Here in Depressed Anonymous we are on a journey of studying and applying the principles of the 12 Steps in our lives. Even the wonderful 12 Steps can begin to feel stale and need to be renewed. Any important concept can become stale and become difficult to connect with. It could be the Steps, the Traditions, prayers you pray to your Higher Power, really anything of importance.

Here is my suggestion. Change the wording slightly so you can interact with the concepts in a new way. In case you didn’t notice the 12 Steps are written in the past tense, and in the third person. When I need to mix things up I will state them in the present tense, and in the first person.

The present tense, first person 12 Steps:

1. I admit that I am powerless over depression, that my life is unmanageable.
2. I believe that a power greater than me can restore me to sanity.
3. I continually decide to turn my life and will over to the care of that Higher Power.
4. I make fearless and moral inventories of myself.
5. I admit to my Higher Power, to myself, and to others the exact nature of my wrongs.
6. I become willing each day to allow my Higher Power to remove my shortcomings.
7. I humbly ask my Higher Power each day to remove my defects of character.
8. I make a list of people that I’ve harmed and I become willing to make amends to them all.
9. I make direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. I continue to take a personal inventory daily, and when I am wrong I promptly admit it.
11. I seek each day through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with my Higher Power as I understand my Higher Power. I pray only for the knowledge of my Higher Power’s will for me and the power to carry that out.
12. Being awakened each day by following these steps I try to carry this message to others, and to practice the principles in all areas of my life.

When I struggle with the concepts of the Traditions I will reword them and try to apply them to myself as an individual.

Stuck in the rut of referring to your Higher Power as “Heavenly Father”? Try on for size “Heavenly Mother” and see if it has any impact on your relationship with your Higher Power.

God is bigger than the box you try to put Him in.
– Slogan heard at a recovery meeting.

Don’t be constrained by the words of the concepts that guide you in your life. The concepts are bigger than words. Alter the words slightly and see what impact it has on you.

Yours in recovery,
Bill R