A fellow is sharing in a meeting about some attempt to figure out a solution to a life problem. Then the realization dawns that as an addict he’s never been good at figuring out real solutions to life problems! It’s been the “mental twist” alcoholics and addicts have that keeps making the drink or drug or addictive behavior seem like the perfect solution to any life problem. And then the fellow concludes with, “After all, it was my best thinking that got me here.”
A Good Third Step Story
It’s the humility in that realization about the poor quality of his thinking that brings his sharing then to the need to turn the problem over to his Higher Power for the solution – that he’s simply never going to think his way out of the problem.
I understand what the fellow is sharing – it’s a good Third Step story of letting go and turning things over to the Higher Power. But we could go deeper.
Eleventh Step Thinking
When the fellow tells us that “my best thinking got me here,” he’s also telling us that he doesn’t have much of an Eleventh Step practice. Why? Because Eleventh Step prayer and meditation practice over time will change the way you think and the quality of your thinking. This fellow hasn’t experienced his “best thinking” yet! There’s more to come.
A.A.’s official text, Alcoholics Anonymous, affectionately referred to as the “Big Book,” is quite clear about this change. In discussing the Eleventh Step, the Big Book states that “our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane….” The change is then explained as a shift to a more intuitive process: “What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.”
Meditative Brain Chemistry
This change is confirmed by research involving meditation today. We know a consistent meditation practice will develop more “right brain” or intuitive thinking. And we know that meditation moves us into the lower brain wave frequencies that are associated with more intuitive thinking – the “ah, ha!” moments. We experience less analysis and more synthesis; less prose and more poetry.
However, this change doesn’t happen immediately or quickly. It comes with the consistent practice of the Eleventh Step. The Big Book promises that “our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration.” And so the very quality of our thinking changes with the working of the Eleventh Step. We begin to find inspired thoughts – perhaps from our Higher Power – leading us to better paths in our lives. As the Big Book concludes: “We come to rely upon it.”
Same Brain, Different Thought
What a change from the “best thinking that got me here!” More intuitive, more inspired. True guidance coming to us through the same brain that used to convince us that acting out our addiction was the best solution to any problem.
Wishing you all the best in recovery,
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