"Many of us have found that setting aside quiet time for ourselves is helpful in making conscious contact with our Higher Power." Basic Text, page 92
Most of us pay lip-service to the value of conscious contact with a Higher Power. Yet how many of us consistently take time to improve that conscious contact? If we've not already established a regular regimen of prayer and meditation, today is the day to start one.
A "quiet time" need not be long. Many of us find that twenty to thirty minutes is enough time to quiet ourselves, focus our attention with a spiritual reading, share our thoughts and concerns in prayer, and take a few moments to listen for an answer in meditation. Our "quiet time" need not be lengthy to be effective, provided it is consistent. Twenty minutes taken once a month to pray will probably do little but frustrate us with the poor quality of our conscious contact. Twenty minutes taken regularly each day, however, renews and reinforces an already lively contact with our Higher Power.
In the hustle and bustle of the recovering addict's day, many of us end up going from morning to night without taking time out to improve our conscious contact with the God we've come to understand. However, if we set aside a particular time of the day, every day, as "quiet time," we can be sure that our conscious contact will improve.
Just for today:
I will set aside a few moments, once I finish reading today's entry, to pray and meditate. This will be the beginning of a new pattern for my recovery.
In our personal spiritual program, we chose to begin the day by seeking contact with our Higher Power to get guidance as to how we could go through the day in accordance with our Higher Powers will for us. Some of us perceived our approach to our Higher Power as prayer and our Higher Powers answer to be meditation. To be able to hear our Higher Powers guidance, we had to empty our mind from all thoughts and turn silent.
As some of us thought that we already knew from the beginning of the day what our day was going to be used for, we found it superfluous to ask our Higher Power for guidance and to turn silent to get an answer. We discovered that this was a rationalization that we took into use because we didnt think we had the required time to turn silent and listen. Anyway, we decided to follow the suggestion of Step Eleven as it was just as importantfor us to nurture our spiritual life as it was to nurture our material life, and therefore, we set aside time for it just like we set aside time for our other activities.
When we began to seek our Higher Powers guidance on a daily basis, we discovered that our ability to differentiate the voice of our Higher Power from our own began to develop over a period of time through patience and perseverance, and thus Step Eleven gradually began working for us. Sometimes, our Higher Power surprised us by giving us guidance that changed our own perceptions of how this day should be used. If we thought that it created a disturbance in our material interests to follow our Higher Powers will for us, we tried to do it anyway to see where it took us.
Gradually, as we experienced the outcome, it dawned on us that it was more advantageous for us to follow our Higher Powers will for us than our own, and our faith and confidence grew as a result. Thereby we discovered that our Higher Power drew us closer and closer to heart, and to our amazement, many of us discovered that our Higher Powers will for us expressed itself in a multitude of ways. Sometimes our Higher Power spoke to us humorously and sometimes seriously; sometimes from within ourselves and sometimes from outside us through everything and everybody, everywhere, at all levels of existence, but always with unconditional love and compassion.
We maintained contact with our Higher Power on a daily basis by praying for our Higher Powers guidance before we began each and every new activity in the course of a day, as to how best we can do this task in accordance with our Higher Powers will for us. Then we became silent until we felt that our Higher Power had given us a direction as to how we could go about this task. When we had dealt with the task, we thanked our Higher Power for the guidance we received, just like we thank our Higher Power for guiding us through the day before we go to sleep.
Sometimes, it turns out that what we thought to be our Higher Powers will for us, in actual fact, was not; here we use our tenth step, admit our mistake and restitute as best as we can, consider ourselves forgiven by our Higher Power, let go and move on. Some of us thought it wasnt necessary to seek our Higher Powers will for us so often in the course of a day if only we had done so at the beginning of the day. When we chose to do it anyway as an experiment, we discovered that many things that we had taken for granted took a different turn if we first approached our Higher Power about them, and gradually we discovered the advantages doing this held, and we began making it a habit.
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"If we do an honest examination of exactly what we are giving, we are better able to evaluate the results we are getting."Chapter 10 - Emotional Pain - NA Way of Life.
