If you have ever attended a 12-Step meeting, you may hear the words “Higher Power” or “spiritual experience” and wonder what the big deal is. Listening to others talk about these things may cause you to experience confusion, worry, or inhibition. You may be unsure whether you even have a Higher Power or if a spiritual experience has ever occurred in your life. Most likely, if you dive into this inquisition, you will find your answer to be “yes” — even if you think it is “no.”
The great thing about a 12-Step program is that there are no religious affiliations and the suggestion is to simply find a Higher Power of your own understanding. There are no rules concerning your spirituality, because they are personal to your own belief. Although you may be averse to wanting to be part of having a spiritual experience in the first place, there is little to nothing you can do to prevent them from happening. What you may find yourself really contemplating is when, and if, you have had a spiritual experience at all.
A spiritual experience is described as an incident that goes beyond human understanding in how this experience could have happened in the first place. These types of experiences include situations like dodging death when you were in an otherwise dangerous scenario or unexplainable monetary gain. Another example is looking in hindsight to see how things went down in a way that you could have never pulled off yourself. While you may not have had a “burning bush” moment happen to you, what you need to know is a spiritual experience is not a one-size-fits-all event. To really understand whether you had a spiritual experience or not, here are some guidelines.
You do not have to have faith to have a spiritual experience.
Regardless of if you have religious affiliation or no spirituality at all, it will not keep you from spiritual experiences. They happen to everyone, and some people are attuned to them while others are not. There is no baseline as to who gets to experience them. Sometimes they are the product of something positive, although being in the darkness often results in the biggest spiritual experiences of them all.
Not all spiritual experiences come from positive circumstances.
If you were to talk to others about their spiritual experiences, you will hear more about them happening in their most despairing moments to give them hope to carry on. Yes, there are many times that spiritual experiences produce ideal outcomes and blessings, but the most memorable ones come during unfortunate incidents. Jail time, deaths of loved ones, tumultuous relationships, or career slumps are all occasions that a Higher Power will show up to take care of things better than you can. Again, you do not necessarily have to put faith in a Higher Power to endure a spiritual experience. You just need to recognize and accept what has just occurred to receive the benefits of them.
Spiritual experiences do not have religious connotations.
Do not worry that you are being pulled into a religious belief due to a spiritual experience. You do not have to be religious, because you might only be finding out about spirituality. Spirituality is like blowing out a candle on your birthday, hoping for blessings. Depending on a higher power, the ocean, or the universe is not a bad thing because you are allowing something bigger than yourself to be in control. Placing some belief in these deities takes away the responsibilities of making everything work out the way you want it to be and allowing it to become the way it is supposed to be.
Offering a full range of recovery and mental health services, Detox Center of Colorado offers “Expanded Recovery” to enrich our clients’ lives in mind, body, and spirit. Through evidence-based therapy options and the endless adventure of Colorado, Detox Center of Colorado fosters connection, encouraging clients to get connected to themselves, their peers, their families, and their higher power. With the power of recovery, clients are restored to full health and experience life-changing healing. Call us today for more information: 303-536-5463
