Legacy of Spirituality in Alcoholics Anonymous

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Legacy of Spirituality in Alcoholics Anonymous We all are created with a desire, repressed or not, to know and be owned by a higher power. We have a deep longing to be satisfied, and when we are not fulfilled our lives tend to become too chaotic to manage. In trying to satisfy this "unknown" desire, too many search in all the wrong places, some try to fulfill this desire with "worldly things" while others try to drown the emptiness with drugs and/or alcohol and get lost in the clenches of addiction. Looking back through the history of addiction, spiritual programs like AA, continue to produce the best results; is spirituality and believing in a higher power the secret of their success? What is spirituality? Spirituality is separate from religion, and can be defined in a variety of ways that include: a sense of interconnectedness with all living species, an awareness of the meaning and purpose of life and personal values, a belief in a power greater than oneself. Spirituality is not a feeling, it is the conscious practice of living every day to find hope, comfort, meaning and inner peace in our lives and that continued way of life is what wakens our own spirit into conscious contact with a higher power. The Early History of Alcoholics Anonymous "The program of Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religion, it is a spiritual discipline. The conscious practice of the 12 steps and their virtues of Honesty, Hope, Faith, Courage, Integrity, willingness, Humility, Brotherly Love, Justice, Perseverance, Prayer and Meditation and Service to One Another, in all our daily affairs as a Spiritual Discipline requiring rigorous honesty and perseverance, and a responsibility to our fellows, to a Higher Power, each as we understand it, or don't understand it, and to ourselves. The various 12 step program are a mode of living out our daily lives sober, one day at a time,

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