Step Eleven

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Read pages 85 to 88.

Step Eleven connects me to the Source of all direction and power. The solution to alcoholism is to serve the Higher Power twenty-hours a day, in total self-abandonment. Step Eleven has three elements: set-up, check-in, debrief.

Set-up (morning)

1. On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day.
2. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest, or self-seeking motives.
3. In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought, or a decision.
4. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle.
5. We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems.
6. We ask especially for freedom from self-will.
7. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped.
8. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorise a few set prayers which emphasise the principles we have been discussing.
9. There are many helpful books also. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.
10. So we clean house with the family, asking each morning in meditation that our Creator show us the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness, and love.
11. In meditation, we ask God what we should do about each specific matter. The right answer will come, if we want it.
12. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.

Do this every day. The basic idea is this: come up with a great plan for the day, together with the Higher Power, and stick to it. Initially, run your plan through with a sponsor or step buddy every day. Once you've got the hang of it, consult only where necessary.

15 minutes is good.

NB some of these suggestions are from other parts of the Big Book.

Check-in (during the day: when agitated or doubtful)

• As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.
• We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will be done".

There are only two problems in life: being upset ('agitated') and not knowing what to do ('doubtful'). This single solution works for both. Apply it constantly.

Debrief (at the end of the day)

Some questions:

• Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid?
• Do we owe an apology?
• Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once?
• Were we kind and loving toward all?
• What could we have done better?
• Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time?
• Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life?

Some other considerations:

• But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others.
• After making our review we ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

Essentially, I'm looking for where I went wrong in belief, thinking, and behaviour, and then looking for solutions. Don't analyse the resentments and fears. Resolve them using the tools set out in previous steps. Resentment is about playing God: demanding that the world confirm to my ideals. Fear is about self-reliance: when I rely on God for direction and strength, I can master any situation confidently, cheerfully, and successfully. It's not about the content, so don't analyse: disclose!

Maybe write down the answers to the questions, but don't feel you have to.

Definitely write down the corrective measures: you'll need these for tomorrow.

5 to 10 minutes is good.

NB the review can be done at the end of the working day or first thing in the morning instead, before the set-up. It can also be done after a difficult situation or whenever you realise you have not done a review in a while.

Meditation in AA

Meditation as devised in AA's Big Book is concentrated, directed thought at a higher level than the material world.

If you want to incorporate Buddhist, other eastern, or other forms of meditation and contemplation, go for it. But you don't have to, in order to comply with AA's suggestion to meditate in the sense in which it was intended by the authors. Our job is to understand what the writers of the Big Book meant when they wrote it, and the above is what they meant. Adopt other practices in addition to not instead of the above.