“We Can Do it!”

STEPS by the BIG BOOK

INTRODUCTION

Study and Practice

How may we alcoholics in recovery enjoy lives that are “happy, joyous, and free?” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 133: 0)

Our resource is the Big Book, as the text, Alcoholics Anonymous, is affectionately known. Here we read the written words of the first 100 men and women of the AA fellowship as they grew to serenity and peace of mind. What were the authors’ experiences which inspired the words? Where did the words come from? We seek to share the authors’ practices of the spiritual disciplines we know today as the 12 Steps. If we practice as they did, we can have what they had, and we can pass it on. How did they do it?

Our goal is to study the Steps as a friendly, focused group, and work them as they are described in the Big Book. We wish to make the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous part of who we are. It is our experience that study and practice are the stepping stones to sobriety and to a spiritual life. Therefore, in this guide we ask ourselves two primary questions:

-What do the Big Book authors say about the Steps?

-And what does the Big Book say to each of us about our own personal practice of the Steps?

Some of us in the recovering community in the Brattleboro, Vermont, area found that we did better studying the Big Book together as a group than on our own. Together, we can do it! It is our belief that the only wrong way to work the Steps is alone. This Steps by the Big Book workbook comes from that experience and is a kind of “guide for the perplexed” to the Steps as they are explained in the first 103 pages of the text. This is but a beginning, an introduction, to the spiritual riches of the Big Book’s directions to working the 12 Steps. We present only suggestions based on our experiences and culled from the recovery literature. We hope this guide is useful throughout recovery, whether one has followed the Steps for many years, or this is the first time working them. Feel free to modify and take what you like and to leave the rest. Perhaps your group may craft its own guide, the better to reflect the warmth and strength of the safe haven found in the 12 Steps.

The work of this group study is intended to further the generational process of one alcoholic talking with another. Newcomers might do well to spend some time learning about the AA program by attending meetings and by working closely with a sponsor before undertaking this group study endeavor.

Our Steps by the Big Book group sessions are not official AA meetings because we limit enrollment to a specific number of participants.

Your Group

This is your group and can be of any size or composition. An even number of participants, perhaps from 2 to 16, allows members of the group to work in pairs as “buddies.”

  • -Agree on a purpose, plan and meeting format of the Steps by the Big Book group, and that in general the group will stick to the schedule.
  • -Agree that all members strive to attend every meeting, commit to read the text and respond to the session questions, and to work each Step as it is covered.
  • -Agree that each member of the group contacts one or more members (buddies) and/or a sponsor regularly between meetings.
  • - Agee that group members can expect to spend at least as much time on reading, writing and contact with buddies between sessions as in group time.
  • -Agree on a date by which attenders may leave or new members may join the group after it begins.
  • -Agree that group members will not drink or use.
  • -Agree on norms that you will use for the group meetings. Consider these questions:
  • -Will start and end times for the meetings be strictly honored?
  • -Will one group member chair the entire process, or will group members take turns chairing the meetings?
  • -Will absolute confidentiality about the group be practiced?
  • -Will readings be read at the meetings, or should the readings be completed in advance?
  • -Is each group member expected to speak and share personal writings at group meetings? (Members do their Fifth Step outside of the meetings with a sponsor or buddy.)
  • -Will group members consider not speaking a second time until all have had a chance to share first?
  • -Will someone serve as friendly timekeeper?

While norms can be changed according to the group's needs, agreement on them is important for the group's smooth operation.

Working with a Sponsor or Buddy

It is essential that each member accepts one or more other group members, “buddies,” to contact regularly between meetings.

The support and stimulus of working the Steps with a buddy and a sponsor, or both, leads to personal growth and change. We read the Big Book chapters or selections together. Together, we work on our reflections and writings about the focus questions and inventories. And together we get and give support for this process of working the Steps, and for sharing our discoveries, doubts and experiences in the group.

How A Session May Go

While your group sessions may differ, here is a common practice:

We meet as a committed group of equals. Perhaps one of us who has completed an earlier Steps by the Big Book course will chair the initial sessions, then others may chair in turn. We open with a time of quiet, followed by a very brief check-in as to how each member is doing with this project. We read selections from the Big Book on a particular Step, and then for 10 minutes or so one group member speaks of her or his personal experience working this Step by the Big Book. Every member then shares their writings or reflections on that session’s Step work. Sometimes we choose to cover more than one chapter or Step. Discussion is encouraged, as long as we speak out of our own experience. When we take a Step together, we join hands and note clearly that we are doing so. We close with meditation or prayer.

Some groups take a short time off after Step 4 before the final eight Steps.

Guide To This Guide

Our reference for this study of the 12 Steps is the first 103 pages of Alcoholics Anonymous, fourth edition, “the basic text” (xi: 2) for the program and fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. The notations are to page and paragraph, as in (64: 0, 1), i.e. (64) page 64; (: 0) the partial paragraph at the top of the page; (1) the first full paragraph on that page; etc. As a study group we will cover:

Preface and Forewords

“Doctor’s Opinion” Step 1.

Chapter 1. Bill's Story Step 1

Chapter 2. There Is a Solution Steps 1 and 2

Chapter 3. More About AlcoholismSteps 1 and 2

Chapter 4. We Agnostics Step 2

Chapter 5. How It Works Steps 3 and 4

Chapter 6. Into Action Steps 5 through 11

Chapter 7. Working With Others Step 12

In the Steps by the Big Book sessions, we read paragraph by paragraph. We pause at commas and stop at periods. We do nothing more than turn the declarative statements of the Big Book into questions to ourselves. We constantly ask: “What does this mean for me in my life?” These inquiries become prompts to questions we may explore with others.

The session material included in this guide is a cut-and-paste scrapbook compiled from the Big Book, and AA literature such as Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, with focus questions and comments borrowed verbatim without attribution from meetings, others in recovery, and from several published and recorded sources. Any errors that appear in this guide belong to those who compiled it.

Please ignore anything in the group sessions or this handbook that you feel contradicts what you find in the Big Book.

This workbook is divided into three parts: Part I covers Steps 1, 2 and 3; Part II examines Step 4; Part III reviews Steps 5 through 12. Each part begins with meditations or prayers from those Steps. Clarifying notes on the Steps follow. Next are the optional study sessions for each Step. Selected optional definitions are in brackets. Here follows the basic format for the sessions in this guide which are meant to encourage reading, writing, quiet reflection, and sharing.

………………………….

I. ON OUR OWN: STUDY – “What do the Big Book authors say?”

  • WE READ - Individually, and with our group buddy or sponsor, we study the suggested readings for the Step we are working on.
  • WE WRITE - We suggest one or two 15-20 minute writing sessions per day. We journal on our own experience of working the Step. In addition, each session has optional focus questions and worksheets intended to highlight what the Big Book says about the practice of the particular Step we are working on. We reflect upon the questions and write our thoughts on at least three or four of them, or ones of our own, as they relate to our understanding of this Step.
  • WE MEDITATE AND/OR PRAY – We strive to develop a daily practice of quiet centering before reading and writing by using silence and/or meditation, the Serenity Prayer, the Third, Seventh, and Eleventh Step prayers, individually and/or with others. Feel free to use whatever meditations or prayers you find meaningful. [See p.13:4 and Step 11, pp. 85-88]
  • WE TALK--We meet with one or more other members of the group or with our sponsor to discuss the readings and our written reflections on them.

II. WITH THE GROUP: PRACTICE – “What does the Big Book say to me about my practice of this Step?”

  • Gathering as a group, we reflect together in depth about our own life practices of working the Steps as illuminated by the Big Book.
  • We share what we have written.
  • We consider our personal daily practice of the principles of the Steps.
  • We use the format that we agreed upon when we established our group norms.

III. WE TAKE THE STEP.

…………………………

Optional Example Of Group Format

1 1/2 hours (some groups choose 2 hours); optional break.

  • -Open with from 1 to 5 minutes or more of silence, with meditation or prayer such as the Third Step prayer.
  • -First 2 min. -Review agenda for this session.
  • -Group study and practice time (from 1 hour 20 minutes, to 1 hour 50 minutes.)
  • -10 min.: 30 second check-ins around the group.
  • -15 min.: Review selections from the reading.
  • -10 min.: Chairperson or a designated group member each session shares their experience with this reading and this Step according to the Big Book.
  • -45 min. (to75 min.): Group shares writings and discusses focus questions on working the Step by the Big Book.
  • -Last 2 min. -Review next session's agenda.
  • -Encourage reading and writing between sessions.
  • -Urge meeting with one’s buddy and/or sponsor.
  • -Close with meditation or prayer such as the Seventh Step prayer.

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INTRODUCTION Steps by the Big Book