The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

by Alcoholics Anonymous

A.A. has taught me that I will have peace of mind in exact proportion to the peace of mind I bring into the lives of the other people, and it has taught me the true meaning of the admonition “happy are ye who know these things and do them.” For the only problems I have now are those I create when I break out in a rash of self-will. I’ve had many spiritual experiences since I’ve been in the program, many that I didn’t recognize right away, for I’m slow to learn and they take many

Light=pink cloud?

self-pity and resentment

Pity-invent

inventory

“responded to the treatment

suggested

S...

immedi...

inadequacy,

reluctant

reprieve

I was going to get drunk — and I didn’t want to get drunk any more.

In my prayers that morning I asked God to point out to me some way to be f...

Pray to rid resentments

clergyman

resentment

you want

to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don’t really want it for them, and your prayers are only words and you don’t mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred,

Prayer2WEEKS

Sometimes I have to ask first for the willingness, but it too always comes.

Sponser/HP

“The only real freedom a human being can ever know is doing what you ought to do because you want to do it.

Ought2Want

?Crytic

For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

anonymity

For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.

psychologist William James calls the “educational variety

because they develop slowly over a period of time.

He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his ...

“God-consciousness.

mind to all spiritual concepts.

intolerance or belligerent denial.

the spirituality of th...

Willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But ...

that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

I had arrived.

remonstrances

1. in one's cups ‹informal› drunk.

struggles

The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.

We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action.

It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer

Highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to persuade an alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve.

intimate friends usually find us even more unapproachable than do the psychiatrist and the doctor. But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.

whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes

these are the conditions Page 19

principles

work.

This should suggest a useful program for anyone concerned with a drinking problem.

Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.

it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking. Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body.

Back of them is a world of ignorance and misunderstanding.

Moderate drinkers

of hard drinker.