Step 2 • We realized we are worthy of receiving unconditional loving support from our higher power, our community, and from ourselves.
“Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.”
–– Lao Tzu
While anchoring the knowing, “I am a blessing to the world,” you can now allow yourself to receive all good things life has to offer. The Universe wants to support all your needs being met- if you will allow this. To attract the support you need, say:
“Yes! I allow all my needs to be met, because I deserve it!
Can you allow yourself to receive the blessings that want to come your way? The Second Step invites you to shift your approach to life from force to flow. For thousands of years we have lived in a masculine culture that has suppressed women and the feminine-side within all of us. Many of us developed a wall of masculine pride around ourselves; the notion “I’ll do it myself at all costs.” Too much pride kept us unteachable, unreachable, out of touch with our own feelings, and disconnected from intimacy and a loving community because we were usually overworking to prove ourselves. We became over-driven human-doings instead of human beings.
Receptivity means slowing down and opening your senses to what is here and now. If you have not been receiving well, it is likely you feel depleted. If you don’t fill yourself up consciously, it is almost certain you will allow the unconscious default of your compulsive behavior to take over, which would leave you feeling more heavy, tired and toxic. How do you become more receptive to a loving Universe? You practice nurturing yourself and allowing others to nurture you on all levels: Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, and Spiritually. Here are just a few examples out of hundreds of choices.
Physically, if you have been “going guns,” you may have adrenaline fatigue, and need more rest. Your body may need some extra pampering, like getting more sleep, taking a day or two off, drinking more pure water, eating nourishing meals, talking a stroll in the park or hike in the country, relaxing in a spa, sweating out toxins in a sauna, and receive a soothing massage!
Mentally: You can feed your mind with inspiring conversation, videos, and books that expand your consciousness.
Emotionally, you can love your inner child by finding out how he/she feels and what he/she needs to be happier. Once you find out what he/she wants, it’s very important you do those things, like going dancing, watching an uplifting movie, buying something special to wear, or hanging out with your loving friends.
Spiritual nurturing is prayer and mediation. Instead of worrying about problems, prayer is asking your higher power to handle it, so you can get back to enjoying the present moment. Are you willing to receive a healing if you need this? Just ask, and it is given.
The most crucial space for healing and rejuvenation is rest. We must learn how to rest our body, mind, and emotions, so our Great Spirit can rejuvenate us. Let all your concerns rest, and allow yourself to be supported with this. For many people rest is perhaps the most undervalued way of to spending their time, yet it is while being in a state of rest, that we connect most with our core healing energy and deepest dreams, desires, intuition, and inspiration.
You don’t have to do everything yourself. Allow yourself to be supported, to receive the answers and solutions to your life’s challenges instead worrying and complaining. Open your eyes and recognize all you are receiving. Practice gratitude for every ounce of support you receive from the Universe.
Instead of over-efforting, we manifest better by asking for it in prayer, and allowing it (or something better) to come to us in its own way. This way, we are not mentally obsessing about how to make it happen. The impatient compulsive mind makes life harder and more complicated than it needs to be. Your higher power can orchestrate your needs being met with jaw dropping synchronicity for the greatest good of all concerned, if you will simply ask and trust.
Are you running or are you touching?
The main agenda of our compulsive mind is to escape what we are feeling. Besides doing compulsive behaviors and substances, we may find ourselves making hasty conclusions like leaving a painful relationship, telling off a family member, walking out on our job, or moving to another town. But we always carry ourselves where ever we go, including our unhealed pain. The pain driven compulsive mind tends to think in extremes and make poor decisions. Generally, the recovery process requires one to avoid hasty decisions. You need to have a sense of safety and steadiness in your life so you can do the work of facing and clearing multiple layers of inner pain. Each time you clear a layer, you are going to feel lighter and freer.
Our compulsions had us avoiding our pain at all costs. Most of us eventually discovered we were depressed because of the accumulation of painful memories and beliefs we didn’t know how to process and release. Most of us bought the insane belief there is something wrong with us for feeling down, that our negative feelings are bad, and are to be avoided at all cost. We were terrified our depression would take us down, like being caught in an undertow. Again, we felt the strong compulsive need to use a substance or behavior to keep our lives afloat. But by avoiding our painful feelings we could never experience the hope of our life renewal. Like heeding the warning light on a car, we needed to learn to pay attention to our feelings in order to heal and grow.
How to Touch your Feelings?
Get support! People in recovery virtually always need the support of a counselor, coach, or unconditionally loving friend, for help with feeling their feelings. You may have a long story to share with some untrue assumptions. For example, because of a loss, failure, or childhood trauma, you may have concluded you are a failure, or unwanted. These kind of beliefs against yourself are sure to make you feel depressed. And they are not true. You are not your past experiences, conditions or circumstances. You are the unlimited potential of Spirit, always innocent no matter what you have done. We came here to learn and grow often by making mis-takes, like a child falling down and getting up many times before it learns to walk. There is nothing wrong with your trial and error learning and growth process – unless you judge it as wrong. Our higher Power, does not judge. It is unconditional love.
During this second step, we learned there was nothing wrong with us for slipping or falling down as we were finally facing our compulsive behaviors and underlying painful feelings. We are innocent souls learning to walk through life in a whole new way.
We learned it was our mind’s judgments of ourselves and our outer world that snagged our forward momentum. Thus, we needed to be super gentle with ourselves – as touching our pain required a tremendous amount of compassion.
In retrospect, many of us realized we were just afraid to grieve, to feel the depths of our fears and losses. Before, we may have had a lot of judgments but couldn’t allow ourselves to truly feel our feelings, and this put our life into a kind of drought. Once we gave into becoming emotionally honest, we could experience renewal, like a heavy rain giving new life to the dry earth.
While experiencing deep feelings without wallowing in self pity or victimhood, we humbly asked for our higher power’s help with receiving a new way of life. We learned to loosen up our judgments around our challenging circumstances, find acceptance for where we are, and trust our divine flow.
2ND STEP ACTIVITIES
The 2nd Step invites you to slow down or stop what you are doing so you can rest in your Being. Feelings, and the need for healing may come to the surface. Get more rest. If needed, have the courage to ask for support from a holistic health care provider.
AFFIRMATIONS
I rest and receive loving support for my healing.
I trust all my needs and desires are being met, as I surrender to my Divine flow.