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(2) Use prayer. Our ritual can include prayer. Our daily meditation and practice can include prayer. We’ll also talk about prayer in connection with the Seventh Step, but it is essential in the Sixth.
Use prayer to ask for awareness and willingness to receive. Use prayer to ask for depth and clarity. Use prayer to ask to become a better channel for our Higher Power. Use prayer to ask for ease and grace in surrender. Use prayer to ask how to pray. Use prayer to ask how to think and act. Use prayer to say thank you. Use prayer. Prayer can be considered cheating because of how much easier it makes the process go.
Prayer is not about someone else telling us how to pray or what to say. It is about communication.
Prayer is not something to be intellectualized and analyzed. It can only be realized through practice.
God give me the courage and strength to know who I really am, to act accordingly in my life, and to refrain from diverting my time, energy, and interest into my character defects.
When I pray, I become still and I quiet any unrest within me. I reaffirm my oneness with my Higher Power, and I find the answers I seek.
(3) Learn to meditate. Meditation and prayer are traditionally discussed in the Eleventh Step, but we can put them to use here, if we choose. Those in the Program for a while realize that the Steps are synergistic, and that after a while they will be practicing parts of one with many others, all at the same time. Meditation is a practice that can be utilized throughout the whole Program. Meditation is mostly about listening and quieting our mind (quiet time).
Taking a single word or thought and letting it run through our mind can be very revealing. Take, for example, the word “surrender.” We may start by repeating the word in our mind over and over: “Surrender. Surrender. Surrender. Surrender. Give up. Release. Let go. Surrender. Peace. Renewal. Surrender. Vulnerable. Open. Surrender. Surrender. Strength. Change. Higher Power. Surrender.”
Prayer is seeing answers and direction in life. Meditation is listening for answers from a Higher Power and developing the ability within ourselves to accept the answers. Reflection is the study of ways to turn the answers we get from prayer and meditation into action.
The progress of spirituality from prayer to meditation to reflection is active, not passive.
Prayer, meditation, and reflection will also give us greater awareness of our particular forms of resistance.
We use our intuition and sense of higher purpose to find a comfortable method to practice becoming “entirely ready.” We gain clarity and vision. Whatever method we use, meditation helps determine the shape of our prayer and the direction of our surrender.
To accept this change in direction and have the strength to carry out these new actions, we need the Eleventh Step as our key to maintaining our conscious contact, which takes away the regrets of the past and the fears of tomorrow and allows us to deal with the challenges of today.
But discipline over self-will, although it may be slow, comes with practice. And practicing regularly is necessary in making the best use of the Eleventh Step.
(4) Prepare for cleansing. If we are to engage in a new course of action and become “entirely ready” to get rid of our defects, it makes sense that we start from a clean slate. Of course, common sense is a very rare thing in or out of the Program, so it is not surprising that it is rarely discussed in meetings that we might need to make an effort to get to a clean place.
How is our language used? Are we gaining maturity? Do we swear a lot and make crude remarks about the opposite sex and use biased and prejudiced language? Do we gossip? Are we sarcastic? Do we tell dirty or risqué jokes? Do we use violent language?
Third Step and is practicing and preparing for Steps Six and Seven talk? Try giving up swearing. Try giving up violent language. Try giving up bias. Try giving up sexism. Try giving up gossip. We become willing to give them up and act “as if” until God removes them.
