Simply taking a moment to count our blessings can lift our spirits and remind us of all that we have to appreciate in life. Conditioning your mind to be thankful instead of sorry is a sure sign your attitude of gratitude is improving. When you communicate with other people, express what you are thankful for. If you accomplished something at work, don’t be afraid to pat yourself on the back and let people know how happy it made you. When others share their successes, listen, and let their gratitude rub off on you too. Arriving at a point in life where you are making a sincere effort to recover takes time.
What are the benefits of gratitude?
Figuring that out is a natural first step in the mindful gratitude journey. Here’s a breakdown of what practicing gratitude is and five concrete ways you can gratitude recovery do it. In recovery, we are given the space to be grateful, but it still takes time to practice and train the mind to notice and cherish the beauty in life.
Gratitude Can Help Reduce Feelings of Entitlement and Increase Appreciation
It’s difficult to be grateful for everything if you’re constantly working and struggling. 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. No matter what you’re doing with your life, it’s also important that you take the time to create space and moments for yourself to just relax and do things that make you happy without drugs or alcohol. For example, you can spend time with friends, go swimming, go for hikes, go see your favorite movies, get a massage, or anything else that makes you happy. Here, it’s always good if you have hobbies that you truly enjoy, and if you don’t, you can always work on developing some. Taking time out from your busy life will give you perspective, time to take stock and see what you have, and room to enjoy your life.
World record-breaking climber Sam Watson speaks on his bronze medal win and journey
Practicing gratitude by thanking someone who lets you cut in line in the supermarket because you only have one item is an appropriate way of showing gratitude and ingraining it into your own practices. If you started to expect such a favor all the time, however, your entitlement could lead to refusal and then hostile thinking. Gratitude for even the smallest courtesies can promote a consistent sense of thankfulness. If someone holds the door for you or lets you merge into traffic on a busy road, make a conscious effort to be grateful.
Addiction Treatment Programs
When you focus on all the things you don’t have, it creates an attitude of ungratefulness and fosters negative emotions like jealousy and anger. Negativity can be detrimental to your recovery and make a life in sobriety seem dark, empty, and lonely. Recovery can give people with addictions the opportunity to repair relationships broken by substance abuse, and to move forward in healthier ways. Whether it’s with loved ones, family members, friends, or even co-workers, recovery can give you the option to rebuild, and strength your relationships in life.
Fill Your Moments With Mindfulness
- Most everyone has heard the question, “Is the glass half empty or half full?
- After dedicating several years to behavioral health programming and direct care, Rachel Fitzpatrick has served as a policy analyst at the NYS Office of Mental Health.
- With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, many of us may be reflecting on people and circumstances in our lives that we are grateful for.
- Some people may think that gratitude is simply expressing appreciation or saying thank you to others.
Addiction also puts people at risk for violence and criminal activity. Having the opportunity to pursue recovery can be a cause for gratitude. Not everyone gets a “second chance” at life, so it is important to be grateful for your opportunity. Extrapolating national percentages and census data, estimates put the size of the recovery community in the Richmond region at approximately 160,000 people.
- All of which makes for a healthier, happier, and more fulfilled you.
- So much of recovery is helping others who are going through the same struggle.
- The sun could be shining, someone could have wished you a good day, you could have a good book, have woken up happy, or any number of other seemingly insignificant things.
- Removing a dangerous substance from your everyday life is a huge step towards healthy living.
- It allows you to appreciate what you have instead of dwelling on your difficulties.
Make a Gratitude List
- As you learn to incorporate gratitude into how you view your new life, you may find that your recovery isn’t as difficult as you once thought.
- It probably involved hitting several low points and tough times along the way, and those pitfalls still occur after recovery begins.
- You could draw, write, paint, garden, smith, smash pumpkins, whatever.
- Joe has often said that “…every crisis shines a bright light on our strengths and weaknesses”.
- When you communicate with other people, express what you are thankful for.