Are you experiencing negative emotions during your addiction recovery?
Whether you’re recovering from alcohol or drug addiction or overcoming a traumatic experience, there’s a good chance you’ll feel some negative feelings in the process. This is okay. It can take over if you’re not careful, so we wanted to touch on the importance of gratitude in recovery today.
Gratitude is a powerful way to shift your mindset toward the positive, which will help you sustain during your journey.
You can change your outlook on life and you might notice that things will change. In fact, the popular self-help author, Wayne Dyer wrote that when you change the way you see things, the things you see will change. If you expect trouble, it may come. If you expect positive experiences you might experience that instead.
It’s important to point out that some hardship is a natural part of life. Without challenge and obstacles, we will never learn to stretch ourselves and grow. However, if you find that you’re always having a hard time, perhaps shifting your perspective can help. Here are some suggestions for doing just that.
Let’s take a closer look.
Practice Gratitude In Recovery
Feeling grateful for what you have and who you are can help grow feelings of appreciation.
You can do this by practicing gratitude on a regular basis.
You might even decide to Have a gratitude journal yourself for a year and make notes on how your perspective and thinking changes over that year. Perhaps you might be struck with wonder about all that you do have. If you choose to be grateful for an entire year, imagine what your life will look like! Imagine all the positive people, places, and things you’ll notice and appreciate. Imagine how you’ll love your life at the end of just one year!
You might even decide to Have a gratitude journal yourself for a year and make notes on how your perspective and thinking changes over that year. Perhaps you might be struck with wonder about all that you do have. If you choose to be grateful for an entire year, imagine what your life will look like! Imagine all the positive people, places, and things you’ll notice and appreciate.
Imagine how you’ll love your life at the end of just one year!
Focus On Positivity
For instance, let’s say you notice how poorly a 12-step meeting was run and organized. Instead of focusing on the negative, try focusing on the positive side of things – the way the meetings have helped you stay sober.
This will help shift your mindset away from the negative, which will impact your outlook toward life.
Again, prioritizing gratitude in recovery will help you maintain a positive mindset so you can continue forward.
What Do You Have Control Over?
Obviously, you’re not going to have control over everything in your life.
However, having at least some feeling of control can be healthy and empowering. Developing a sense of personal empowerment means that you believe in your ability to have control over the events in your life, to the degree that it is possible. This sense of internal power is considered to be the most psychologically healthy. It is living life with a feeling of having command over the things that you are able to have command over.
This sense of internal power is considered to be the most psychologically healthy. It is living life with a feeling of having command over the things that you are able to have command over.
Talk to Friends and Family Members
Often, we develop a perspective about life and life’s circumstances out of past experiences.
But you can challenge your perspectives by talking to others.
How might your friend or family member respond to a situation you’ve been in, especially one that triggered fear or anger or despair? If you feel victimized by experiences, perhaps by talking to others about their reactions to
If you feel victimized by experiences, perhaps by talking to others about their reactions to life you can uncover different ways to respond to the events life brings you.
These are suggestions for turning around your perspective from a place of fear to a place of empowerment and appreciation. Doing so might help you respond to experiences differently and help you take charge of your life.