Rev. Leo Booth
Unity minister, published author and conference speaker

I think the phrase that excites and intrigues many people in Alcoholics Anonymous in step twelve, is having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps. For me it is powerful because it becomes a spring-board for my imagination; what is the spiritual awakening? Where does it take us? What is needed to keep the awakening alive?

Let’s step back for a moment and see what we have achieved in completing steps one through eleven. This is obviously my understanding of how the steps work, others have written about this incredible program and it has become enriched by ideas and experiences discovered in the fellowship. And that’s how it should be. These suggested steps will mean different things to different people, depending upon their religion, culture and philosophical backgrounds.

Generally speaking this is what steps one to eleven mean to me:

Step One: We admitted, either verbally or internally that alcohol was screwing up our lives. It was damaging the God-given spiritual power that we were created with; it also was creating chaos in our lives. Excuses be damned; alcohol was and is the problem!

Step Two: We needed help beyond ourselves. Yes, we needed to be involved but we couldn’t do it on our own. God, Jesus, Higher Power or the recovering community needed to be involved.

Step Three: Following the admittance that we made in step one, we were now ready to decide on a new course of living; bringing some aspect of sanity into our lives.

Step Four: Let’s take a focused look at who we are and what is going on in our lives.

Step Five: We needed to share what we were feeling about our alcoholism with another person. A person we could trust.

Step Six: We were ready to work with God or Higher Power in changing our defects of character.

Step Seven: We affirmed our desire to stay healthy in all areas of our lives.

Step Eight: Made a list of those who were hurt or damaged by our alcoholic behavior.

Step Nine: Where appropriate we made direct amends. We had begun to understand the difference between being sorry and saying we are sorry.

Step Ten: We decided to absorb this program of personal responsibility into our daily lives.

Step Eleven: We have the intention to use prayer and meditation to live spiritually, developing a life based upon goodness.

These steps are clearly spiritual rather than religious because all religious denominations and the non-religious attend Twelve Step. This program has simply and comprehensively enabled us to clean house; now we are truly ready to create positive attitudes in our lives.

So we return to the questions that began this article, what is the spiritual awakening promised in step twelve? Where will it take us? Is this awakening an event or a process?

Well, I believe the spiritual awakening will mean different things to different people. For me, it is knowing that I’m loved by God and I need to respect myself. Also, God supports my program; God doesn’t make it happen. I need to do the polishing of this miracle called sobriety. I need to do the footwork.

This awakening will take us to different experiences in life. I left England and I came to America. I became a writer exploring spirituality and recovery. Others have had different experiences.

Definitely I see the awakening as a process rather than an event. Recovery for me is a developing journey and the spiritual awakening is an on-going aspect of this journey. For some people the spiritual journey takes them back to their religion of birth, others discover their Higher Power in meetings and nature. However, our involvement is essential. If we do not polish this spiritual gift it will get rusty and fall apart.

An affirmation I have used over the years:

On a daily basis I seek to improve my spiritual awakening.