Positivity is a crucial component to achieving long-term addiction recovery. However, it’s not always easy to find silver linings in early sobriety. Taking steps to see the upside whenever possible takes practice, but with the help of a strong support network, the challenge is made more manageable.
When a person determines that they are struggling with drugs and alcohol, the chances are pretty good that their life is at least partially in a state of disrepair. Alcohol and substance use take a severe toll on practically every aspect of people’s lives. Drinking and drugging cuts men and women off from their friends and families; it costs people their marriages and careers.
Individuals who find themselves entering treatment or walking into a 12 Step meeting for the first time have few sources of happiness in their lives. They are anxious, depressed, and uncertain about what the future holds. Such a reality will change, in time, but the earliest stages of recovery can seem exceptionally bleak.
The first few months of sobriety is a time of several mental, physical, and spiritual changes. People are asked to absorb a significant amount of information and learn how to live life on life’s terms. The Program teaches that individuals with alcohol and substance use disorders need to accept that they are no longer running the show. The days of “wanting what you want when you want it” are gone.
Taking steps to maintain a positive attitude can make life changes much easier to handle. It may be challenging to find things to be happy about when in early recovery, but there are more than most people might think.
Practicing Positivity in Early Recovery
If you have any length of recovery time, then it means you are alive. Life is worth being grateful for regardless of one’s circumstances. Please consider that your decision to seek help is indicative of having courage. Making changes is always more arduous than maintaining the status quo.
If you have begun working a program of recovery, then it means you are engaging with other people who share similar goals. You have a support network who will drop what they are doing to assist you in times of need. Addiction recovery is a fellowship of men and women who are determined to support each other through the good times and the bad.
While active substance use is typified by selfishness, recovery provides you with opportunities to be selfless. Whenever a person is choosing to be in service to others, they are not being in service to their disease. It feels excellent to know that you have done something to help another achieve the shared goal of lasting recovery.
People rarely find the opportunity or desire to assist others when they are using drugs and alcohol. The opposite is true in sobriety because chances to make a difference abound in recovery.
There are several things you can do to become more positive, even if you are struggling with wreckage from your past. Making an honest effort to push out negative thoughts and to be more kind to yourself is helpful. Daily prayer, meditation, and gratitude lists can assist you in putting everything into perspective.
Changing the way you talk about yourself, both internally and with others, is vital to becoming a more positive person. Having the disease of addiction is not a moral failure or sign of weakness; the fact that you have chosen recovery is proof. Start a journal and write about any milestones; each day in sobriety is a terrific accomplishment. Jot down how it makes you feel to be free from the bondage of “self.”
Eating right and exercising can improve your outlook on life too. When we feel better physically, we feel better mentally. Spending time outside and taking in your beautiful surroundings can be a huge source of enjoyment as well.
What’s important is that you keep putting the next foot forward and continue doing the next right thing. In time, life improves!
Southern California Addiction Treatment
At Hope By The Sea, we can help you or a loved one break the cycle of addiction and embrace a life in recovery. Please contact us today to learn more about our evidence-based treatment programs. The miracle of recovery can be yours too!