Am I ready? step 5

Carla · Member

Am I ready? step 5

JohnV · Member

Hey Carla,

Step work is the heart and soul of the Program. It is work. It is effort. It is the answer to problems. No true recovery is possible without the Steps. This is serious business.

Steps cannot be worked without the help and direction of a trusted person WITH sobriety and experience in Step work. Usually this person is a sponsor. This person, through experience in the Program, can assist us along the path. The sponsor knows where to press us and where to allow us to rest on a Step and absorb what we have done.

It is a process. It does take time. Through the Steps we learn relationships. The first Three Steps that you have worked, not necessarily completed...Allow us to improve or establish a relationship with a Power greater than ourselves. Only with the clarity in our mind can we move into the honesty that Step 4 requires. Then Step 5 should be taken immediately. Do not wait. Do not allow the indecision and doubt to enter the sacred space created through the first Four Steps.

The Steps take the time to work that they do...This is not a race. There is no graduation. We will return to various Steps as we find the need to purify our thinking. Keep in the spirit of the Program. It is the gateway to a new way of thinking about life. In this new thinking are the Promises that we will experience. We will find a new happiness. We will be reborn.

You are worth it. You are loved more than you know.

Blessings, JV.

amanda2u2 · Senior Member

John V put that very well! Amen!

The Steps are not easy to do,,, in fact, somewhere in there it says that they go against our human nature, so we do have to make an effort and not wait until we feel like doing them. They don't have to be perfectly done. They will never be perfectly done. but we make a start. It is kind of like doing spelling and math drills in school, or learning anything else... we have to make an effort to do something that is foreign to us the first time,, but we do it again, better the second time, and again, even better the third time.

You can ask all the questions you want in private message.

I have been thinking,,, that no one has been sharing on Step 5, including me. I sat down and started to do a share on it, and then .. just... didn't. It's a hard Step. Facing ourselves, and showing ourselves to God and another person. Do the best you can.

Thanks for your honest shares.

onward, ho!

amanda

dot · Senior Member

Hi Carla - I understand where you're coming from. I don't know of anyone who did each Step in two weeks time - certainly I didn't.

I was so afraid of Five that it took me several years to do it. I don't recommend that as it slowed my recovery and kept me in pain for a long time because of my fear.

I was told that if I'm having trouble with a Step to go back to the previous one - I had to do that for a long time before I could go on.

This board only gives you some idea of what the Step is about and how it works in others lives. When you are ready for each Step is up to you.

If you have questions about any of the Steps, please ask them so we can shre our ES & H with you.

Love and hugs - Dot

angelinme908 · Veteran Member

I am somewhat confused about the sharing in step 5. If we have been sharing step 4 here - does that equate doing step 5 also when the part of step 4's inventory is our mistakes and wrongs?

Angelina

amanda2u2 · Senior Member

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand your question. Do you mean the sharing on this board in particular? or do you mean Step 5 in general as it is done by AA as passed down by tradition? Would you please clarify it?

love in recovery,

amanda

dot · Senior Member

Hi Angelina - Sharing on ths board is comprable to sharing at a f2f meeting. My understanding of Step Five is to share a written inventory with God - with yourself - and then f2f with another human being. It can be your sponsor - someone in the clergy - a trusted friend - or anyone else you choose.

Hope this helps - keep coming back.

Love and hugs - Dot

Learn how the 12 Steps work. Participate in your own recovery as well as the recovery of others, by being active on this board as we go through the 12 Steps of recovery together! We discuss each of the Twelve Steps In the order they are written, one step at a time, every two weeks.