Prayer and mediation are suggested by 12-Step recovery fellowships as a means of improving “improving our conscious contact with God as we understood Him.” However, prayer and mediation can be effective tools of improving our overall well-being regardless of our chosen recovery program. When we pray and meditate, we are able to let go of our frustrations and anxieties, finding a sense of peace and serenity that can aid us throughout our day. When people see the word “meditation”, they may think that it means sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed. Definitions of mediation vary, and the concept is open to interpretation. There is the practice of “meditating” as derived from religious and spiritual thought, but meditation can also refer simply to extended thought, contemplation, or spiritual introspection. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous does not give any specific instructions as to how to go about our morning mediation. Rather it presents both prayer and mediation as inextricable. In a sense, prayer is when we talk to our higher power, asking that our thinking “be divorced from self-pit, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Our meditation following prayer is akin to listening to our higher power, opening ourselves up to receiving spiritual answers in moments of indecision throughout the day. A conversation cannot be productive unless we have both elements—talking and listening, and this extends to our relationship with a higher power of our own understanding. When we pray and meditate, we allow ourselves to get outside of ourselves and tap into a power greater than ourselves. We find that the peace and serenity that results from our spiritual exercises helps us relax and move through the day with purpose, not weighed down by the fear and external stressors that used to control us. Meditation teacher and spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy explained, “If you wish to triumph over fear, meditation is the way. It is the only way. By identifying with the One, we identify with the vastness of all that is. All thing and people are a part of us, and we are a part of everything and everyone else. So there is nothing outside of us to fear. So how can we fear ourselves?” Through the incorporation of prayer and meditation into our recovery program, our fears fall from us and we feel a sense of hope and assurance that we can successfully get through any situation that comes our way without reliance on drugs or alcohol.
Drugs and alcohol disconnect us from the spiritual part of ourselves. Through sobriety, we can rekindle our relationship with our spirituality and find a life of hope, faith, and courage. Oceanfront Recovery, a treatment facility in beautiful Laguna Beach, offers the opportunity to achieve sobriety in a serene beachfront environment. For more information about treatment options, including Residential Treatment, please call today: (877) 279-1777
