“For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others …” (Chapter 1, Big Book)
“All went well for a time, but he failed to enlarge his spiritual life.” (Chapter 3, ibid.)
“The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.” (Chapter 6, ibid.)
“He will perceive that his spiritual growth is lopsided, that for an average man like himself, a spiritual life which does not include his family obligations may not be so perfect after all.” (Chapter 9, ibid.)
Ask a hundred people in AA what improving your spirituality involves, and most might say something to do with meditation and prayer, spiritual reading, and so on.
In fact, according to the Big Book, it’s much more to do with sponsoring others and fulfilling one’s obligations in the family and beyond.
Prayer and meditation are required to provide direction and strength for this, but the relationship these bear to the improvement of one’s spiritual life bear is the same as that between preparing for one’s day job and the actual performance thereof.
When going to work, one should probably brush one’s teeth, put on some trousers, and read the incoming emails containing the instructions for the day, but those aren’t the point. The point is the work.
The trap I fall into with spirituality is thinking it’s about feeling better or achieving altered states. That’s just getting drunk in a different form.