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SESSION 20

STEP 12Working With Others pp. 89 - 103

Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Trust in God and clean house and help… others. (98: 2; 97: 1)

Take Step 12

I ON YOUR OWN: STUDY – What did the Big Book authors say?

• READ We read Chapter 7, Working With Others. Many will read Step 12 in the 12&12.

• WRITE We write our daily reflections. We continue making our Step 9 amends. We do Step 10 spot-check inventories. We may work at annual or semi-annual inventories of all Steps.

• TALK We talk with our sponsor and new comers. We carry the message.

• 1. • Heard in a meeting: “The message of Step 12 is not ‘You should get sober;’ but rather ‘Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps….’”
     • Heard in a meeting: “We carry the message; we cannot carry the drunk.”

• PRACTICE DAILY PRAYER / MEDITATION. We practice Step 11 conscious contact with the higher power of our understanding on a daily basis.

II WITH THE GROUP: PRACTICE – What does the Big Book say to me about my practice of step 12?
We may read and discuss Chapter 7, Working With Others. One or more members of the group might share their experiences with Step 12 of the Big Book.


Points of Focus and Reflection (Consider Chapter 7 quotes pp. 93-94 this workbook.)
1.) Spiritual awakening as the result

• What is my overall experience as a result of working the Steps?
• By doing my own work in Steps 1 through 11, have I developed a new way of thinking, feeling and acting, and connecting with others?
• Is it my experience that I have undergone a profound alterationin [my] reaction to life? (567: 4)
• Have I had a personality change sufficient to bring about recovery? (567: 1)
• What lasting changes have resulted from my spiritual awakening?

• Having awakened to the reality that I too am a good and caring person, can I invite others to see themselves as a loving higher power might see them, rather than from their own distorted or antagonistic outlook?

2.) Carry this message

• What is this message that is referred to in Step 12? (60: 0) See also 17: 3; 45: 2; 77: 0; 89: 1.
• In my experience, does this message include that there is hope, we are not alone, we can stay sober, and we can recover?
• Did someone carry the message to me?
• Why was an AA member able to reach me in a way that no one else ever had?
• What kind of service work am I doing today to carry the message?
• What are the step-by-step requirements for Twelfth Step work? (pp. 89-100)
• May I share who I am, where I have come from, and how it is for me now?

3.) Practice these principles

• What does it mean to me to practice? (60: 0) Does it mean ‘to keep trying’?
• What does it mean to practice these principles (60: 0) in all my affairs?
• Do I find life offering opportunities to repeatedly experience my old shortcomings, my old patterns and my old habits, but each time with new understanding?

III DAILY PRACTICE OF STEP 12 PRINCIPLES

• How may I deeply wish that others, including myself, may be happy, joyous, and free?
• How may I understand that sometimes the best way of loving and helping is to stop enabling someone else to drink?
• What is my attitude about sponsorship? What is my attitude about service?
• How may I practice spiritual principles, such as compassion, regardless of how I feel?
• If my disease is often expressed as self-centeredness, how may I express my recovery as selfless service?

………………………………………..
IV WORK STEP 12 ON A DAILY BASIS
We take Step 12 in the first paragraph on page 89.


A group reading of the last portion of Chapter 11, A Vision for You, is a fitting way to end these Steps by the Big Book group sessions. (164: 2, 3, 4)




[Heard in a meeting: “If we want to be happy, we serve others.”

• "How may we alcoholics livehappy, joyous, and free? (133: 0)

• 1. • “Happiness is being free of suffering – free of our mind's tortured reactions to the things that may hurt or frighten us.
     • “Joy is taking grateful delight in another's happiness, including our own.

• 1. • “Freedom is the reprieve from grasping onto our self-centered alcoholism, our self-absorption, just for today."]

pp. 96-98