Healing With Ho’oponopo​no

“You have two ways to live your life – from memory or from inspiration. Inspiration is the Divine giving you a message. You want to come from inspiration. The only way to hear the Divine and receive inspiration is to clean all memories. The only thing you have to do is clean.”

Dr. Hew Len, Zero Limits, Pg. 31

Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian technique for solving spiritual, emotional, mental or any type of problem. The use of this advanced technique of problem solving can be traced back to the original inhabitants of Hawaii some of who are fabled to have come from other galaxies.

Hoo in Hawaiian means cause and ponopono means perfection. It is the state of perfection that we came in with before the fall into the knowledge of ‘good and evil’ and it is to this state that we can return.

When a so called problem surfaces in our lives, rather than emotionally attacking the situation we need to recognize the deeper reality of why this problem surfaced in the first place and love and forgive ourselves for it. That’s the energy that heals.

This process, which has the ability to release us from past karmic ties, gives us complete freedom to develop a personal relationship with Divinity - the power within us. It is an understanding that every moment we have the ability to cleanse ourselves of error whether in thought, word, deed or action.

We can easily free our minds from past memories and restore the purity of our hearts using this ancient art to clean up repetitive issues that keep surfacing from our subconscious mind, replaying over and over.

Our memory banks are our enemies. They harbour fear with all its resident buddies - resentment, hate, anger, attachments and judgments from the past and replay them over and over. The only way to release ourselves from these tyrants is to take responsibility for them and love them.

Use Ho’oponopono during a crisis by simply asking for whatever is causing division in your thoughts to be brought to the surface to be loved, healed and released. Simply ignoring issues will not change a thing. It only buries it temporarily until the next trigger sets it off and the issue you ignored has reared its ugly head again. You must engage your conscious powers to effect healing and Ho’oponopono does this very thing.

Not only is Ho’oponopono used to heal one’s inner issues, it is also used when confronted with someone else’s seeming problem. Rather than going into judgment at these trying times, we must once again reflect into ourselves and ask to clear our own consciousness of division so that we no longer see this situation as a problem or experience division in thought in ourselves or others.

We are the problem not them. We can only change ourselves, which in turn changes the world and that is the power of Ho’oponopono.

We affect change in the world by affecting change within ourselves.  It is that simple. Taking 100% responsibility for our lives removes the victim mentality and places us in a place of authentic power.

Just as the light in a room shines on everyone with the same intensity, no matter who turned it on, Ho’oponopono uses the same principle. We are all connected. We live in a holographic Universe. By affecting ourselves we affect others.

When faced with adverse conditions ask yourself “What is it in me that is causing this event to take place, this person to behave this way, this sickness to manifest?” Ho’oponopono practitioners are aware that to blame others is the surest way to make sure the problem happens again, and again and again.

It is easy to master the basic principles of Ho’oponopono using these powerful mantras:

Dear Father:  

The very first thing we must do is to acknowledge our Creator, after all, only the Creator can fix the mess that we’ve created. Begin with your own personal connection to Source…whatever those feelings or words are.

I am sorry:

The power to heal any situation lies in our willingness to take responsibility for negative conditions. Using this statement opens the door to unity and atonement with all life.

Please forgive me:  

With absolute certainty that it has been granted, ask for forgiveness for having shut the Creator out of your life as well as forgetting the love the Creator holds for you. (that’s why you ended up in a negative state)

I love you:  

Sending these powerful words through your psyche generates an immediate feeling of contentment. Love is the greatest healing power there is and just thinking loving thoughts tunes your mind to that frequency amazingly fast.

I thank you:  

The moment you take responsibility for any issue that presents itself in your life and consciously seek a solution, you set in motion laws that guarantee a response. By saying “thank you” you are affirming that your plea has been acknowledged and needs no further action.

As with all energetic healing you must not harbour expectations as to how or when the results will occur. You must allow the Universe complete freedom to act and choose whatever method is needed. Your only job is to act in accordance with Ho’oponopono mantras and have the Faith to know that it is done.

The Huna Process of Ho'oponopono:

We carry inside us as parts of the Unconscious Mind, all the significant people in our lives.  Ho'oponopono makes it "all right" with them. The process of Ho'oponopono is to align with and clean up our genealogy as well as to clean up our relationships with other people in our lives.

1.   Bring to mind anyone with whom you do not feel total alignment or support, etc.

2.   In your mind's eye, construct a small stage below you

3.   Imagine an infinite source of love and healing flowing from a source above the top of your head (from your Higher Self), and open up the top of your head, and let the source of love and healing flow down inside your body, fill up the body, and overflow out your heart to heal up the person on the stage. Be sure it is all right for you to heal the person and that they accept the healing.

4.   When the healing is complete, have a discussion with the person and forgive them, and have them forgive you.

5.   Next, let go of the person, and see them floating away. .If you are healing in a current primary relationship, then assimilate the person inside you.

6.   Do this with every person in your life with whom you are incomplete, or not aligned.

The final test is, can you see the person or think of them without feeling any negative emotions. If you do feel negative emotions when you do, then do the process again.

“If we can accept that we are the sum total of all past thoughts, emotions and words, deeds and actions and that our present lives and choices are coloured or shaded by this memory bank of the past, then we begin to see how a process of correcting or setting aright can change our lives, our families and our society.”

Mormah Nalamaku Simeona

For more inspiration or information visit:

Your Personal Agreement

Ancient Huna

Awakening to the Call of the Cosmos

"By allowing us to step directly beyond the mind and ego, authentic meditation provides us with both a direct experience of the goal and context of spiritual life and an opportunity to ground our being in that ultimate reality"

Craig Hamilton

Silent meditation has always played a central role on the spiritual path. By allowing us to step directly beyond the mind and ego, authentic meditation provides us with both a direct experience of the goal and context of spiritual life and an opportunity to ground our being in that ultimate reality.

In its deepest form, meditation is about disengaging entirely from the world of time, action, and becoming, and resting freely and effortlessly in “non-dual awareness” or what has often been called “the natural state.”

Yet, although meditation is about discovering this “natural state,” in practice it is often anything but natural. Left to our own efforts, many of us find meditation to be either a constant struggle or merely a moderately relaxing practice with no clear connection to the lives we are living every day.

An invitation to a free online meditation gathering:

In response to the growing need for deep meditation instruction and support, we’re pleased to announce that Integral Enlightenment Founder Craig Hamilton has offered to host a free monthly meditation gathering online.

One Sunday morning each month, we’ll gather from around the world online and by phone to participate in this collective journey in consciousness.

Each 90-minute event will begin with a brief talk about meditation, followed by a 45-minute guided meditation and a 30-minute Q&A session during which you can ask your questions about meditation and receive direct guidance from Craig.

Awakening to the Call of the Cosmos

We’ve been offering guided online group meditation as part of our Integral Enlightenment courses for the past two years, and the impact on participants has been nothing short of life-changing. Many find that, in this supportive “collective field,” they are able to gain access to a depth of meditation that has previously eluded them—often despite years or even decades of meditation practice.

So, we’re delighted to now be able to share this experience free of charge with anyone who wishes to tune in.

About Craig Hamilton:

Integral Enlightenment founder Craig Hamilton is a pioneer in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality. In his inspired writings, talks, and teachings, he calls us to awaken beyond the confines of the separate ego and dedicate our lives to the further evolution of consciousness itself.

As the guiding force behind Integral Enlightenment, Craig offers spiritual guidance and teachings to a growing international community of thousands of students in 36 countries around the world. Through his online Academy for Evolutionaries, he teaches a series of experiential telecourses guiding participants through a process of spiritual awakening into an “evolutionary relationship to life.”

Craig’s work at Integral Enlightenment integrates decades of intensive spiritual practice with insights gleaned during his eight years as Senior Editor of the award-winning What Is Enlightenment? magazine. For 13 years, he participated in the dynamic living “laboratory of evolution” known as Enlighten Next, under the direct guidance of its founder, Andrew Cohen, ultimately playing a key role in the leadership of this thriving international spiritual community. In his current work, he is helping to articulate an authentic evolutionary spirituality—an “integral enlightenment” which illuminates the vital relationship between individual transformation and collective evolution.

Craig is a founding member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute, a member of Deepak Chopra’s Evolutionary Leaders Forum, and was a participant in the Synthesis Dialogues, a 35-person interdisciplinary think tank presided over by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His celebrated conversations with other luminaries form the basis of the acclaimed webinar series’, “The Great Integral Awakening: Pioneering A New Spiritual Path,” and “Awakening the Impulse to Evolve: The Birth of Evolutionary Spirituality.” He has also been a contributor to Shift magazine and co-authored IONS’ 2008 Shift Report. Craig lives with his wife, Claire, in San Rafael, California.

“Stay true to your deepest intuition that an extraordinary and miraculous life is possible”

Craig Hamilton

Today is Global Oneness Day

"Could changing just one belief put an end to war, eradicate poverty, save the environment, create genuine community, show us who we really are, make us happy, free us from selfishness, let us love our enemies, wake us up to the miracle of this moment, create a world of wonderful new possibilities and transform life into the exquisite celebration of existence we all long for it to be?”  

Author and philosopher - Timothy Freke

Today is Global Oneness Day.   Humanity’s Team declared 24 October 2010 as the first Global Oneness Day – a day intended to inspire awareness, appreciation and celebration of life’s underlying Oneness, that we believe all of life is connected, in the same way that Earth Day is intended to inspire awareness, appreciation and celebration of the earth’s natural environment.  And like Earth Day, Global Oneness Day invites people to bring Oneness into their lives in practical ways, not just conceptually.

Practical demonstrations of Oneness will give people tangible, experiential proof that living in Oneness works.  This will, in turn, encourage us all to expand our hopes, beliefs and behaviors so that, a generation from now, humanity will finally realize a dream it has had since time immemorial of a world living in peace, harmony and happiness.

A CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FOR THE SOUL

Humanity’s Team as a Civil Rights Movement for the Soul calls for a New Spirituality to emerge in the world.   As such, Humanity’s Team is the vehicle through which the citizens of the world can participate in reclaiming their civil right to unique and personal expression and experience of the divine.

Through Humanity’s Team, the citizens of the world can participate in sending a message to the world that we are renewing and restoring our connection with God, life, and one-another.  As such, Humanity’s Team is a leading spokes-movement of the world for the message of Oneness.   We believe that the problems of the world are not political, economical, social, but Spiritual, and that the citizens of the world have a choice to re-write its history to become one that is reflective of the Spirit of Oneness.

Humanity’s Team believes that this is an important time to be alive. It is a time where life as we knew it no longer “is”, and life as we will know it “is not yet”. Life on the planet needs changing, now, in important ways. More than it has in a very long time.

Not only are we entering a new era, but a new experience – we are Awakening to Oneness.

Awakening the World to Oneness

Because mankind has over the years tried in so many ways to create a better world without making real impact, we may have become less and less confident that a solution to our problems really exists; we do not believe that true transformation is really possible, and we believe that we are only setting ourselves up for greater disappointment.

Mankind needs a single pivotal idea that can move the world; a radical idea that undermines our assumptions about who we are and what life is.

This pivotal idea is that We Are All One.

If these ideas resonate with your own, Humanity’s Team invites you to join them to Awaken the World to Oneness!

So head over to the Registration page: 

Sign the Declaration of Oneness:

Sign Up for the Global Rhythm Circle for Oneness: 

Listen to all the wonderful evolutionaries who are speaking as I write and leave a comment at the bottom of the Sessions page.  Replays will be available after 24 hours.

                              

"I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed."

Dalai Lama

Why We Were Chosen

“Don't criticize what you can't understand.”

Bob Dylan

Alcoholics Anonymous believes that one alcoholic working with another is the best form of recovery.  Only an alcoholic that has hit rock bottom can understand how another alcoholic thinks and feels because they have been through the same or similar dilemma. This is the reasoning behind “why we were chosen” - to be a candle of light burning in the darkness of another alcoholic’s hell.

An often seen piece of AA literature is a small pamphlet called "Why We Were Chosen". The source of this pamphlet is a speech given by Judge John T. on the 4th Anniversary of the Chicago Group in 1943.   

This is part of the transcript from the meeting mentioned above. Judge John suggests to the members of the group what God might have said if he had been at the meeting that day.

 

“God in His wisdom has selected a group of men to be the purveyors of His goodness. In selecting them through whom to bring about this phenomenon He went not to the proud, the mighty, the famous or the brilliant. He went to the humble, to the sick, to the unfortunate — he went to the drunkard, the so-called weakling of the world. Well might He have said to us:

Into your weak and feeble hands I have entrusted a Power beyond estimate. To you has been given that which has been denied the most learned of your fellows. Not to scientists or statesmen, not to wives or mothers, not even to my priests and ministers have I given this gift of healing other alcoholics, which I entrust to you. It must be used unselfishly. It carries with it grave responsibility. No day can be too long, no demands upon your time can be too urgent, no case too pitiable, no task too hard, no effort too great. It must be used with Tolerance for I have restricted its application to no race, no creed and no denomination. Personal criticism you must expect, lack of appreciation will be common, ridicule will be your lot, your motives will be misjudged. Success will not always attend your efforts in your work with other alcoholics. You must be prepared for adversity, for what men call adversity is the ladder you must use to ascend the rungs toward Spiritual perfection, and remember in the exercise of this power I shall not exact of you beyond your capabilities.

You are not selected because of exceptional talents and be careful always if success attends your efforts, not to ascribe to personal superiority,  that to which you can lay claim only by virtue of My gift. If I had wanted learned men to accomplish this mission the power would have been entrusted to the physician and scientist. If I had wanted eloquent men there would have been many anxious for the assignment, for talk is the easiest used of all talents with which I have endowed mankind. If I had wanted scholarly men, the world is filled with better qualified than you who would have been available. You were selected because you have been the outcasts of the world and your long experience as a drunkard has made, or should make you humbly alert to the cries of distress that comes from the lonely hearts of alcoholics everywhere. Keep ever in mind the admission that you made on the day of your profession into A.A., namely that you are powerless and that it was only with your willingness to turn your life and will into My keeping, that relief came to you.

Think not, that because that you have been dry for one year or two years, or ten years, that it is the result of your unaided efforts. The help which has kept you normal will keep you so just as long as you live this program, which I have mapped out for you. Beware of the pride which comes from growth, the power of numbers and of invidious comparisons between yourselves; or of your organization with other organizations whose success depends upon members power, money and position. These material things are no part of your creed. The success of material organizations arises out of the strength of their individual members; the success of yours from a common helplessness. The power of material organizations comes from the pooling of joint assets; yours from the union of mutual liabilities. Appeal for membership in material organizations is based upon a boastful recital of their accomplishments; yours upon the humble admission of weakness; the motto of the successful commercial enterprise is: "He profits most who serves best"; yours: "He serves best who seeks no profit."  The wealth of material organizations when they take their inventory is measured by what they have left; yours when you take moral inventory by what you have given”.

This speech led to much criticism by non-alcoholics. Dr Arthur H. Cain wrote an article in a 1963 Harpers Magazine called "Alcoholics Can be Cured — Despite A.A."  One of his complaints was the arrogant "We Were Chosen By God To Save The World" attitude of some of the A.A. members.

AA gives you the choice of the “God of your own understanding”. It is a more spiritual program today since the writing of the Big Book and the subsequent 12 step program. If the word “God” had been replaced with “A Higher Power” or “The Universe”, would their attitudes have changed? 

I know for certain that I would not be in recovery without some kind of Divine Intervention. I also know that to follow the path of recovery, you need to learn tolerance, humility, unconditional love and most of all acceptance of the things you cannot change – that includes others attitudes and opinions.

“You can't let praise or criticism get to you.

It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.”

John Wooden

Interview With A Fellow Blogger - Who Is It?

“Not the maker of plans and promises,

but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters.

This is the person who is likely to achieve what is good and lasting.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I chose to interview Retha Groenewald, not only because she is one of my blogging buddies, but she shows determination throughout the challenge by never failing to ask questions and asking for help. 

Although Retha is not in the same niche that I am in, although I am a very spiritual person, she believes strongly in her topics and in her own way is also trying to make the world a better place.

Let us see what she had to say …………….

1.         Your first comment on my blog was on the elevator pitch and you said you enjoyed the words “Recovery is all about change”.  Can you explain why?

Those 5 words are so profound. You can write a book on those words. Recovery to me means that a person has been in a situation (physical, emotional, spiritual), that needs to change. Most of the times we recover from something bad. Something that will kill, steal, destroy us or someone that is precious to us. To get out of that situation we need to make a choice, which begins the domino effect of change. It reminds me of when we repent, it is a change of direction, and we move in the opposite direction.

I said I enjoyed those words because they bring hope. One tiny change like going left instead of right,  a thought or decision can bring total recovery and restoration.

2.         We are the only two bloggers in the challenge that come from South Africa. 

Yes, awesome and both from the sea            

(a)        Have you always lived here?

Yes, except when I was 10 we lived in USA for a year. That was wonderful.

(b)       What do you love about our country?

Everything, we are truly a rainbow country, we have different seasons, nature differs from area to area, different cultures, we have everything. I live in Cape Town where you can have all four seasons in one day. I really don’t know how to answer this except to say I think our country is the most beautiful country in the world. I love SA.

(c)        What don’t you like about it?

Nothing.

 3.         You have two blogs in the challenge – can you tell us:

(a)        Where we can find your blogs?

Discover Bible Treasures and

Bible Fascination

(b)       Why did you decided to blog on the relevant subjects?

I am passionate about the Word of God. I decided to go with multiple blogs, each with its own niche, instead of one blog with different niches. My reason is that although the target market could be the same in both sites, the niches do differ. Discover Bible Treasures is a site where the heroes and heroines go on Biblical journeys, with quizzes and puzzles for them to solve. Bible Fascination is a site where we do Bible study to get to know the Bible better and to apply it in our lives. Both sites are about getting to know the Bible better but in different ways. Discover Bible Treasures is for the child in you that likes games and puzzles and adventure. Bible Fascination is a more serious approach. Here you find Bible Study / Devotional, for example, of the Gospels in chronological order.

The purpose of both sites are to awaken the love for the Word of God and having a closer relationship with God.

(c)        What was the most difficult assignment in the challenge so far and why?

Leaving my computer to go on a field trip, no just kidding. Finding a forum to take part in is the most difficult. There are many forums out there, but because I am new to the blogging world (started blogging in June this year), and I am not sure what my niche is exactly (whether it is Bible Study, devotional, Christian living, personal growth quiz, puzzle, etc), I am not sure where to look. (Thought of starting a forum on my DBT blog, but not sure how)

4.           What do you think are the differences between Religion and Spirituality?

Wow, difficult question. I believe Jesus hated religion, because the religious spirit defined holiness with works whereas we know without our Saviour we are nothing and we cannot be saved with our works or how good we are. Jesus is the only way that we can be saved. Therefore I believe in a personal relationship with my Lord and Saviour. (sounds like I am preaching).         

5.           You have just written an ebook.  Can you tell us more about it?

(a)        What inspired you to write a book?

I believe it is part of my calling and the road God has set me upon.

(b)       What is it about?

The eBook is called “Teach the Word” and it is about teaching the Word of God. It is short and to the point, a guideline.  The eBook tells us about some of the teachers in the Old Testament, Jesus the Teacher and the Holy Spirit that teaches us. The teaching methods Jesus used are also mentioned. It also touches on the responsibilities of the learner.

(c)        Where can we download a copy?

You can download it from Amazon or Smashwords.   

The book is a Kindle Edition, but you can download it even if you do not have a Kindle. There is a free Kindle reader you can download from the Kindle site for all gadgets.

(d)       What difficulties did you encounter with the writing or publishing process?

The whole process was new to me,  and some of the things I am still wondering about. My greatest difficulty was the formatting for Kindle and getting the images right (due to lack of knowledge). Oh yes and the cover. But the easy part is when you have overcome these difficulties and press publish.

(e)        What advice can you give to others who are thinking of writing an ebook?

Write it, if you are thinking about it, you have a message that the readers want to hear.

6.         Do you see blogging and/or writing as a future career?

Absolutely, blogging was the door that opened the first step on this new adventure.

So show some support by visiting Retha’s website and checking out her ebook – you never know how much you may learn.  Thank you Retha for answering my questions and keep on writing. Here is one of my favourite prayers to share with you, our 11^th Step prayer in AA:

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace - that where there is hatred, I may bring love - that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness - that where there is discord, I may bring harmony - that where there is error, I may bring truth - that where there is doubt, I may bring faith - that where there is despair, I may bring hope - that where there are shadows, I may bring light - that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in the giving that we receive; it is in the pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Energy Vibrations

"You are a living magnet and you attract into your life the people and the circumstances that are in harmony with your dominant thoughts”  Brian Tracy

When “The Secret” came out, I bought the book and the video.  I had heard of the Law of Attraction before, but Rhonda Byrne and the contributors made a worldwide awareness of how it can work for all of us.  Unfortunately a few people interpreted it as, for example, asking the Universe for a new car or a new house and “bang” it would just appear from the heavens.  When this did not happen, it caused a bit of an outcry as to whether this was just another way of selling a theory to make money that did not work.

Let us look at the definition of the Law of Attraction:

The Law of Attraction refers to the philosophy that likes attract likes and that the energy we release to the Universe is the same energy we attract to our lives.

In recovery we need to change our thoughts and actions to become the person we were meant to be.  Everything is made out of energy – all materialistic things like cars and houses, but also our thoughts.  This has been scientifically proven with quantum physics.  We do not need to concentrate on the materialistic things, but more on ourselves and our feelings and reactions to find true harmony in our lives.

“Power versus Force” is a book written by Dr. David Hawkins.  He created a scale ranging from 1 to 1000 called the Calibrated Scale of Consciousness, by testing the consciousness of people around the world using muscle testing.  In short, the following scale is an idea:

BELOW 500	ABOVE 500
Shame	Love
Guilt	Joy
Fear	Peace
Anger	Gratitude

As we can see, negative emotions are at a low conscious level and have a low energy vibration and positive emotions are at a high conscious level and have a high energy vibration.  When we are depressed or suffering from a disease such as substance abuse, our emotions are generally at a low level and we need to raise these to turn our lives around.  Here are some of the things you can do:                                          

Choose your friends carefully

Try hanging out with people who make you feel good about yourself.  If friends keep remarking how useless or incapable you are, it makes you feel unworthy.  Negativity is contagious. When friends are willing to support you and make an effort to raise your spirits, you start feeling better and more positive about yourself.   Oprah said “Be responsible for the energy you bring into a room”.  How you feel effects the people round you – your children, your partner, your work colleagues and your friends.                                               

Let go of the past

When you hold onto a negative past it is like dragging around a ball and chain everywhere you go.  Let go of the ball.  If you have resentments towards certain people for something that has happened in the past, it is now only in your mind.  Forgive others because the only person you are hurting by not forgiving is yourself.  Your time is right now in the present moment so allowing past experiences have power over your mind is generating negative energy.

Generate love

Hurt people, hurt people. Try not to get sucked into arguments – you are allowing others to rent space in your mind.  You are in control of how you react to others in any given moment and no one can make you angry unless you let words upset you.  Remember that whenever someone carries resentment towards you, it is because they are identifying with the illusion of themselves. Of course the opposite also applies, so show love and compassion for those who do not understand you rather than harboring grudges.

Keep an attitude of gratitude

It doesn’t matter how badly we feel, there is always something to feel grateful for.  Count your blessings and it will raise your energy levels to be more positive.  When you are grateful you attract greater things into your life and fear diminishes.

Connect to your Higher Self

One of the best ways to do this is with meditation.  Take some time each day, if only 15 minutes, and find a quiet place on your own and meditate.  This is how we tap into our intuition and gain clarity.  Whether it is listening to soothing music, brainwave entrainment, mantras or just silence – we find answers to our problems and the solutions to turn things around for us.  It is in these times that we are at peace with ourselves, attract tranquility and feel serenity.

The Principles of the 12 Steps

From the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

Step 1.   We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.           

Step 2.   Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3.   Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Step 4.   Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5.   Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 6.   Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step 7.   Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step 8.   Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9.   Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

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.

(Reprinted from The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 59 with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.)

The steps in the AA program, which are also used in Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and other recovery programs, are a process of healing and spiritual growth.  Step1 is the only non- spiritual step where we surrender to powerlessness and unmanageability in our lives.  Step 2 and 3 introduces the higher power where we make a decision that we are willing to believe.  Insanity is the doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome although experience shows us that this will never happen.  Step 4 is where we take an inventory of our pasts and analyse our resentments, fears and harms done to others.  This step highlights the areas where we have been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and inconsiderate.  Steps 5 to 9 are the action steps to seek forgiveness of our past actions due to our character defects and make amends to others.  Finally, steps 10 and 11 are the maintenance steps, where we continue the program on a daily basis. Step 12 is taking what we have learned so freely and paying it forward by helping other fellow addicts. 

The steps are in a certain order for a reason. They are a design for living.  If followed correctly we should overcome our obsession of our disease through honesty, open mindedness and willingness.  Love and tolerance is our code.  Unconditional love and tolerance of others are essential to live a life free of resentments and conflict.

Believing is the beginning of each thing that we accomplish in our lives.  To be successful, believing must become strong enough to incite a decision, which is a choice of action.  Once this decision is made, it has to become strong enough to incite action.  Once the action becomes strong enough, it will bring about results.  Once the results are plain and clear, we will have faith.  Faith is true knowledge that comes as the result of action. The 12 steps are based on this plan.  These are the principles by which humankind has succeeded of failed.  So what are the principles?

Principles of the 12 Steps:

1.   Surrender.                                                                    
2.   Hope.
3.   Commitment.
4.   Honesty.
5.   Truth.
6.   Willingness.
7.   Humility.
8.   Reflection.
9.   Amendment.
10. Vigilance.
11. Attunement.
12. Service.

Faith is knowledge that comes as a result of a complete process. Many people fail because they are expecting true knowledge by faith before they make a decision to take action and get results.  We cannot begin with faith.  We can only believe in the beginning.  But this is all we need to get started.