"take the steps...transform your life"

Welcome to Design for Living

This Design for Living experience opens the door to divine transformation and the possibility of deeper peace, joy, love, freedom, and accountability in your recovery.  

Over the next 14 weeks, you will deepen your understanding and experience of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous by completing the readings and investing in the guidebook's reflection questions with a willingness to practice vigorous honesty and meaningful self-examination. As part of this journey, you will also have read the entire Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and 12 Steps & 12 Traditions (12 and 12). 

Throughout the weeks of Design for Living, you are encouraged to reflect on the areas of your life you wish to transform and to share your insights weekly with a sharing partner and/or sponsor. Many people spend 4 to 8 hours per week engaging with the readings, reflection questions, and conversations, and participants from 15 days to 53 years of recovery have found this process deeply transformative, with many returning for another Design for Living experience.

This journey invites you to explore not only alcoholism but also the many ways powerlessness and unmanageability may show up in your life—such as challenges in relationships, finances, compulsive behaviors, sexuality, health, and more. 

 About the Design for Living Guidebook

The Design for Living guidebook is your companion throughout the 14-week experience. You will need to download and print this guidebook so that you can write your responses (the only cost to you). You also may want to save this guidebook to your device to refer back to anytime. 

 Layout format for each step in the guideline begins with: 

• the step as written in A.A. literature,
• a key promise,
• the related tradition,
• the spiritual principle word,
• a link to a recommended meditation,
• suggested readings & stories from both the Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) & Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12) books. 

The pages that follow after the initial page of the step include:

• key words to define,
• reflection questions,
• the related key passages for the step,
• and any supporting materials for that step

Meeting Format 

• Weekly Zoom call with the first session on Thursday, February 19 and concludes on Thursday, May 21.
• Zoom call starts at 6:30 PM ET and ends at 8:00 PM ET – Please join the Zoom call before 6:20 PM ET
• The first Zoom session serves as an introductory gathering.
• Beginning in week 2, one step will be covered each week, with 2 weeks allocated for Step 4
• Meeting opens with a prayer & reading, followed by an A.A. speaker who shares their experience, strength, and
   hope on the designated step.
 • After the speaker, there will be a meditation followed by participants being joined in a virtual room of 4 to 5
   people.
• Virtual breakout rooms provide each participant with the opportunity to share what the step means to them, their
   personal experience with it, or any reflections they wish to express.
 • The meeting concludes with a prayer at 8 PM ET. 

If you are facing challenges in any area of your life, or if you wish to deepen your program and strengthen your relationship with your Higher Power, yourself, or others through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Design for Living offers a courageous opportunity for transformation. 

 Questions?  Contact Mary Beth Kiefer via text/mobile: ‭(248) 336-0795‬