Finding Spirituality Within
People in recovery who are successfully working the Twelve Steps know that AA is a spiritual program. At first some people in search of sobriety in recovery are turned off when they are told spirituality is the very foundation of AA and the Twelve Steps. Spirituality is often equated with religion, but spirituality is more than that and goes deeper; it is the foundation for a religious tradition. Religion, according to Webster, is “the acknowledgment of a Divine Being and a systematic manifestation in worship, ritual and conduct.”
Many people do not have a systematic worship or ritual and yet are still spiritual. When a person is not affiliated to a specific religion, he or she can mistakenly conclude that he or she is not spiritual. Nurturing a spiritual life can lead a person to express his or her connection with God in and through a religious tradition. Yet, spirituality transcends a religion. Every human being is spiritual by virtue of the fact that he or she has breath or life.
As we progressively struggle through life’s positive and negative moments we can either cultivate the art of living or we can merely survive.
Spirituality is frequently considered by many people as some thing to be acquired. For many years I have worked at Hanley Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, as a spiritual counselor, and often people ask me, “What must do I do to get spirituality or can you help me become more spiritual?” In cases where men and women have been through several Twelve Step treatment programs, when asked what is missing in their life the answer is consistently the same, spirituality. The good news is spirituality is not something to acquire like a possession but rather someone we already are. Who we are and how we live in relationship to others is what ultimately expresses our spirituality, our lifestyle, and is the foundation for our existence.
Given that spirituality is about a way of life, the difference for each person becomes the quality of his or her relationships with others. To be mindfully spiritual suggests that a person is on a journey of becoming his or her truest self through recurring phases of awareness, discovery and breakthrough.
Waking up to life with a sense of purpose as grounded in Higher Power is the primary goal for the spiritual journey.
Spiritual-becoming leads us into deeper mindfulness of the quality of our life on the lives of others. Progressive discovery of who we really are makes it possible for us to penetrate the surface of things and break through to the interconnectedness of all living things with God.
The disease of addiction cannot be healed but like cancer can be held in remission. Treatment, working the Twelve Steps and AA empower an addict or alcoholic to work on maximizing their spiritual life while keeping the disease in check. Too often people with the disease as well as others search outside themselves for something greater and deeper to satisfy their hunger. Yet what they search for is inside, intangible and transcendent. Our life-journey is not ultimately outside, but a journey inward to a discovery of God within us. In fact, what we search for what we already have, namely the God-given gift
For years I have urged people yearning for spiritual connection to simply embrace their life and discover the extraordinary in the ordinary. To appreciate life as sacred is to see the “Wow” and awe of being alive. Several years ago I challenged a talented musician, a patient, to compose a song that recounted his journey from abuse to spiritual awakening. His epiphany to Mystery-Presence and his life-change are reflected in these lyrics of Waking Up.
“I know I’ve been asleep for years, a nightmare that would never end.
Too afraid to face my fears, it seems that I was my only friend.
I had to admit I was powerless, knew I didn’t want to die.
My heart cried out for happiness, a miracle was sent in Love’s reply.
I’m waking up - living in a new light, waking up no more being uptight”.
Ronald Beshara, STL, JCL, vice president of Mission and Spiritual Care at Hanley Center, has been a parish priest and counselor in many settings. His book
Tags: breakthrough, discovery, purpose, relationships, spirituality, Twelve Steps