The 9th Step Promises of Alcoholics Anonymous  (2024)

FAQs

What are the 9th step promises of AA? ›

We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word Serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.

What Is Step 9? Step 9 begins: "Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."

Step Nine: “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” Step 9 of A.A. is a biggie. It is the culmination of all the previous steps, which have guided us through the process of admitting our character defects and taking responsibility for changing them.

Step Nine states that we make amends "except when to do so would injure them or others." We don't want our actions to cause further damage, harm or stress. Also, we might owe amends to people we can't reach.

As step 10 suggests, you apologize immediately and tell the person that you were wrong and you should never have said it. Then, you can walk away knowing you have done your part to make it right. If the other person wants to hold on to it and remain angry about it, it is their problem, not yours.

It's important to keep it simple. Don't justify your past behavior. You might be able to tell them something about making amends, or how you're in recovery. Talk to them about financial arrangements.

These daily practices are the subject of Step 10 of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous: "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it." Here the word "inventory" means taking stock of our emotional disturbances, especially those that can return us to drinking or other drug use.

What Is the Purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous Step 9? The purpose of Step 9 of AA is to take responsibility for the harm you've caused yourself and others as a result of drinking alcohol. This step may provide you with peace of mind, serenity, and healing between yourself and others.

What is an example of making amends? ›

Example: "Your trust is really important to me, and I want set things right." Make amends. Example: "I know that you asked for my help because of the expertise I could have provided. I want to make it up to you.

While making amends is apologizing, living amends means living a completely new, sober lifestyle, and being committed to that lifestyle for both yourself and those you've harmed in the past. It means that you're not just using your words to show a change, your actions are proving this change as well.

The twelve promises of A.A. will materialize if we are painstaking about this phase of our development.

The words “happy, joyous, and free” are said quite frequently in the rooms of recovery meetings. However, what are they referring to? It seems simple enough– we find happiness in sobriety, our lives become filled with joy, and we are free from the chains of addiction.

Trudging the road to happy destiny also means to walk with purpose. And every sober day- whether we have a day sober or thousands of days – is an intentional walk towards a better and more fulfilling life. We are walking towards a happy destiny and that journey is worth the discomfort it takes to get there.

There is actually a huge difference between making amends with someone and merely giving them an apology. While a sincere apology is a crucial part of making amends, an apology alone is simply not enough to undo the irreversible pain and heartache that one's addiction (or actions during addiction) may have caused.

If the act of making amends will open old wounds or create new harm, then making direct amends should be avoided. The benefit of making amends to the recovering person does not outweigh the need to do no more harm.

When we make an amends, we ask for forgiveness for any harm that we have done and how to make restitution. God, who is all loving, patient and kind, will in His wisdom forgive us if we repent sincerely. However, God can only forgive us for the wrongs that we have committed against Him.

AA is clear that amends should be practical restitution. However, since he can't make your failed relationship good, or give you children, I suggest that you explain to him that the only amends he can give are apologies. Get him to write a letter detailing all the awful things he thinks he did to you.

For example, someone you've hurt in the past may not be willing to see you. In that case, indirect amends can be made by actively working to modify your behavior, writing them a letter and never sending it, or volunteering for a worthwhile cause.

What is step 9 in sobriety? ›

Step 9 requires one to be willing to go to any lengths to make amends, provided they don't end up causing somebody new or additional harm. The individual must be willing to take this step no matter how severe the personal consequences.

What Is Step 12? In Al-Anon, the twelfth step reads "try to carry the message to 'others'" and in Alcoholics Anonymous it says "to alcoholics." But the principle is the same. In order to work all 12 of the steps, you must try to help others.

What Is Step 11 of AA? “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.”

So how do you apologize when you aren't wrong, or rather, if you believe you aren't wrong? Start by acknowledging how the other person feels. Like any other apology, express regret over what happened. If you're apologizing on behalf of someone on your team, don't make excuses for them.

It's a symptom of our low self-esteem, fear of conflicts, and laser-sharp focus on other people's needs and feelings. We also tend to have poor boundaries, sometimes enmeshed with others, so we'll accept blame for things we didn't do or couldn't control.

10th Step Prayer

God, please help me watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear. When these crop up in me, help me to immediately ask you to remove them from me and help me discuss these feelings with someone.

Step Ten of Alcoholics Anonymous suggests that its time we take responsibility for our actions and to promptly clean up our role in all matters. This requires being willing to release selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, or fear at the very moment that they occur.

Merriam-Webster defines making amends as “to do something to correct a mistake that one has made or a bad situation that one has caused.” When you make amends, you go further than just saying “I'm sorry.” You acknowledge your errors, then take action to make up for what has happened in the past.

What is a five letter word for make amends? ›

If a publisher receives a written concerns notice from a person claiming to have been defamed, the publisher can make an 'offer to make amends'. Such an offer must include publishing a reasonable correction and paying expenses reasonably incurred by the person defamed. It may also include an apology and compensation.

Joy is not simply a feeling that happens. Joy is also not great happiness or even extreme happiness. It is not elation, jubilation or exhilaration — emotions that may be present with joy, that may seem like an expression of joy, but which don't define joy.

There is no significant difference between joyful and joyous, though joyful may be slightly more commonly used to describe a person's state of joy, and joyous may be more commonly used to describe events, things and places. Help Us Improve!

Someone or something joyous is characterized by joy: extreme, exuberant, deep happiness. If you won the lottery, you'd probably feel joyous. Joyous is a strong word for the absolute best moments in life. Weddings and graduations are usually described as joyous occasions.

: to walk or march steadily and usually with much effort. trudged through deep snow. trudger noun. trudge. 2 of 2 noun.

“A Vision for You” describes the manner in which things grew exceedingly worse as our drinking intensified: “The less people tolerated us, the more we withdrew from society, from life itself. As we became subjects of King Alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down.

What does six mile trudge mean? ›

To trudge is to walk in a heavy, exhausted way. Your grandpa probably tells you about how he used to trudge six miles uphill through a foot of snow in the brutal cold every morning just to get to school. Trudge is also a noun that means a difficult, labored walk.

Step Ten Promise

“And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame.

In it, God promises Abraham a land, descendants and blessing. This blessing promised to Abraham would extend through him to all the peoples of the earth. Understanding the Abrahamic Covenant is paramount to understanding theological concepts like a Promised Land, election, the people of God, inheritance and so on.

Step 10 in Action

Page 85 of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous tells us: This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past.

The best known of all the promises of A.A. (p. 83) These are so well known that they are generally called The Promises and are read out at every meeting. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

Step 9 of AA: Be Willing to Make Amends

Step 9 requires one to be willing to go to any lengths to make amends, provided they don't end up causing somebody new or additional harm. The individual must be willing to take this step no matter how severe the personal consequences.

Explanation: This is very commonly in both regular daily life and in the work place. It can be used after an apology or after someone says thank you. In both cases, it is telling the person that the event was no big deal and it does not require an apology or a thank you.