August 13 2012 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 8 Amends And Willing Alcoholics Anonymous [ Full daily blog link: http://donoddylondon.blogspot.com/ ] Today’s AA daily reflection: “amends list, and willing: a clean sweep” step eight is simply making the list of amends, all of them especially the ones we don’t want to make and then become willing to make them! A tall order when the world seemed to conspire against us. Certainly some individuals might have conspired, but we were at the heart of conspiracy…
As we make our list of amends, and seek out willingness to make them it really does become obvious that we need to understand our part in all matters, and not what other people did, of course they did do some things, but, and that is a word I don’t like because it starts the excuse of our pushing the blame to others. BUT… Some people did make life difficult, and as a consequence we learned how to make life difficult for them, and equally important we made it difficult for ourselves…
Step eight opens the door to more enlightenment about our emotional and spiritual condition. We need to recognise that we have feelings and sometimes people will tread on our toes, sometimes with malice and sometimes without even realising. If we are really to get to grips with the “can do and can’t do” on a daily basis, we need to feel everything and not hide from it. And we need to recognise how feelings can lead to ill thought notions, and worse tormenting actions to ourselves and others…
The amends opens the door for us to see our feelings in action, and of course step eight opens the door to being able to judge the world very harshly, as unfair and unfit for purpose, our purpose. It has always been this way, coping with the reality of now. That is recognising we can have horrible feelings as well as joyous feelings. Feelings impact on our thinking in the moment of now. How we think and the actions we take become choices with enlightenment in the moment and just for today…
Step six, a place of cherished defects we can be free from, contingent on awareness and asking for help, and a reminder that the steps only work right now! Step seven working on our shortcomings: courage, faith, confidence. Developing courage to change, faith by working and living in the moment and building confidence by making mistakes over and over, hopefully not the same mistakes simply new ones. And step eight, forgiving ourselves so we can forgive other people too as life goes along in the moment of now…
DonInLondon [ Full daily blog link: http://donoddylondon.blogspot.com/ ]
AA Official Online Site: Daily Reflections http://www.aa.org/lang/en/aareflections.cfm
AA Official Online Site: Big Book And Twelve And Twelve http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=359
Step 8 “Step Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.” “n other words, who have you harmed? You will recall from our discussion of Steps 4 and 5, that a preliminary list of persons we had harmed is generated there. The list will now be refined into a personal amendment plan, which is the product of Step 8.”Although this step requires plenty of work, there is nothing frightening in it. Amends are not actually made in Step 8. Instead, we plan for the making of amends in Step 9, which follows. Harm is: injury, hurt, damage, misfortune, grief, pain, sorrow, evil, wrong or wickedness. Have we brought about any of these in the lives of others? The Big Book and the 12&12 also are quite specific about harm.” BB Bunch
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August 2012 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 8 Amends And Willing Alcoholics Anonymous Reading Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My1qeO7-Y7A
August 2012 | Video Reading How It Works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rj3wPVvk3Q
August 2012 | Video Reading Into Action : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueS51r5FzH4
August 2012 | Playlist All About Step Eight : http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLED773D10D029FF77&feature=plcp
Email | don@doninlondon.com
Music | “music for airports” By Brian Eno | http://www.enoshop.co.uk/ |