Mindfulness allows you the opportunity to be grateful for each moment, no matter how mundane. A great way to take the focus off yourself and your own difficulties is to help others. Whether you volunteer to bring joy to those in need, practice kindness to someone you love or give generously without expecting to be repaid, these opportunities will fill you with joy.
Having a grateful mindset allows to take on challenges with a positive mindset and instead of seeing relapse as a failure, we can see it as an opportunity to improve. Practicing gratitude also teaches us how to love and respect ourselves, which enables us to love and respect others as well. On the other hand, gratitude can also arise more outwardly towards others who have helped in your recovery process.
Why Gratitude Matters and How It Can Transform Recovery
Taking a moment to think about something good you have now can serve as a reminder of how far you’ve come since your addiction. Remembering the way your life was when you were addicted doesn’t have to drudge up feelings of regret or sadness. Instead, it can improve your gratitude and remind you that the fight to stay sober is worth the effort. Life is full of experiences and challenges, many of which can teach you valuable lessons. If you recently completed drug rehab, you most likely learned a few (if not many) valuable life lessons that changed you for the better. 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.
Be grateful for a fresh start, for possibilities and opportunities. Gratitude involves more than self-reflection; it should be practiced as love in action. In recovery, the brain begins to heal and as it heals, with practice, selfishness and other damaging attitudes begin to fade away. Replacing selfishness with https://ecosoberhouse.com/ gratitude can be revealed through intentional service to others by volunteering, charitable giving and even supporting others in recovery. Reserve five minutes each morning to offer appreciation while you enjoy a cup of coffee, head out for an early run or even after you hit the snooze button (the first time).
Understanding Alcoholism: Is It Considered a Mental Illness?
Gratitude helps promote the focus on channeling inspiration and motivation into sobriety. Negative thinkers are more prone to lose their will and relapse. However, someone who practices gratitude can appreciate the benefits sober gratitude in recovery living will have in their life and be better able to maintain sobriety. To go a step further to tie entitlement to addiction, entitlement can be caused by the convenience of being able to use a substance to get a certain effect.
- If you’re already using a journal to support your recovery, you can add a gratitude section or allot part of every entry to record things that you’re grateful for that day.
- You may have made mistakes, but you are trying and you are in recovery and getting better.
- Many addicts experience loss of time, as they are not as present when they are using.
- Not only does volunteering help us get out of our heads and inot the present moment.
- The researchers measured brain activity in participants while they engaged in a task to pay kindness forward to someone else.
This self-centered thought process is the opposite of gratitude, which would help you see your loved ones are trying to show they care and want to help. Many great thinkers and philosophers have applied definitions to gratitude. Recent work on the concept of gratitude in philosophy and psychology. The Journal of Value Inquiry,47 (3), … Continue reading What they lead back to is thankfulness for what you have and where you are in life.
Excellent, Compassionate Care
The good news is that gratitude is contagious, and you can practice gratitude with others to help teach yourself to find positivity naturally. It can help improve your physical and mental health by fostering positive thinking. During recovery, it is natural to focus on one’s self and all the difficulties and challenges that are inherent in the process of becoming sober. If you or a loved one has worsening mental health symptoms or struggles with drug and alcohol misuse, then our holistic treatment center in Boulder, Colorado, is here for you.
- Practicing gratitude is using your behavior to be an example of a person whose actions are guided by the principles of the 12 steps and then sharing that goodness with other people in your life.
- Recovery allows you to explore new opportunities and make new connections without the distraction of drugs or alcohol.
- When others share their successes, listen, and let their gratitude rub off on you too.
- Unfortunately, life will always have its ups and downs, you will always have your ups and downs, and you will always have things that don’t go as planned.
- Many people jump out of recovery and into trying to get their life back on track, which may include long hours at a job, spending time with children, or even going back to school.
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