By Therapist Aisling Farrell
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Step 2 – How to Start a Spiritual Journey: Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
Working Step Two is the beginning of a spiritual journey and helps in the belief that it is possible to let go of obsession and insanity and live a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life.
Step 2 is a step toward hope and faith in recovery. Having admitted powerless and unmanageability in Step One, the second step offers strength and inspiration.
The spiritual principles that are the foundation of this step are open-mindedness, willingness, faith, trust and humility.
Open-mindedness is required to look outside oneself for help and support and humility is needed the acceptance that it is not possible to conquer this disease alone. It really doesn’t matter whether we have any idea of how this power greater than ourselves is going to help, just that we come to believe it is possible.
Willingness
A willingness to believe is the beginning of spiritual growth and this can be a gradual process. It is through a spiritual awakening that the personality change essential for recovery occurs. Believing in “a power greater than ourselves” is the start of taking action and as the mind begins to change there is the belief that a Higher Power has the ability to offer freedom from addiction and a life in recovery.
The emphasis is not on who or what this Power is, but on what this Power can do for us. The awareness and understanding that we can’t recover alone and that we need some kind of help is really the lesson at this point in recovery.
The Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text offers guidance to those wishing to connect with a higher power:
“Our understanding of a Higher Power is up to us. No one is going to decide for us. We can call it the group, the program, or we can call it God. The only suggested guidelines are that this Power is loving, caring, and greater than ourselves. We don’t have to be religious to accept this idea. The point is that we open our minds to believe. We may have difficulty with this, but by keeping an open mind, sooner or later, we find the help we need.”
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Trusting the process
Some people start by trusting their recovery meetings and the people in the meetings. This trust becomes a foundation that continues to evolve into bigger faith. Trusting the process can be challenging at times. Many people struggle with faith and the idea of a Higher Power. This is entirely normal. Doubt is a natural part of faith. The longer you work toward a practical faith in your life, the more your Higher Power will evolve.
No limits
By coming to believe we have the chance to have our sanity restored. As we stay sober and continue to work on this step, we discover that no matter how long our addiction has gone on and how far our insanity has progressed, there’s no limit to the ability of a Power greater than ourselves to restore our sanity.
