The next step is to practice being grateful for everything in your life – yes, even those people and experiences we don’t “like”. Every experience is an opportunity to be grateful for the lesson it presents and the choice of how to react. If you’ve been around the recovery network for any length of time, you’ll be well aware of the importance of giving back. In fact, this is the basis of Step 12 of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. You will hear reference to the importance of an attitude of gratitude.
- Remember, your journey is personal, and you have the right to share as much or as little as you feel comfortable.
- If you do not have close friends and family, you can look for support groups in your local area or even online.
- It’s important to understand that the relationship you have with yourself will often be reflected in your relationships with others.
- Emotional problems, mood disorders, or just plain negativity can result from the brain’s shortage of feel-good chemical rewards.
- Consider hosting a sober dinner with friends who are also in recovery, or start your day with a gratitude meditation or journaling session to set a positive tone.
However, if you are able to take that negative event and laugh it off or just forget about it, the day often turns around and is a good one. The key is to not let the bad days take over or become too frequent. Many times people think, sure but I can’t control what goes on around me and what others do and say. And while this is completely true, what we can control is our thoughts. We can make them positive and grateful or negative and toxic.
Addiction Recovery Quotes: Finding Inspiration In Recovery
And just as with any other habit, with regular practice, grateful thoughts can become your everyday way of thinking. Research into the benefits of regular gratitude practices shows an increase in the body’s ability to fight illness including reducing the risk of heart failure. Did you ever wake up in the morning and something ‘bad’ happens? You stub your toe on the way out of bed or you spill your coffee all over your clean shirt? For a lot of people, this seemingly negative event sets off a train of thought and then everything seems to go wrong for the rest of the day.
There are many ways we can cultivate gratitude in our lives. Some people keep a gratitude journal or a list, where they regularly record the gratitude and recovery things they were grateful for today. Service develops an understanding that sometimes we’re all just one step away from needing such help.
Practicing Gratitude in Addiction Recovery
This positive way of dealing with things will lead them towards the ultimate goal of recovery, that is, compete serenity. The first days, weeks and months of recovery andpost-rehab are often the most difficult. Keeping motivated, mindful and beingpatient isn’t always easy. Ittakes time to change lifelong habits of thought, feeling and behavior.Sometimes these habits or belief systems are engrained from family members andancestors. To explore more resources and support for substance abuse and mental health recovery, visit our website at iriswellnessgroup.com/.
- Connecting with others who are also on the similar journey provides support, inspiration and valuable insights, making your path less isolating and more enriching.
- Asking yourself what is great about your lifetoday, how you can serve others.
- All of which makes for a healthier, happier, and more fulfilled you.
- By thinking positively and being grateful for what we have, we can live a more fruitful, favorable life.
- To emphasize the practice aspect of using gratitude in recovery, it’s important to devote some time to activities that get you thinking about reasons for gratitude.
The pope then praised charm of Rome’s historic center but said it must also be accessible to people with disabilities and the elderly. In his homily, Pope Francis noted that the coming year would involve intense preparation for the Holy Year 2025. Yet more than worrying about organizing logistics and events, the pope asked people to be witnesses to “ethical and spiritual quality of coexistence.”
