Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
Every source that I consulted before outlining this blogpost cites a different principle for the eleventh step. Among the principles suggested are awareness of God, attune-ment, spirituality and contact.
Prayer and meditation, which are the primary actions taken in the eleventh step, heighten one's awareness of God. Knowledge of God's will strengthens one's self-understanding and sense of mission. Notions of spirituality in AA are vague by design so that one is able to feel in touch with a power that is greater than, and beyond, one's self without feeling squeezed by a person who, or tradition that, lacks vitality.
For me, the eleventh step is about consciousness of both one's self and the God of one's understanding. Both what I pray for and how I understand the God to whom I pray say something about me. Self-consciousness and God-consciusness encourage sobriety.
Prayer speaks volumes.
Does prayer come naturally for you? If it does, then what do you say, and what does how you pray reveal about your understanding of God?
I prayed regularly while I was drinking. Since I quit drinking, I find that my prayers are more earnest than they were before, and I feel less embarrassed about speaking to God.
The God of my understanding now differs from the God of my understanding then in that I believe that God speaks through more voices now than the God of my understanding did then. This feature of the AA program, in my opinion, enables groups to thrive.
The openness about different interpretations of God encourages each person in AA to be engaged theologically while affirming the individual's search and respecting personal boundaries (which is a habit worth practicing).
When I pray to God, I remind myself that God is there, and when I am open and honest with this God, I tap into a power greater than myself that motivates me to help other alcoholics including myself.
Be still and stop (over)thinking.
Meditation quiets my mind and helps me to stop thrashing around in search of control. Saying that I have turned my will and my life over to the God of my understanding is one thing. Actually doing it is another.
Meditation heightens my consciousness of who I am in relation to God. When I am quiet and still, I trust God to be God. I place myself in a position to respond to God rather than asking God to respond to me.
As I accept my place in God's world, I become more comfortable with who I am. I do not have to visit and revisit situations that I do not like and/or understand in an effort to control the uncontrollable, and thus, I am able to invest time and energy in the things that I can change, which leads to serenity.
Persevere again.
The pursuit of peace in one's personal life demands changes; one is changed through these stages. When I drank regularly, silence was a scary proposition. Now I welcome it, because it has become one of the places where I gain clarity and calmness.
American philosopher William James, whose work is cited in the Big Book, observes that, "My experience is what I agree to attend to." Is this your story? This statement definitely pertains to mine.
By attending to one's self and to the God of one's understanding, one's conscious contact with his or her essence, and with God, improves, and with this improvement, one becomes noticeably less restless, irritable and discontented and more secure, sane and satisfied.
Attending to serenity and to sobriety produces serenity, sobriety and peace of heart and mind.
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