I recently listened to a podcast on what the speaker calls the “Twelve Freedoms” which she took from the pages of the OA 12&12.
 
Below is each step, the Freedom associated with the step, and my experience, strength and hope in blue.

1. We admitted we were powerless over food and that our lives had become unmanageable. Freedom from food obsession.  I do my OA footwork each day and claim being free of compulsive eating and obsession one day at a time.
2. Came to believe a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity. Freedom from insanity and hopelessness.  I see my insanity in using my character defects to try to achieve what I want. It might work in the short time, but never in the long run.  Freedom from insanity is not choosing to act out of a character defect.  I’m free from hopelessness, because I’ve seen so many program miracles in my life and in the life of OA.
3. Made a decision to turn my will and my ways over to the care of God as I understand Him. Freedom from bondage of self.  I am definitely self-will run riot and sometimes I marvel at how the people at my first OA meeting 36 years ago must have seen me and loved me anyway.  I don’t know all of God’s will for me, but I have learned to trust I will be told the next right thing.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Freedom from dishonesty. It’s much more satisfying and interesting when I have the courage to be honest.
5. Admitted to God, myself, and another person the exact nature of my wrongs. Freedom from isolation. Okay, I’ve just told the worst things I’ve done to another person and they didn’t leave. What a glorious relief.
6. Became entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. Freedom from fear of change.  A lot of my recovery has been to let go of resisting whatever happens. I remind myself that change can be good.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings. Freedom from self-reliance.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Freedom from blame.  I was the expert at justifying my eating habits, and my behavior, but now am reminded to practice humility and gratitude.
9. Made direct amends wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others. Freedom from fear of people.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. Freedom from complacency.  I am completely convinced that I cannot live with resentment and I need to ask myself each day if I have any resentments and then resolve them.  Most days I write out a daily tenth step.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will and power to carry it out. Freedom from loneliness.  This one was a surprise to me.  I thought loneliness came from not being with other people.  But truly it’s my relationship with my HP that fills me every time someone lets me down.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we tried to carry this message to other compulsive eaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.  Freedom from lack of purpose.  For sure, I didn’t know what I had to offer to people.  And  just by living this program, I carry the message.  I keep in mind the OA responsibility pledge: to carry the hand and heart of OA to all who share my compulsion, for this I am responsible.

I encourage anyone to reflect on these twelve freedoms, or other freedoms that might be true for you from working the OA 12 Step program.  I was a pretty tough nut to crack when I came into OA 36 years ago. And I can say now that  I am truly grateful for the freer life I have now.

Carrie A.

​The Big Book Promises
(What they mean to me and how they came true.)
 
If we are painstaking about this phase (making amends) of our development we will be amazed (new awareness) before we are halfway through. This amazement, this awareness, this awakening (spiritual change) started around the seventh step. This is when I became aware of… opening the curtains, my heart quit jumping in my throat, the silence wasn’t deafening and no more knotted, gnarly stomachs.

What development? The development of changing myself from the character with defects that I had become, into the best possible version of myself. By the 9th step, the authors’ promise that if I have thoroughly completed the first nine steps a whole bunch of cool things will come to be.

We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. The greatest freedom for me came, not just from a life changing weight loss, but from unlocking the cell door of this prison that was my mind. My mind told me lies, held me captive, fed me substances and even talked me into hurting others. By opening my mind and working the steps, I took back my life. The one that the step 9 promises, promised me.

Freedom wasn’t free. For freedom, I had to do the work, I had to work the steps. Happiness on the other hand, happiness must be free because once I put in the work to change, happiness just miraculously appeared.
  
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. I had, from severe memory impairment, shut the door on my past but my body carried the regret and the sorrow still tugged at my mind. Completion of the steps led me to realize that the past was a place for learning not for living.

We will comprehend the word serenity (no dictionary can explain serenity, the only way to understand serenity is to live it) and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone (I thought this meant how much weight I lost), we will see how our experience can benefit others. Serenity and peace, like happiness, came with the freedom. The freedom from the bondage of self. In other words, while you are a prisoner of your mind (fear, guilt, anger, regret…), you are not free.
 
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. Just stepping away from active addiction, I no longer felt worthless from repeating the same compulsive insane behaviors over and over. Behaviors that I blamed on others until I completed my fourth step.
 
We will lose interest in selfish things (substance and/or behavioral compulsions) and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. No longer had I a need to be noticed in the crowd, funnier than the masses, or louder than the others. I was given the phenomenal opportunity to do lots of service and the more I said yes to service, the less I practiced self-will. When I couldn’t show up for me I could show up for service.  

Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change. I had moved into a small low level apartment where I felt like I didn’t want to wake up one more day. I hated life, I hated people, and I hated me. At 400 pounds I had no reason to go on. Following the completion of the 12 steps and with a loss of 185 pounds my attitude started to change. I could move again, and I wanted the world to know it. I had life again and I wanted to embrace every moment I was awake. I had a reason to live again.

Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. When I first heard this promise, I wondered what weight and compulsive eating has to do with economic security. But I also knew that I struggled with many compulsive behaviors including debiting and spending. I began to use the steps in other areas of my life and economically my life did change. I no longer feared the future. I began to lean on the big guy and despite my poor money and credit state, I moved into a downtown Highrise, something I had not thought possible until finding recovery.

We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. People used to baffle me. People with behaviors and emotions could upset me or ruin my day as easily as possible. I found communication and relationships to be difficult and not worth it. After doing the steps especially step four and nine, I began to take the focus off myself and placed it on others. I finally realized that I could not change or control anyone, not even me. Situations which used to baffle me now teach me.  

We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. I can’t, God can, I think I’ll let him. I have this belief that God won’t walk us to it if God can’t walk us through it.

Are these extravagant promises? Not a chance, these are the most realistic promises since all over the world people are changing their lives. We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. People are changing their lives and these promises are kept for many who have come before us. They will always materialize if we work for them. It works if you work it!

​Diane D.

I’ve been graced with thirty-six years in program and twenty-nine in abstinence. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that I’ve been blessed with 10,585 one-days-at-a-time of abstinence. The Alcoholic’s Anonymous Big Book on page 85 says” It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.”  Substitute food for alcohol and compulsive eating for alcoholism, and it gets my attention to do whatever is necessary to stay in fit spiritual condition.
I have a rigorous plan each day to maintain this fit condition. The items have changed over the years, but my commitment has been to “going to any lengths” to do the discipline. 
Two of my daily reminders of fit spiritual condition are:

• The most spiritual thing I do all day is to weigh and measure my food. (This is how I do my food plan but could work with any abstinent food plan.)
• My abstinence is the most important thing in my life without exception.

These don’t sound “spiritual” as do prayer and meditation. But they are the gutsiest beliefs I go by to demonstrate that yes, I believe there is a better solution than compulsive eating, and I will have no doubts about my commitment.
I’ll end with gratitude for the Twelve Step way of life, and yes, after 36 years in program, much of my life is beyond my wildest dreams.

​Carrie A. 

I heard it called 'God', as a toddler of three
and during my childhood, it was inside of me
I sat in the church pew, I prayed to the sky
I sought out some 'big guy', but I didn't know why

upwards and skyward, they said good children go
but should you be bad, you will go down below
so what did it mean then, to be good or be bad?
I soon came to realize, it was thoughts that I had

I fought those thoughts often, inside my own head 
but could never control, those things that I did 
rot full with trouble, I stumbled through years
ever with something, to drown out my fears

was always a crutch, that I used as a power 
I drank or I gambled, or I ate by the hour
nothing external, could help set me free 
nor was it willpower, it was inside of me

a gentle voice whispered, It won't kill the pain 
but off in the darkness, the food called my name 
I ate and I ate, and I pushed that pain down 
but one day I heard it, that comforting sound 

It offered to guide me, to free me from strife 
and with no strings attached, It rebuilt my life 
but what should I call you? I questioned that voice 
I'm of your understanding, so my name is your choice

I have been called father, and some call me God
others say H.P. one even said Claude
of my own understanding? I glanced at the sky
if I get to choose, I'll call you 'big guy'

so I trusted that power, that was greater than me
I had tried it alone, but had never been free
the first step, he said, you need to surrender 
and in the next two steps, a faith you must render 

step four and step five, are a moral house cleaning
where voicing your harms, is a chance at redeeming
in step 6 you become willing, to turn things around
to accept you are powerless a new start you've found

by step 7 you find, you're less likely to stumble
a new person inside, as you learn to become humble
at times you've harmed others, or family and friends
in steps 8 and step 9 you can make amends

in step ten you review, the day that has passed
making amends, leaving things in the past
then it urged me to listen a message was there 
to find the solution you reach out in prayer

step 12 is of bringing, that message to others
those who still suffer, your sisters and brothers
to keep what you have, that peace and that calm
you have to serve others, and pass it along

so I live in recovery, one day at a time
that life of the past, I have left it behind
I live for the moment now, hour by hour
that 'big guy' walks with me, as my higher power

Diane D