A Spiritual Awakening
By Terry D     

Once we begin to learn the principles through working the process of the 12 Steps, we are on our road to success.  We have now become enlightened to a new way of life.  Our spirit has become awakened to the truth – life as it was meant to be.  I would like to summarize the basic principles that we’ve learned that has led to our Spiritual Awakening from applying the 12 Steps to Freedom.  Now it is time for us to utilize all of the tools that we’ve learned to ensure our lasting success and spiritual development.  An important part of our new spiritual walk is using visualization, mental imagery, concentration, positive thought, self-discipline, motivation, strength of mind, Divine Enlightenment, and our new peace from within.  True peace and serenity lie just ahead.  We have come to realize on our journey that as we persistently move forward, we will achieve success and personal victory.

            Visualization is an important tool in our recovery.  Mental imagery is conducted on a daily basis.  We visualize our life and make plans that are consistent with the visions that revolve around our minds.  Visualizations produce motivation, spirit, drive, and desire.  We plan according to the mental images that shine forth.  Our mental imagery directs our ambitions to come to light.  It is from our visualizations that our state of mind is shaped.  It affects our opinion and point of view.  As we visualize something, we establish the decisions necessary to act upon its success.  If we learn to concentrate intently upon our inspiring mental imagery with faith, motivation, and a strong desire of want, then we can set in motion positive actions that can bring about positive change in our recovery.  Inspired visualization has enormous influence to generate flourishing measures.  Through these positive mental images, our life is formed.  It is up to us if we want to use positive visualization as an encouraging force to bring about vast change in our lives.  Imaginative visualization is a great instrument to possess in our intensification course of action, and throughout our recovery.

            As we begin to visualize a successful and positive lifestyle, we become more capable to make use of the motivating tools that we’ve learned thus far in our recovery to overcome and triumph the state of affairs we stumble upon.  If we can transcend perceived boundaries, we can utilize our minds to achieve success, and to rise above prospective enslaving factors that could restrain our further growth.  We visualize success, peace, happiness, contentment, and personal freedom as we continue to move forward in our recovery.  Negative thoughts and attitudes will only hamper growth, and engulf us in reservation and despair.  Through our minds we prevail over the difficulties we face.  We have the ability to enliven our inner being to craft an optimistic providence for our lives.  The awareness of our inner selves gives us the Light that we need to distinguish the path ahead – the path to Victory.  We only fill our minds with flourishing, ambitious thoughts and creative intellectual images.  We focus our minds on success, and the path is therefore revealed, and we are led to triumph.  We become entirely certain of the victory ahead, and we tolerate no unenthusiastic thought patterns or trepidation to intrude.  We employ all the tools of the program, and through positive, ingenious visualization, we achieve the vision we hunt for.

            We persist to develop a certain and self-assured will power and strong frame of mind that will provide us the strength and capability to continue emergent, and moving purposefully forward on our journey.  Through our new and superior will power, we gain the knack to overcome weakness, uncertainty, procrastination and downbeat thoughts.  A confident and strong fortitude will allow us to persevere in our recovery.  A strong outlook will guarantee our success and positive expansion.

            Another great tool that we can make the most of in our recovery is self-discipline.  Self-discipline produces strength, power, and ability to escalate BEYOND the challenges we face.  By applying an unwavering self-discipline, we can resist the difficulties ahead on our path.  Immediate gratification is replaced with a greater capacity for future success.  We are not driven by insignificant satisfaction, but instead, we become focused on the greater possibilities that lie ahead.  We no longer have to be slaves to instantaneous pleasure like we were in our active addiction.  Now we become enlivened with power and self-discipline, as we focus our energies toward success.  As we gain control of our will power and inner drive, we regain control of our thoughts, and subsequently, our actions, which will thereby lead us to victory.  We take control of our minds, and gain a sense of control, and a new freedom like never before.  Situations in our lives no longer have to restrict our forward progress.  By obtaining will power and self-discipline, we become more open to spiritual enlightenment, personal growth, and inner harmony.

            To attain attentiveness, we focus our minds to a specific point.  We eliminate astringent thoughts and attitudes that deter out sharp focus on the path ahead.  Clarification of our minds produces an inner peace that will assist us in our positive development.  We become attentive of our inner alertness.  We isolate all of our inhibiting constrictions.  We do our best to develop a strong, confident, and faithful mindset, in which we then use to battle the perils at the forefront.  With lucid and alert minds, we take a step definitely forward on our journey, never again to glance back.  We concentrate our clear minds on the objective we seek, and we anticipate only the unsurpassed to unfold in our daily lives. 

            When we clear our minds, the stumbling stones ahead are lifted from our path.  We meditate on righteousness, on our sure route to achievement and triumph.  We develop a strong and secure moral fiber as we march onward.  As we seek for the acquaintance of God from our inner Essence, our Higher Power manifests as our inner guide to personal achievement.

            As we continue to move ahead on our journey, we learn to use a creative imagination to produce even more success in our recovery.  Imagination allows us to experience new, and different possibilities that can further boost our progressive advancement.  We visualize innovative ideas and thoughts, and set goals according to the visions we seek.  We focus on our new, mental images and imaginations to unlock our minds to even more positive wonders and possibilities ahead.  We step forward in hopeful expectation.  We explore our minds to achieve success, to rise above alleged limitations.

            In our recovery, we explore positive occurrences that can be achieved in our daily lives.  We motivate our attentive minds to step forward, and to only succeed in our recovery.  We utilize creative imagination to enhance our creative abilities, and to reinvent the direction of our lives.  Through our creative mental images, we create a new direction to further explore the wonders ahead.  We come to comprehend that we can achieve the desires of our heart by affirmative action, and through a strong, and prevailing mindset.  When we visualize with faith, our imaginations come alive into veracity.  We uphold a positive attitude, and expect only the best as we seek to enhance our lives.  We pursue the positive motivations of our imaginations, and we draw their energies to drive us forward, and to achieve their victory.

            To attain a lasting success, we use our new and improved mental strength, will power, and focused mental concentration to amplify our inner expansion.  We utilize our self-discipline to achieve our positive motivations.  We push on in assurance; and we come to learn that what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.  Our inner strength, our unrelenting focus, and devoted drive are the abilities essential to achieve our goals.  We resist instant gratification as we move onward in anticipation of a lasting success.  We strive towards meaningful tasks that will launch us towards the quietude and tranquility of mind that we seek.  We become motivated to obtain not only success in our recovery, but also bliss and personal victory.  We stay focused on our true path towards the attainment of our goals.  We know and trust the power and ability of our Higher Power to lead us towards the desires of our hearts.  We no longer have to be preoccupied with the failures of our past.  Devoid of regret and reservation, we focus our energies on the path ahead, never to look back, and always to push ahead in confident expectancy.

            We learn to concentrate and meditate on the wonders of this world – all the possibilities that lie ahead that are now open to us.  Happiness manifests to be the foundation of our inner drive.  Peace of mind and serenity take the helm, leading us to victory.  We come to utilize our creative powers to generate further positive change in our recovery.

            Continuous positive thinking can further enhance all of the qualities we have gained so far in our recovery.  Positive thinking is anticipating, speaking and envisioning with conviction what we desire to accomplish, as an adept actuality and genuineness.  We use our positive thinking to create positive attitude that will produce will power, initiative, drive and endurance.  We use our positive thoughts in unity with positive desire and optimistic action.  We become confident in our pristine abilities to succeed in our endeavors, and to bring about our inner happiness.  We clear our thoughts, and with positive action we move onward.  We become energized with positive motivation.  Unmanageability of our active addiction transforms into inner control and know-how to achieve success over and over again.  We recapture a sense of control, and are led towards victory.  We change our thoughts, thereby changing our direction.  We utilize the Spiritual Principles of the 12 Step program to attain our goals, and to continuously move ahead on our journey towards triumph and personal freedom.

            Peace of mind now becomes our ultimate destination.  When we relinquish our fears and doubts, we become at peace.  Peace of mind is a state from within that is free from external settings.  Peace of mind in formed form our thoughts and feelings.  We come to learn the value that it provides us, and then we make every effort for its attainment within us.  If we become subjugated by astringent thoughts, then obtaining peace of mind is unattainable.  We have to adjust our thoughts in the direction of obtaining an unruffled lifestyle.  We become aware of the Spiritual Principles, and we put them to use in our lives to achieve the peace of mind that we strive for.  We overpower corrupting thoughts, and we become aware of the possibilities ahead as we put our all into the attainment of a peaceful, and enriching existence.  As we become aware of our destructive thought patterns, we rise above their ruinous consequences.  We use our strength of mind and newfound self-discipline to rise above restrictive, inhibiting thought patterns.  We believe and have faith that as we continue to strive forward in our recovery, we will achieve peace of mind, and liberate the confines of our past self-inflicted prisons.  We learn to eradicate destructive thoughts and attitudes, as we concentrate on obtaining peace of mind and spirit.  Tranquility and calmness comes into existence, and we can delight in in its sovereignty.  We feel alive like never before, and we acquire another positive feature that can only further advance us on our journey.

            As we extract and utilize the strength of our Higher Power, we find the answers to our tribulations.  The answers are exposed in the here and now, not from the failures of our precedent.  We tap into the spring of perpetual supremacy to achieve the ability to escalate beyond our perceived limitations to attain success in the present.  We continue to accept the things that are beyond our ability to change, and we strive to attain victory in the things we can, with hope and confidence that our Higher Power will guide our way.

            If we are to achieve the many miracles of this great program, we have to create an atmosphere in which miracles can occur.  To do this, we hope for only the best in our recovery.  We on no account lose hope, and press onward in hopeful expectancy.  Our Higher Power only wants the unsurpassed, and will give us nothing less as we persistently step forward in love.  We are given the tools, and now it is up to each of us to utilize them to the best of our abilities.  We believe in the extraordinary, and the inconceivable as we step forth in faith and trust in its attainment.  We have the ability to overcome all obstacles on our path.  We believe in ourselves, and the guidance of our Higher Power, and anything becomes possible.

            Each day of our recovery is a new chance to succeed, and to renew our lives.  What makes the big difference is when we start to look at all the marvelous wonders already existing in our lives.  When we forget to notice all of our current, positive abilities, we get lost in life’s perplexity.  We forget where we came from.  We always should learn to take pleasure in the newfound state of peace that we have already acquired, then learn to flourish on it to fabricate additional enlightenment.  Enlightenment comes from the choice to be enlightened.  So lets enjoy the wonders of our current reality.  Lets live each moment the best we can.  Lets enjoy our journey, and our destination.  Conquer the reticent, controlling aspects of your mind, and only then do we surmount life’s obstacles and challenges.  If we feel hopeless, we become hopeless.  If we feel sad, then we’re sad.  On the other hand, if we’re confident in our abilities to triumph over the challenges we face, then we reign victorious.  If we feel in high spirits, and think optimistically, then happiness is ours.  You are the architects of your destiny, so take the helm in faith and trust that good will win through, and that you’ll arrive at the destination that you’ve been searching for.

            At this point, we’ve reached the spiritual awakening that we’ve long-awaited from the beginning.  It has been an extensive journey, but well deserved and earned.  We’ve become spiritually awakened because we now live in accordance with our Higher Power’s will for our lives.  We’ve finally learned how to smile, to enjoy our daily walk as we strive for only the best.  We’ve come to learn how to allow things to happen in our lives.  We feel in connection with our Higher Power, with ourselves, with others, and with the world around us.  We’ve come to appreciate our newfound competence to succeed in our endeavors.  We’ve learned the true concept of acceptance, open-mindedness, and staying power.  We no longer have to worry over the things that we cannot change.  We have learned to enjoy our lives.  We show others and ourselves all the love that we’ve acquired through our recovery process.  Our journey has been exceptionally worthwhile, and we are very thankful of all the knowledge and understanding that we’ve gained on our journey.  Now we persistently move onward in confident anticipation.  We’re equipped to continue on living life, as it should be.  We never forget where we came from, and where we’re going.  We continue to utilize all of the Spiritual Principles of the 12 Step program, as we continue to take a step resolutely forward in our daily lives.

It has been my pleasure to share all of the knowledge and awareness that I’ve personally gained in my own recovery to help my fellow addicts and alcoholics, and anyone who may have an addiction.  It is my hope that all my readers can gain the knowledge and understanding essential to rise above the challenges on your path.  Thank you for allowing me to be of service, and it has been a great adventure. Thank you all, good luck, and God Bless you all.

 If you have any questions on recovery, or the N.A. program, then you can contact me by Clicking Here.  Thank you for allowing me to be of service.  My name is Terry, and I am an addict.