About

Lets start the meeting with three deep breath’s in and out to settle into our present moment.

Welcome

Welcome to the open meditation meeting at the Lake Area Club, we are glad you are here both in person and online! My name is _______ and I’m an alcoholic (addict, etc). This is an open format meeting, and we encourage anyone suffering from addiction of any kind, as well as family, friends, and loved ones to come together in community. 

The purpose of our meeting is to experience different forms of meditation with the hopes that we find practices that resonate and deepen our understanding of ourselves; learn to develop more mindfulness and love in our lives, and foster a deeper connection with the world around us. This is not a meeting that promotes any form of meditation over another and we have no opinions on religious or spiritual practices. 

We will begin the meeting with a moment's silence followed by the serenity prayer and  the AA preamble, after which we will have announcements, birthdays, and then read from our daily reflections before we begin the guided meditation. After the meditation we will have an open share where anyone can share on the reading, the meditation or any other topic. 

We are grateful that everyone has come to the meeting, and we want this to be a safe space for us all to grow. We ask that all shares please refrain from using language or specifics in stories that others might find triggering, or language that could be considered disrespectful. It is also important to remember that what we say here, and who we see here, always stays here. What is shared in meetings remains confidential for the benefit of all comers.

 

Moment of Silence and Serenity Prayer

Would all who care to, please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer using the word god, as you choose to understand it.

Preamble

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership: we are self-supporting through our own contributions. A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution, does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

Introductions & 7th Tradition

Here we go around the meeting introducing ourselves as a way to get to know each other. You can identify as an addict if you like or you can simply introduce yourself by your first name only. If you are new to recovery please do let us know when you introduce yourself so we can provide the support and welcome we all received in our early days, please relax and enjoy the meeting, all are welcome, none are judged. 

Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves, and, according to the 7th Tradition, which states that we are fully self-supporting through our own contributions, we will pass the pot for anyone that can make a contribution. Newcomers and visitors please do not contribute as the first meeting is always on us.

Do we have any announcements or business? Do we have any birthdays?

Reading

Today's reading will be read by…

Meditation

Today’s meditation: Explain chosen meditation - after the meditation we will sit in silence for just a minute before we begin the sharing portion of the meeting.

Before we start, a bit about meditation…

Like a bird, a meditation practice has two wings. In order for the bird to fly, both wings work together to create flight. The first wing is called mindfulness, or awareness, and the second is compassion, or love. All meditation will call on us to bring awareness to something, whether it be our breathing, sensations in our bodies, sounds, or emotions. As we do this, it’s all too easy to fall into habits of judging ourselves, for not meditating correctly, or for experiencing certain emotions. This can often cause us to begin to judge ourselves, telling ourselves things like, I’m not doing this right, I’m no good at this, or I’m never going to get this. All of those thoughts are 100% normal!

As we tend to feel these thoughts of aversion, we look to the second wing of the bird, which is compassion, to ease the judging story and just “let be” those thoughts, and come back to the present moment. This is sometimes also called saying yes to the emotions. We are not saying yes to the story behind the emotions, or that we agree with them, but just that we allow them to be here, and we have compassion for ourselves that this is how it is in this moment.

Begin Meditation

After the meditation: silence for one minute

 

Group Sharing

At this time we are going to open the meeting up for sharing. If we end up with time at the end the Chairperson will call on members of the group to share if they would like to. For people who would like more time to share or do not get to share, please stick around afterwards and talk in fellowship with others. 

In closing ________ will read the Prayer of St. Francis, 

Someone in the group reads the Prayer of St. Francis to close

 

 

Prayer of St. Francis

 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me bring love.

Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.

Where there is discord, let me bring union.

Where there is error, let me bring truth.

Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.

Where there is despair, let me bring hope.

Where there is darkness, let me bring light.

Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.

Let me not seek as much to be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand, 

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that one receives, 

It is in self-forgetting that one finds,

It is in forgiving that one is forgiven,

And it is in dying that one is raised.