Category Archives: Step 4

To Value You More – Grapevine Article April 2021 By S.J.

One day in her Step study group, an oldtimer discovers something brand-new about Step Four. Proof that the learning and growing never stops In my Monday evening Women’s Step Study, our small group’s routine is to go around the room, giving each person the opportunity to read a paragraph or share or simply introduce herselfContinue reading “To Value You More – Grapevine Article April 2021 By S.J.”

Changing The Way We See In Our 4th Step – Practice These Principles Ray A.

“We swing from blaming others and getting angry, to blaming ourselves and getting depressed. In either case, we weren’t seeing straight” For us alcoholics, changing the way we see is changing the way we are in every significant aspect of our being: morally, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Our goal is to be better, not justContinue reading “Changing The Way We See In Our 4th Step – Practice These Principles Ray A.”

Unpacking The 4th Step Example P.65 In The Big Book – Practice These Principles By Ray A.

Making  a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves in Step 4 is fundamentally a spiritual enterprise. Yet it is at the same time intensely practical and uncompromisingly moral. Indeed, as we have seen, in AA the spiritual is understood to encompass the practical and the moral. The interaction of these three, the spiritual, theContinue reading “Unpacking The 4th Step Example P.65 In The Big Book – Practice These Principles By Ray A.”

Eliminating Shame Through The Principles and Practices of Alcoholics Anonymous by Steve K.

The word shame is derived from the Indo-European ‘skein’, which means to hide. Shame makes us want to hide from ourselves, and our peers – making shame an existentially isolating state of mind. Feeling shame makes a person dejection-based, passive, or helpless, causing the ashamed person to focus more on devaluing or condemning his entireContinue reading “Eliminating Shame Through The Principles and Practices of Alcoholics Anonymous by Steve K.”

Happiness Comes Quietly – Daily Reflection January 17th

When we examine what we demand and what we desire to possess, we have a great starting point for revealing our self-centered fears that may be unconscious and in need of healing. This can be a tremendous aid in our 4th step inventory. Click on the links to demands in this meditation to understand thisContinue reading “Happiness Comes Quietly – Daily Reflection January 17th”

Big Book Meditation – Transcript Includes Specific Pages Of Big Book References

Here is a Big Book Meditation which has been listened to well over 1 million times. Below is the transcript of this meditation with the specific Big Book references (in italics) that show where the reference occurred in the Big Book. As you listen to this meditation , you can follow the words below ofContinue reading “Big Book Meditation – Transcript Includes Specific Pages Of Big Book References”

With Courage – Grapevine Article April 1991 By Ed H.

Step Four I remember feeling afraid as a kid and thinking that I was a coward–that the mere presence of fear in my life made me a coward. I did not know that one of the definitions of courage was the ability to do the right thing in spite of fear. One particular word inContinue reading “With Courage – Grapevine Article April 1991 By Ed H.”

Jekyll and Hyde Tenth Step Lessons Grapevine Article by Dr. Charles Aring October 1962

Would AA’s Fourth Step have changed the ending of the famous old horror story? A famous doctor thinks it might THREE-QUARTERS of a century ago, Fanny Stevenson, frightened in the night by her husband’s cries and moans, prodded him into wakefulness. In a dawning state of consciousness he was annoyed, and not for the usuallyContinue reading “Jekyll and Hyde Tenth Step Lessons Grapevine Article by Dr. Charles Aring October 1962”

Sunlight and Air – Grapevine Article May 1999 by Cheryl M.

Step 5 – Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. I came to Alcoholics Anonymous young in years but sick of soul and full of secrets. Now, in my middle age, I no longer harbor secrets, and my soul is in better health than ever. It’sContinue reading “Sunlight and Air – Grapevine Article May 1999 by Cheryl M.”

Roots Of Reality – As Bill Sees It #173

We started upon a personal inventory, Step Four. A business which takes no regular inventory usually goes broke. Taking a commercial inventory is a fact-finding and a fact-facing process. It is an effort to discover the truth about the stock in trade. One object is to disclose damaged or unsalable goods, to get rid ofContinue reading “Roots Of Reality – As Bill Sees It #173”