 Is sobriety all that we can expect of a spiritual awakening? No, sobriety is only a bare beginning. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life – the one that did not work – for a new life that can and does work under any circumstances whatever. Regardless of worldly success or failure, regardless of pain or joy, regardless of sickness or health or even of death itself, a new life of endless possibilities can be lived if we are willing to continue our awakening, through the practice of the Twelve Steps. Bill Wilson
Many of the articles have links to other pages or websites.
All will have a highlite in purple and an underline. Simply left click
to go to the new area.
Introduction These pages are about spiritual development for any recovering person, and about growing as a spiritual based woman or man in and outside of the Recovery Programs. They may seem geared toward those who are in programs for physical addictions, but in fact they are for anyone recovering from the effects of addiction whether an addict or not. A.A., N.A., Al-Anon, Coda, ACOA, SLAA, and all affected others will find food for the heart and soul here. The language of Recovery tends to drift towards the physically addicted, when in fact is meant for everyone.
Please feel free to change any language to fit the Recovery Model you have embraced. Along the way of Recovering from the effects of addictions we will find that Everything Belongs as long as we look into the growth gifts that are all around us and find the means to embrace whatever God wants to offer.
The Twelve Steps of the Recovery Programs are the foundational rock we can build a new life on. Yet, they are only a beginning of growth in sobriety as they are a path to life in all its fullness, in and outside of their framework. They can lead us to explore all that is available for spiritual growth anywhere we are led to look, and to utilize what the world has to offer through so many fine people who have paved paths for us as they have experienced the fullness of the new life we all seek.
Books, people, religion, workshops, retreats, etc. Go for them all, In everything, if we look with new eyes, we will find the things we need to journey towards becoming a conscious spiritual self.
These pages are an ongoing project and will be added to and amended often. So, "Keep coming back." **************************
Spirituality and Religion Spirituality can be defined as: the inner journey to transcendence and wellbeing,
the finding of God and our Higher Power's Spirit within us.
It can also be described as Heart Work.
Religion has the structure to become the outer garments of our inner explorations, utilizing rituals, creeds, doctrine, dogma, along with offering a strong sense of community belonging and involvement in an area outside of the recovery programs. Religion can be sometimes good, and sometimes bad, as well as for some an important step on the spiritual path. Here on these pages we explore the development of spirituality in a non-religious way, quoting sources from religious and non-religious people that can help define our inner relationship with God and our recovery. We also acknowledge that religions and religious people have a good deal to offer us as a another tool of recovery, In that light go to the website for Religion and Recovery where offerings are posted from recovering people who are involved in a religion as part of their process.Religion and Recovery site: http://sites.google.com/site/wherevertwoormore/ As always, Take what fits…
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Came To Believe What does Came To Believe mean, how do I do this rather vague instruction, what is the process, must it be about religion, why is God involved, and perhaps, "Why must I believe at all?"
When we entered into the recovery process, we had a Coming To Believe experience already in hand. If you had answered the primary question, saying, "I am an addict." Then you have found the single most important belief necessary for spiritual growth and development. You already know what your life has been about, where it is now, where the "Higher Power" of Recovery is, and how getting and staying sober is in truth not under only your umbrella but is being guided by something that is greater than ego or self-will. Sure knowledge that is present moment and the future tense of recovering from addictions.
Let's consider some of the spiritual aspects of the Twelve Step Programs. Most of the rooms of the Recovery Programs have the Twelve Steps on the wall in the form of the famous window shade (Yes, the light is on the other side.) Regardless of where one is in the process of working these Steps it is hard to ignore the spiritual dimensions of these suggestions some of which are listed here as excerpts:
We admitted we were powerless….
… a Power greater that ourselves
… to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God….
Admitted to God…
…Were entirely ready to have God …
Humbly asked God …
… and became willing …
Sought through prayer and meditation ….
… conscious contact with God…
Having had a spiritual awakening …
Made A Decision All of the Twelve Steps are at their core aspects of the ongoing process of surrender, the acceptance that something we tend to hold on to needs to be released from our grasp. In making a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, the surrender is one of acknowledging that we are not the "god" who is in complete control of our life. We decide to allow God to be God, and recognize that we are dependant on God for the graces and gifts of our recovery from our addictions.
This Step, it needs to be noted, says only that we "Made A Decision" to go ahead and enter into the process of turning our will and lives over. It does not state that we actually carry this out at this point in recovery where we encounter Step Three. It will take the rest of our lives to fully offer all that we are, good and bad, to our Higher Power.
It has been said that the return of the Gift of recovery God gave at and beyond our bottoms, is to be returned after we leave this life to confirm we have accepted and used the Graces received, and utilized them to transform ourselves into "sober" people. It may be an aid to this Step to consider that changing, seeing that we are not our own higher power, and doing the work of our transformation here while alive could be the best way to go.
Steps Two and Three go hand in hand, Came to believe... Made a decision. Before making the Step Three decision consider for a while asking, "What do I believe," and how is what I believe in tune with with what Step Three is asking of me.
Here is an essay by Elise about what she believes:
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The Twelve Steps and Spiritual Development Go to http://sites.google.com/site/12stepspirituality/ for information on this topic
Articles On Spiritual Recovery There are tons, libraries of information available, so it up to us to sort out what is useful
or not useful to our individual and unique recovery process. Anything that comes into our hands
needs to be evaluated as to whether or not in moves us along in our growth in a healthy and
authentic way. The slogan ' I am responsible ' applies equally well to all aspects of our life.
Recovery can be both a ' We ' and an ' I ' word.
Article links are one mouse click away [ Click Here ]
Prayer and Meditation
Prayer is like everything else in our growth as human beings, a process. It is important to try many forms of prayer so we may gain experience in entering into dialog with God in an easy, perhaps eventually, a less wordy way. Prayers of praise, petition, shared community prayer, the prayer of journaling, even poetry as a prayer vehicle, are just a few of many ways of moving to closer conscious contact with our Higher Power.
How we approach God, with words or in the silence of meditation, is something each of us will develop according to our needs and God's desires for us. The Ways and How of prayer are up to us as we move on the path toward wholeness.
How To Meditate
This is a method of a Buddhist meditation practice that is by one of the very best teachers in the country today, Tara Brach. Her website can be found in the Links section of this page.
Buddhism although named by some as a religion, is in actuality a Way Of Life and Living that is most useful in giving directions for the inward journey within ourselves. The meditation practice in the following article is one that can be used by anyone since it is generic in its execution.
The Eleventh Step asks us to pray and meditate - as there are many forms of prayer and meditation this is one worth considering. There are many Recovery groups, Serenity, The Eleventh Step, Meditation Circle, to name a few, that utilize a form of this type of meditation.
Link to How To Meditate page for this article.
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Program Meetings As Spiritual Experience
- A Meeting – Today we gather. Meeting together to consider where we stand and who we are.
We come to order ourselves into a new sense of order according to our progress from the last gathering to this one.
Be with us, O God, in this space and time as we affirm and shape the changes in our understanding of the Way.
We desire not to fly apart in garish fantasy of vision but rather to move the boundaries that we have set before in order to encompass and embrace the living and breathing growth of each and all.
We work in prayer and dialog. In going back to see where we have been, we steady ourselves for the journey forward today.
We are here
to reconcile all that we were, our trust … our hopelessness our joy … our despair our confirming … our betrayal
to offer a farewell to those departed and welcome those who are newly come. To confess, absolve, reconcile, renew. To be all that we can be.
To set firm a pathway that is possible. Possible for us to walk until we meet again to reassess the journey and again set firm a pathway.
Each step along the way we clear the stones and obstacles, healing and refreshing each other. We listen openly to each tale of travel and hear each one’s proposal for the time ahead.
Knowing you are here, God, we are freer in our interaction, more daring in or sharing of our personal visions, loving in our confrontation, deeply silent in consideration and accepting in the choices that for a little while will help us to define our actions until broader definitions draw us on.
In this Your Presence, we meet to order ourselves anew, to consider where we stand and who we are.
Today we gather.
Ann Johnson Recovery Slogans and Humor One of the fruits of sobriety is that we develop a sense of humor, able to laugh at ourselves, laugh with others, and enjoy life graciously. Laughter is part of the foundation of our spiritual health.
The Slogans are an integral part of our recovery process, Keep It Simple, Take It Easy, Keep Coming Back, Let Go and Let God, and so many others. They are easy to remember and not so easy to put into practice as we all have the habit of complicating things, first wanting to know all the facts, obtain various commentaries, take courses, and make hundreds of phone calls before we can begin to see the truth in these simple slogans. Addictions are not called the disease of Obsessive Compulsiveness without good reason.
Yet, we all gain something of the depth of simplicity in the slogans from the very first hearing or reading. Even a slogan seems to say to us, "Keep coming back!" The longer we are in recovery, the more we understand the greater meaning of and in the slogans.
Click on the following to access pages of slogans and humor, Some 'slogans' listed are really catch phrases that also offer insight to us in perhaps a more humorous way then say, "Don't pick up! No matter what!"
Most of what follows comes from Alcoholics Anonymous and are applicable to all 12 Step Programs, so please adapt them to fit the Program you are in.
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The Oxford Groups and Spiritual Recovery Please go to: http://sites.google.com/site/wherevertwoormore/
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Links: Link to the Religion and Recovery Pages
Centering Prayer Site of Lazarus Ministries, Bangor. Many fine articles
under Weeks 1-7 and Beyond.
The Insight Meditation Center in Washington D.C. has many excellent teachings by their head teacher, Tara Brach, all of which are available as MP3 downloads at no charge.
Here is a site that offers 584 essays that are stories of addiction and recovery.
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