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Post by caressa on Oct 27, 2007 10:22:31 GMT -5
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Post by caressa on Nov 7, 2007 15:19:20 GMT -5
Step Eleven has been the strength of my recovery. When I read this I thought of the saying, "God answers knee-mail." With my arthritis like it is, my knees are saved for very special occasions. What I call the "heavy duty" stuff.
I have been to that wall many times. I am really grateful for the people in my life that have been there for me to show me the love and support that I needed to take down the bricks and rebuild my life. The hardest thing in recovery was to allow myself to become vulnerable. It is amazing what you can do when you are sick and tired of being tired and sick.
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Post by caressa on Nov 20, 2007 5:27:17 GMT -5
I have gotten tapes from the library on meditation. One of my favorites is the one with colours. It was used when I was in treatment and I have used it the last sixteen years. Quite often when I am in pain and hurting, I will put music on while I go to sleep. I seem to have a deeper and more restful sleep.
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Post by caressa on Oct 7, 2008 14:20:43 GMT -5
This was a good remnder for me. So often, I forget and play God with other people's lives thinking I know what is best for them. I now try to pray and ask God that He give them what they need for their Hightest Good the same way I do for myself. As my sponsor said many years ago, "Ask for health, happiness, prosperity and a spiritual blessing and awareness and they can't continue doing what their doing. They are sure to change."
I know it changed me.
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Post by caressa on Nov 20, 2008 15:38:57 GMT -5
Sounds like working Step Eleven to me. I can't heal in the darkness of isolation, walls, and a closed mind.
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Post by caressa on Dec 29, 2010 10:09:13 GMT -5
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Post by caressa on Dec 29, 2010 10:25:55 GMT -5
Step Eleven
"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."
Prayer and meditation are our principal means of conscious contact with God. We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along. So it isn't surprising that we often tend to slight serious meditation and prayer as something not really necessary. To be sure, we feel it is something that might help us to meet an occasional emergency, but at first many of us are apt to regard it as a somewhat mysterious skill of clergymen, from which we may hope to get a secondhand benefit. Or perhaps we don't believe in these things at all. To certain newcomers and to those one-time agnostics who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power, claims for the power of prayer may, despite all the logic and experience in proof of it, still be unconvincing or quite objectionable. Those of us who once felt this way can certainly understand and sympathize. We well remember how something deep inside us kept rebelling against the idea of bowing before any God. Many of us had strong logic, too, which "proved" there was no God whatever.
What about all the accidents, sickness, cruelty, and injustice in the world? What about all those unhappy lives which were the direct result of unfortunate birth and uncontrollable circumstances? Surely there could be no justice in this scheme of things, and therefore no God at all. Sometimes we took a slightly different tack. Sure, we said to ourselves, the hen probably did come before the egg. No doubt the universe had a "first cause" of some sort, the God of the Atom, maybe, hot and cold by turns. But certainly there wasn't any evidence of a God who knew or cared about human beings. We liked A.A. all right, and were quick to say that it had done miracles. But we recoiled from meditation and prayer as obstinately as the scientist who refused to perform a certain experiment lest it prove his pet theory wrong. Of course we finally did experiment, and when unexpected results followed, we felt different; in fact we knew different; and so we were sold on meditation and prayer. And that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries. It has been well said that "almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough."
Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body suffers. And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support. As the body can fail its purpose for lack of nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of God's reality, the nourishment of His strength, and the atmosphere of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts of A.A. Life confirm this ageless truth. There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life. Now and then we may be granted a glimpse of that ultimate reality which is God's kingdom. And we will be comforted and assured that our own destiny in that realm will be secure for so long as we try, however falteringly, to find and do the will of our own Creator.
As we have seen, self-searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures. It is a step in the development of that kind of humility that makes it possible for us to receive God's help. Yet it is only a step. We will want to go further. We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow. Most certainly we shall need bracing air and an abundance of food. But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun. How, then, shall we meditate?
The actual experience of meditation and prayer across the centuries is, of course, immense. The world's libraries and places of worship are a treasure trove for all seekers. It is to be hoped that every A.A. who has a religious connection which emphasizes meditation will return to the practice of that devotion as never before. But what about the rest of us who, less fortunate, don't even know how to begin? Well, we might start like this. First let's look at a really good prayer. We won't have far to seek; the great men and women of all religions have left us a wonderful supply.
Here let us consider one that is a classic. Its author was a man who for several hundred years now has been rated as a saint. We won't be biased or scared off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer. And as he came out the other side of that painful experience, this prayer was his expression of what he could then see, feel, and wish to become: "Lord, make me a channel of thy peace--that where there is hatred, I may bring love--that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness--that where there is discord, I may bring harmony--that where there is error, I may bring truth--that where there is doubt, I may bring faith--that where there is despair, I may bring hope--that where there are shadows, I may bring light--that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted--to understand, than to be understood--to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen." As beginners in meditation, we might now reread this prayer several times very slowly, savoring every word and trying to take in the deep meaning of each phrase and idea. It will help if we can drop all resistance to what our friend says. For in meditation, debate has no place. We rest quietly with the thoughts of someone who knows, so that we may experience and learn. As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of this prayer surrounds us. Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen.
"Shucks!" says somebody. "This is nonsense. It isn't practical." When such thoughts break in, we might recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by imagination as it tried to create reality out of bottles. Yes, we reveled in that sort of thinking, didn't we? And though sober nowadays, don't we often try to do much the same thing? Perhaps our trouble was not that we used our imagination. Perhaps the real trouble was our almost total inability to point imagination toward the right objectives.
There's nothing the matter with constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After all, no man can build a house until he first envisions a plan for it. Well, meditation is like that, too; it helps to envision our spiritual objective before we try to move toward it. So let's get back to that sunlit beach--or to the plains or to the mountains, if you prefer. When, by such simple devices, we have placed ourselves in a mood in which we can focus undisturbed on constructive imagination, we might proceed like this: Once more we read our prayer, and again try to see what its inner essence is. We'll think now about the man who first uttered the prayer. First of all, he wanted to become a "channel." Then he asked for the grace to bring love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being he could.
Next came the expression of an aspiration and a hope for himself. He hoped, God willing, that he might be able to find some of these treasures, too. This he would try to do by what he called self-forgetting. What did he mean by "self forgetting," and how did he propose to accomplish that? He thought it better to give comfort than to receive it; better to understand than to be understood; better to forgive than to be forgiven. This much could be a fragment of what is called meditation, perhaps our very first attempt at a mood, a flier into the realm of spirit, if you like. It ought to be followed by a good look at where we stand now, and a further look at what might happen in our lives were we able to move closer to the ideal we have been trying to glimpse.
Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way. But its object is always the same: to improve our conscious contact with God, with His grace, wisdom, and love. And let's always remember that meditation is in reality intensely practical. One of its first fruits is emotional balance. With it we can broaden and deepen the channel between ourselves and God as we understand Him.
Now, what of prayer? Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God--and in this sense it includes meditation. How may we go about it? And how does it fit in with meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood, is a petition to God. Having opened our channel as best we can, we try to ask for those right things of which we and others are in the greatest need. And we think that the whole range of our needs is well defined by that part of Step Eleven which says: "...knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." A request for this fits in any part of our day. In the morning we think of the hours to come. Perhaps we think of our day's work and the chances it may afford us to be useful and helpful, or of some special problem that it may bring.
Possibly today will see a continuation of a serious and as yet unresolved problem left over from yesterday. Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification: "...if it be Thy will." We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out.
As the day goes on, we can pause where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request: "Thy will, not mine, be done." If at these points our emotional disturbance happens to be great, we will more surely keep our balance, provided we remember, and repeat to ourselves, a particular prayer or phrase that has appealed to us in our reading or meditation. Just saying it over and over will often enable us to clear a channel choked up with anger, fear, frustration, or misunderstanding, and permit us to return to the surest help of all--our search for God's will, not our own, in the moment of stress. At these critical moments, if we remind ourselves that "it is better to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved," we will be following the intent of Step Eleven. Of course, it is reasonable and understandable that the question is often asked: "Why can't we take a specific and troubling dilemma straight to God, and in prayer secure from Him sure and definite answers to our requests?" This can be done, but it has hazards.
We have seen A.A.'s ask with much earnestness and faith for God's explicit guidance on matters ranging all the way from a shattering domestic or financial crisis to correcting a minor personal fault, like tardiness. Quite often, however, the thoughts that seem to come from God are not answers at all. They prove to be well-intentioned unconscious rationalizations. The A.A., or indeed any man, who tries to run his life rigidly by this kind of prayer, by this self-serving demand of God for replies, is a particularly disconcerting individual. To any questioning or criticism of his actions he instantly proffers his reliance upon prayer for guidance in all matters great or small. He may have forgotten the possibility that his own wishful thinking and the human tendency to rationalize have distorted his so-called guidance.
With the best of intentions, he tends to force his own will into all sorts of situations and problems with the comfortable assurance that he is acting under God's specific direction. Under such an illusion, he can of course create great havoc without in the least intending it. We also fall into another similar temptation. We form ideas as to what we think God's will is for other people. We say to ourselves, "This one ought to be cured of his fatal malady," or "That one ought to be relieved of his emotional pain," and we pray for these specific things. Such prayers, of course, are fundamentally good acts, but often they are based upon a supposition that we know God's will for the person for whom we pray. This means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain amount of presumption and conceit in us. It is A.A.'s experience that particularly in these cases we ought to pray that God's will, whatever it is, be done for others as well as for ourselves. In A.A. we have found that the actual good results of prayer are beyond question. They are matters of knowledge and experience.
All those who have persisted have found strength not ordinarily their own. They have found wisdom beyond their usual capability. And they have increasingly found a peace of mind which can stand firm in the face of difficult circumstances. We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms. Almost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also report that out of every season of grief or suffering, when the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons for living were learned, new resources of courage were uncovered, and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came that God does "move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."
All this should be very encouraging news for those who recoil from prayer because they don't believe in it, or because they feel themselves cut off from God's help and direction. All of us, without exception, pass through times when we can pray only with the greatest exertion of will. Occasionally we go even further than this. We are seized with a rebellion so sickening that we simply won't pray. When these things happen we should not think too ill of ourselves. We should simply resume prayer as soon as we can, doing what we know to be good for us. Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.
We no longer live in a completely hostile world. We are no longer lost and frightened and purposeless. The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the contrary that surrounds us in purely human affairs. We know that God lovingly watches over us. We know that when we turn to Him, all will be well with us, here and hereafter.
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Post by caressa on Dec 29, 2010 10:26:39 GMT -5
Step Eleven
"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."
Prayer and meditation are our principal means of conscious contact with God. We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along. So it isn't surprising that we often tend to slight serious meditation and prayer as something not really necessary. To be sure, we feel it is something that might help us to meet an occasional emergency, but at first many of us are apt to regard it as a somewhat mysterious skill of clergymen, from which we may hope to get a secondhand benefit. Or perhaps we don't believe in these things at all. To certain newcomers and to those one-time agnostics who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power, claims for the power of prayer may, despite all the logic and experience in proof of it, still be unconvincing or quite objectionable. Those of us who once felt this way can certainly understand and sympathize. We well remember how something deep inside us kept rebelling against the idea of bowing before any God. Many of us had strong logic, too, which "proved" there was no God whatever.
What about all the accidents, sickness, cruelty, and injustice in the world? What about all those unhappy lives which were the direct result of unfortunate birth and uncontrollable circumstances? Surely there could be no justice in this scheme of things, and therefore no God at all. Sometimes we took a slightly different tack. Sure, we said to ourselves, the hen probably did come before the egg. No doubt the universe had a "first cause" of some sort, the God of the Atom, maybe, hot and cold by turns. But certainly there wasn't any evidence of a God who knew or cared about human beings. We liked A.A. all right, and were quick to say that it had done miracles. But we recoiled from meditation and prayer as obstinately as the scientist who refused to perform a certain experiment lest it prove his pet theory wrong. Of course we finally did experiment, and when unexpected results followed, we felt different; in fact we knew different; and so we were sold on meditation and prayer. And that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries. It has been well said that "almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough."
Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body suffers. And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support. As the body can fail its purpose for lack of nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of God's reality, the nourishment of His strength, and the atmosphere of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts of A.A. Life confirm this ageless truth. There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life. Now and then we may be granted a glimpse of that ultimate reality which is God's kingdom. And we will be comforted and assured that our own destiny in that realm will be secure for so long as we try, however falteringly, to find and do the will of our own Creator.
As we have seen, self-searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures. It is a step in the development of that kind of humility that makes it possible for us to receive God's help. Yet it is only a step. We will want to go further. We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow. Most certainly we shall need bracing air and an abundance of food. But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun. How, then, shall we meditate?
The actual experience of meditation and prayer across the centuries is, of course, immense. The world's libraries and places of worship are a treasure trove for all seekers. It is to be hoped that every A.A. who has a religious connection which emphasizes meditation will return to the practice of that devotion as never before. But what about the rest of us who, less fortunate, don't even know how to begin? Well, we might start like this. First let's look at a really good prayer. We won't have far to seek; the great men and women of all religions have left us a wonderful supply.
Here let us consider one that is a classic. Its author was a man who for several hundred years now has been rated as a saint. We won't be biased or scared off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer. And as he came out the other side of that painful experience, this prayer was his expression of what he could then see, feel, and wish to become: "Lord, make me a channel of thy peace--that where there is hatred, I may bring love--that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness--that where there is discord, I may bring harmony--that where there is error, I may bring truth--that where there is doubt, I may bring faith--that where there is despair, I may bring hope--that where there are shadows, I may bring light--that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted--to understand, than to be understood--to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen." As beginners in meditation, we might now reread this prayer several times very slowly, savoring every word and trying to take in the deep meaning of each phrase and idea. It will help if we can drop all resistance to what our friend says. For in meditation, debate has no place. We rest quietly with the thoughts of someone who knows, so that we may experience and learn. As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of this prayer surrounds us. Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen.
"Shucks!" says somebody. "This is nonsense. It isn't practical." When such thoughts break in, we might recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by imagination as it tried to create reality out of bottles. Yes, we reveled in that sort of thinking, didn't we? And though sober nowadays, don't we often try to do much the same thing? Perhaps our trouble was not that we used our imagination. Perhaps the real trouble was our almost total inability to point imagination toward the right objectives.
There's nothing the matter with constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After all, no man can build a house until he first envisions a plan for it. Well, meditation is like that, too; it helps to envision our spiritual objective before we try to move toward it. So let's get back to that sunlit beach--or to the plains or to the mountains, if you prefer. When, by such simple devices, we have placed ourselves in a mood in which we can focus undisturbed on constructive imagination, we might proceed like this: Once more we read our prayer, and again try to see what its inner essence is. We'll think now about the man who first uttered the prayer. First of all, he wanted to become a "channel." Then he asked for the grace to bring love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being he could.
Next came the expression of an aspiration and a hope for himself. He hoped, God willing, that he might be able to find some of these treasures, too. This he would try to do by what he called self-forgetting. What did he mean by "self forgetting," and how did he propose to accomplish that? He thought it better to give comfort than to receive it; better to understand than to be understood; better to forgive than to be forgiven. This much could be a fragment of what is called meditation, perhaps our very first attempt at a mood, a flier into the realm of spirit, if you like. It ought to be followed by a good look at where we stand now, and a further look at what might happen in our lives were we able to move closer to the ideal we have been trying to glimpse.
Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way. But its object is always the same: to improve our conscious contact with God, with His grace, wisdom, and love. And let's always remember that meditation is in reality intensely practical. One of its first fruits is emotional balance. With it we can broaden and deepen the channel between ourselves and God as we understand Him.
Now, what of prayer? Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God--and in this sense it includes meditation. How may we go about it? And how does it fit in with meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood, is a petition to God. Having opened our channel as best we can, we try to ask for those right things of which we and others are in the greatest need. And we think that the whole range of our needs is well defined by that part of Step Eleven which says: "...knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." A request for this fits in any part of our day. In the morning we think of the hours to come. Perhaps we think of our day's work and the chances it may afford us to be useful and helpful, or of some special problem that it may bring.
Possibly today will see a continuation of a serious and as yet unresolved problem left over from yesterday. Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification: "...if it be Thy will." We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out.
As the day goes on, we can pause where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request: "Thy will, not mine, be done." If at these points our emotional disturbance happens to be great, we will more surely keep our balance, provided we remember, and repeat to ourselves, a particular prayer or phrase that has appealed to us in our reading or meditation. Just saying it over and over will often enable us to clear a channel choked up with anger, fear, frustration, or misunderstanding, and permit us to return to the surest help of all--our search for God's will, not our own, in the moment of stress. At these critical moments, if we remind ourselves that "it is better to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved," we will be following the intent of Step Eleven. Of course, it is reasonable and understandable that the question is often asked: "Why can't we take a specific and troubling dilemma straight to God, and in prayer secure from Him sure and definite answers to our requests?" This can be done, but it has hazards.
We have seen A.A.'s ask with much earnestness and faith for God's explicit guidance on matters ranging all the way from a shattering domestic or financial crisis to correcting a minor personal fault, like tardiness. Quite often, however, the thoughts that seem to come from God are not answers at all. They prove to be well-intentioned unconscious rationalizations. The A.A., or indeed any man, who tries to run his life rigidly by this kind of prayer, by this self-serving demand of God for replies, is a particularly disconcerting individual. To any questioning or criticism of his actions he instantly proffers his reliance upon prayer for guidance in all matters great or small. He may have forgotten the possibility that his own wishful thinking and the human tendency to rationalize have distorted his so-called guidance.
With the best of intentions, he tends to force his own will into all sorts of situations and problems with the comfortable assurance that he is acting under God's specific direction. Under such an illusion, he can of course create great havoc without in the least intending it. We also fall into another similar temptation. We form ideas as to what we think God's will is for other people. We say to ourselves, "This one ought to be cured of his fatal malady," or "That one ought to be relieved of his emotional pain," and we pray for these specific things. Such prayers, of course, are fundamentally good acts, but often they are based upon a supposition that we know God's will for the person for whom we pray. This means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain amount of presumption and conceit in us. It is A.A.'s experience that particularly in these cases we ought to pray that God's will, whatever it is, be done for others as well as for ourselves. In A.A. we have found that the actual good results of prayer are beyond question. They are matters of knowledge and experience.
All those who have persisted have found strength not ordinarily their own. They have found wisdom beyond their usual capability. And they have increasingly found a peace of mind which can stand firm in the face of difficult circumstances. We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms. Almost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also report that out of every season of grief or suffering, when the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons for living were learned, new resources of courage were uncovered, and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came that God does "move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."
All this should be very encouraging news for those who recoil from prayer because they don't believe in it, or because they feel themselves cut off from God's help and direction. All of us, without exception, pass through times when we can pray only with the greatest exertion of will. Occasionally we go even further than this. We are seized with a rebellion so sickening that we simply won't pray. When these things happen we should not think too ill of ourselves. We should simply resume prayer as soon as we can, doing what we know to be good for us. Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.
We no longer live in a completely hostile world. We are no longer lost and frightened and purposeless. The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the contrary that surrounds us in purely human affairs. We know that God lovingly watches over us. We know that when we turn to Him, all will be well with us, here and hereafter.
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Post by caressa on Jan 5, 2011 8:38:09 GMT -5
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Post by BW on Jan 5, 2011 15:17:44 GMT -5
Article from an A.A. Newsletter on the 11th step
We Sought:
We are all trying to experience the finding of our Higher Power’s will for us in the Eleventh Step but we are not always aware that the prayer thing is not just a one time of day thing. We can pray without ceasing throughout the day. When we wake up in the morning, we can ask our Higher Power to be with us throughout the day giving us knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out. We can ask for the help we need to make decisions during the day. We can ask for our wants and needs (being careful what we wish for because we just might get it) as the day progresses. We can say help when things get out of control and we are not sure what to do in any given situation. We can say thank-you for getting us through the day yet again and for the blessing of recovery at night. We can pray for any reason that we choose.
Meditation, on the other hand, takes practice and dedication. Most of us of had little experience with this before coming to recovery. After all, which of us has not tried to at least bargain with God at least once while using? God, if you get me out of this one, I will do this or that? But meditation requires active listening and being willing to sit with ourselves in the quiet. We must turn off the noise in our lives and sit. It means turning off the television and the radios and going into the stillness that results and listening for the quiet voice that is inside each one of us that is the voice of our Higher Power giving us the assurance that we are on the right path for our lives and then being willing to follow that path. It is often easy to drown out that voice with thoughts of what we have or want to accomplish at any given moment but if we really listen we can hear it at any time or place. All we have to do is listen for it. This takes practice. Some of us take up formal meditation techniques and others of us just sit and listen; do whatever works for you. The important thing is to listen for the voice of your Higher Power speaking to you and to try to follow the path for your life. When you do this, great things become possible and new paths are opened up to you.
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Post by caressa on Jan 9, 2011 12:44:33 GMT -5
Not too sure at the moment that I am qualified to share on this and yet, the last few months have brought me more God consciousness than I have had for a long time or I should say a new awareness.
I was one of those who rebelled. If I heard the words God, church, especially Jesus, I could become spastic. I resented the church and the beliefs because I had always found them wanting. Too many people were hypocritical and would go to church to confess and/or talk a good talk but couldn't walk it. to confess to something and then go right back out the door and do it again doesn't cut it with me.
I think it was because I couldn't go there myself because I had so much guilt and I was at war with myself. I didn't want to be churched! Jesus was a man and a great teacher. He sits on the right hand of God. He intercedes for us, He has to go to God Himself. For me, He is not the power. What I do believe in is the (W)Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God that enters me when I surrender and ask Him to be a part of my life. The Spirit of God made me Whole as I grew more spiritual and healed.
It is that Spirit within that I need to connect with. I use to liken it to Thorr's lightening bolts. It is like taking a piece of it and putting it in my pocket and having it with me through out the day. I don't have to take it out to look at it, I just know it is there. That is how I look and feel about my Higher Power.
Prayer is talking to God. Mediation is listening for His answers. Learning to distinguish what is my will and what is His. Learning to listen to that still small voice within.
Before I share with others I do surrender my thoughts and will to my Higher Power asking for the words that I need to help others. It generally starts with the Serenity Prayer and followed by the Third and Seventh Step Prayers. I ask for my own inner knowing and my own truth and what is good for me, so I can share with others. They don't have to agree with me, they have to find their own truth and what works for them.
There is nothing wrong with church and I can go there in today and am no longer resentful. I do tend to have a problem with people who try to turn this program into a religious one. their belief is their belief and that is okay. The doors of recovery were made wide so that everyone, no matter what their belief, could enter and recover from their disease.
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Post by caressa on Jan 12, 2011 15:13:31 GMT -5
There was no one more skeptical than I was. I was the believer who had lost faith. Through losing faith in God, I lost myself.
It wasn't just about the world, it was about my world and me being so hard done by. Oh woe is me! I knew there was a God, didn't believe He had much faith in me. I didn't have much faith in Him. I put myself on the same level and plain. I had to quit playing God and get out of the way so God could work through me. In order to do that, I had to surrender and ask for help, which was never easy for me.
I saw it working in other people's lives, so I knew I had to find a way to make it work for me. At first I was just going through the motions. I said the words but didn't have too much trust behind them. It was, "I will try this and see what happens." Forever, the doubting Thomas. Don't tell me, show me! I intellectualized things and tried to figure them out and stayed sick.
I read once, "A little boy replied to his teacher, "Oh teacher, everyone knows God is a feeling not a person." I started to feel God working in my life.
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Post by caressa on Jan 21, 2011 23:28:30 GMT -5
My first thought was, "What more can I say, to me this speaks volumns. I need to feed the body, mind and spirit. My disease is four-fold - mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. Medication allows me to balance the them. I look at it as my chakras, the energy points in our body. www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/chakra-balancing-healing.htmlFor me, when I connect with my Higher Power and ask for the good orderly direction I need each day, ask for my own truth and knowingness, and what I need for my health and wefare, it leaves me open to received what my Higher Power gives me in today. My God meets my needs. What I need is there if I am open to receive it. Again, prayer is asking, meditation is being open to receive. |
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Post by caressa on Jan 27, 2011 19:21:05 GMT -5
Love this paragraph. Love the concept "Out of the darkness into the Light."
I lived in that darkness for so many years. When I did my first fourth, all I could see were things that were from that dark period of my life and couldn't see anything good. My sponsor told me that I had to balance every negative thing with a positive. It took a whole lot long to do that than to find the things that were wrong. Having said that, it took a while to really find the self-honesty needed to do an honest Fourth Step. Thoughts and feelings that I had buried so deep, it took years to uncover and had to do other Fourths.
Me being alone with me was a challenge in itself. Me sitting down for two minutes and doing nothing was not something that came easily. Me alone with me was bad company. It took a lot of practice, practice, practice.
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Post by caressa on Feb 6, 2011 12:38:54 GMT -5
eor.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=AA&thread=6351&page=1#24624There are prayers for all the Steps. I generally say the Serenity Prayer, the Third Step and Seventh Step Prayers to ask for help for what I need and help to get out of myself and God's way so He can speak through me. Often when I start to meditate, I ask for what I need, take away what I don't need, according to God's will, His will not mine. When I am quiet, I can hear the message I need. In order to do that I need to quiet my own mind and internal chatter. It is a process and again, it is practice, practice, practice.
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Post by caressa on Feb 10, 2011 19:59:13 GMT -5
It was this prayer that helped me to make the decision to quit smoking. I wanted to be a clear channel to carry the message of recovery. www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pray0027.htmThe words light, hope, and joy had always been rare moments in my life. The promise of this prayer made me realize that in order to give away, it had to be begin with me. I can't give away what I don't have. It helped me to get out of the selfish, self-centeredness of my disease. |
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Post by caressa on Feb 26, 2011 20:16:31 GMT -5
It was because of the 11th Step Prayer that I decided to quit smoking. I want to be a clean channel. I realized that taking those deep breathes and filling my lungs with goodness was impossible as long as my body was toxic.
It was just my body but my mind and spirit as well. I needed to detox and cleanse my body, mind and spirit of the old ways of thinking and replace them with a new sense of awareness and being.
When I became aware, I saw a whole new world from a new perspective. It took time, it was a process, and yet so rewarding and I am so grateful, that is an ongoing thing, which allows me to grow and expand my horizons. No more tunnel vision. No more rose coloured glasses. No more turning a blind eye. No more selective hearing. Just being in the moment and being aware of what is, accepting it for what it is and know that it is subject to change.
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Post by caressa on Feb 27, 2011 10:04:40 GMT -5
Perhaps the most popular relaxation modality is music therapy.
Whether New Age, rock, jazz, or classical, many people find that
music distracts them from the painful moment, helping to reduce
mental stress. In fact, in some hospitals, staff members give
patients tapes of soothing music and reassuring voice-overs to use during surgical procedures.
In clinical studies, both doctors and patients agreed that listening to music produced greater decreases in peaks of tension, and produced greater compliance with relaxation practice. While the studies are limited, it's thought that music therapy can help to improve mood and pain tolerance. This therapy is thought to enhance the parasympathetic response through the effects of sound, encouraging relaxation at a deep level.
(Source: The Women's Guide to Ending Pain: An 8-Step Program, by Howard S. Smith, M.D., and Debra Fulghum Bruce, M.S. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) This tip provided courtesy of ImmuneSupport.com
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Post by caressa on Mar 3, 2011 22:35:14 GMT -5
Like this, prior to recovery, I had very little direction, let alone good orderly direction. Very little of my life was positive and most of it was a pity party or it was a fantasy world very far from reality. I wished my life away. As I have said many times before, I was a wanna be! Wanna bees belong in Romper Room. I was not mature and unwilling to acknowledge, let alone accept responsability.
Even when there is negative around me in today, I don't dwell in it, I accept it for what it is and look to see if it can be changed, whether I need to accept it, detach from it, and/or let it go. Life is not all positive or all negative. That is life, it is living and trying to find the balance and just trying to do the best we can in today. When I focus on the positive, look for the goodness, it will lead me to what my God would have me be and do in today.
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Post by caressa on Mar 14, 2011 14:58:22 GMT -5
It has been my experience, that I need to build on a foundation, what was really important, was where I placed it. Was it on firm or flimsy ground. Was the foundation strong, was it something that I could trust and draw strength from. Would it hold up even though my life was full of turmoil, would it hold and not fall down.
It was important that I find that certain place, that safe place on which to build it. I need that place to connect, that place that I could feel a connection to the courage, strength and direction I needed to rebuild my life.
One of the reasons I quit smoking was because I wanted to be a clean and clear channel. I felt as though, I couldn't have that full conscious contact until I was. That decision didn't come until I was 7 years clean and sober. Clean from everything else but not clean from the chemicals that blocked me from the Spirit of God and what He would have me be in today. When I quit smoking, I found anger, resentment, rejection and abaondment issues that I had not 'felt' before. Some I knew were there, but I didn't feel them, especially my anger. They were still being stuffed and suppressed by the cigarettes.
After I clean from them, then I had to work on feelings about my sex addiction and on my food addiction.
It says to direct your thoughts to the man who first said the prayer, which I take to be the 11th Step Prayer by Francis Assisi. I am not sure I agree with this, because it is still looking outside of myself for the help. I needed to go within. For me, prayer has to be heart felt and come from me. My heart has to come from a good place, and that place is the foundation of faith, hope and courage that I get from the connection to the God of my understanding.
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. I will be back looking for Lin and others.