed that he hadn't got the "spiritual angle," and who still considered his well-loved A.A. group the higher power, would presently love God and call Him by name.

When I first came into recovery, I thought I knew who God was and didn't want any part of Him. I was very angry at Him for several reason. My mother's and brother's to name a few. As it says in the Big Book, it is hard to have faith and then lose it. I got to a year sober and didn't have a clue as to who God was.

What I did know was that spirituality and religion are two things. They can enhance each other, if you have a strong faith and belief, but it can sure mix you up if you think they are one and the same thing. I use to tell people, that I religiously go to meetings. There was even more of an uproar when I said, "He/She/It" and as one guy said it, "NOW she is trying to change God's gender."

God is as He/She/It reveals themselves to me in today. Yet my Higher Power is the Holy Spirit, which I often refer to as the (W)Holy spirit because He (easier to type than He/She/It) and an old tape I am use to saying), took the fragmented soul and put her back together again. Who in today walks with Him and has been given this new way of life.

As I read in a Reader's Digest book many years ago, "Oh Teacher, everyone knows that God isn't a person, He is a feeling."

It doesn't matter what you call Him, He answers. He is known by many names, but the most important thng is that you know Him.

To be continued...

[caressa]

Now, what about the rest of the Twelfth Step? The wonderful energy it releases and the eager action by which it carries our message to the next suffering alcoholic and which finally translates the Twelve Steps into action upon all our affairs is the payoff, the magnificent reality, of Alcoholics Anonymous. Even the newest of newcomers finds undreamed rewards as he tries to help his brother alcoholic, the one who is even blinder than he. This is indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him. And then he discovers that by the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether his brother has yet received anything or not. His own character may still be gravely defective, but he somehow knows that God has enabled him to make a mighty beginning, and he senses that he stands at the edge of new mysteries, joys, and experiences of which he had never even dreamed.

For me, that is an awesome statement, yet very true, certainly has been in my life. Even the smallest thing, although a smile isn't very little, can spread around and do wonders and bring untold reactions in the hearts and lives of others and ourselves.

God doing for me what I can't do for myself. The people He puts in my path and the blessings for having been at the right place at the right time. Life can be very good indeed.

The words are complete and I feel like anything I have to say, can add nothing to them, they carry their own message.

[caressa]

Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming failure or success? Can we now accept and adjust to either without despair or pride? Can we accept poverty, sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity? Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when the brighter, more glittering achievements are denied us?

Isn't it strange? When I looked at this paragraph tonight, it was like I was reading it for the first time; and yet I have read this Step at meetings and at home many times. I guess I shouldn't say strange because it has happened many times, just not recently.

I know that I sabatoged the good, when things were getting better, I would do something to upset the apple cart, and even in recovery it was a pattern I had to learn to break. I didn't pick up a drink or a pill, and I don't remember doing it, but knowing me, I probably ate my face off or I got onto the phone and called every body and their uncle! I couldn't stand success any better than I could handle failure.

I never had much money, either thanks to my addiction or my ex-husbands spent it. My first husband told me he would have left me earlier if it wasn't for the money I was bringing in. My second husband didn't want me to spend money on things that took away from beer money. I had two cars when married to him and had no car at the end of the marriage.

A woman approached me at a meeting and asked me how I could be so happy and accepting when I had so little. If I am not mistaken I was on Welfare and living in a bachelor apartment. I said, because now I have myself. I had borrowed a mattress to sleep on the floor in my first apartment at 6 months, and I had a bed when I moved into my second apartment. I had enough stuff to fill the whole room. When I moved into my first apartment I had a tri-light, a little square table about 20 x 20" that use to be my aunt's sewing machine table, and six green bags of what they call here Newfie luggage and what American's would probably call Redneck.

The longer I stayed sober the sicker I got. It was amazing what I had covered up by using drugs and alcohol. Under my anger were resentment, abandonment, and rejection issues that I didn't uncover until I was 7 years sober.

The longer I stayed sober, the more I seemed to have. Life didn't get better, I did. Not always physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I had a spiritual and emotional bottom in recovery and thankfully, I didn't pick up a drink or a drug. I have also had to look at an eating disorder and a computer addiction. I didn't quit smoking until I was 7 years sober and I wanted to be a clear, clean channel.

I tried smoking a Colt cigar to see if I could smoke one in sobriety. I didn't like them because they were not wine tipped. I tried Line Dancing, but I was still a free spirit and wanted to zig when I was suppose to zag. When I was 41, I decided that men were my problem in life and I swore off of them. At 7 years sober, I had a man relapse. Had a few more after that, but have been clean and sober for 4 years since the end of September. So if you count men relapses, I don't have 20 years of sobriety. My sponsor told me that sobriety meant soundness of mind. If that is the case, I guess all I have is today.

To be continued...

[caressa]

The A.A. answer to these questions about living is "Yes, all of these things are possible." We know this because we see monotony, pain, and even calamity turned to good use by those who keep on trying to practice A.A.'s Twelve Steps. And if these are facts of life for the many alcoholics who have recovered in A.A., they can become the facts of life for many more. Of course all A.A.'s, even the best, fall far short of such achievements as a consistent thing. Without necessarily taking that first drink, we often get quite far off the beam. Our troubles sometimes begin with indifference. We are sober and happy in our A.A. work. Things go well at home and office. We naturally congratulate ourselves on what later proves to be a far too easy and superficial point of view. We temporarily cease to grow because we feel satisfied that there is no need for all of A.A.'s Twelve Steps for us.

I don't have all the 12 Steps on a shelf and just pull them down off of the shelf as I need them. I started practicing them and they became an intrical part of my life. Upon application, I think they work their way into our DNA and become part of who we are and how we think. That is only upon regular application and willingness to put the Step into practice.

As I have said, "Some days I have had to practice all 12 Steps, a few of the Traditions, thought of a few slogans, and repeated the Serenity Prayer. I am so glad the Serenity Prayer doesn't wear out. I sure have put it through it paces and it has always been there for me. Keep saying it until it means something. Slow it down and feel each word, there is a lot of wisdom there.

What has gone through my mind the last few days is the words "You can't know what you have never been taught." We can't just know, we often had to be shown, or we heard by heresay, or used different areas of communication.

I went back to Mohawk College and took a course on Life Skills because I had been out of work and living up north and things had changed since I had been in the work force. I found the problem was so much the work place but me because of the escalation of my disease. Work wasn't always the problem, the problem was me.

To be continued...

[caressa]

We are doing fine on a few of them. Maybe we are doing fine on only two of them, the First Step and that part of the Twelfth where we "carry the message."

In A.A. slang, that blissful state is known as "two-stepping." And it can go on for years. The best-intentioned of us can fall for the "two-step" illusion. Sooner or later the pink cloud stage wears off and things go disappointingly dull. We begin to think that A.A. doesn't pay off after all. We become puzzled and discouraged.

The previous paragraph leads us into what happens when we become complacent, think we know there is all to learn, and we are the leading authority, just ask us. An old behavior that has on occasion crept by into my life if I slacken on my program.

We naturally congratulate ourselves on what later proves to be a far too easy and superficial point of view. We temporarily cease to grow because we feel satisfied that there is no need for all of A.A.'s Twelve Steps for us.

People tell me I did that step, I don't need to do it again. It is a working program, and for me, any time something comes up and is rooted in my past, I need to work Step 4-9, especially if not mentioned or thought of in my 1st 4th Step or the ones that followed it.

Again, I found myself annoyed at people who say what Step are you working on Jo. The person in mind has been around longer than I have, and to my way of thinking, he should know that the Steps are applicable when needed. Just because I am working on Step 11 right now, should I ignore the fact that my defects of character are glaringly apparent because someone ticked me off, should I ignore it until I get back around to Step 6 again. In a course of a day, I need personally to start with Steps 1, 2, & 3. and I work Steps 10-12 to maintain my sobriety. There are some people who think 4-9 is a done deal once you have done them, but I don't see it that way. If it is something new in today, Step 10 can cover it, but if it is a long last defect or habit that I can't completely let go of, I need to do 4-9.

As they say in here, two stepping. I am clean and now I am going to help someone. Just showing up at meetings is the best help you can do you and the newcomer, you learn together. You are not the teacher, you can share you experience, strength and hope, but after that you don't have anythng to say because it is heresay and what you heard other people say, you haven't done it or experienced it yourself. You can't give away what you don't have. Recovery is a process, one day at a time.

To be continued...

[caressa]

Then perhaps life, as it has a way of doing, suddenly hands us a great big lump that we can't begin to swallow, let alone digest. We fail to get a worked-for promotion. We lose that good job. Maybe there are serious domestic or romantic difficulties, or perhaps that boy we thought God was looking after becomes a military casualty. What then? Have we alcoholics in A.A. got, or can we get, the resources to meet these calamities which come to so many? These were problems of life which we could never face up to. Can we now, with the help of God as we understand Him, handle them as well and as bravely as our nonalcoholic friends often do?

AA 12 & 12

Have been fortunate in my recovery. I haven't had that many tragedies in my life. My aunt passed away. Friends from the rooms went out to do more research and never made it back. A couple of sponsees chose to go back out and died as a result of that decision. My sponsor told me that I wasn't responsible if they stayed sober and I wasn't responsible if they went back out.

Life happens, I got better equipped to handle life on life's terms and that was because of my Higher Power. When met with these trials and tribulations in the past I always used. Never had a thought of not doing it, so had to change the thinking as well as the actions. Each day has been a 1, 2, 3 Waltz for me. I can't, God can, just for today, I choose to let Him.

I once said to a sponsee, "If each year of sobriety isn't the best year of your recovery, isn't the best year of your life, ask yourself, "What am I doing wrong?"

To be continued...

[caressa]

Can we transform these calamities into assets, sources of growth and comfort to ourselves and those about us? Well, we surely have a chance if we switch from" two-stepping" to "twelve-stepping," if we are willing to receive that grace of God which can sustain and strengthen us in any catastrophe. Our basic troubles are the same as everyone else's, but when an honest effort is made "to practice these principles in all our affairs," well-grounded A.A.'s seem to have the ability, by God's grace, to take these troubles in stride and turn them into demonstrations of faith. We have seen A.A.'s suffer lingering and fatal illness with little complaint, and often in good cheer. We have sometimes seen families broken apart by misunderstanding, tensions, or actual infidelity, who are reunited by the A.A. way of life.

It is difficult to add to words that speak for themselves. I was just sharing with a friend, I need to turn over all aspects of my life, especially my thinking, to my Higher Power.

Things can change around for the good. I am a firm believer that there is positive and negative in all things. Sometimes the forces are out of balance, and we need to bring them back into alignment.

Communication is so important. How do you feel? This is what I heard, is this what you meant to say? I took your comment to mean..., is that what you intended to say?"

Sometimes, we need to love the person, but we don't have to love the action. Actions speak louder than words. Body language speaks volumns. They give out mixed messages.

Have seen many break up in relationships, mainly because they met in active addiction. When they get clean and sober, they no longer have anything in common and nothing to base their relationship on. It is hard to have a relationship if there is no trust. I know I couldn't, that is why my first marriage broke up.

[caressa]

Though the earning power of most A.A.'s is relatively high, we have some members who never seem to get on their feet moneywise, and still others who encounter heavy financial reverses. Ordinarily we see these situations met with fortitude and faith.

Like most people, we have found that we can take our big lumps as they come. But also like others, we often discover a greater challenge in the lesser and more continuous problems of life. Our answer is in still more spiritual development. Only by this means can we improve our chances for really happy and useful living. And as we grow spiritually, we find that our old attitudes toward our instincts need to undergo drastic revisions. Our desires for emotional security and wealth, for personal prestige and power, for romance, and for family satisfactions--all these have to be tempered and redirected. We have learned that the satisfaction of instincts cannot be the sole end and aim of our lives. If we place instincts first, we have got the cart before the horse; we shall be pulled backward into disillusionment. But when we are willing to place spiritual growth first-- then and only then do we have a real chance.

Never was a very big money earner. Had to quit school to look after my mom and then she sent me off to the city to find work. I was not trained for anything. I ended up going to night school to learn how to type and learn bookkeeping.

Whenever I had it, my husband used it, bought things without asking permision, sold things like my car and furniture, and came home to tell me what he had done. It was a done deal by the time I found out. When I left my second marriage, I had no car and furniture. He had ruined a brand new living room suite by lying on it with his steel mill work clothes and I had two cars, but because it took beer money to service them, I ended up with none.

It was those accumulated little things that were the last straw and I would blow. I am so glad that they are few and far between. We were the poor side of the family. I never had much, so you can't lose what you don't have. If I had a $20. bill in my purse, I thought I was rich. I went from a file clerk to being a secretary/accounant. My boss called me Office Manager but I thik it was more like a girl Friday. I refocused my life at 2 years sober by doing detox and the local jail. I had been doing work in the group, so over the years I did Inter-Group and GSR. It said that if you were not working or in a relationship, get involved in service and that is what I did. I read today something about getting self-esteem by doing esteemable acts. That is how I saw service. As I have said before, my favorite place was on the door and being a greeter.

By helping others, it helped me to help myself. It helped to get out of self. I had to watch about getting too involved in service, because of my obsessive compulsive nature, it seems to be all or nothing at all with me.

[caressa]

After we come into A.A., if we go on growing, our attitudes and actions toward security--emotional security and financial security--commence to change profoundly. Our demand for emotional security, for our own way, had constantly thrown us into unworkable relations with other people.

Though we were sometimes quite unconscious of this, the result always had been the same. Either we had tried to play God and dominate those about us, or we had insisted on being overdependent upon them. Where people had temporarily let us run their lives as though they were still children, we had felt very happy and secure ourselves.

But when they finally resisted or ran away, we were bitterly hurt and disappointed. We blamed them, being quite unable to see that our unreasonable demands had been the cause.

Never had much emotional or financial security for most of my life. I have had more in the last three years than I have had for most of my life. Anytime I had, it seemed like it was taken away. For many years, I blamed others, but then I realized it was me who made the decision to put myself into the situation.

The other day my meditation said, "Use proper boundaries and detach and banish abuse. Today's said to avert blockage and defeat and develop an aversion to the conduct that creates stress. Stress is a big trigger for my fibro which has been the worst it has ever been in many years.

It said to set my house in order, tend to business, be clear, and wait on the Will of Heaven. I love that phrase. I always ask for clarity daily and God Will, but when I think about it, not always sure I wait for it to come or take the time to confirm it is good for me in the moment. Waiting was never one of my strong points.

I didn't realize how dependent I was on my son until he went away. I knew I had to detach emotionally, but didn't always do it physically. I always wanted for him to be where I could see him, so his moving has been a good lesson for me.

Had a lot of feeling, I knew the move was good for him. Yet I added conditions, like it will be good IF he stays clean and sober. Every time he relapsed, I found myself to be hurt and disappointed, yet it had nothing to do with me, whether he stay clean and sober or whether he continued to use. It was his choice and none of my business. I know I loved him no matter what he did. I even made a point of telling him of that love and very emphatic about him doing what was good for him.

Recently realized I had tried to play God with my own life. I had to sit back and do a meditation and look at my life and where i was going. I had all this fatigue, what was causing it, and what was I not doing or what was I over doing. For the most part, it was spending too much time on the computer. I found myself wanting to do more and there wasn't enough of me to go around.

To be continued...

[caressa]

Haven't forgotten this, but with the medication I was on and my pain which I couldn't think through, I just can't always connect my thoughts with the words. I have started a new meditation, and I hope to be able to finish this.

My amends to all for starting and not being able to finish. It would mean feeling better and being able to spend more time on the site, and that isn't possible right now.

[majestyjo]

Over-Serious Anonymous
12-Step Program

1. We admitted that we were powerless over seriousness -- that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that only by lightening up could we achieve a state of non-seriousness.

3. Made a decision to turn our constant self-criticism over to our sense of humor and learn to "lovingly and wholeheartedly" laugh at ourselves.

4. Decided to give ourselves a break once in a while, instead of constantly doing searching and fearless moral inventories of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being that our wrongs were often in our heads.

6. Were entirely ready to accept that our characters were as good as anybody else's and possibly better than most.

7. Quit harping on our shortcomings.

8. Made of list of all persons we thought we had harmed and saw that they'd forgotten all the crap we'd blown out of proportion.

9. Quit making amends for breathing air and taking up a few square feet of the planet's surface.

10. Resigned ourselves to the fact we were going to criticize ourselves at times, but would try to stick to our guns when we knew we were right.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to calm down and realize we're not responsible for everything.

12. Having experienced immense relief from these steps, we would try to carry this message to other over-serious people and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.

Author unknown.