Dear Fellow UA members,

Welcome to the First Edition of Shining & Receiving. We hope you find the content to be engaging and interesting.

We hope you’ll use this forum to share any meaningful experience that has shaped your UA recovery.

Whether it’s a tool, step, tradition, a question, a Higher Power story, poetry, humor, puzzles, word games, we want to hear from you.

It is our goal to make this a monthly endeavor. But we’ll need your help. So, put on your thinking caps and have fun.

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UA Unification Update

Significant progress is being made in the UA Unification process, with increased communication between the GSB Inc Trustees & UA WSC-Elected Trustees, attendance and reporting of activities at each other’s Public Meetings, and active participation in the Transition Team Meeting. The GSB Inc Transition Team’s monthly meeting is an efficient, collaborative venue for discussion

To the suffering underearner —

Are you ready to look at what’s underneath the chronic lack?

Welcome Dear Fellow,

You’ve done brave, holy work.
You’ve shown up for your numbers, your creditors, your shame.
You’ve told the truth about the debt—and the self-centered fears and insecurity.

And now, maybe quietly, maybe painfully —
you’ve started to notice something deeper.
Not just what you spent.
But what you never received.
What you couldn’t ask for.
What you avoided earning.
What you believed you weren’t allowed to have.

This is the quiet ache UA speaks to.
Not the drama of overspending —
but the long, invisible story of chronic lack.

If you’re here now, I want to say this:
You are not hopeless.
You are not lazy.
You are not broken.

You are brave enough to finally ask:
What if I was made for more than survival?

— Darling F.

How UA has Changed My Life

I first came to UA about nine years ago. It was my third 12-step program, and despite having long-term recovery in the other two, I was pretty clueless about my underearning.

These were all important awarenesses that enabled UA to helped me turn my life around:

• I learned how much vagueness I had in my life, and that the antidote to vagueness was CLARITY; that, and the efficient use of time.

• Using the UA tools enabled me to see that avoidance and procrastination were major underearning impediments to taking revenue-generating actions and instead CHOOSING to listen to old voices that told me that I’d never be successful, or that I didn’t deserve abundance in my life.

• I now clearly saw that underearning is a pathological thinking disorder; that I was  powerless over self-sabotaging thoughts and actions... and THAT’s what I needed to ask my Higher Power to restore me to sanity from.

• I realized that I had no vision for what I wanted my business to look like. I wasn’t clear on who my ideal client was, and I lacked an “elevator pitch” that I could express quickly and with confidence. Once I developed that simple script, I learned to master it, push through my fears of rejection and see the value I offered to them.

• I developed relationships with action partners who understood my business and my underearning tendencies so that I could create greater accountability by using goal-specific commitments and be expected to report my progress to them.

• I took on service positions of greater and greater responsibility, which exposed me to my shortcomings in having to deal with a very diverse and often passionate group of people.  This has been extremely valuable and often reveals unexpected lessons 

I could go on, but I wanted to express my gratitude to UA for really turning around my life in (what I hope) to be the last unexplored bastion of unmanageability in my beautiful life.

Yours in Recovery
Neil R.

ProsperiTeams: My Path to Community and Financial Sobriety

Before I truly embraced the tools of Underearners Anonymous, isolation and shame often shadowed my financial struggles. I frequently felt like I was the only one who couldn't seem to get ahead, despite my best efforts. It was in this lonely place that ProsperiTeams emerged as a powerful beacon of hope and connection for me. More than just a study group or a financial workshop, my ProsperiTeam became a small, committed group of UA members who came together with me to support each other in applying the principles of recovery to our financial lives. This powerful tool directly addressed the loneliness that had accompanied my underearning patterns, offering a structured path to shared accountability and mutual growth. In this article, I'll share what a ProsperiTeam is, how it functioned for me, and its profound impact on my financial sobriety and self-worth within our fellowship.

Understanding How ProsperiTeams Work

My ProsperiTeam was comprised of four members, and we met weekly for 12 weeks. The core of our ProsperiTeam involved us sharing our individual financial recovery goals, taking structured action steps, and offering compassionate feedback and support to one another. Each meeting, we'd share our progress on our financial goals, discuss specific UA tools or steps related to money, and set our intentions for the coming week. The "Prosperi" refers to the concept of spiritual, emotional, and financial prosperity that we aim for in recovery, while "Team" highlights the collaborative and supportive group dynamic we built.

Unlike a general meeting, my ProsperiTeam offered a deeper dive into specific financial actions and allowed for more personalized accountability. It created a micro-community dedicated to breaking free from our underearning patterns. It truly felt like having a dedicated support crew for my financial recovery journey, helping me navigate the often choppy waters of income, spending, and self-worth.

My Personal Journey and Application

Before joining my first ProsperiTeam, my financial life felt like a tangled ball of yarn, impossible to untangle alone. I knew I was underearning, but the shame kept me from truly looking at my numbers or articulating my financial dreams. My team provided such a safe and supportive container. In our group, we started by defining what "financial sobriety" meant for each of us, then broke down our larger goals into manageable weekly actions.

For me, this meant finally opening overdue bills, tracking every penny, and then, most terrifyingly, setting a higher fee for my freelance work. There were weeks when fear paralyzed me, and I’d show up empty-handed. But instead of judgment, I met understanding and gentle encouragement. My teammate, Sarah, shared how she tackled her own fear of asking for a raise, which gave me the courage to draft that difficult email. The biggest breakthrough came when I actually quoted my new, higher rate and got it – a direct result of the team’s consistent urging to "take the action, no matter how small." The challenges were real – resisting the urge to compare myself to others, facing my own avoidance – but the consistent presence of my team helped me navigate them.

The Benefits I've Experienced and My Continued Practice

The benefits of engaging with a ProsperiTeam have been truly transformative for me. Beyond the concrete improvements in my financial health (like starting a savings account for the first time in years), the most profound change has been an incredible increase in my self-worth. Hearing others share their struggles and victories, and being able to offer support in return, reinforced the understanding that I am not alone and that recovery is indeed possible.

The structured accountability, combined with the deep fellowship, helped me dismantle the isolation that had fueled my underearning. I continue to integrate the practices I learned – regular financial inventory, conscious spending, and consistent tithing – into my daily life. I believe ProsperiTeams are vital for sustained financial sobriety because they provide an ongoing, active engagement with our financial recovery, pushing us gently beyond our comfort zones and into new territories of prosperity and freedom.

An Invitation to Engage

For me, ProsperiTeams offered a unique and powerful pathway to liberation from underearning. They provided the structure, accountability, and compassionate support I needed to translate my deepest financial desires into tangible reality.

If you've been feeling stuck, isolated, or unsure how to take the next step in your financial recovery, I highly encourage you to explore or join a ProsperiTeam. Talk to your sponsor, ask about them at a UA meeting, or check the UA website for information on how to form or find a team. Embarking on this journey with others can illuminate the path to sustained financial freedom and the self-worth we all deserve.

— Peter in the UK

Spread the Word

Forward this, share about Shining & Receiving during the Announcements at the meetings you attend. We recover together!