11.01.2026 - Step 3: Being out of the Director's Chair11.01.2026 - Step 3: Being out of the Director's Chair
OA RISE | Recovery Inspires Shared Experiences
This meeting features Pei Pei sharing her experience of Step 3, emphasising surrender, acceptance and daily prayer as tools for serenity. The session blends OA readings, practical guidance and personal stories about getting out of the director’s chair and letting a Higher Power lead.
1:31:40•1 Nov 2026
Step 3 and Getting Out of the Director’s Chair
Episode Overview
- Step 3 is presented as a central turning point, requiring repeated willingness to let God, not self-will, direct life.
- Acceptance is distinguished from liking a situation; peace comes from admitting things are as they are, not as they 'should' be.
- Daily use of the serenity, Third Step, Seventh Step, acceptance, set-aside prayers and the OA promise is suggested to reshape thinking.
- Repeated spiritual practice is said to create new neural pathways, giving the mind alternatives to negativity and self-pity.
- Viewing disturbing feelings as God-given and handing them back through prayer is offered as a way to stay out of the director’s chair.
“Acceptance doesn't mean liking something. How do I know it's supposed to be this way? Because it is.”
What drives someone to seek a life where they’re no longer trying to run the whole show? This OA RISE meeting centres on Step 3 – “being out of the director’s chair” – with long-time member and compulsive overeater Pei Pei sharing how turning her will and her life over to a Higher Power has shaped decades of recovery.
You’ll hear the familiar OA structure at the start: the serenity prayer, the OA preamble, the Twelve Steps and Traditions, and reminders that everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively is welcome, whatever their background. Host Marsha H keeps the meeting grounded in OA principles, while co-hosts Cassie and Janice support the flow and member participation.
Pei Pei focuses on Step 3 as the “turning point”, explaining that self-will and all the “shoulds” (“we should ourselves to death”) keep her in turmoil. She talks about living by a banner of “peace, serenity, calmness and ease”, stressing that ease doesn’t mean life is easy, only that she aims to face events in partnership with God rather than trying to sit on the throne herself.
Her line, “Acceptance doesn’t mean liking something,” sums up her view that surrender is about reality, not approval. A big part of her share is practical: she walks through the daily prayers she uses (serenity prayer, Third and Seventh Step prayers, acceptance and set-aside prayers, plus a favourite proverb and the OA promise) and how repeating them has formed new “neural pathways” in her mind.
She uses everyday examples – family health issues, travel stress, painful relationships – to show how she hands things over instead of using “Santa Claus prayers” to demand specific outcomes. Mixed with humour and warmth, Pei Pei’s message is simple: “How do I know it’s supposed to be this way? Because it is.” If you’re wrestling with control, shoulds, or anxious thinking around food and life, could Step 3 be the shift you’ve been waiting for?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.