Spirituality without religion

Basically AA seems to revolve around religion. But contradictory stories from thousands of year old texts written by humans have never made sense to me. How do you connect to a higher power to keep you focused when you are not a religious person?

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Personally I don’t look at religion for the higher power. I feel there is a higher power. I even pondered to myself that all religions are based off the same god. That rings true for Christians, Jews and muslims by all accounts of the ancient text.

Everybody believes in something. It could be you believe in “nothing”. It’s definitely not my place to judge. The only proponent that concerns me is if that religion deems I’m not worthy and I need to be converted or killed for not believing what they believe. I’m not trying to create a religious conversation.

I do believe there are 4 pillars that make your life whole and complete; physical, mental, spiritual and relationships. Not being healthy in all these pillars opens the door for depression.

Even in my own beliefs my higher power gives me free will to make a decision.

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Your higher power is whatever you need it to be.

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I’m a highly sensitive and spiritual person but I have a difficult time with the whole “higher power” in sobriety thing. Just this past week it’s been on my mind a lot so I took a moment to swim in my thoughts on the subject. Here’s what I decided…
If I am to have a “higher power” then what’s my “lower power”? My lower power is my drinking self devoid of all self control and meaningful connection to the world and the things in it.
Being sober in turn begins to re-sensitize me and brings me closer to my own higher functioning internal power. Without dulled senses and a constant fog distorting my outlook on life, my perception gets clearer and I can choose which reality I want to live in, a physical one where I live to feed physical cravings or a spiritual one where I live above the cravings of my physical self to feed my need for love and light… I would call dwelling in the latter my “higher power”.

I also see myself as a conduit and it’s up to me to decide which “spirit” I want to flow through me… either the dulling and negative life liquid spirits bring me or the awakening and fulfilling sober spirit that I gain through living in harmony with creation.

Any living thing will become stunted if you give it a steady supply of drugs to feed on.

Regardless of belief or religion- we all function at a higher power when sober and whatever form our “higher power” takes on, most of us won’t connect to it while drunk.

I guess as long as I avoid my “lower power” I’ve turned my life over to my “higher power” thus proving that I’m not powerless over alcohol and that for me there is only one step that opens the door to recovery- admitting that I’m not powerless.

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I love every thing about this post. Very well written and thought out. I agree, I refuse to admit that I am powerless over anything.

One of these days I’ll write what I really think :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: … but just because I think it doesn’t make it fact, just perspective. Same goes for Mr. Bill W. In the Big Book he often quotes the Bible- but even the Bible says that it’s not up to man to direct his step. (Jeremiah 10:23) So any man made program directed at helping one find a higher power is still subjective, a matter of personal perspective, and often times a paradise for one and a dead end for another. It’s why I don’t share to much these days… I’ve tried the path to knowledge, now it’s time to walk the path of humility.

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I wouldn’t say I appeal to a higher power (being an atheist and naturalist), but I do like to find solace in nature and practise meditation (vippasana, or mindfulness meditation). I haven’t done it in a while because alcohol messes with mindfulness and I usually binged, but I think it would definitely help if I got back into it. It’s a very tranquil sensation that it produces.

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I do believe in a higher power, i choose to call it God. But God can also stand for Good Orderly Direction. A higher power to me is caring, loving, and greater than myself. Religion TO ME is more outward, with spirituality being more inward. Depending on your religion and having a higher power, you follow one God usually. Being spiritual and having a higher power, it can be any God you would like. People have numerous higher powers, a couple examples would be nature or a group of people. But in all reality you would have to ask them what their higher power is, i just know mine. Having a higher power for me, keeps my ego slim and keeps me out of my own way. I dont have control over much of anything but my actions and attitudes. And i would like to believe that something is helping me stay sober…

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This is awesome and I’m gonna refer back to it!

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I decided today that I’m going to start going to AA meetings tomorrow. I’ve sobered up before but I really feel like i need more support than just myself. Anyway, the one thing making me hesitant is the God thing. I’ve been told the “God” or “higher power” is just whatever works for you, but it really does rub me the wrong way. Maybe my higher power can be Science haha idk, sorry - this is my first comment, sorry for the rambling.

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No ramble pal. I’m glad your are gonna try a meeting. They say in AA to take what you need and leave the rest. There will be people that talk about God and/their higher power. But no one will push it on you. If they do tell them to bugger off!

When I first started going to meetings a higher power was the last thing on my mind. I took people’s talk of God with a grain of salt. I accepted that that was what worked for them. What was working for me was the meetings so that’s all that mattered.

And yes, your higher power could be science if you like😉 It’s whatever works for you. So go check it out. Just go and listen to people’s stories. Look for similarities and not differences.

Thanks for posting pal. Let us know how it goes

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Science is just fine because it means something special and significant to you. The Big Book is meant to be suggestions to guide you to a better life of sobriety. Nothing more. Those who choose to create a religion around it may IMO, be reading too much into it.

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I totally agree with you. I also have never the idea that I am powerless over alcohol. I’m kind of kicking alcohols butt right now with our AA.

:slight_smile: Thank you. I often think in terms of “spirit”. Within us, we each have a ‘spirit’ that dominates us. How we think, what we eat, how we live, and what we speak is a reflection of our inner ‘spirit’. Many of us drank (or drink) because that inner spirit, the invisible life-force that drives our physical body is agitated. By learning to quiet our inner spirit and not allow outside influences to affect us we are well on our way to functioning at our higher power and aligning ourselves with the harmony in the universe and not the chaos.

No matter what religious or spiritual belief, all things thrive when there is order and not chaos. Drinking creates chaos for us. To begin to restore order is as simple as not drinking and as complex as aligning your inner spirit with the order that permeates all living things.