When I work with newcomers, I try to work the Twelve Steps with them. I encourage them to attend as many meetings as possible (a “90 in 90”), especially as they begin their journey. I encourage them to have a sponsor, and a prayer life, if possible.
What follows is a list of additional ideas for people in recovery, especially for those times when a meeting or a sponsor is not available.
Speaker Recordings: I almost called these “speaker tapes”, because when I first came into recovery, the speakers were recorded on tape. That was a while ago. There are thousands of recordings of speakers available in almost every twelve step fellowship. If you do an internet search on “twelve step speakers”, several sites display. Many of these speakers are available as free downloads. (This is useful for those of you who travel by airplane a lot).
Telephone meetings: do an internet search on “twelve step telephone meetings”. Most Twelve Step fellowships have telephone or internet meetings. I don’t find them as useful as face-to-face meetings, but there are times I cannot attend a face-to-face meeting, and a substitute is helpful for me.
Using the Telephone – it is easy to collect telephone numbers. For me, it is difficult to use those numbers. I try to practice my dialing skills 2-3 times a week at a minimum.
Literature – I cannot emphasize enough how important the Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous) and the “12/12” (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions) have been to me. There are now electronic, searchable versions of these books available for download, or available on the internet for browsing. E-readers are useful for finding a favorite passage, when I can’t remember where the passage is in the literature. They are also helpful for reading on an airplane, because there is no book cover to hide. There are also audiobooks available for some of the most popular recovery texts.
Joe and Charlie – I will write about them in more detail sometime later, but I strongly encourage people in recovery to listen to the full Joe and Charlie series. For the uninitiated, Joe McQ and Charlie P were two fellows who started a 12 hour (approximately) study of the Big Book, and the Twelve Steps. They conducted hundreds of weekend-long workshops. One of my sponsors told me “Joe and Charlie changed my recovery”. I encourage you to listen to them.
E-mail and Text lists: some of my friends have started e-mail and text distribution lists as a way to stay in touch with each other. Some send daily text “Thought for Today” messages. These are nice recovery reminders.
With Love,
The Recovering Urchin
