12 Steps and Meditation

The 12-steps program is the only statistically effective program for getting rid of all kinds of addiction. Whether it's alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, or gambling, bulimia, consumerism etc, this program manages to make abstinence a reality. It is based on the experience of abstaining older members who remain in the groups helping new members and enhancing their own recovery.

The 12 steps are spiritual. They are based on the acceptance of our weakness against addiction, the acceptance and surrender to a Higher Spiritual Power, as personally defined by everyone, who is an ever-present helper in our effort to gradually weaken this formidable impulse for any use. 

The 11th step refers to the need for daily Prayer and Meditation. 

Prayer is the connection to the Higher Power, not so much as a means of getting what we ask for, but as a way of confirming our faith and trust in Him. We surrender to what exists in our Now, for therein lies everything that signifies our existence.

Meditation is about observing our thoughts and observing the thoughts that our ego emits. This is a deep process that requires practice. Identification with our thoughts takes us away from our true nature or which is not recommended to control the world and the centers of enjoyment through addiction, but to sink, into the gaps between thoughts where everlasting, its eternal and tranquil nature, eternity of our soul. 

Identifying with our thoughts, our shaped past, or our fearful future, increasingly leads us to desire to control the world and the centers of enjoyment. This is at the root of every addiction. The reflection of thoughts, the sinking in the gaps between them, brings us closer to our true nature... That of fullness, serenity and bliss, which in other words is the eternity of our soul. 

In overeating, for example, the person has an overwhelming urge to overeat, often without feeling hungry. The craving and greed for more enjoyment fills the psychological gaps of the superfood.

As this impulse emerges, the sufferer can enter directly into the practice of meditation, observe his thoughts, his lustful desires, and thereby disentangle himself from the intense impulse to use food.

It thus gives itself the choice to calm down and relax within itself and thus emerge from its vicious circle of addiction.

Konstantinos Bochtis, Yoga Teacher.