How To Work Step Eleven
Julie Followell
Step 11 takes us deeper into the spiritual aspects of recovery. By using the tools of prayer and meditation, we grow closer to our Higher Power. However, not everyone is initially on board with the idea of devoting any real time or effort to these activities. Follow along as we work through Step 11 and learn just how important it is to reach for a closer connection with your Higher Power.
Are you working Step 11 of the 12-Step Program? This step focuses on deepening your connection with your Higher Power as you cultivate your spirituality through the practice of prayer, meditation, or some other type of spiritual practice.
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The Eleventh Step tells us that we can improve our conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation. By engaging in more frequent contact, we can become more aware of who our Higher Power is, what our Higher Power does, and how our Higher Power loves us. Thus, we can come to feel more known ourselves, and closer to our Higher Power. Some of us understand this part of the Step to mean that Eleventh Step work can enhance our spiritual walk, no matter where we are in our journey.
Step 11, like Step 10, is not a step that is worked once and then forgotten. Instead, it is part of an ongoing (usually daily) ritual of recovery. That said, recovering addicts often find prayer and meditation to be somewhat baffling concepts. And some, especially those who began the recovery process as agnostics or atheists, may still be struggling with the idea of having a higher power at all. For these reasons (and many others), Step 11 can be a difficult one to work. If you find yourself struggling with this step, take heart in the fact that you are very far from alone, for even the most devoutly religious members of 12-Step recovery groups sometimes temporarily lose their way here.
Moving through the steps people report being increasingly in contact with someone - a "Person" rather than a philosophical Higher Power. When this change takes place, we often see miracles happening in their lives. After much fear of losing control, they discover insight, wisdom, power, and courage that they didn't have at all two weeks before. At that point many say, "I surrender, I give up." They begin to communicate with God concerning what is happening to them. And that's when they are ready to receive the help of Step Eleven.
Although these changes happen for many people, they do not happen for all. Many work the steps and stay sane in Twelve-Step programs yet somehow miss the whole thing about prayer and meditation. Most of the people who work good programs, however, are connected to God and do use prayer and meditation in some form. They use them as practical ways of learning who God is and what his will for them may be, as well as for learning useful truths about who they are and what they're to do in order to find happiness, guidance, peace and continued growth. But mostly they pray because they feel gratitude, love and a sense of awe that the One with whom they are in contact is using his power to heal them.
Step Eleven says that we already have a conscious contact with the God of our understanding, and that the task before us now is to improve that contact. We began to develop our conscious awareness of a Higher Power in Step Two, learned to trust that Power for guidance in Step Three, and relied on that Power many times for many other reasons in the process of working through the steps. Each time we called upon our Higher Power for help, we improved our relationship with our Higher Power. Step Eleven recognizes that reaching out to the God of our understanding, referred to most simply as prayer, is one of the most effective means for building a relationship with God. The other means put forth in this step is meditation. In this step, we will need to explore our own concepts of prayer and meditation, and make sure they reflect our spiritual path. ...
As we explore our spiritual path, and perhaps pick up and discard various spiritual practices, some of us are troubled by what seems to be inherent bias in NA's steps and traditions when God is referred to as having a male gender. Even more painful, some of us may feel that we don't have much support within our local NA community for our spiritual choices and exploration. It's important for us to understand that the language of NA's recovery literature is not meant to determine a member's spirituality. It's also important for us to understand that we as addicts have character defects, and sometimes some of our members will act on theirs by ridiculing someone else's spiritual path. They may even quote NA recovery literature to "support" such ridicule. Again, NA itself has no "official" or "approved" spiritual path, and any member who claims otherwise is, quite simply, wrong. We mention this here because we believe it's very important for all of our members to know what's true and not true about NA when working the Eleventh Step. It can be a dangerous time. If members follow a spiritual path, and feel unwelcome in NA because of it, their recovery can be in jeopardy. We as members have a duty to encourage the spiritual explorations of other members, and we who are exploring need to know that we can look wherever we want for our spirituality without threatening our membership in NA. ...
To many of us, "conscious contact" sounds like something very mysterious, implying some kind of cosmic union with God. But it's really very simple. It just means that we have a conscious awareness of our link to a Higher Power. We notice the presence of that Power, and see some of the ways it works in our life. There are so many ways our members have experienced the presence fo a loving God: when we experience something in nature, such as a forest or an ocean; through the unconditional love of our sponsor or other NA members; through the feeling of being anchored during difficult times; through feelings of peace and warmth; through a coincidence that later on we see as having led to some great good; through the simple fact of our recovery in NA; through our ability to listen to others at a meeting; and countless other means. The point is that we are looking and we are willing to acknowledge that our Higher Power is active in our lives.
It is clear from reading the Twelve and Twelve [Webmaster's note: this refers to the classic recovery book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions] that the conception of meditation offered in this step is not the caricatured lotus position, nor any form of esoteric mysticism. Although there is certainly room for a more in-depth form of meditation, what Bill had in mind is more of a clear-minded self-reflection.
In terms of prayer, although a more traditional sense of prayer is described, the purpose is also portrayed as prayer to one's Higher Power for a sense of direction. The prayer "God's will, not mine, be done" is frequently added to the Serenity Prayer at the conclusion of 12-step meetings, and reflects a move away from the egocentric position of the active alcholic or addict.
Step 11 of Alcoholics Anonymous encourages people to reach out to a source of inspiration, whether it be a God or some other spiritual or inspirational force, and work to achieve the strength to find recovery. One of the underlying principles of the Alcoholics Anonymous program is that nothing happens by mistake. Members are encouraged to recognize their Higher Power, to listen to that Higher Power, and allow Him or Her to inspire them in their journey of recovery. This is achieved through prayer and meditation.
Alcoholics Anonymous is well known for their 12-step program that focuses on helping people achieve sobriety, make amends, and improve the quality of their life. For many people in recovery, Step 11 presents a bit of a challenge. A person facing this step may not understand what it means, how to apply it in his or her life, or may have shunned religion and spirituality altogether. However, if you want to progress to the final step, then you must integrate the Alcoholics Anonymous Step 11 in your life.
I too love steps 2 and 11. Because God loves me. This is a Sunday but we are harvesting and nature does not wait for man's laws. But it is also a great time to witness to the love of God amongst people of many nations- and to gather from them their own insights- their own hopes and joys...
While Step Ten focuses largely on keeping our thoughts and emotions in check, the next step takes a look at their very foundation. As most should know by the time they reach Step Eleven, the foundation of recovery is one of spiritual growth. Much of our work in the Twelve Steps focuses on establishing a sense of spirituality. In Step Two, we define our Higher Power and learn to put faith in it. Then, upon reaching Step Three, we give up our delusions of control. From a certain standpoint, you might even say that every single step is about spirituality in one form or another.
As you can plainly see, there is a bit more here than simple prayer and meditation. This step also references the notion of conscious contact with our Higher Power, whatever that may be. And while Step Three required us to turn over our willpower, we must now dig a little deeper and begin to discover just what that means for us. Naturally, the answers may vary for every recovering addict or alcoholic who asks this question of themselves.
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