Step Two Work Guide: Finding Hope and Defining Your Higher Power

How to Use This Work Guide

Step Two is the Step of hope and openness. The exercises in this guide are designed to help you explore your own understanding of a Higher Power, work through any resistance to the spiritual dimension of the program, and begin to develop the hope that is the foundation of recovery. There are no wrong answers here — only honest ones.

Exercise 1: Your Spiritual History

Write about your relationship with spirituality and religion throughout your life. Consider:

• What was the religious or spiritual environment of your childhood?
• What positive experiences have you had with spirituality or religion?
• What negative experiences have you had with spirituality or religion?
• Where are you now in your relationship with spirituality?

This exercise is not about judging your spiritual history — it is about understanding where you are starting from.

Exercise 2: Defining Your Higher Power

Write your own definition of a "Power greater than yourself." Remember that this definition does not have to match anyone else's. It does not have to be the God of any particular religion. It only has to be something that is genuinely larger than your own ego and that you can genuinely believe might be a source of help.

Some questions to consider:

• What do I believe about the nature of the universe?
• Have I ever experienced something that felt larger than myself?
• What do I find genuinely awe-inspiring?
• If I could believe in a Higher Power, what would it be like?

Exercise 3: The Evidence of Recovery

Think of people you know — in the fellowship or in your life — who have recovered from addiction. Write about what you observe in them. What has changed for them? What do they have that you want? Is it possible that what happened for them could happen for you?

Exercise 4: Working Through Resistance

If you have resistance to the spiritual dimension of Step Two, write about it honestly. What specifically are you resistant to? Is it the concept of God? The word "God"? The idea of surrendering control? The association with religion? Write about where the resistance comes from and what it would mean to set it aside, even temporarily.

Exercise 5: A Letter to Hope

Write a letter to the concept of hope. Tell hope what your relationship with it has been — when you have had it, when you have lost it, what it would mean to have it now. This exercise is not about being optimistic; it is about being honest about your current relationship with the possibility of recovery.

Questions for Discussion with Your Sponsor

• What is my current understanding of a Higher Power?
• What is my biggest obstacle to believing that recovery is possible for me?
• What evidence do I have that recovery is possible?
• Am I willing to be willing to believe?

Exercise 6: The "Acting As If" Experiment

For one week, act as if you believe that a Power greater than yourself can restore you to sanity. This does not require that you actually believe it — it only requires that you act as if you do. Pray as if prayer works. Attend meetings as if the fellowship has wisdom to offer. Follow your sponsor's suggestions as if they might help. At the end of the week, write about what you noticed. Did acting as if change anything?

Exercise 7: Sanity in Recovery

Step Two says that a Power greater than ourselves "could restore us to sanity." This implies that our thinking and behavior in active addiction were, in some sense, insane. Write about the ways in which your thinking and behavior in active addiction were insane — the ways in which you continued to do things that were clearly not working, the ways in which you believed things that were clearly not true, the ways in which you acted against your own values and interests.

Then write about what "sanity" looks like to you in recovery. What would it mean to think and act sanely? What would your life look like if you were restored to sanity?

Exercise 8: Finding Your Higher Power in the Fellowship

For people who struggle with the concept of a personal God, the fellowship itself can serve as a Higher Power — at least initially. The collective wisdom of people who have achieved recovery, the accumulated experience of the program, the love and support of the community — these are all forms of a power greater than the individual self.

Write about what the fellowship means to you. What wisdom have you found there? What support? What evidence of recovery? Can you trust the fellowship, even if you cannot yet trust a personal God? This is a legitimate starting point for Step Two, and many people have found their way to a deeper spiritual understanding by beginning here.

Signs That You Have Genuinely Worked Step Two

You have genuinely worked Step Two when:

• You have a working definition of a Higher Power that is meaningful to you
• You genuinely believe — or are willing to believe — that recovery is possible for you
• You have identified the specific forms of insanity that characterized your active addiction
• You feel a sense of hope — however tentative — about the possibility of recovery
• You are ready to make the decision of Step Three