Start where you are. When change comes, as it always does, it helps to know who you are.

• Why is it important to know “who I am”?
• What does it mean to know “who I am”?
• How have the Steps helped me in knowing myself? (Step 4 is the obvious one, but what about the others?)
  • Step 1: starting to break through denial. My image of my life is not realistic.
  • Step 2: Starting to see that I am not the center of the universe, and that I can ask for help.
  • Step 3: Recognizing how much I want “my will”. Making a decision to ask for help, to follow outside direction. How hard it is!
  • Step 4: Looking in detail at myself, admitting my assets and my shortcomings.
  • Step 5: How much I really don’t want to expose my “failings”! How much I fear your judgement.
  • Step 6: Coming to own my inventory. Starting to recognize some of the “why” about what I do (and don’t do).
  • Step 7: Humility: I can be teachable.
  • Step 8: Recognizing the ways in which my shortcomings have caused me to harm others, whether deliberately or by oversight.
  • Step 9: Seeing my shame, my fear of rejection, my fear of judgement. And also my courage and honesty.
  • Step 10: Continuing to know myself more deeply.
  • Step 11: Getting in touch with my own spirit, getting “out of my head”. Who am I when I’m not “chattering” away in my mind all the time?
  • Step 12: Recognizing the ways in which I have awakened.

Please call us at 734-707-8795 or email feedback@therecoveryshow.com with your questions or experience, strength and hope. Or just leave a comment right here.

The reading in this episode is from Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön.

Music from the show

Jimmy Eat World: The Middle

Gnarls Barkley: Crazy

India.Arie: I Choose