Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Step 2 Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Step 2 also has some roots in the work of Carl Jung, who argued in short that a spiritual transformation was required to overcome an addiction, without which the addict faced insanity or death. In other words, step two requires a desire to make a change and a willingness to accept help from a source outside one's self. It a matter of being willing to believe in a power greater than yourself. Nothing more is required of you to make your beginning. It doesn’t matter whom or what deity you believe in as long as you can except that there is something greater than you and that by connecting with the infinite power and believing in such a being can the spiritual side of the healing process begin. For those you do not believe in deities then maybe the acceptance of the fact that matters are no longer in your hands may be the process that they need to follow .Step 2 is very controversial for this very reason . For me it was putting my addiction in a higher powers hands , it wasn’t about who I worship but rather the knowledge that I had put the problem in outside hands now , I really needed all the help that I could get and I was going to take it from where ever it came with out question
I think we all could use a greater power to lend strength from time to time. My impression from the handful of meetings I had the privilege of attending was that addicts in active and honest recovery have a leg up on the general population in part because they have a ready support structure there for them in the support group but also the process of taking on the task of recovery necessitates confronting ones own spirituality. in a process of getting at the root of what the addiction itself is merely a symptom of. I also got the sense in part through a very intensive dialog with a recovering addict that folks not beset by a physical addiction are enabled to avoid such deep digging and soul searching which suggests that a person in permanent recovery is in some ways in a better place for having experienced the hell of addiction for without it there would not have been the cause to undertake such introspection. Just a thought.
My son and I are both in AA-81 days and 100 days respectively. Came to believe...that was a tough one for me until my son's sponsor asked me if I believed , he believed. That was enough. I could believe in something. As I take baby steps I'm also coming to see that AA is helping me with sobriety, not just to stop drinking. The steps are a new way of living. As my son shared-every one should be an alcoholic, doing steps in AA recovery. This program can save a life, cuz if I don't stop I die-I want to die an alcoholic, not from alcoholism
@uitar9 , firstly congrats on the 100 Days :hurray: , that i excellent acheivement , and heres to the next 100 . This program does save lives , it saved mine , its saving yours and thousands like us , it does not ask you specifically to belive in God , but that is the "norm" , only the belief in something greater than oneselfs is enough . @stinkfoot -totally agree , one does get to the point when you question your own spirituality , the thought that went through my mind is , i cant do this alone , people are there for me but what when i am alone . I needed to accept that my spirtuality is the anchor that i needed to keep me sane , through this process ,and not to be dictated to by the fact that i must believe in the norms of society by believing in mainstream religion but believing in what i felt most strongly connected to .
