Practicing Willingness In Your Everyday Life
Spiritual Growth: Practicing Patience in Your Everyday Sober Life
Spiritual growth goes hand-in-hand with the 12 steps of recovery. There's no other way to change your life but to focus on growing as an individual, and integral to this growth is a spiritual awareness that will help you become a better person.
The reality is that recovery from addiction is a long road. Learning to cultivate patience is key to your spiritual growth as an individual, and in turn, your long-term sobriety.
If you want to learn more about why being patient is so important in your recovery journey, this blog is for you.
How Hope As a Spiritual Principle Helps Through The AA Steps
Practicing Hope As A Spiritual Principle In Sobriety In Your Everyday Life
How to Find Peace in Sobriety
The 12 Spiritual Principles of AA Explained
5 Places to Go for Your Next Recovery Retreat
Finding Peace: 5 Benefits of Using Meditation During Addiction Recovery
Tips for Staying Sober with Meditation
Namaste! 5 Proven Benefits Of Yoga For Addiction Recovery
Find Your Zen: Everything About Meditation for Addiction Recovery
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Addiction is rampant in the United States. 21.5 million Americans struggled with a substance use disorder in 2014; 17% of men and 8% of women in the general population will experience alcoholism in their lifetimes.Those are scary figures.
Working Through the 7th Step Prayer
When you are battling alcohol addiction, know that you're not alone. Some 18 million people in the United States suffer from alcohol addiction.
The 7th step prayer, which is part of the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve step program, helps to strengthen hope and faith on the road to recovery.
If you want to get the most out of your recovery process, you'll need to focus on this step and prayer intently.
In this article, we'll discuss this prayer, how integral it is to recovery and how you can apply it to your life.
Let's take a look below at the meaning of the prayer and how you can use it effectively in your addiction recovery process.
Commit the 7th Step Prayer to Memory
Before you run out and start going through the 7th step prayer, you'll need to learn exactly what it says. This prayer revolves around asking for forgiveness for shortcomings.
It asks the Creator to get rid of any flaws that are keeping you from living the highest version of yourself.
This 7th step prayer is deeply rooted in self-acceptance and humility, which are cornerstones of the recovery process.
Use the Prayer Every Day, in Good Times and Bad
Consistency is the key to working the prayer to the benefit of your life.
No matter your spiritual beliefs or affiliation, prayer is powerful from a scientific point of view. According to neurotheology, prayer literally changes your brain.
You'll be able to use prayer to build your belief and willpower, which can change the circumstances of your physical reality.
Because this prayer is so important, you'll need to make it an everyday part of your life. As with anything, repetition is crucial for making a change. Use this prayer when you wake up, before you go to sleep and during difficult times in your day.
Apply the Prayer on a Personal Level
If you are planning to commit this 7th step prayer to memory and use it, make sure that it means something to you.
It's one thing to recite the words, and another entirely to internalize it.
When saying the prayer, try to invoke the feeling of what you're saying. Think about your joys and triumphs, contrasted by despair and failure. This way, when you say the prayer, you'll add emotion to it that can build your faith.
Consider creating a vision board with all of your hopes and dreams.
This way, you'll always remember your higher purpose and what you are trying to attain. Remember the rock bottom moments and tough times and use the prayer as a means to transcend those hard times.
Understand the Importance of Humility
There's strength in humility.
This very human character trait is often portrayed as a virtue of "niceness", rather than true strength.
True humility involves quieting your ego and recognizing you're flawed. When you recognize your flaws, they're put in their place, as opposed to internalized through shame.
The 7th step prayer focuses on humility, allowing you to recognize and acknowledge your weaknesses. Only then can you accept help.
Humility lets you develop an accountability circle, celebrate your sobriety goals and get the support system that you need.
Make it All About Your Work
Saying the 7th step prayer is an act of faith. A verse in the bible asserts that the works keep faith alive.
In addition to reciting and memorizing the prayer, apply it to your goals. For instance, if you've always wanted to start a business, make sure that you're stepping out on faith to do so.
Saying this prayer regularly will keep you in the proper frame of mind, which can then power you toward your goals.
Continuously Develop Your Spiritual Footing
Make sure that your spiritual walk doesn't end with this prayer.
There's value available in religious and spiritual systems -- no matter which you subscribe to. Read through spiritual texts in order to get some grounding in your life that can be helpful.
The more you exercise your faith, the more conviction you'll have with the prayer itself. Whether strengthening your faith means reading spiritual texts, attending church services or finding gurus, you'll want to take this seriously.
The healing from something deep as substance abuse won't happen overnight and requires your full focus and effort.
Stay Involved in Your Groups and Meetings
Take your accountability groups, counseling and meetings seriously.
Initial treatment is crucial, but your chances of success depend on how much work you put in with these constants. Rather than just assuming you've learned from mistakes, you'll need to both receive help and provide support.
In these meetings, you'll typically have a sponsor and will receive a chip or other commemoration as you stay sober. Sharing with others recovering will make you continuously find new meaning and context to the 7th step prayer.
Add Meditation To Your Lifestyle
Meditation will be useful to you no matter what sort of life you lead.
For best results, make sure to meditate every single day. By meditating regularly, you'll be better able to stay in the moment and will change your brain networks.
Perhaps most importantly, meditation will help you to quiet the part of your mind that is involved strictly in your survival. This impulse is only concerned with moments of the past and future but takes you out of the moment.
The more that you meditate, the easier it will be to override your impulses and simply make clear decisions.
By coupling the 7th step prayer with regular meditation, you'll find that you're less carried away with stress and better able to deal with the feelings that naturally arise inside of you.
Since addiction is a mental and emotional issue, meditation and prayer are incredibly impactful.
The 7th Step Prayer Gives Hope
Applying the 7th step prayer helps you to find some grounding, so you can make the most out of your future.
When you're sober, you'll have more clarity of mind, can get into better shape and enjoy impeccable physical health.
Consider these tips so that you can employ the prayer in your recovery.
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Fight Addiction Through Meditation
The claws of addiction dig deep.
No matter what your drug of choice is, your brain has undergone changes due to substance use and abuse.
As a result, you try to fight addiction only to come full circle to the same point (or worse) you were in before.
But if only abstaining was enough to set yourself on the path to healing. If that were the case, treatment centers would be empty and meetings would become unnecessary.
The Power of Prayer: Research Shows That The AA Prayer Reduce Cravings
Addiction is a misunderstood ailment that is often handled poorly.
Even those who have been sober for years can have cravings from time to time.
That's why the AA prayer can be extremely comforting.
Repeating a motivational phrase can do wonders for your recovery.
This is especially true when you are struggling to stave off cravings.
Prayer may seem like a shallow, trivial answer to a serious problem.