Our Path

We are people broken by many different forms of pain: physical, psychological, and spiritual.  

Brokenness devastated our lives in some cases, while in other instances pain robbed us of many joys and satisfactions life once held, though we could get by with difficulty.  Most of us struggled with a variety of personal demons infecting our lives, relationships, and achievements even if our lives appeared to be full and successful.

We tried a wide array of treatments with limited success, but the brokenness and pain always returned. When we reached a place where we could no longer fool ourselves about the effects of brokenness, we got radically honest about how we contributed to our pain.  We accepted our brokenness and asked for help from those who had overcome similar challenges.  We turned to a Higher Power of our own experience for the strength we lacked.  IT came through for us, providing a way to transform our brokenness into blessing.  That Power provided firm, compassionate support and guidance from other broken people, from ancient and modern spiritual guides, from caring professionals, and from a set of principles and practices on which we built new lives.

Radical compassion, honesty, openness, willingness, and sustained effort transformed our brokenness and enhanced our lives. 

If you can develop radical compassion for yourself; if you are able to face yourself and trusted people with radical honesty; if you can develop an open mind, and if your pain has made you willing to put first things first and take responsibility for improving your life - you will not fail to get better! 

Our experiences describe how brokenness damaged our lives, what changed, and what we are like now. If you want the joy, peace, and sense of purpose we found, and are willing to work for it — then you are ready to walk the Steps of our Path.  We resisted at times or tried shortcuts that failed to help.  We clung to familiar attitudes and actions, but the results were fruitless until we learned to let go, improve our choices of attitude and action, and practice a way of life grounded in what we could give to life rather than what we could get from it.

Self-centered fear and ego spawn brokenness.  Both are cunning, deceptive, and powerful! Without help they will beat us or lure us deeper into brokenness and despair.  However, when we gave up trying to win in life, and turned ourselves over to the guidance and direction of a Higher Power of our own experience, we began to heal and experience a transformation of our attitudes and actions. We overcame fear and began growing into our best selves.  This is the path we followed to build new, healthier lives.

1) We accepted that we were powerless over pain and brokenness, that they made our lives unmanageable, leading to unreasonable attitudes and actions.

2) We came to trust that a Higher Power (as each of us experienced IT) could bring transformation and new life.

3) We yielded our desire for control to the care and direction of the Higher Power we learned to trust.

4) We made a fearless written examination of our lives - searching for the flaws that kept us from the freedom, joy, and peace we desired.

5) We admitted to a Higher Power and another trusted person - exactly how our flaws had harmed us and how they affected those around us.

6) We grew entirely willing to have our Higher Power help us overcome our personal flaws.

7) We humbly asked that Power to help us transform our challenges into blessings.

8) We listed all those we had harmed and became willing to set things right with them.

9)  We worked to set things right unless doing so would cause more harm.

10) We continued to examine our attitudes and actions, celebrating when we lived out our spiritual principles.  When we made mistakes – we promptly set things right.

11) We improved our conscious contact with each other and the Higher Power each of us relied on, primarily seeking guidance and direction for how we could best contribute to life.

12) After experiencing a spiritual transformation through these Steps, we shared our experience with other broken people, and worked for spiritual growth in every part of our lives.

13) Each of us sought to find a personal mission that would give our lives meaning and purpose. 

Then, we worked hard to grow into the blessings we believed a Higher Power created each of us to be.

Our personal transformation was not enough.  Unless we offered unrewarded compassion to others and worked to make our world a better place, we risked losing the spiritual growth we had begun to enjoy.  

Perhaps you're thinking, “I can’t do this!’’ Don't give up!  We discovered that when spiritual growth became the central focus of our lives, we began to overcome the brokenness that once seemed insurmountable.  This path is about “progress – not perfection.” 

Along the way we learned three important facts:

(a) We faced brokenness and challenges we could not overcome on our own. 

(b) When each of us found a Higher Power that helped us stop grasping for control and learn to live life with open hands and grateful hearts, we began to make positive changes in our lives.

(c) When we stopped looking for ways out of pain, but chose the path through it, focusing instead, on spiritual growth and compassion in action - our pain began to lessen, our attitudes became more positive, and we began to discover that our worst brokenness could be transformed into our most powerful blessings.        

(Adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous pp.58-60.)