Step 11. 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.
Principle - Spirituality
Spirituality
Prayer is talking to our Higher Power, asking for someone else.
Meditation is listening to a Higher Power's directions for us.
Pause.
Talk to our Higher Power.
Listen for the miracle.
Hear with your heart.
Feel with your soul.
Life on Life's terms.
One day at a time.
Take it easy.
A prayer we can say is:
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace
Where there is hatred, I may bring love
Where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
Where there is discord, I may bring harmony
Where there is error, I may bring truth
Where there is doubt, I may bring faith
Where there is despair, I may bring hope
Where there are shadows, I may bring light
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.
And the Serenity Prayer: "GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living ONE DAY AT A TIME; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next."
a) At the end of every week, schedule some time for yourself. Spend some time thinking about what happened in your life over the past week. List the incidents and situations when you have sought (or should have sought) through to improve your conscious contact with your Higher Power.
b) Describe the various forms of prayer and meditation you have used.
c) Describe any positive results you have had through prayer and meditation.
d) Write these down in a journal, so you can use them to check you progress, and also to be reminded at how you are doing.
The message of the fellowship to the recovering addict:
"Let us love you until you can love yourself. Let us think for you, until you can think for yourself."
Steps 3-9 are about a new way of living. Step 11 is about a new way of thinking. Our old way of thinking was controlled by The Addict. We are in need of a different way.
From the Big Book of AA [with "the higher power" in place of the term "God"]:
On awakening, let us think about the 24 hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask the higher power to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest, or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions, we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all, we have been given brains to use. Our thought life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.
In thinking about our day, we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask the higher power for inspiration, an intuitive thought, or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle. We are often surprised at how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. What used to be the hunch or occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with the higher power, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more upon the plane of inspiration.
"We ask only for the knowledge of the higher power's will for us, and the courage to carry it out."
Higher power, may I spend my day doing the next right thing.
I am a recovering computer game and gambling addict. My recovery birthday: On May 6, 2012 I quit games and began working a program of recovery through OLGA No computer games or slot games for me since December 12, 2012. No solitaire games with real cards since June 2013.
a) At the end of every week, schedule some time for yourself. Spend some time thinking about what happened in your life over the past week. List the incidents and situations when you have sought (or should have sought) through to improve your conscious contact with your Higher Power.
I am going to pray and meditate everyday of the week.
b) Describe the various forms of prayer and meditation you have used.
Deep conscious breathing. Think of my self as a glow of light detached from my physical body. Accept all my emotions and thoughts and pain as is. Let them flow gently away into the night. I can only see my aura and the light of the Creator. I can hear birds singing, water flowing, rain dropping, temple bells ringing; I feel a gentle breeze and smell the fragrance of nature. I am in my Secret Garden.
c) Describe any positive results you have had through prayer and meditation.
Spiritual, emotional, physical and mental healing. I regain calmness and composure.
d) Write these down in a journal, so you can use them to check your progress, and also to be reminded at how you are doing.
I keep my journal with me at all times.
Maxi
13 years since first started gaming (2002 - 2015)
Reborn on July 29th, 2015.