Looking at the Concept of Higher Power in Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous or AA is a spiritual, not religious, program. The creators of the program made sure to reiterate that a spiritual experience was needed to recover, but that this could be attained with any power greater than yourself. They explain that in an attempt at brevity, they use the word God, but many times, it is followed by the words “of your understanding.”
It is important to seek a spiritual awakening when wanting to begin a recovery journey. My experience is finding a higher power while attending Purpose Healing Center. They created an environment of healing in which I was able to thoroughly understand the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. If you are struggling with addiction, getting professional help can help you heal on a physical and spiritual level.
The 2nd Step of Alcoholics Anonymous
The 2nd step of AA is “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” This introduction to a higher power requires a bit of faith in the fact that there is something bigger in the universe than us. A higher power means anything, like nature, the ocean, or even the God of Abrahamic faiths.
My higher power is very personal to me and is some sort of conglomerate of many different things. I will call my higher power God, but in my mind, it is more of an energy that connects all living things rather than the traditional idea of God. Religion left a bad taste in my mouth when I was young. I was disillusioned by the evil in the world, and it took some time for me to find my spirituality. I now have a higher power greater than myself that I can pray to, and I firmly believe it can restore me to sanity, thus completing the 2nd of the twelve steps.
The 3rd Step of Alcoholics Anonymous
The Big Book of AA says the 3rd step is “Made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, as we understood him.” Often read in AA meetings is the 3rd step prayer. According to a website dedicated to AA, the third step prayer is “God, I offer myself to Thee, to build with me, and to do with me as thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy power, Thy love, and Thy way of life. May I do Thy will always.”
For fear of driving anyone away from the program, I want to reiterate that this is a God of your understanding, as the AA program is spiritual and not religious. Religion can be a major sore spot for some people, as it was for me, so please remember that the higher power can be anything you can conceive that is bigger than yourself.
Turning my will and my life over daily to my own higher power is comforting for me, but it wasn’t always this way. The first twelve-step groups I attended intimidated me when they read the Big Book, and I heard step 3. I didn’t want to give my will up to anything, let alone a God I didn’t believe in. After a while, I realized nature would work for me, and that became my higher power. Then, my spirituality evolved into the concept I use today. It has been a journey, but one that I feel is just beginning.
Spirituality and Substance Abuse Treatment
Most treatment centers, like Purpose Healing Center, will introduce the program of AA or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). The spiritual approach to addiction has immense success, and the collective wisdom is that a recovery journey has much more success when the concepts of Spirituality are included. Alcoholism and addiction are best treated when you recognize the spiritual malady that plagues you.
Taking suggestions from Purpose Healing Center, I attended twelve-step meetings religiously regardless of my personal beliefs. The personal growth I have noticed as my recovery life begins is incredible. My inner wisdom is enhanced, and the power to resist that first drink is within me now. A God of my definition, this supreme being I have a concept of in my mind, has given me guidance in my recovery since the beginning. Giving my own definition to God has changed my entire world.
How to Proceed as an Atheist
I have encountered an atheist along my recovery journey and suggested he simply use the universe as his higher power. For the sake of his sobriety, I asked that he bear with me in asking the universe for guidance and enlightenment. The truth is that recovery is a process, and if he was willing to have faith in the fact that millions of others have recovered using the 12 steps, then he could give it a try.
There are many reported examples of spiritual awakenings that happen in the program of AA and other 12-step programs. Having faith in a God of your understanding is frequently stipulated aspect of the program. The fact that so many others have had a spiritual awakening and are in recovery should persuade anyone struggling with an addiction to find some higher power they can work with.
The main thing I can say is I wanted peace in my life and had come to the point where I was willing to open my consciousness and connect with a higher power. If you are like me, you realize that God can be whatever we want it to be, and in recovery, that is all it takes.
Prayer, How to Connect with a Higher Power
The other step in the 12 steps that talks about a connection with a higher power is step 11. The 11th step is “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.”
This step highlights the importance of constant contact with a higher power. Prayer and meditation are important aspects of a spiritual awakening, and it is through practicing them that they become more effective and easier to do. For someone who was not used to praying, it took practice for me to begin to feel comfortable with prayer. I felt uneasy and almost silly when I prayed because I had spent so much time mentally against religion.
I now have no issue with prayer and can find myself speaking to my higher power regularly throughout the day. In fact, some forms of ‘prayer,’ such as the prayer for the sick man in AA, is less about conventional worship and more akin to an act of reframing and changing of perception, which are valuable practices in their own right.
The main reason it became much easier for me to communicate with my higher power through prayer is that I began to see results. Prayer alleviated many negative aspects of my life, and I began to believe more in my higher power.
Meditation, Sitting with a Higher Power
As far as meditation, it is something I had been more exposed to in my adult life as it is not as connected to organized religion. Meditation, to me, is almost like listening to my higher power, while prayer is speaking to my higher power. This is an easy way to conceptualize the aspects of prayer and meditation.
The benefits of both have been incredible in my life. Mostly due to the enlightenment I feel about life. My anxiety and depression are reduced through prayer and meditation, and my desire to use has been lifted. This is a miracle when considering the state of my addiction not even a couple of years ago.
I am truly grateful for the fact that I found the willingness to pray and meditate. Taking suggestions from my counselor at Purpose Healing Center and beginning to practice both daily has changed my life drastically for the better.
Looking for a Higher Power in Life
There are many examples I can look at in my life to see evidence of a higher power. Close brushes with death or the law that I emerged from unscathed. Little signs of synchronicity in life cannot be coincidence in my mind. This is how I can prove that something greater than me, something that can influence reality, exists and has my well-being in mind.
These are the things I would recommend you try to find examples of in your own life if you are struggling with an addiction. Give yourself a break from the world and accept help, as in my case support from Purpose Healing Center made all the difference.
In a peaceful environment where you can ignore the outside world and focus on yourself, it will be much easier to work on yourself spiritually. Call Purpose Healing Center; their admissions department will be able to give you all the information you need to get into treatment. It could end up being the best decision of your life.
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