Traumatic Brain Injury — What Empowers Me to Go and Make it a good Day — On the Road to Healing — Empowerment — Part 10

Please read each part of this series for context. Thank you. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live. I am happy to see that you decided to stop by to visit with me. In following article I have given a synopsis of the 12 step adapted from the 12 Steps. My intent is not to misrepresent the 12 steps but to give the reader another point of view. In essence, my goal in sharing the below is to enhance the reader’s 12 step recovery process. Originally, I included a copy of my synopsis in an article that I wrote a little over a year ago.

Second Chance to Live and Action Steps

Synopsis of the 12 Action Steps — the 12 Steps

1- You may be powerless over many things but you are not helpless. Although your life may seem unmanageable now, you no longer need to feel like a victim.
2- You do not have to be alone anymore to figure it out on your own.
3- By making the decision to turn your will and your life over to the care of a power greater than your self, you will find an unlimited source of encouragement, motivation, empowerment and hope.
4- You can find out what you have been doing to sabotage your life. You can look for patterns that have undermined your life. Consequently, you will be able to stop shooting yourself in the foot of life.
5- You no longer need to hide in the shadows. You can begin to trust. By admitting to a loving God, to yourself and to another human being what you found in step 4 that has been sabotaging your life, you can find a new freedom — a freedom that you never knew existed. Through the process, you can make peace with  God and with yourself.
6- You can become entirely ready to let go of the behaviors that you have been using to defend and in the process sabotage your relationships and yourself. Be encouraged my friend.
7- You can be actively involved in the process of seeing the behaviors that have sabotaged your life removed by humbly asking a loving God to remove the behaviors that sabotage your life and relationships.
8- In working in partnership with a loving God you can make a list of the persons — including yourself — who you have been harmed by participating in behaviors that have sabotaged your life and your relationships. By making a list of the people you that have negatively impacted or harmed (that you have gleaned through completing your 4th action step) you become willing to make direct amends to them all.
9- You make direct amends (once you have completed the first 8 action steps and you have talked with your sponsor) to the people that have been negatively impacted by the behaviors that you have previously used to cope. Consequently you can make peace with your fellows, and in the process make peace with yourself. By completing this step — making amends — you can be released from the burden of guilt and shame. You can find a new freedom and happiness.
10- On a daily basis, you continue to take a personal inventory and when you are recognize that you have harmed others you promptly admit those wrongs to the person (s) that you have harmed. On a daily basis, you continue to be accountable to and for your behavior. You choose to keep your side of the street clean.
11- You do not have to live life each day by yourself. You can rely on a power greater than your self to guide and direct your steps. You don’t have to lean on your own understanding. You can pray for the knowledge of God’s will — for you — and the power to carry that out. You can trust the process, a loving God and your ability to learn from your circumstances and experiences. In the process, you will be empowered to live the life that you have imagined.
12- Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of working these 12 action steps you attempt to carry the message of the 12 action steps to other people and continue to practice the principles of the 12 action steps in all your affairs.

Note: The 12 action steps are not meant to be punitive in nature. Instead, the 12 Action Steps are designed to empower you and I to live life on life’ terms — while succeeding. The 12 action steps — by divine design –  are meant to free the individual of self-defeating behaviors that sabotage and undermine their lives and their relationships. The 12 action steps — by divine design — empower the individual to be of maximum service to God and to their fellows.

Note: In the original text the 12 Steps “We” has been used where I have written “You”. I have used you instead of we to emphasize that you are powerless over people, places and things. I have needed to keep the focus on myself as I have worked through the 12 action steps. Nevertheless, by participating in a 12 Step recovery program, you never have to be alone again. As I have heard mentioned. 12 Step recovery programs are a We program.

In my experience, I have found that when I choose to take the focus off of myself and place the focus on another person, place, event, institution or thing I   miss the benefit that can be gained through working the 12 action steps with a sponsor. I have found that when I am drawn to take the focus off of myself and place the focus on someone / something else that I need to work the 12 action steps. I have found that my triggers and reactions are my triggers and reactions.

In my experience, I have come to realize that the 12 Action Steps are not meant to point out where I am not measuring up. Instead, the 12 Steps are meant to set me free from limiting behaviors and limiting beliefs that sabotage and undermine all of my relationships — with the God of my understanding, other people and myself. The 12 Steps empower my ability to be of maximum service to a loving God and my fellows.

Receive more articles like this one simply by clicking on Subscribe to Second Chance to Live by email.

All material presented on Second Chance to Live is copyright and cannot be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any way without the express, written consent of Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA