Steps By The Big Book

[bluidkiti]

NOTES ON STEP 4

When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. (64: 3)


I ruthlessly faced my sins [blocks to Spirit]. (Bill’s Story, 13: 2)
Heard in a meeting: “We need self-acceptance before we can have self improvement.”




Problem / Solution / Program of Action
We have come a long way to reach Step 4. We now understand that our problem lies in being powerless over such recurring mental obsessions as the thought that we can drink again in safety, when taking that drink triggers our physical compulsion to drink to excess.
Our solution is to find a power greater than any one of us which can restore us to sanity, health, and wholeness.
Our program of action is to turn our life and will over to such a power, of our own understanding, by the discipline of the daily practice of the Twelve Steps within the AA fellowship. The key to this action is our experience that our troubles…are basically of our own making. (62: 2) We have learned that our own reactions to hard times or good times have become self-centered thought-habits that frequently stand in the way of recovery. We learn that with help, we can change these for our own serenity.


Kit of spiritual tools
We have been promised a kit of spiritual tools. (25: 1) Step 4 delivers a process (64: 1), a method (114: 1) and a treatment (551: 1) that we can use often on our reactions to past events and present day troubles (Step 10), so we are less likely to pick up a drink and more likely to have peace of mind. While there is hard work ahead, we will be learning a lot about ourselves, and we do not have to dread it. Step 4 is not a test, we cannot fail it. The last thing we need is another chance to beat up on ourselves.


Assets
[An] inventory...is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade.(64: 1) We are in the business of staying sober, and the ways we think and behave are the stock in trade. We are practicing understanding the exact nature of what in our lives has not worked to give us peace of mind and also what have we done right. We may address questions like these:

• What qualities do I like about myself? That others like?
• What are my values? Which ones am I committed to living by, and how?
• How have I shown concern for others, including myself?
• What spiritual principles am I practicing in my life?
• When have I done the right thing? What are my successes?

[For Step 4 assets see BB pages 67: 0, 1 and 70: 3. Also see the optional adapted 1946 A.A. Grapevine “Assets and Liabilities checklist” on page 34 of this workbook for a sample list of assets.]




Blocks to our Spirit
The premise of Step 4 is that we have difficulty turning our life and will over because some of our thoughts and behaviors block us from experiencing our Spirit – our higher power or our own better nature. We use the Step 4 process in order to identify these habitual blocking thoughts and behaviors in any resentment, fear, or hurtful action. Once we look deeper inside for the source of our old worn out defenses, or patterns, or defects, or shortcomings, which are usually involved in the roles we played in painful life events, then we can move on and change them in the Steps that follow. This enables us to clear a channel choked up with self-centered, dishonest or fearful motives and permits us to return to our search for our higher power's will, not our own, in any moment of stress. (Optional, see 12&12, 103: 0)


What part of ourselves?
Through practice we learn to focus not so much on who it was that hurt or threatened us, or how they did that, but more on what part of ourselves was disturbed so that we drank, or acted as though we had been drinking. This often relates to feelings associated with our attitudes, personalities and behaviors in reaction to real or imagined threats to our security, our self esteem, or our sex / relationship instincts. We have little control over others and what they do, but we can change how we habitually react to life events. This is difficult for us. But, if we do not change we may drink. We have to ask for help. We find that help through the discipline of the practice of the Twelve Steps.



pp. 36-37
http://www.stepsbybigbook.net/