Archive for the ‘Bitter Experience’ tag
Women’s 12 steps - Step II
Step Two
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
The key ideas in step 2 are faith and sanity. Faith includes the ideas of belief and trust. Many of us enter recovery thinking that nothing and no one can be trusted. We may be skeptical about belief in a Higher Power. We often feel confused about what we believe. We may have learned from bitter experience that many people cannot be trusted.
Trusting someone can feel risky, yet step 2 asserts that in order to recover, we need to find someone or something we can trust. Step 2 asks us to entertain the possibility that help is available, that we cannot and need not relay only on our EGO selves to break from our addiction. We are not told who or what this power is. Instead, we are invited to explore for ourselves and make up our own minds. Coming to believe means setting aside our illusion of control and opening ourselves to the possibility of support.
This step also asks us to admit that we have done some insane things in our unmanageable lives. We are not necessarily mentally ill?indeed, we very likely are not the ?crazy? women we may have feared we were. Maybe we grew up in ?crazy-making? families and came to doubt our perceptions of reality. Maybe we did insane things?harmful to ourselves or others..because of our addiction. The traditional AA definition of insanity is ?doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.? Step 2 invites us to step onto a different path; for by living differently, we can expect different results.
In this chapter, you will explore the idea of belief?what does it mean to believe something? You will also have a chance to think about what you believe. Then you will look back at your life to identigy things you may have done that felt ?insane?, as well as forward into the future to envision the sanity you want.
QUESTIONS TO FOLLOW LATER TONIGHT :Val004:
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
The key ideas in step 2 are faith and sanity. Faith includes the ideas of belief and trust. Many of us enter recovery thinking that nothing and no one can be trusted. We may be skeptical about belief in a Higher Power. We often feel confused about what we believe. We may have learned from bitter experience that many people cannot be trusted.
Trusting someone can feel risky, yet step 2 asserts that in order to recover, we need to find someone or something we can trust. Step 2 asks us to entertain the possibility that help is available, that we cannot and need not relay only on our EGO selves to break from our addiction. We are not told who or what this power is. Instead, we are invited to explore for ourselves and make up our own minds. Coming to believe means setting aside our illusion of control and opening ourselves to the possibility of support.
This step also asks us to admit that we have done some insane things in our unmanageable lives. We are not necessarily mentally ill?indeed, we very likely are not the ?crazy? women we may have feared we were. Maybe we grew up in ?crazy-making? families and came to doubt our perceptions of reality. Maybe we did insane things?harmful to ourselves or others..because of our addiction. The traditional AA definition of insanity is ?doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.? Step 2 invites us to step onto a different path; for by living differently, we can expect different results.
In this chapter, you will explore the idea of belief?what does it mean to believe something? You will also have a chance to think about what you believe. Then you will look back at your life to identigy things you may have done that felt ?insane?, as well as forward into the future to envision the sanity you want.
QUESTIONS TO FOLLOW LATER TONIGHT :Val004:
