Originally Posted by
EmeraldRose 
Ok, I have a question...???...does anyone ever have a spiritual awakening thru other aspects of their lives? Before you started AA? Sometime in your life where an awakening was necessary to process your life?
Can you go into the steps already awakened? Or is that a 'different' type of an awakening?
IMO you have to be very careful here if you are an alcoholic...we are absolute experts at rationalization and manipulation of self...
A spiritual awakening is effectively a drastic personality change that means we see life in a different way, like looking through a new set of eyes...it is not just abstinance with a change of externals...it is something that happens to you...
The good news is that a spiritual awakening can be of the educational variety which means that we can reach out and, if we are ready, be open and willing to change...
Some people have had spiritual awakenings overnight, usually they turn out to be saints or spiritual names we would have heard...for the rest of us mere mortals we need guidance and instruction in the early days...this is why the PROGRAM (12 steps) of AA works for those that work it, it's sole purpose is to effect a spiritual awakening!
The problem that alcoholics like me have is that there is no reference point...if one can identify a time in their lives where everything was great and they were behaving in a sane, mature, responsible manner then there is something to get back to...if however you are like me and there was never such a time then help will be required and we are the last people that, initially, should be judging whether or not we have had our own spiritual awakening as, like i said, we could convince ourselves that black was white if it suited us...
The best judge of your spiritual awakening will be other people, they will look at you different...be careful about platitudes like "you have changed so much" and "wow you are a different person" because other people might not understand spirituality and will still be judging you on externals...you will notice people look at you with a cocked look and a look of curiosity and with a little time you will catch yourself naturally saying and doing things you are surprised at in yourself...
The most important step towards a spiritual awakening, for me, was to finally see that if i had a choice of me running my life or the village idiot i would have chosen the village idiot. After that surrendering is pretty easy to do...first 3 steps of AA...I can't, He can, I'll let him...
Please remember when i reference AA i do so because it's real sole purpose is to effect a spiritual awakening...if an alcoholic has a spiritual awakening by another route then that is fantastic and does happen...but for most of us we need help to see the woods from the trees...
That was a nice post to make as i didn't have a clue about any of this a year ago lol was going through it not looking back seeing it:-)