On the one hand, gratitude arises from within, helping you focus on and appreciate your own experiences instead of projecting those experiences outwards onto others. By cultivating an attitude of gratitude for your inner resources and qualities, you give yourself a foundation of strength that can help you weather difficult times. Cultivating a grateful outlook helps people to stay positive instead of seeing relapse as a catastrophe. It reminds us that when things don’t work out, there is still a lot to be grateful for. It helps us to ‘sit’ with our challenges and see the opportunity it yields for improvement.
Embrace a New Perspective
Being thankful is a fundamental part of the holiday season, but it’s also a big part of living a sober life in addiction recovery. Gratitude is not only an essential part of sober living during the holidays but all year long. In working the 12 steps, people in recovery learn the true meaning of gratitude as they experience a spiritual awakening in recovery and work to apply it to their everyday lives. Feeling socially connected is one of the single most important aspects of why is gratitude important in recovery a strong recovery from addiction. Much of the depression and anxiety that puts you at risk for depression in the first place stems from feelings of alienation, loneliness, disconnection, and perhaps even shame.
Graduate School of Addiction Studies
- This helps us to see and appreciate the good things in our lives now.
- Understanding the positives that sobriety brings and equally recognizing the harm substance abuse causes in all aspects of life are traits strengthened by gratitude.
- Gratitude, thankfulness, and appreciation – paying attention to the positive things in your life is an important part of a healthy outlook on living.
- As mentioned, when a person begins to think negatively it often just grows and grows until they are upset, angry, bitter, and eventually resentful.
It probably involved hitting several low points and tough times along the way, and those pitfalls still occur after recovery begins. Sometimes the effort involved in recovery can make the struggles of a tough time feel even worse. When we worry about relapse or feel resentment or other negative feelings creep in, it’s a great opportunity to cultivate gratitude. During these Step 10 personal inventories, we can note these tendencies and commit to changing them.
Using Gratitude as a Driving Force for Positive Change
Gratitude is not just about saying thank you, it is much more than that. Practicing gratitude has been found to increase self-esteem, boost resilience, and enhance overall well-being. In studies where participants wrote letters of thanks to people who had positively impacted their lives, they reported feeling happier https://ecosoberhouse.com/ for up to a month after completing this task. Using a bulletin board or poster board put pictures, graphics, or words that help you remember what you’re grateful for in life. For example, putting a picture of your dog or children on the board will remind you each day that they are both things in life to be grateful for on a daily basis. For many, our brains have been wired and become accustomed to thinking one way—often negative.
The steps of your recovery plan should be at the top of your list – consistently. Getting the help you need is the first step toward recovering from addiction. Many people suffering from addiction put this step off for years, and some indefinitely. You should therefore be grateful for getting the help you required, or for the people in your life who got you help for your addiction. Regardless of how you got to where you are, you are here now, on the pathway to 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.
Our body’s stress response system (which involves our brain, hormones, and other physiological responses) links our physical and mental well-being. Our Treatment Advisors are available 24 hours a day to help you or a loved one access care. We’re ready to make sure you have the support you need to achieve lifelong recovery. If you’re having difficulty staying clean or battling cravings, it might be best to seek help at a reputable drug rehab center. Recovery Centers of America has drug rehab locations across the country that offer various evidence-based treatment options, including detox, individual and group therapy, and more.