I stay tuned inside, in touch with a broader sense of who I really
am, and a deeper sense of what I really want.
Original wording (AA):
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact
with our Higher Power as we understood our Higher Power, praying only
for knowledge of our Higher Power's will for us and the power to carry
that out.
In a nutshell
This Step is about being able to continue "doing the right thing".
It's about going beyond the tight boundaries of your habits and knee-jerk
reactions. "The right thing" is not just that what takes you
out of a tight spot. Doing the right thing gives you the sense that
what you’re doing is in harmony with the order of all things.
Suppose you're getting angry at somebody and laying a lot of blame
on them at a time when you can get away with it. It may feel good at
the moment - it lets you get off steam. But it certainly isn't something
that makes you feel especially in harmony with your higher sense of
self. Nor is it an action that you're especially proud of yourself for.
This is not a watertight definition of "doing the right thing"
- it has a lot of holes. There are ways to improve on it. On the other
hand, there is some merit to this lack of precision: This Step is about
intuitively feeling what's right, as opposed to analyzing it with your
logical mind.
What is implicit in this Step -- as in the whole Proactive Twelve Steps
approach -- is that you are inherently good. All we have to do is let
yourself connect with what is good within yourself -- whether you call
it God, a Higher Power, or anything else.
Meditation
Within this context, meditation is a good way to be in conscious contact
with your true Nature, your Life Force, your own inherent goodness.
You can experiment with various forms of meditation -- some techniques
may work better for you than others.
The test of what works is that you start to feel how you get to trust
your intuition more and more. You see yourself doing the right thing.
What it's about is finding a sense of peace, a sense of space. It's
the opposite: of feeling agitation, of rushing around. The opposite
of feeling "I can't bear this".
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