​In need of support, we are here to help.   Click here to chat with an OA Member

OA Slogans

These are some saying that have been heard at OA meetings and other 12-step program meetings for many years:

          One day at a time
        
          First Things First
        
          Act as if
        
          If it works, don't fix it
        
          Easy Does It
        
          Let go and let God
        
          Keep coming back, it works if you work it
        
          Live and Let Live
        
          Cultivate an attitude of Gratitude
        
          This, too, shall pass
        
          Don't leave before the miracle happens.
        
          Expect miracles
        
          Coincidence is an 11 letter word for God
        
          You're as sick as your secrets

 Abstinence is the most important thing

 in my life.
 		 Don’t take that first bite
 If I don’t feel close to God, who moved?  Happy joyous and free 
          Expectations are premeditated resentments!
        
          Relapse is NOT a requirement
        
          
            Let us love you until you learn to
            

            love yourself.
          
        
          To thine own self be true
        
          
            A resentment is anger without the
            

            enthusiasm
          
        
          Stick with the winners
        
          Take an action, then let go of the results
        
          Win with the stickers
 Your bottom is wherever you stop digging  Feelings aren’t facts 
          
            Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a
            

            better past
          
        
          Progress, Not Perfection
        
          I'm an egomaniac with an inferiority complex
        
          Fake it till you make it
 STOP = Stop TO Pray  Push the pause button 
          EGO = Easing God Out (or Edging God Out)
        
          GOD = Good Orderly Direction
        
          FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real
        
          KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid
        
          
            HALT: Don't get too Hungry, Angry,
            

            Lonely or Tired.
          
        
          
          
            
              PUSH = Pray Until Something
              

              
              Happens
 
The elevator is broken – take the steps
  		 Keep your side of the street clean 
          Don't compare your insides to other people's 
 outsides
        
          One bite is too many and a 
 thousand is not enough
        
          Surrendering means you don't have to fight
 any more
        
          I can't, He can, I think I'll let Him 
 (Steps 1, 2 and 3)
        
          
            Resentment is like taking poison and
            

            hoping it kills the other person
          
        
          
            Serenity isn't freedom from
            

            the storm; 
 it is peace within the storm.
          
        
          
            Insanity is doing the same thing over
            

            and over and expecting different results
          
        
          
            Act yourself into right thinking
            

            instead of thinking yourself
            

            into right acting
          
        
          
          
            
              Stop telling God how big your problems are - 
 Start telling your problems how big
              

              
              your God is
            
          
        
          
            Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself,
            

            it's thinking of yourself less


 Give Up is Steps 1, 2 and 3; Throw Up is Steps

 4, 5, 6 and 7; Make Up is Steps 8 and 9; Grow

 Up is Steps 10, 11 and 12;

 

Heard at the OA Birthday Party in Los Angeles:

  • If you don’t want to have to turn it over, don’t pick it up.
  • There is a bottom below that the bottom I know.
  • Zero is easier than one.
  • If you can take it or leave it, you can have it.
  • OA is not about losing weight just as AA is not about rehabilitating livers.
  • A decision without action is a fantasy.
  • Insanity is the inability to remember with sufficient force the pain and suffering caused by compulsive overeating.

Other wisdom heard at 12-Step Meetings that are not exactly “sayings”:

  • Living in the present means not having conversations with people who are not in the room.
  • Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.
  • Failing to plan is planning to fail.
  • As a compulsive overeater, if I make food an option, it will always be the only option.
  • Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift – that’s why they call it the Present.
  • On Steps 6/7: I am convinced God removes my character defects by making them glaringly obvious when I engage in them – unlike before the program when I was oblivious to them.
  • If you focus on the weight, you will lose the recovery; if you focus on the recovery, you will lose the weight.
  • The symptom is physical, the problem is emotional, the solution is spiritual.
  • It is Alcoholism, not Alcoholwasm
  • You only have to change one thing – that is everything.
  • For every diet there is an equal but opposite binge.
  • ISM = Incredibly Short Memory.
  • The will of God will not lead me where the Grace of God will not protect me.
  • You can be right or you can be happy.
  • We come to the program to feel better.

We feel anger better

We feel sadness better

We feel all the other emotions better

And, eventually, we feel joy better too.