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Inspiration and motivation work together to support a focus on recovery. Having a sense of gratitude replaces embarrassment and frustration with thankfulness. A grateful person isn’t ashamed to thank a friend for checking in on them. Instead of being frustrated over cravings and withdrawal symptoms, gratitude leads to a thankfulness for being able to overcome without indulgence in drugs or alcohol.
Take time to look at yourself and your life and be grateful to yourself. If you are in recovery, you have accomplished so much just by being sober or trying to get sober. Thank yourself for showing up each day to try again, to grow, to face challenges, and to work on being the best version of yourself. Often, those in recovery, forget to show gratitude gratitude in recovery to themselves for all they have overcome and accomplished. As mentioned, when a person begins to think negatively it often just grows and grows until they are upset, angry, bitter, and eventually resentful. When you begin to think good thoughts they too will grow and grow. This is true for both negative thinking, positive thoughts, and gratitude.
A Positive Perspective
Lifeskills is an accredited dual diagnosis treatment program near Ft. Gratitude allows an individual to celebrate the present and be an active participant in life. No matter what your religious or spiritual beliefs, taking some time each day to say thank you to your Higher Power is a great way to cultivate more things to be grateful for in your life. Being thankful brings more to be thankful for into your life.
- Reflecting on these life lessons and asking yourself what you’ve learned in the last week, month, or year is a great way to practice gratitude and reflect on your own personal growth in recovery.
- What they lead back to is thankfulness for what you have and where you are in life.
- Too often, we forget to practice gratitude because of our busy lives.
- Personally, when I’m writing a ‘Thank You’ card, I get the warm and fuzzies.
- When AA uses the phrase “An attitude of gratitude” they often mean “practicing gratitude”.
This multiplies and before you know it your life is beyond your wildest dreams. Get a jar of any kind and when something good happens write it on a strip of paper and put it in the jar. Then each day take one out and remember what you have to be happy about. Sure, maybe you are new in recovery and keep telling yourself you’ve wasted years using and should’ve gotten sober sooner. When you choose to think with a grateful mindset, you will improve your physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Recovery Coaching
Gratitude is an intrinsic element to many forms of addiction recovery. Whether you’re attending AA, any form of 12-Step, or science-based programs like SMART Recovery, gratitude is often a strong focus.
One way to practice mindfulness is to stop and think about the things you are grateful for in recovery, whether that is some-time sober or the family and friends around you. Take some time to do this every day, to reflect on the present moment. Your goals may be to make amends with your parents, to pay back a family member, to rebuild bridges with friends you lost. Your goal may be to https://ecosoberhouse.com/ find success at work, to finish college, or maybe just get back to once loved hobbies and habits, like exercise or a sport. Changing your focus from “I want to use drugs” to “I want to change” can be very inspirational in recovery, and allow you to feel a sense of accomplishment in the process. A really great thing about practicing gratitude is that it can become infectious easily.
Showing Gratitude to Yourself
This becomes evident in your interactions with others throughout the day. A grateful attitude propels you through life, sporting a compassionate heart versus a chip on your shoulder. In fact, integrating gratitude into your daily life becomes, in essence, a reflection of the spiritual awakening you’ve experienced in recovery. As you begin your recovery journey, keep an eye out for all the positive things you encounter each day — see each one as a gift! By practicing gratitude, you will slowly transform the way you look at life, as well as the people you interact with. These small instances of gratitude can amount to a bigger overall impact on your mental health. Practicing gratitude or keeping a gratitude journal is a great way for those in recovery to stave off any feelings of resentment that may otherwise pop up.
How does gratitude help in recovery?
Being grateful helps us focus on the good and gives us energy and confidence. This, in turn, leads to a healthier recovery – creating a beautiful cycle. Gratitude is also the antidote to negative thinking that reduces hope and happiness.
It recognizes love can be cobbled together from many places and sources and does not complain when unrealistic expectations go unmet. It chooses to focus on the simple gifts that flow my way, even when I am undeserving. I learn through the discipline of gratitude how to position myself to receive countless signs of love from others, and by this, I learn to love. We find that when we have learned to practice these principles in all of our affairs, we have transcended into living a world that we could never have dreamed existed. We discover a way of living for which we are eternally grateful. In doing so, the hopeless begin to feel hope, and they are so grateful for the love, empathy, support, and encouragement they receive from others. Gratitude acts as a motivator for people to reciprocate assistance received from others and creates an upward spiral of mutually responsive behavior between the helper and the person being helped.
Humility and Gratitude in Recovery
Drugs and alcohol can take a severe toll on the body and brain, and an overdose can leave a user permanently disabled, or dead. Addiction also puts people at risk for violence and criminal activity.
- Make a deliberate effort to replace old drug related behaviors and thoughts with new, positive ones.
- Remember that no one is perfect, and everyone has their struggles, even if you cannot see them right away.
- Gratitude becomes like a sweet salve that not only heals but also contributes to your sense of joy for breaking free from substance use.
- For these reasons, seeing life through the lens of gratitude can also help to prevent relapses.
- Whether those things are slip ups and relapses, problems at work or in your personal life, or even small things like traffic lights, you need to learn to accept them and be grateful for life anyway.