12-STEP PROGRAM
In spiritual recovery one of the most effective guidance systems we know of is the 12-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous and other similar groups. A wonderful aspect of 12-Step programs is that they are available virtually anywhere. It is a secure feeling to know we can venture into groups and find support wherever we travel or wherever we live.
The 12-Step program was first begun 55 years ago to answer the need of alcoholics to find support from each other and to develop a fellowship that used sound principles of recovery and living to help maintain sobriety. People addicted to other drugs and activities have gradually begun their own different 12-Step programs, and some of us would feel right at home in any of them!. . .
Some meetings are Topic meetings, others are Step meetings. We prefer the Step meetings. People who attend programs and meetings where the Steps ar read but never worked or discussed do not receive what the powerful spiritual healing process can offer. We suggest that these meetings be called 12-Topic meetings rather than 12-Step meetings. Topics are valuable, but many people in recovery, especially newcomers, do not realize what they are missing or where to get it when they attend Topic meetings and not Step Meetings. . .Twelve-Step meetings are therapeutic, but they are not a substitute for therapy. . .[They] provide an environment of support and friendship; beliefs and values such as honesty and surrender, rituals with meaning and tradition; slogans, readings and prayer as daily activities. . .It is a lifestyle guidance system that heals our dignity and value as people. . .
SPIRITUALITY DEFINED
Spirituality is the core of our being. We do not have a shame core, we have a spiritual core. The spiritual core is the very soul of our existence, we share in an energy of life and being. What we are is our spirituality, the birth and song of creation. Our coming to life and living, the becoming of us is the journey of spirituality. The sharing of life and existence is being one with creation and the Creator. . .
Spirituality is meaningfulness -- life with purpose. The opposite of meaningfulness is despair, the core of addictiveness, our drug problem, our crime rate. The traveling companions for the absence of companions for the absence of meaningfulness are loneliness, isolation and emptiness. These are the substances of our dependency that addictions and overconsumption feed on. . . .
Spirituality is a higher-order value system. . .[it] is our relationship with creation and the creative process. What we value forms and flows from our spirituality -- children, life, earth, truth, love, beauty, gentleness, the future, our history. All aspects of how we live are reflected in our spirituality -- recycling, sexual contact, paying bills, serving food, child care, charity, service to others, teaching, how we drive, exercise, interacting with authority figures, the homeless, our mechanics, our neighbors, who we talk to and how we speak to them. All priorities are held in the framework of spiritual recovery. . .
from: "Finding Balance: 12 Priorities for Interdependence & Joyful Living" by Terry Kellogg and Marvel Harrison (Health Communications, Inc., 1991), pp. 110-117.