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Step 12 of AA, as stated by the the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book is “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”.
Put Step 12 Into Action
The 12th step of the AA system is grounded in the work of supporting other alcoholics in finding recovery.
Chapter 7 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous states, “without acting as an evangelist or reformer”, reaching out to other alcoholics as a sponsor and spending our recovered life in service to others, is how we stay sober.
Working with others and experiencing their restoration is the reward of sobriety. The process acts as a type of insurance, as we recall through others how hard our lives have been and why we do not want to return to them.
Need help with Step 12?
Download this worksheet to find ways to plan service and track daily principles.
The Three Pillars of Step 12
Spiritual Awakening in AA: The Big Book of AA clearly states that the spiritual awakening experienced by recovering alcoholics is not a religious experience.
It is coming to an understanding of how powerless we are over alcohol. The recognition of the need for something or someone bigger than ourselves to step in and provide the power to overcome the disease is the spiritual experience.
The Big Book states, “He does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles” (pg. 93).
Carrying the Message to Alcoholics: The Big Book states that “Helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery. A kindly act once in a while isn’t enough. You have to act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be.” (pg.97).
Reaching out to other alcoholics who are ready for a change is an obligation for anyone who has survived alcoholism themselves. This could mean introducing yourself to newcomers at meetings, offering a ride along to the meetings or working a hotline or offering online support.
Practice These Principles in All Our Affairs: One of the reasons we in recovery continue to work the steps, well into the years we remain sober, is to remind ourselves of the 12 step principles to continue living them.
We work closely with our sponsors and sponsees to ensure accountability and support. The AA program is not a one and done system.
It carries sobriety throughout life in every aspect of our lives. “Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful” (pg. 102).
Why Step 12 Supercharges Recovery (Evidence Informed Benefits)
- Service to others strengthens sobriety through accountability and purpose.
- Services to others reduces isolation by increasing belonging and meaning.
- Service to others builds relapse resilience and reminds us where we came from.
- It develops leadership, patience, humility and honesty through helping others.
- Sharing our story of recovery enlightens and encourages others that recovery is possible.
- Supporting people with rides to meetings, helping them find treatment and providing information for support systems all create a circle of peer support.
- Allowing yourself to be accessible anytime, day and night, gives those new in recovery a lifeline of peer support they may otherwise not have in family and friends.
Step 2 vs “Two Stepping” (Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them)
Two stepping is when people try to avoid the steps in between Step 1 and Step 12. When moving into a service role too soon, people fall away in relapse because they have not been completely honest with themselves about the wreckage their alcoholism has caused.
Avoidance is never productive. We must work the steps completely with a sponsor before getting into a service role. We tell our story to others along the way, as we struggle with our own battles. This honesty serves as a testimony, not a preachy message of conversion.
We are not priests, therapists, attorneys or doctors, so we must leave that advice to the professionals.
We live our story as we learn recovery, and when the time is right, we can then move into service to others. We have been selfish in our addiction; service to others is a new way of living a life of sobriety.
AA Service Work & Outreach: A Practical Menu (Pick Your Fit)
There are several ways to practice Step 12:
- In the Room Service: An example of this is when people take on the responsibility of setting up a room for a meeting, making coffee and greeting people as they come in for the meeting.
- In room service is a great place to begin serving, as it is a safe environment with other members.
- One to One Service: An example of this is when I allow my phone number to be available to others, either as my sponsees or as a backup support to other sponsors’ sponsees.
- One to one may also be helping someone move into a recovery home, helping them find treatment and creating a 90 in 90 plan.
- Finding meetings can be intimidating to the newly recovered; attending with them is a supportive action.
- Sponsorship (Getting Ready and Getting Matched): Becoming a sponsor is a big responsibility. We do not take on this role lightly.
- As a general rule, sponsors and sponsees should be of the same gender or gender identity.
- A great many relapses have occurred when romantic relationships develop between sponsor and sponsee.
Sometimes we are not a good fit for a person. For this reason, we are obligated to help them find another sponsor who will work with them.
Long time recovered sponsors often take on more than one sponsee at a time. Sometimes we can operate as a backup sponsor for other sponsors new to the role.
Learn more about what it means to be a good sponsor here.
- Outreach Beyond the Room: One of the reasons it is important to work the 12 steps entirely before entering into service is that we must develop a healthy boundary system of our own.
- As we tell our story, and people begin to notice we are different, there will be questions.
- The more we reach out to others, the more people will begin to see the change in our lives and want to know how it happened.
Many present their story at institutionalized (inpatient, residential) treatment meetings to provide support for those inpatients.
Some prefer to write and publish articles and brochures to hand out. Others will go into jails and prisons and start recovery programs for the incarcerated. Anywhere there is a need, we can go to share our story and support others seeking recovery.
The 12 Spiritual Principles of AA (Quick Guide You Can Use Daily).
- Honesty: This addresses problems we have had with integrity in the past and sets a new example for how we are to relate to the rest of the world.
- Hope: We are living examples that recovery is possible.
- Faith: Believing that recovery is possible when we surrender to a higher power and is essential to fulfilling the rest of the principles.
- Courage: Fearlessly admitting our needs and mistakes clears the history of wreckage and forms the pathway to new life.
- Integrity: Following through with our word and commitments is a demonstrative change from the history of deception and falsity we used to live in.
- Willingness: If I am unwilling to address my shortcomings, then I am unwilling to remain sober.
- Humility: Allowing my pride to surrender to the process of becoming sober is evidence of my willingness to change.
- Love: Having only loved myself in the past in order to get what I wanted, loving others becomes the new evidence of my recovery.
- Discipline: Being disciplined in recovery is part of the accountability process and shows the willingness to work hard to maintain my sobriety.
- Justice: Accepting the struggles and conditions of others without judgment or intolerance is evidenced in my working with others seeking recovery.
- Perseverance: Long term sobriety is accomplished by a continued commitment to the program, to others coming and going in the program and in providing accountability and support to those who are seeking recovery.
- Spiritual awareness: Spiritual awareness is an evolving development and shows a commitment to continuing in my relationship with my Higher Power.
- Service: Being of service to other people, both in and out of the program, allows me to redeem the years I spent selfishly pursuing my addiction to alcohol.
Spiritual Awakening in Plain Language (What it Feels Like & How It Grows)
Gradual vs. Sudden Experiences: Spiritual awakening will be different for everyone. There is no right way or wrong way to become aware or to develop a relationship with a Higher Power.
Agnostics and faith based people have all come to believe that they needed someone or something bigger than themselves to overcome alcoholism. It is not our place to criticize or comment on what is and is not an actual spiritual experience.
Practices that Nurture Spiritual Awakenings: Some people spend time in nature, others in meditation and prayer.
Practicing spirituality is an individual preference. Some people will go to a specific kind of church, while others will serve at the local homeless shelter. Both are spiritual practices that warrant honoring individuality.
Taking daily inventories of behavior, mentoring others and other acts of service are all evidence of a spiritual awakening.
Measuring Growth Without Perfectionism
Personal growth is measured in small successes in overcoming cravings, completing a step project with a sponsor or admitting our faults. Perfectionism is an unrealistic goal and will derail true growth every time.
Need help with Step 12, or just looking for a handy how-to guide? Download this free worksheet today!
AA Step 12 vs. Celebrate Recovery Step 12 (Similarities & Differences)
There are other programs based on the original 12 steps from AA. Some will integrate a specific kind of Higher Power, such as Celebrate Recovery. They address all “hurts, habits and hang-ups” and are inclusive of all addictions and struggles.
Smart Recovery reports it is a self empowering, science informed approach to addiction recovery and provides meetings and support systems similar to 12 steps, without the need for a Higher Power.
Boundaries, Safety, and Ethics in 12 Step Work
When working with people who have severe addiction problems, whether alcohol or another substance, safety is of primary importance. Learning basic safety and ethical behavior in the 12 Step AA program comes directly from our own lessons in treatment and guidance from our sponsor.
If we are being unethical, we are not in recovery. We may not be using alcohol anymore, but we are still living like an alcoholic. Boundaries are to protect ourselves; they are not to control other people’s behavior. We must not feel like we can fix another or put shame on them for their choices.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is taking the message that sobriety is possible to others who are seeking recovery.
A spiritual awakening feels different for everyone. There is no right or wrong way to feel a spiritual awakening. You will know when it happens to you.
There are several versions of the 12 step prayer, which is based on the text of the 12th step, basically asking your higher power to bring opportunities to serve to your attention.
With the guidance of your sponsor, after you have completed your own work with the 12 steps, you share your story through works of service.
Ask people you have met in meetings to sponsor you, and if they can’t, ask who they would recommend as a sponsor. Try to find someone with long term sobriety themselves.
Download the worksheet and instructions here. It consists of daily exercises and ways you can be of service to others.
It means that, setting aside personality conflicts, we adhere to the principles of AA by not being judgmental or intolerant of those still trapped in their addiction.
Some of the language is different, but they are essentially the same in principle.
A publication workbook that helps people work the steps with their sponsor or therapist.
By remaining in the program, staying accountable, having a sponsor and a support system that will confront our behavior when we are not in line with the principles.
Then take a break. If we are burned out, then we have not held up a good boundary system and may need to revisit that in therapy.
You should encourage them to seek professional care.
Find Support Today (Meetings, Sponsorship & Professional Help
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Explore All 12 Steps
For a full view of the AA program, explore each step below:
- Step 1 of AA: Powerlessness – admitting alcohol has control
- Step 2: Higher Power – finding belief in restoration
- Step 3: Surrender – turning will over to a Higher Power
- Step 4: Moral Inventory – fearless self-examination
- Step 5: Admitting Wrongs – honesty with self and others
- Step 6: Readiness – becoming ready for change
- Step 7: Humility – asking for shortcomings to be removed
- Step 8: List of Amends – preparing to repair relationships
- Step 9: Making Amends – direct action to repair harm
- Step 10: Daily Inventory – how to take a daily inventory
- Step 11: Prayer & Meditation – seeking spiritual growth
Ready to carry the message?
Download the Step 12 Worksheet and start helping others today.
Mary Jo Fleming, Ph.D. has been committed to the field of substance use recovery for over 20 years. She currently works as a consultant helping new treatment facilities open. She focuses her interests on expanding education on substance use and the delivery of services to underserved populations.
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