Small changes like this can help you develop a more grateful attitude towards life and inspire you to make positive changes that benefit yourself and those around you. Using gratitude as a driving force for positive change involves consciously focusing on the things we are grateful for and using these as motivation to create positive change in our lives. It works by helping us to shift our perspective from one of lack or negativity to one of abundance and positivity.
Research confirms what those in recovery have long known – gratitude leads to a greater sense of well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction1. It is easy to understand why these traits would be important in long-term recovery. While the benefits of gratitude are clear, learning how to cultivate and practice gratitude can be tricky, especially early in recovery.
Helping You Regain Control Of Your Life
As you focus on being grateful even when things go wrong, you’ll find that there is still so much you can be thankful for. One way is to begin journaling about the things in your life that you are grateful for right now. While we can look at each one of these things and https://ecosoberhouse.com/ find an issue, the power is in finding the good in each. However, if you are able to take that negative event and laugh it off or just forget about it, the day often turns around and is a good one. The key is to not let the bad days take over or become too frequent.
The intentional practice of gratitude will become easier the more you do it. The practice of gratitude can bring positive change in your perspective, life philosophy, and overall well-being. A handful of research studies attest to how practicing gratitude positively affects one’s well-being, which then influences a more optimistic recovery journey. For example, Robert Emmons, a professor at the University of California, Davis, is one of the leading researchers in gratitude studies. He and his colleagues conducted multiple research studies regarding the impact of gratitude on physical health, psychological well-being, and our relationships with others.
How does cultivating a thankful mindset help in addiction recovery?
This should carry over into all the thoughts and conversations you have throughout the day. Try to eliminate negative thoughts and feelings or match them with a positive counterpart. When you first start practicing gratitude, it’ll take some time to make it a regular habit. But there are proactive steps you can take to make it a seamless part of your life as quickly as possible. You might write in a gratitude journal or have an alarm go off periodically as a reminder to stop and reflect. Practicing gratitude is one of the most popular early recovery topics.
- Be grateful for a fresh start, for possibilities and opportunities.
- That’s important at a time when you’re likely working to fix your relationships and to build new ones.
- Feeling grateful triggers positivity that reflects in your subconscious mind influencing your behavior towards people around you.
- As per the Apollo Hospital, the spiritual leader was taken off the ventilator after surgery.
- And it’s about seeing the work and input other people have had and therefore how much you matter.
You’ll notice more things to feel grateful for, and you’ll open yourself up to new definitions of goodness and beauty. We are a substance abuse rehabilitation center in Auburn, California. As an addiction treatment center, we specialize in drug and alcohol rehab, inpatient alcohol rehab, outpatient programs, drug rehab, and substance abuse treatment. Taking time out of your day to experience thankfulness can bring you closer to your spirituality by strengthening your connection with a god-like figure, nature, or the universe. It can help you feel safe and secure like a spiritual being is looking out for you. This spiritual being has given you all these beautiful things you are thankful for; because of this, you can trust that they will be there to hold your hand when you fall.
Gain Gratitude in Recovery at Avenues Recovery
Buckle up and get ready to discover how a thankful mindset can transform your journey towards long-lasting recovery. The power of gratitude in addiction recovery lies in its ability to shift the focus of the mind away from negative thoughts and emotions and towards positive ones. By cultivating a thankful mindset, individuals in recovery can start to appreciate the good in their lives and find hope and encouragement to continue on the path towards sobriety. Most research consistently shows that when you take time to be grateful, it makes you feel better about where you are and what you have.
In other words, focusing on what you can be grateful for can help to insulate you from the old resentments and negative emotions that probably drove you to drink or use drugs in the first place. During these Step 10 personal inventories, we can note these tendencies and commit to gratitude in recovery changing them. Then when we feel gratitude slipping away, we can re-engage with whichever practices help us to feel connected with our Higher Power and other people. We can observe our expectations and attitudes while working Step 10, which we should perform on a daily basis.
Myth 4: Gratitude is hard to practice
Once you’ve been able to adjust to this mindset of gratitude as your default, negativity will creep into your mind far less often, even when negative circumstances arise. Sometimes addiction can even lead to imagined negative situations, like believing friends and family who just want to help are against you. 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. Gratitude in recovery comes more naturally to some people than others. If gratitude doesn’t come easily during your recovery, there are practices you can follow to retrain your mind toward this more positive outlook.
- When you make that shift into a grateful mindset you radiate a very attractive and influential positivity.
- These outcomes positively reinforce one’s behavior towards practicing gratitude as a habit.
- Taking time out of your day to experience thankfulness can bring you closer to your spirituality by strengthening your connection with a god-like figure, nature, or the universe.
- Gratitude is an essential part of any sustainable recovery lifestyle; it’s a muscle that can be flexed until a positive outlook becomes second nature to us.
- Even a relapse will not discourage us from trying again, because we will view it not as a failure but as an opportunity to become even stronger.
- Scientific studies tell us that gratitude can benefit a person’s recovery experience.
