FOOD FOR THOUGHT - SEPTEMBER

[MajestyJo]

Thursday, September 5, 2013

You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go

Step Ten

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
—Step Ten of Al Anon

Once we have worked our way to this Step, we can maintain and increase our self-esteem by regularly working Step Ten. This Step incorporates the process we have gone through in Steps Four through Nine. We do not work this Step to punish ourselves or to hold ourselves under a constantly critical and demeaning microscope. We do it to maintain self-esteem and harmony in our relationship with others and ourselves. We do it to stay on track.

When an issue or problem emerges and needs our attention, identify it and openly discuss it with at least one safe person and God. Accept it. Become willing to let go of it. Ask God to take it from us. Have a change of heart by the willingness to make whatever amend is called for - to do what is necessary to take care of ourselves. Take an appropriate action to resolve the matter. Then let go of the guilt and shame.

This is a simple formula for taking care of ourselves. This is how we change. This is how we become changed. This is the process for healing and health. This is the process for achieving self-responsibility and self esteem.

The next time we do something that bothers us, the next time we feel off track or off course, we don't have to waste our time or energy feeling ashamed. We can take a Tenth Step. Let the process happen. And move on with our life.

God, help me make this Step and other Steps a habitual way of responding to life and my issues. Help me know that I am free to live, to allow myself to fully experiment with and experience life. If I get off course, or if an issue arises that demands my attention, help me deal with it by using the Tenth Step.

This step made a big difference in my recovery. I started using it around 6 months, even though I was still on Step One. I used it to the best of my ability, and as clarity and new awareness came about as a result of working the other steps, I was able to see how my whole sobriety was geared around this step. They call it the maintenance Step, I call it the survival Step. By making the decision to work this Step daily, ALL day long, I choose to live and stay clean and sober. As a result of the alcoholic and addicts in my life, I needed to work it in my life, and something that I can be lax on, until I am hurting and I wonder why.