Steps Stepping to Freedom Entering the rooms of OA nearly three decades ago, I anticipated that I’d be given a diet based on restriction and deprivation. I never dreamed I’d be given a life-enriching recovery program and the freedoms in each of OA’s Twelve Steps: Step One. Admission of my powerlessness means freedom from my mental obsession with food, allowing expanded space in my … Read More
Steps Light Wash Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. I have a habit of checking how clean a drinking glass really is by holding it up to the light. A glass that looks so clean when out of the bright light can actually be very dirty, covered in fingerprints and all sorts of marks—it’s not fit to drink from. It makes me think of … Read More
Steps Traditions Presently Unchained The OA program encourages us to live one day at a time. In other words, that says to me, “Live in today.” I heard a cute story about a man who was dragging a chain behind him on the sidewalk. Another man asked him, “Why are you dragging that chain?” To which he replied, “Have you ever tried pushing one … Read More
Sponsoring Tools & Concepts Sponsor vs. Skeptic When I was denied for weight-loss surgery, I was devastated. Crying, I went to my primary care physician, threw my hands in the air, and shouted, “I give up! The whole world is against me, and no one wants to help me. If I’m going to be fat forever, then I might as well just go eat myself into oblivion.” … Read More
Steps Define “Meaningful” Step Six: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character I just celebrated my fourteenth year in OA. That’s amazing to me and I’m so grateful that my obsessions with food, overeating, and dieting have almost always been lifted—or I can use Tools or white-knuckle it until the obsession passes, which it quickly does. I have … Read More
Traditions Simple Solidarity Tradition Six: An OA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the OA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose. The Principle of Tradition Six is solidarity. OA has one primary purpose, and that is to carry the message of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions … Read More
Steps Hard, Healing, Emotional Work Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. I recently finished Step Five with my sponsor. I’ve done a Step Five before, but it’s been over a year since my last one. This time it was hard. Really hard. Those of us who have done a Step Five recall the … Read More
Steps Awakening Began Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Working the Twelve Steps of the OA program is what helped me most in recovery. For me, great help came from working the Fourth Step because it helped me get in touch with some very traumatic things that happened in my past. At first, the memories of these things … Read More
Steps First Willingness, Then Ability The other day my sponsee was telling me how grateful she was to have me in her life. I had to agree—I was also grateful. Had I not been willing to be a backup for her sponsor then none of the following would have come to pass. This member, who was in her second pregnancy, needed to reach out by … Read More
Steps Love Would Restore Me “Came to believe . . .” I came to meetings and I came to believe many things. I came to believe there were people like me who had this same problem and found a solution. I came to believe that whatever I’d been trying wasn’t working and probably never would work. I came to believe I could try to the … Read More
