Chapters

• Intro 00:00
• Topic 02:59
• This Week in Recovery 43:20
• Phone Calls 50:00

We are a self-supporting community. Join us in the following ways:

• Sustaining Partners - Join by making monthly donations for one year. You will receive recovered podcast merchandise, like tee shirts, coffee mugs, and water bottles. Your name will also be announced each month you donate.
• Episode Sponsors: Join by making a one-time donation. Your name will be announced as an episode sponsor each time you donate.
• Calling Sponsors - You can sponsor our show by donating your vital experience, strength, and hope. Add content to the show. Call in and donate your valuable time.

Recovery Literature Links (Amazon Affiliate Links):

• The Big Book - Alcoholics Anonymous
• Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
• Worry Less Now - Co-Host Gigi L.
• Powerless But Not Helpless - Co-Host Buddy C.
• 10 Years Sober - Listener Hannah B.
• When Bad Things Happen to Good People - Harold S. Kushner

Contact

• [email protected]
• Recovered Podcast Website

Show Notes:

Welcome back to Recovered, the podcast where we tackle the Twelve Steps with honesty, humor, and heart. Today, we're taking on one of the most famous—and often feared—steps in the entire program: Step 4. The step that asks us to make a "searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." It sounds intimidating, like an audit of all our flaws and failures. But after committing to turning our will and lives over in Step 3, this is where the real action begins. This is where we stop playing the victim and start cleaning house, shining a light on the resentments, fears, and selfish behaviors that have been keeping us stuck.

It's natural to approach this step with a mix of dread and defiance. Who wants to sit down and meticulously document the "exact nature of our wrongs"? Yet, our experience shows that this inventory is the key to finally getting out of our own way. Think of it not as a list of everything wrong with you, but as an honest self-assessment. You're identifying the assets and the liabilities, the strengths and the defects of character, so you can build a stable future. Step 4 isn't about wallowing in shame; it's about gaining the clarity and self-awareness necessary to truly understand our part in our own chaos. Join us as we share our journeys through the four columns, and discover how facing our fears head-on actually transforms them into freedom.

Sustaining Partners: Amy, Jim, Lois, Schez, Larry

Episode Sponsors: Claudine