The 12 steps
The Twelve Steps of AA are a set of spiritual principles that, when practiced as a way of life, can drive out the addiction to drinking and enable the sufferer to live a happy, full, and useful life.
Several nonalcoholics have told us that they have been able to overcome other life challenges by practicing the Twelve Steps of AA. They believe that for problem drinkers, the Twelve Steps can be about more than just sobriety.
Excerpts from: The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions, pp. 15-16 (french version)
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
We made direct amends to these people wherever possible, except when doing so would have risked harming them or others.
We continued our personal inventory and promptly admitted our mistakes as soon as we realized them.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Excerpts from: Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, pp. 66-67