TOPICS – 7 / / 2025
1. THE HEART OF TRUE SOBRIETY
We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.
Am I honest enough to accept myself as I am and let this be the “me” that I let others see? Do I have the willingness to go to any length, to do whatever is necessary to stay sober? Do I have the open-mindedness to hear what I have to hear, to think what I have to think, and to feel what I have to feel?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 568
2. VULNERABILITY
“One cannot get much more vulnerable than to expose oneself psychologically. To share oneself with another and then be misunderstood or rejected is, for many, a risk not worth taking. As a result, this is the rarest of intimacies and the reason so many of us are reluctant to share even with loved ones our deepest concerns and insecurities about ourselves. When we flee our vulnerability, we lose our full capacity for feeling emotion.”
Gabor Mate
3. SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
A spiritual awakening is a kind of revelation, opening your eyes after having closed them for so long. Where we will look outside of ourselves, or inside of ourselves, and find a newfound perspective or purpose. It can usually be seen as a form of transformation. It can change the outlook of a sufferer, making them look at their life or addiction differently.
4. THE SIXTH STEP
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character” – the keywords in the step are ready, God, remove, and defects. The desire to have God intervene and remove our defects of character must be earnest, heartfelt, and sincere.
“How many of us have this degree of readiness? In an absolutely practical sense nobody has it. The best we can do, with all the honesty that we can summon is to try to have it. Even then the best of us will discover to our dismay that there is always a sticking point, a point at which we say, “No, I can’t give this up yet.”
AA 12 & 12