What is BBA?
BBA stands for Big Book Awakening. Big Book Awakening is a way of going through the 12 Steps using the Big Book. A way that leads to a spiritual experience sufficient enough to get and stay abstinent for good and for all. Many 12-step fellowship is around the world use the big book as conference approved literature, but few seem to know that the big book is actually a textbook, or how to navigate and understand it. BBA demystifies that process.
What is a Step Guide?
A BBA step-guide is someone who takes you through the 12 steps, BBA style. You can do this with a Step Guide either one-on-one with someone who has completed the work, or in a workshop group.
How Does It Work?
The BBA workbook contains 12 Steps (and 23 weeks) of written transcriptions, to be written by hand in my own big Book, and along the way I inherently personalize the book to include my own story by proxy. In order to do this effectively, I need a BBA step guide - someone who has worked the steps not just in a 12-step program, but using the BBA Workbook- someone who understands what we are after in the BBA method. Buying the workbook and going through it on your own (or with a sponsor/buddy) will not give you the results you are after. You cannot transmit an experience to yourself you do not yet have.
Using this Step-Study method, we in BBA show members how to turn all of the statements in the Big Book into questions. These questions become our Considerations.
We consider our truth, carefully, honestly. We begin each step-guide meeting with a prayer to set aside everything we think we know, for an open mind and a new experience. No matter how long you have been working the 12 steps, how much you know about the program, the steps, God, or yourself, we set it all aside. Even those with many years in 12 step programs find a tremendous freedom in approaching the work this way. You can read about their experiences here.
With a God of our understanding, we consider these questions deeply before God - and discuss in meetings with step guide or sponsor. We consider them carefully; we ask ourselves in the first step “where have I thought, felt, and acted with Over/Under Eating and Body Obsession like Bill did with Alcohol and Drinking"?…We have a particularly interesting way of taking the Third Step that pulls many eyes wide open and elicits a shift in one’s awakening.
Our Fourth Step has an expanded 3rd and 4th column like no other. This original, more detailed method uncovers exactly what is blocking us from being the person God would have us be. In steps that follow, we hold these uncovered blocks up to God, and humbly ask him to remove them, root and branch. When worked properly, we can clearly see where our resentments were concerned…how our delusional thinking drove us to have false beliefs, then we adopted a certain attitude based on false beliefs, which in turn caused us to take certain actions based on falsehoods, that eventually led to us placing ourselves in a position to be harmed, and/or harm others. Truly understanding the cycle that we create, we then call upon God to give us the power to break that cycle by asking God to remove our fears, and empower our faith.
A BBA Step Guide knows specific questions that must be asked in the 5th step to unlock the key to this freedom. Thereby lifting the veil of denial, we can see clearly that anytime I have a problem with someone else, the problem is really with me. As long as my happiness, safety and security depends on the love and approval of others (or having others do as I wish) I will never be free. I can never control another person and the choices they make. I can never win the approval of those who have none, or garner the love of those who have no love to give. Therefore, in order for my life to improve, I do not need to change other people, places and things to suit me. It is only I who needs to change. And haven't I tried to do this on my own for years? This level of change - a psychic experience, a sea shift - seems only possible in any deep or effective way by relying on God completely…But how can I do that for good and for all?
In Steps 6 and 7, we consider deeply, is God is everything, or is God nothing? We face the freedom question, what will it be? In the BBA work I see undeniably that God can change me in beautiful ways, when I rely upon him more completely. With the BBA method, I can be placed in a position of neutrality not just with eating and body -but with all things in my life. The BBA stepguide shows me in a miraculous way, HOW to build the Foundation, the Cornerstones and the Archway that I must walk through in order to have a new freedom and a new way of life.
In Steps 8 and 9, I now rely upon God as my Father, the parent and protector I've always dreamed of. With him at my back, I am free to move safely in this world, without fear. I am always loved, guided and protected. I make amends and set things right, relying upon God for the courage and guidance to do so. I now rely upon God as my Principal, my one true employer. Fear of economic insecurity leaves me and I know God has a purpose for me, and being now unblocked, I am able to see it. I have value and service to offer this world, as his child of talent and worth. He will place my direction before me, I needn't live by self propulsion anymore. I embrace God as my Director who will never leave me astray. God guides me to know where to go and what to do to have a purposeful life. I am no longer running the show, saying to myself many times each day, thy will be done.
Steps 10 and 11 are a daily discipline, and in BBA are often worked together…your step-guide shows you this method. We of alcoholic and addicted minds are undisciplined, so we let God discipline us in this simple way.practicing these steps daily keep us unblocked, and open channel for God's love, guidance and protection. It allows us to continue to grow along spiritual lines, expanding our conscious contact with God as we age. Big Book Awakening takes the emphasis off of meetings and the sponsor, and all other human aid, and places the emphasis of reliance where it ought to be – on God. In Step 12, having had a spiritual awakening, we carry this message and method of studying BBA to others, for fun and for free, continually practicing this new way of living in all our affairs.
Since working with others (the 12th step) is one entire side of our triangle, we know it is imperative to getting and staying abstinent from picking up and acting out for good and for all. Bill W. describes repeatedly throughout the Big Book that working with others is the one thing that will keep him abstinent and free when all other methods fail. He describes working with others as our primary purpose, and the key to our freedom. Working with others is not giving advice or wanting another person to rely upon you; true sponsorship is simply showing another person how to *access* the power of God in all their affairs. Essentially, how and when to find the answers to all the questions they have today, through a deep and effective relationship with a God of their own understanding.
We refer back to the circle and the triangle, regularly asking myself, if living these 3 sides of the triangle is the gift of being recovered, where am I today in the circle and the triangle?
BBA stands for Big Book Awakening. Big Book Awakening is a way of going through the 12 Steps using the Big Book. A way that leads to a spiritual experience sufficient enough to get and stay abstinent for good and for all. Many 12-step fellowship is around the world use the big book as conference approved literature, but few seem to know that the big book is actually a textbook, or how to navigate and understand it. BBA demystifies that process.
What is a Step Guide?
A BBA step-guide is someone who takes you through the 12 steps, BBA style. You can do this with a Step Guide either one-on-one with someone who has completed the work, or in a workshop group.
How Does It Work?
The BBA workbook contains 12 Steps (and 23 weeks) of written transcriptions, to be written by hand in my own big Book, and along the way I inherently personalize the book to include my own story by proxy. In order to do this effectively, I need a BBA step guide - someone who has worked the steps not just in a 12-step program, but using the BBA Workbook- someone who understands what we are after in the BBA method. Buying the workbook and going through it on your own (or with a sponsor/buddy) will not give you the results you are after. You cannot transmit an experience to yourself you do not yet have.
Using this Step-Study method, we in BBA show members how to turn all of the statements in the Big Book into questions. These questions become our Considerations.
We consider our truth, carefully, honestly. We begin each step-guide meeting with a prayer to set aside everything we think we know, for an open mind and a new experience. No matter how long you have been working the 12 steps, how much you know about the program, the steps, God, or yourself, we set it all aside. Even those with many years in 12 step programs find a tremendous freedom in approaching the work this way. You can read about their experiences here.
With a God of our understanding, we consider these questions deeply before God - and discuss in meetings with step guide or sponsor. We consider them carefully; we ask ourselves in the first step “where have I thought, felt, and acted with Over/Under Eating and Body Obsession like Bill did with Alcohol and Drinking"?…We have a particularly interesting way of taking the Third Step that pulls many eyes wide open and elicits a shift in one’s awakening.
Our Fourth Step has an expanded 3rd and 4th column like no other. This original, more detailed method uncovers exactly what is blocking us from being the person God would have us be. In steps that follow, we hold these uncovered blocks up to God, and humbly ask him to remove them, root and branch. When worked properly, we can clearly see where our resentments were concerned…how our delusional thinking drove us to have false beliefs, then we adopted a certain attitude based on false beliefs, which in turn caused us to take certain actions based on falsehoods, that eventually led to us placing ourselves in a position to be harmed, and/or harm others. Truly understanding the cycle that we create, we then call upon God to give us the power to break that cycle by asking God to remove our fears, and empower our faith.
A BBA Step Guide knows specific questions that must be asked in the 5th step to unlock the key to this freedom. Thereby lifting the veil of denial, we can see clearly that anytime I have a problem with someone else, the problem is really with me. As long as my happiness, safety and security depends on the love and approval of others (or having others do as I wish) I will never be free. I can never control another person and the choices they make. I can never win the approval of those who have none, or garner the love of those who have no love to give. Therefore, in order for my life to improve, I do not need to change other people, places and things to suit me. It is only I who needs to change. And haven't I tried to do this on my own for years? This level of change - a psychic experience, a sea shift - seems only possible in any deep or effective way by relying on God completely…But how can I do that for good and for all?
In Steps 6 and 7, we consider deeply, is God is everything, or is God nothing? We face the freedom question, what will it be? In the BBA work I see undeniably that God can change me in beautiful ways, when I rely upon him more completely. With the BBA method, I can be placed in a position of neutrality not just with eating and body -but with all things in my life. The BBA stepguide shows me in a miraculous way, HOW to build the Foundation, the Cornerstones and the Archway that I must walk through in order to have a new freedom and a new way of life.
In Steps 8 and 9, I now rely upon God as my Father, the parent and protector I've always dreamed of. With him at my back, I am free to move safely in this world, without fear. I am always loved, guided and protected. I make amends and set things right, relying upon God for the courage and guidance to do so. I now rely upon God as my Principal, my one true employer. Fear of economic insecurity leaves me and I know God has a purpose for me, and being now unblocked, I am able to see it. I have value and service to offer this world, as his child of talent and worth. He will place my direction before me, I needn't live by self propulsion anymore. I embrace God as my Director who will never leave me astray. God guides me to know where to go and what to do to have a purposeful life. I am no longer running the show, saying to myself many times each day, thy will be done.
Steps 10 and 11 are a daily discipline, and in BBA are often worked together…your step-guide shows you this method. We of alcoholic and addicted minds are undisciplined, so we let God discipline us in this simple way.practicing these steps daily keep us unblocked, and open channel for God's love, guidance and protection. It allows us to continue to grow along spiritual lines, expanding our conscious contact with God as we age. Big Book Awakening takes the emphasis off of meetings and the sponsor, and all other human aid, and places the emphasis of reliance where it ought to be – on God. In Step 12, having had a spiritual awakening, we carry this message and method of studying BBA to others, for fun and for free, continually practicing this new way of living in all our affairs.
Since working with others (the 12th step) is one entire side of our triangle, we know it is imperative to getting and staying abstinent from picking up and acting out for good and for all. Bill W. describes repeatedly throughout the Big Book that working with others is the one thing that will keep him abstinent and free when all other methods fail. He describes working with others as our primary purpose, and the key to our freedom. Working with others is not giving advice or wanting another person to rely upon you; true sponsorship is simply showing another person how to *access* the power of God in all their affairs. Essentially, how and when to find the answers to all the questions they have today, through a deep and effective relationship with a God of their own understanding.
We refer back to the circle and the triangle, regularly asking myself, if living these 3 sides of the triangle is the gift of being recovered, where am I today in the circle and the triangle?