The Proactive Twelve Steps for Mindful Recovery

The Proactive Twelve Steps for Mindful Recovery

The Proactive Twelve Steps outlines how you can take a proactive approach to life, gradually stepping up from feeling stuck and powerless to enjoying a more balanced and happy life. The specific steps were inspired by the original Twelve Steps, but rewritten to describe a process of mindful personal growth. This short book (60 pages) defines the “steps” pragmatically, as a self-directed process, as opposed to a mystical process in which change somehow happens to you.

The Proactive Twelve Steps

1.     I get it. What I’ve been doing is self-destructive. I need to change.
2.     I see the big picture: The way to stop relapsing into self-destructive behaviors is to build a healthier sense of self.
3.     I have an action plan: From now on, I am squarely facing everything that is in the way of feeling satisfied with my life.
4.     I honestly look at the effects of my actions on others and myself.
5.     I take responsibility for my actions.
6.     I see that my knee-jerk reactions have to do with being in the grip of more or less conscious fears.
7.     I strive to find my motivation in a deeper sense of who I really am, rather than fear and defensiveness.
8.     I stop blaming and feeling blamed, with a willingness to heal the wounds.
9.     I swallow my pride, and sincerely apologize to people I’ve hurt, except when this would be counterproductive.
10.     I live mindfully, paying attention to the motives and effects of my actions.
11.     I stay in touch with a broader sense of who I really am, and a deeper sense of what I really want.
12.     A growing sense of wholeness and contentment motivates me to keep at it, and to share this process with others who are struggling.

The Proactive Twelve Steps were originally written for people who are not part of the “Twelve Steps” culture, and who are not comfortable with references to God or a Higher Power.  Over time, many people involved in 12 steps recovery have found inspiration in these “proactive steps”: Not necessarily as a replacement for the words they are so familiar with, but as a way to gain a new perspective on them.

Source: The Proactive Twelve Steps for Mindful Recovery (http://proactivechange.com/books/proactive12steps.htm) page where you can download the entire book as a PDF file. Also please check out the rest of the “Proactive Change” (http://proactivechange.com/selfhelp/index.htm) website.

Also : here’s an entire article on  The Proactive Twelve Steps on the AA Agnostica.org site. (http://aaagnostica.org/2013/10/20/the-proactive-twelve-steps/)