AWG Secular 12 Step Self-Esteem Group 🚀
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Code: 781927
Meeting description
It is not mandatory to turn on your mic or camera. Coming to listen is totally fine.
By taking part, we hold space for others, and ourselves, to participate in a way that is manageable for us as we exist right now.
It is not necessary to actively be doing the AWG 12 Steps in order to be a full participant.
Any contact with the group and its resources can be beneficial as long as it’s sustainable for each of us as individuals. Many of us participate simply by attending meetings.
As we participate in this meeting over time, we might find ourselves seeking to…
• Find our own concept of self-esteem and grow toward it
• Come to understand personal boundaries, their roles in our lives, and how to develop and maintain healthy boundaries
• Understand the concept of nonviolent detachment and how and when to enact it
• Develop more manageable lifestyles
• Develop a sense of self that leads to more health, well being, and manageability in our lives
• Release others from the responsibility of defining or reinforcing our sense of self-esteem
• Form personal goals about self-esteem and self-concept based on our own understanding of our own needs, as they exist today
AWG 12 Step Self-Esteem Readings
My hair odyssey
Looking back to pre-identification, my hair was one of the biggest visible pieces of evidence of my autism. Part 3 of 4 shares on body image.
My hair represents the intersection of two dynamics that defined my pre-identification years: needing to mask and not knowing what to project. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what to get my hair to "say" about me. And even if I had known, I didn't have the spoons to do anything about it. I lived for years in hair purgatory: looking back, my hair was one of the biggest visible pieces of evidence of my autism during my pre-identification years.
I've gone through hair evolutions. Short hair, buzzcut, shoulder-length, butt-length, platinum blonde, and even bald, shaved with a razor. Each time I made the decision to try something new, part of me hoped, and even believed, that it would lead me to my true self. Am I the girl with the pixie cut who's the life of the party? Am I a quasi-monk who others silently esteem from afar? No matter what look I tried, the answer was always no. I was just still me… but what did that mean? My self-image and self-esteem were a big blank, and my hair was a symptom of that.
Today, I'm sporting the lowest-possible-spoons look: Head and Shoulders once a day, brush it once or twice a day (mostly to prevent hair from getting all over the place, thus costing me spoons to clean the floor), never cutting it, never styling it. I bunch it up on the top of my head when my neck gets hot. At last, I feel like it's "my" hair, because the link between its appearance, my identity, and my day-to-day needs and capabilities is clear. That part of my self-image and self-esteem, at least, is now straightforward.
What about you? What's the relationship between your hair and your self-image? Self-esteem?
Share questions:
- What is your relationship with your hair?
- Where does your hair fit into your self-image? Sense of self-esteem?
- Has your relationship with your hair changed since you learned you are autistic?
- Taking inspiration from our Steps, where does your hair fit into your personal values? Your self-care? Your relationships with other individuals and groups?
- If you could change one thing about your relationship with your hair, what would it be?
- Any tools, strategies, or resources to share?
- Anything else to add?
AWG 12 Step Self-Esteem Workbook
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3