OH! What great questions, Olive! Thank you so very much for asking.

I am 31 days sober today.

Closest thing to a spiritual awakening that I've had is the realization that God might very well have me chat blocked.

You can guess how this might have come about.

My HP is based on the Christian God, but I relate to many other conceptualizations and really hate to box it into a single religious term.

I am STARVING for a spiritual awakening and I do believe it is there for the taking if I can put down my guard and open my mind. ...By God's grace... He will do for me what I cannot do for myself.

I am really interested in others' experiences with this. ...but I promise I won't bump the thread again.

Awwww have been contemplating commenting and had a hug typed and cancelled... I am not an alcoholic but i have experienced this.... Still blows my mind to think of... I grew up Christian / Lutheran so this is my root system .. however, I have my own personal relationship that is based on LOVE... Truth and faith... I enjoy hearing and learning what others do in their journey for peace and happiness.. Thank you for this post.. a reminder of how blessed I am...

I am glad you bumped it.....I really was thinking.

I just erased about 5 lines.....

No burning bush experience. First time I was sober 5 yrs....

This time I did serious praying/thinking/meditating asking the powers that be to remove the obsession of drinking. Took 3 days, I picked my last bottle....stayed sober since then.

I believe in many things...I will leave it at that

been sober 11 years for me it was that desire to stop drinking after 40 years then finding AA when i starting getting well i thanked GOD for helping me a local church came to my door everything change i asked JESUS INTO MY LIFE he came to me at night really to ask me it has been wonderful to get to know him i would urge to to ask him into your life . getting sober came from that last gasp attempt to stay dry life just didn't work anymore i couldn't talk or relate to anything SO if you want to find new life FOR YOU i recommend JESUS. GAZZAROONEY1

I have been sober just short of 8 years.

I have had a spiritual awakening. It came about gradually (rather than a sudden experience) as the result of taking the 12 steps. The obsession to drink was lifted, I have a totally new outlook and attitude to myself, others and life. I have a completely different way to live based on spiritual principles. My life is less about ego and selfishness and control and more about others and how I can best help them. More about the connectedness of spirituality rather than the separateness of ego - or at least this is what I try to grow towards. The spiritual awakening was the beginning rather than the end for me as it was the opening of a door to a vast world of spirituality that I previously had no idea existed.

My higher power is not a god or deity. It is more of a universal natatural power which is in everything and exists everywhere, including in me in that part of me which is not ego.

I experienced a spiritual "un"awakening at 18. My younger years I had a very tender heart and talked to the "God" daily. When I sincerely searched the heavens and my soul and asked him to reveal himself to me there was no response. Now it could be said that perhaps my ears were clogged. Nevertheless in my adult years I have never found the "faith" required to believe in the God of most people's understanding. I have no resentments toward "God" or faith of any kind as I believe that a religious practice is a good thing.

I didn't have a problem with finding a "higher power" but I don't have much faith that I will find "God" (of most peoples understanding). However I don't allow this lack of faith to deter me in a program of sobriety and I do keep an open mind and heart.

In other words not having a "spiritual awakening" is no reason to decide to F it and drink!!!!!

PS..Olive you are a sweetheart and I do believe God will reveal himself to you...in his time! Be patient!

How long have you been sober?

21 years.

Did you have a spiritual awakening?

I'd say it had me.

What was it like and how did it come about?

Near the end of my drinking I had become obsessed with the idea that if I died in that state of mind, I would only have to come right back and clean up the mess in another life. In other words, death wouldn't be the end of the show at all, but merely a postponement of some unfinished business. Prior to that, the whole notion of reincarnation was simply incomprehensible to me in any factual or doctrinal sense, and I can no longer re-evoke the terror that it held for me then. But in the face of imminent death, it was as real as jug of Scotch and I was terrified to a degree I've never known before or since. There was nothing warm, fuzzy or comforting about it. It was as if I could no more kill whatever "I" am than I could put the electric company out of business by turning off a lamp. The closest I can come to describing it in verbal terms is that it was some sort of wired-in genetic imperative that beckoned insistently without forcing or overwhelming, if that makes any sense.

If you care to share, what is your HP?

The now.

Hi Olive. What a good post.

And of course you all (!) know that I've been on and off drinking so can't pick up the sober card but I will tell you about a dream I had a week or so ago.

It was a man speaking to me (Jesus type - I was really depressed that my imagination didn't come up with something more interesting pffff!) and talking about the steps and what a higher power was. First he told me that if I kept drinking I would keep being Selfish, Lazy and Dishonest. But if I quit drinking I could live my life with a clean conscience, with a sense of integrity and worth. I could be the woman of my dreams. But he knew I had this problem with god and HP and all that so he told me that for me faith would be this: the belief that believing in the process of sobriety would work. He also told me to get down on my hands and knees and mop all the floors of the house (where did that come from?!)

Some could take this dream as a sign from God but I'm not that way inclined of course and it was Just a dream but ... to me it is the start of making real sense of the steps and seeking a real spiritual life which is what I really really need. Half measures are just not working but I need the whole process to make sense for me. I am not an accepting type of person (as some of you may remember all those fights couple of years back!)

I KNOW I'm still drinking :-( So not much of an 'awakening' but at least I am finding answers I believe. Just need to overcome that denial - denial not of admitting there is a problem (that is easy - step one I guess - my sister even uses that as a justification to self-medicate as she calls it) but of admitting that you need to do something about it outside your comfort zone (at any cost ... I guess).

Whoops - sorry for going on ... sorry.

Great dream DG! I, like you, am unlikely to see that as a message from god but I do think we have a strong spirituality within us and yours is obviously sending you a message! So cool!

Awesome dotty. I HAVE heard rumors that mopping floors as long as you are on your knees, no kneepads, can bring about a spiritual awakening of sorts.

Thanks all!

Olive-you are starting to talk to yourself in your posts, kind of like what I do. You are a bit nutty and I love it!

I have had a series of spiritual awakenings since I got sober over 2 years ago. It is amazing what unfolds as you progress in sobriety. The gifts I have been given I consider divine include a sense of deep peace when I do the right thing, a profound sense that I will not drink or drug again in this life, a rebirth of "myself" and my talents that I thought were gone, and awakening to the miracles of every day life-these area all signs of my hp and have been awakened in me day by day.

I did not have the sense I was going to stay sober until 6 months into it, so just know these things take time with some of us. I also had a profound sense at six months that AA was not the road for me-that if I stayed I would get triggered and follow the wrong examples. I had a very hard time believing this but I did it-followed my spiritual urgings-and walla. I am here, I am sober, I am very satisfied with my life and self.

You will get there too.....follow that still small voice my friend.

What can I say ... I'm a scrubber.

I was sober about 12 years ago when I met a spiritual teacher -- Pema Norbu Rinpoche. An exiled Tibetan Lama living in India where he had rebuilt his old monastery to take care of the monks and nuns fleeing from Tibet.

I had an audience with him a year after I first received teachings.

It was very powerful.

My higher power is the innate compassion in every living being.

people's hp's are a personal thing, it is not relevant to the post's here. But I can tell you I have been sober over 3 yrs now and go to AA and pray just for today. I try to be the best person I can be on a daily basis. My spiritual awakening was the fact that, Hey I can do this, I can stay sober one day at a time and keep going and go to work. That in itself is an awesome feeling, especially when you are use to drinking everyday.