Edit Post | Quote | ReplySteps Four and Five

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Hi Everyone!  I just want to share something of the process I am currently going through, in working another Step Four.  It's been some years since I did the last one, so I picked up that Blueprint for Progress Workbook for Step Four, and spent the last several months, answering the many questions in the various sections there.  That was the part that I worked on alone, just writing in answers to the questions as honestly as I could.

It covers a lot, and is VERY helpful, in that the questions prompt you to think about the different aspects of both the disease of codependency (addiction, etc etc.) AND help you chart your progress in recovery!  It's amazing, just how much difference there is when you come to look at it in detail like this!  I don't know about you, but sometimes the changes seem so slow and imperceptible that you wonder if you're getting anywhere at all!  But if you work through this book, it's beyond all shadow of a doubt that you'll see that the program works and you will have changed! 

It's a lot of material to cover, granted--so I've been working at it in chunks, in terms of sharing this with a sponsor.  So far we have had two sessions of a couple of hours each, and I think a third session will finish it up.  What this means is that I am doing Steps Four and Step Five as well as I share the answers I put down and we talk a little about them.  It's a wonderful process, because it helps you see your strengths and assets just as much as revealing any liabilities that need to be worked on!  And my sponsor keeps saying, it's so helpful to her too, to be doing this!

One of the things that this "clearing process" seems to do is to help my memory of good things in my childhood!  I feel more alive and aware, and flash on all kinds of scenes like the spring coming, or special events, and times when things were actually good, without denying for one moment how much I was impacted by sick, crazy or catastrophic events as well.  It's as though another window opened on my past, and fresh clear air is blowing through!

If any of you are considering doing a Step Four, and wondering how to do it--this book could be of tremendous help.  Even if you don't have a regular sponsor, find someone whose recovery you admire, and have them help you through just this part of the whole 12 step program.  It's so important, and makes  much better sense of all the subsequent steps as well.  I used to put off doing step four--I think I had been in the program two or three years before even trying it for the very first time--but it really isn't as bad as I thought!  And it has a gift for you in its hands, too!

Best to all,

Seachange

-- Edited by seachange at 17:51, 2006-05-08








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