Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families

Online Meetings Tuesday 7:00 PM Eastern in the Meeting Room

PROTECT YOUR ANONYMITY! This site, the chat/meeting room and message board is viewable by the general online public. When registering on the message board use only your first name and last initial to identify yourself. On both the board and in the chat room, use a nickname that others outside of Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families do not know you by.

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: the 12 steps to reparenting and reclaiming ourselves & other wisdoms


Moderator_in service

Status: Offline
Posts: 18149
Date:
the 12 steps to reparenting and reclaiming ourselves & other wisdoms


By Patricia OGorman Ph.D., and Phil Diaz, M.S.W.

Step 1Admitted our  powerlessness to change our past that our lives had become unmanageable and became willing to surrender to our love and not to our fear.
Step 2Find hope in the belief that recovery is possible through faith and an acceptance of the fact that we are never really alone.
Step 3Learned to let go of compulsive self-reliance by reaching out to our Higher Parent.
Step 4Made an honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses and accepted the impact our childhood had had upon us as adults.
Step 5Learned to share our self-parenting issues with others without self-recrimination or shame.
Step 6Become ready to change by giving up the demand to be perfect.
Step 7Learned to embrace our uniqueness and connectedness to others in a spirit of love and humility.
Step 8Learned self-forgiveness and made amends to our inner child.
Step 9Healed our inner child by realizing the promises of self-parenting in our daily life.
Step 10Practiced daily self-acceptance and learned to live in the present.
Step 11Allowed the divinity in us to shine forth by surrendering to our Higher Power.
Step 12Having had this spiritual awakening, we reached out to others in the spirit of giving, love and community.

Your Higher Parent and Your Inner Child

Each of us is composed of two vital selves, an inner child and a Higher Parent.  Your inner child is the center of your love, your feelings, your spontaneity, your curiosity.  It is the part of you which is exquisitely alive, vital, creative and from which you draw your energy. It is the part of yourself that feels your pain, that needs love and support and feels hopeless without it.Your Higher Parent is the center of your inner wisdom, your intuitive knowledge.  This is your problem-solving self, the part of you that will in healthy families gently and lovingly guide your inner child.  This is also the part of you who protects your inner child.  Your higher Parent is the part of you unaffected by your ego or your feelings.  It is the transcendent part of yourself, a direct channel to your Higher Power.

Vulnerable Cores

Living in an abusive family can traumatize the vulnerable cores of your being. And when traumatized, your inner child, deprived of the wisdom of your Higher Parent, may develop defenses that result in what we a compulsively dependent and what other call a co-dependent orientation to the world.

The Compulsive Dependent Self

With compulsive dependency, our inner child is locked away for fear that her spontaneity will cause embarrassment, humiliation or worse, overwhelming pain. The voice of the Higher Parent is silenced for fear that it will rock the familys precarious boat, resulting in rejection. The compulsively dependent self that emerges is often controlling and needing to rescue others, or in turn to be rescued by them. Or due to their compulsive dependency, they will turn to other things in their search for completeness, such as overeating, compulsive sexual activity, compulsive spending, or working excessively, all in an attempt to be filled up.

The Promises of Self-Parenting

Self-Parenting is about freeing you inner child and releasing the voice of your Higher Parent, about accepting and nurturing yourself.  The promise of self-parenting is that you will be able to live in the present and leave the past behind and learn to unconditionally love yourself.  Based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12 Steps to Self-Parenting, provided for you above, is about granting yourself a second change to parent the child within.  It is about learning to nurture yourself through self-forgiveness.It is about letting God in your life and learning to reach out for love.  It is about letting go the baggage of the past healing olds wounds, and learning how not to recreate these painful patterns in your present. It is about allowing your inner child to be spontaneous, joyful, alive, free.  It is about allowing your Higher Parent to guide you with you inner wisdom.

It is about learning to joining your Higher Parent and inner child in a healthy manner, making true intimacy with other possible, allowing you to break the bonds of isolation and compulsive or co-dependent behavior.  It is about learning through healthy self-parenting to use our Higher Parent as a beacon of light to guide us through the storms and dark times, while your inner child releases the healing energy of love and makes it available to you and those around you.

All of these constitute the total process of recovery. Self-parenting is about the long road home the road from loneliness and self-doubt, to self-validation, unconditional self-love and intimacy.  The road from the pain of the past to the joy, unconditional self-love and fullness of the present.



-- Edited by mamalioness on Thursday 30th of August 2018 07:10:29 PM



-- Edited by mamalioness on Thursday 30th of August 2018 07:11:30 PM

__________________

ROSIE,  a work in progress!!! 

Keep it simple__Easy does it__Keeping the focus on me--AND___"Forgiveness doesn't excuse bad behavior, but does prevent bad behavior from destroying your heart" ~ Unknown



Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 4
Date:

As someone restarting my journey dealing with this, this article was helpful. Thank you.

__________________

The Poet



Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 3
Date:

Very helpful. Is there a related book on this? Thank you for your post.

__________________
Jen H.


Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 21961
Date:

Welcome to MIP! 

Jenny, there are loads of great ACA 12 Step books.  The ACA World Service Organization has a "Yellow Workbook" at https://shop.adultchildren.org/collections/books/products/12_step_workbook-spiral_bound.

Pull up a chair and join our experience, strength, and hope!



__________________

In Recovery,

Princess K.



Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 1610
Date:

This is so beautiful! I hope I can find my way :) As I read this for the first time, I can feel my inner child jumping up and down , giggling, clapper her hands and feeling such joy! While my Higher Parent guides me and says, "Let's read this again". I hope I can find my way :)


__________________

April 

"We were entirely ready to begin the healing process with the aid of our Higher Power"  Tony A's Step 6



Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 21961
Date:

I'm sure you can, April!

We didn't get this way overnight, and we won't recover overnight.  In my humble opinion (IMHO), it's a lifetime journey.

Welcome!!



__________________

In Recovery,

Princess K.



Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 3
Date:

Step 1- I admit I am powerless to change the past but I am so afraid and don't know how to change it. I'm afraid that my spouse will leave me, afraid that things won't change,afraid of the damage this is all causing my own children,afraid of repeating these relationships and I'm afraid that this pain will swallow me whole.

__________________


Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 21961
Date:

Thanks for sharing, Chris.

I used to live a pretty fear-based life.

Now I look at what I can change, and what I can't.  Worry is useless, but it's hard to just stop. 



__________________

In Recovery,

Princess K.

WJ


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 1
Date:

so helpful. like others, I went to ACOA in NYC decades ago and am grateful on my return now to see that it includes all kinds of family dysfunction and trauma. just ordered yellow book! Thank you for this page.


__________________


Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 21961
Date:

Welcome to MIP, WJ!! 



__________________

In Recovery,

Princess K.



Moderator_in service

Status: Offline
Posts: 18149
Date:

WJ, welcome. I am glad you like the page and the main page is even more unbelievably good as far as information and workbooks and Ill kinds of good stuff to do to help you with your program

__________________

ROSIE,  a work in progress!!! 

Keep it simple__Easy does it__Keeping the focus on me--AND___"Forgiveness doesn't excuse bad behavior, but does prevent bad behavior from destroying your heart" ~ Unknown



Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 5
Date:

Agreed, this is very helpful and the language describes so well how I feel. I have done my own version of healing for a long time, but it never stuck. I just ordered the workbook and would like to recommit to this journey.

__________________


Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 21961
Date:

Welcome, BlueBathrobe!! 



__________________

In Recovery,

Princess K.



Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 1
Date:

Wonderful message!

__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.

Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us