Developing A New Way To Relate & Respond To Pain – Stephen Hayes

Do you feel stuck ? Are you constantly battling with your thoughts and the conflicting noises in your head? Think of this article and the related video as teaching us how to move from that rigidity of the quicksand of being stuck to find a flexible ‘way out’ that can move us in an entirelyContinue reading “Developing A New Way To Relate & Respond To Pain – Stephen Hayes”

AA And The Gift Of Acceptance – The Wisdom To Know The Difference By Kelly Wilson

Acceptance is a huge part of AA. One of the most frequently quoted stories from the AA Big Book is from the chapter entitled “Acceptance Was the Answer”: “And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation—some fact ofContinue reading “AA And The Gift Of Acceptance – The Wisdom To Know The Difference By Kelly Wilson”

We Cannot Live Alone – As Bill Sees It #83

All of A.A.’ s Twelve Steps ask us to go contrary to our natural desires; they all deflate our egos. When it comes to ego deflation, few Steps are harder to take than the Fifth. Scarcely any Step is more necessary to long-time sobriety and peace of mind. A.A. experience has taught us we cannotContinue reading “We Cannot Live Alone – As Bill Sees It #83”

Feeling Special and Unique – 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery By Dr. Allen Berger

PART ONE | Humility Humility is the spiritual foundation of recovery. In order to feel worthy, we do not need to be unique. People who do best in recovery are those who surrender and follow suggestions. A common first response to the requirements of recovery is to negotiate, to pick and choose what we thinkContinue reading “Feeling Special and Unique – 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery By Dr. Allen Berger”

Origin Of The Twelve Steps – Grapevine Article July 1953 By Bill W

This post on December 23rd 2024 is post #1000 on the gugogs.org website. Our first post took place as the pandemic began on April 26th 2020. Our Get Up, Get Out, Get Sober Group (GUGOGS) was attempting to figure out if and how we would function. The group evolved from a physical meeting to aContinue reading “Origin Of The Twelve Steps – Grapevine Article July 1953 By Bill W”

AA Principles & Purpose Are Portable – A Spiritual Principle A Day December 12th

“Being able to focus on a primary purpose and work creatively toward it is so much part of our way of life that we may not realize how valued that is in the world at large.” Living Clean, Chapter 5, “Bridging Two Worlds” The idea that what we learn in recovery applies outside AA isContinue reading “AA Principles & Purpose Are Portable – A Spiritual Principle A Day December 12th”

Shame And The Meaning Of Being Human – Shame & Guilt By Ernest Kurtz

AA teaches that there is a wholeness in limitation. This understanding echoes an ancient tradition of wisdom, which saw being human as being caught in the middle, containing a contradiction. To be human, according to this tradition, means to sustain the tension of always being pulled in two opposite directions: to be more than humanContinue reading “Shame And The Meaning Of Being Human – Shame & Guilt By Ernest Kurtz”

What Is Toxic Shame – Healing The Shame That Binds You By John Bradshaw

John Bradshaw was one of the most influential writers on emotional health in the twentieth century as selected by his fellow mental health professionals. He was also an alcoholic in recovery. His areas of expertise include addiction, co-dependency , trauma, emotional instability , and abuse. This extract is the preface to the original edition ofContinue reading “What Is Toxic Shame – Healing The Shame That Binds You By John Bradshaw”

An Alcoholic and a Child of God – Grapevine Article July 1995 By Rick D.

STEP 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” This would have been a perfect epitaph for my headstone if my drinking had killed me before I got to AA. It was something I was constantly told; it was a feeling about myself that, although I didn’t likeContinue reading “An Alcoholic and a Child of God – Grapevine Article July 1995 By Rick D.”

The Twelve Steps And Shame – Steps 1 -3 Booklet By Mic Hunter

What Is Shame? Shame is that burning in our faces when we think those around us have finally figured out how worthless we are. We think we’re inadequate or worthless. It’s when we hate to look anyone in the eye; when time seems to crawl and we wish we could disappear. It makes us feelContinue reading “The Twelve Steps And Shame – Steps 1 -3 Booklet By Mic Hunter”