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This Way of Living
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What our experience has taught us about working these Steps.
First of all, we remember that our lives are unmanageable, in whole or in part (Step 1). They are unmanageable by us or by anyone else. That belief is one of the foundations of our entire practice. How we do Step 10 In our experience, doing Step 10 exactly as the AA Big Book suggests works best. You'll find its suggestions about halfway down page 84, from Continue to watch to the end of the paragraph. We've found these suggestions suitable for practicing this Step on our own, one-on-one, and within small private groups. Here is a version of Step 10 from one 12-Step fellowship. We call this the "long version" and it includes the practice of Step 11. And here is a short version that takes only a couple of minutes. Some of us do the long version in the morning and/or at night, and the short version throughout the day. How we do Step 11 We meditate as a matter of course. Some of us spend 40 minutes or more in morning or evening meditation. Some of us take four minutes or less. "Little and often" seems to work just as well as "sometimes and at length." Each of us meditates differently but we all have to start somewhere. Our experience suggests that - initially - the simpler the better. Here is a basic meditation which anyone can do. Some of us have used it for many years. Step 11 is about receiving from some Higher Power the knowledge of what we should do right here and right now, and the strength to do it. It is in fact about developing a relationship with that Power - not about determining what that Power is. Again, we describe here how we do that. How we do Step 12 Step 12 is about two things: doing what our Higher Power suggests in our practice of Step 11, and practicing Steps 10 and 11 in everything we do. It's the natural result of working Steps 10 and 11. As we have continued to practice them, we've found that Step 12 happens all by itself.
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