Traditions Willing Is Filling Higher Power has graced me with this realization: in our lifesaving program, I’ve come to have a preference for certain Steps more than others! It is an uncomfortable awareness. I know that each and every Step has a purpose in my recovery and each and every one is part of a dynamic combination that covers every aspect of my life. … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Medical Matters I don’t remember how I heard about OA, but I do know it wasn’t from any of the many medical or support professionals I went to for help. During my thirty years as a compulsive overeater, I never heard about OA from any doctor, nurse, therapist, plastic surgeon, nutritionist, dietician, eating-disorders charity, or acupuncturist . . . and the list … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Taking Initiative I recently became a Lifeline rep. One of my initiatives was to get my home group to subscribe to Lifeline, not just for us, but for outreach too. We ordered one print subscription for our group plus three additional subscriptions. We keep our three extra issues in a special bag. When a newcomer shows up for a first meeting, we … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts All I’m Asked to Do Recently, for my recovery, I’ve been reading from the Big Book each day, writing about it, and sharing my writing with my sponsor. Today’s reading was just two sentences: “Ask [God] in your morning meditation what can you do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order.” (Alcoholics … Read More
Recovery Working the Program Starter Recipe My spiritual breakfast is Step Eleven, and it’s the most important meal of each day. It nourishes my brain with fuel I need to have a fighting chance of serenity and abstinence in the twenty-four hours ahead. I try to do Step Eleven as soon as I wake. If I give my brain even half an hour in charge, my … Read More
Higher Power Spirituality Twelve Pointers My understanding is that a spiritual awakening is a radical internal rearrangement of attitudes, priorities, desires, and beliefs. The effect is I’ve now become able to do, think, feel, and say things that I could not before— no matter how hard I tried, how sincerely I wanted to, or how dire any consequences. I came into OA in my early … Read More
Telephone Tools & Concepts Call, Read, Write, Share I was sitting at my kitchen counter doing job-related work. I’d been struggling with food, and I had spent a lot of that day crying as I thought to myself, I am never going to be free. My phone rang, and I didn’t recognize the number. I contemplated not answering, but something prompted me to pick it up. I was … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Real Magic I am contemplating the last workbook question of the Twelfth Step: “What is the message I am living?” (The Twelve Step Workbook of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition, p. 107). My mind ventures back several months, when a spark inside my soul led me to put these Twelve Steps to the test. Would the promises of the Step Principles really materialize … Read More
Tools & Concepts Anonymity Benefits Wow! Anonymity is so important to OA, it’s part of the name of our organization. As Tradition Twelve states: “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.” The new second edition of the OA Twelve and Twelve does an excellent job of explaining the many ways we all benefit from anonymity. … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Second Edition Experience My heart just dropped into my stomach—did yours? On page 168 of The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition, it says we “accept responsibility for our actions, looking only at our own faults and taking no one’s inventory but our own.” A list of questions follows, under the heading “In what ways do we act ‘to … Read More