Gratitude in Recovery: A Guide to Navigating the Holiday Season

Mindfulness is a practice that is increasingly used in holistic addiction treatment, but also something that can help you to be grateful separately from recovering from an addiction. Mindfulness is the simple practice of living in the present, paying attention to the present moment, and letting thoughts go rather than focusing on them. This follows the principle that most people spend about 47% of their time worrying, resulting in anxiety, depression, and less enjoyment of what they are actually doing. Incorporating gratitude into your daily life doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. By making small changes in your mindset and habits, you can reap tremendous benefits that will improve your mental health and overall well-being.

These thoughts, as mentioned, can tend to be negative, always seeing what is wrong and what we don’t want. Our mission at Changing Tides Treatment is to help individuals recover from substance use and co-occurring disorders. Our team is incredibly passionate about recovery and we all work very hard to help our clients improve their physical and emotional well-being. Respect, honesty, compassion, understanding, and the very best professional care. Our team’s primary goal is to help clients and their families experience the empowerment of a recovery-integrated lifestyle. Especially in early recovery, there are a lot of emotions that surface that are no longer being numbed by drugs or alcohol, and these emotions can sometimes feel overwhelming.

How to Cultivate Gratitude and Reap the Rewards in Your Recovery

We should be patient with our feelings while our minds recalibrate to those details that most deserve our appreciation and respect. Many people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction have little sense of self-worth. Even if drugs or alcohol still tempt you, you missed your group session or you yelled at a dear friend — don’t beat yourself up. A feeling of gratitude is similar to a sense of solid appreciation. When you practice gratitude, you make a conscious effort to recognize the things, people and actions in your life you should be thankful for.

You might write in a gratitude journal or have an alarm go off periodically as a reminder to stop and reflect. It can be hard to feel grateful every day, especially as you’re going through all the ups and downs of recovery. But a lot about practicing gratitude is focusing your perspective.

Daily Practices for Gratitude, including Journaling

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. Gratitude can be a powerful tool for alleviating stress and anxiety. It works by focusing on what we have in our lives rather than what we lack, and by cultivating a positive mindset that helps us to cope with difficult situations. By practicing gratitude regularly, we can train ourselves to see the good in every situation, to appreciate the people around us, and to find joy in the small things in life.

We can also guide you in approaching a loved one who needs treatment. Practicing gratitude means recognizing the good in your life and paying it back. It’s more than just noticing the good but identifying the external sources of goodness.

Tips for Practicing Gratitude in Recovery

Through this change in perspective, you can renew your strength and regain momentum to propel you toward your goals. 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. Gratitude is an emotion that carries immense power, capable of transforming individuals’ mental and emotional health. By cultivating a thankful mindset, people can observe the benefits that this emotion brings to their lives.

• Recognizing that and working to forgive yourself is an important step.
• Conditioning your mind to be thankful instead of sorry is a sure sign your attitude of gratitude is improving.
• A feeling of gratitude is similar to a sense of solid appreciation.
• And while it may sound a bit “hippie” and spiritual, this valuable practice is strongly encouraged by most therapists and counselors.
• The efforts of researchers and advocates in addiction recovery have paved the way for more effective treatments and a better understanding of addiction, contributing significantly to your journey.

You’ll hear people say, “I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed this morning.” This reflects the negative thinking that just draws more and more to it. Sharing experiences, learning from others and building connections are vital to a successful journey. Your journey is as much about healing the body as it is about rejuvenating the spirit. In fact, your body is an amazing resource that is healing itself every day in your journey. Engaging in self-care and tapping into your emotional and creative resources are key aspects of this healing process.

It can help with blood pressure, heart rate, happiness, optimism, and feelings of loneliness and isolation.This belief is not unfounded. Research on addiction and recovery has proven that being grateful has a positive benefit on overall mental stability and happiness. A grateful approach allows you to take on challenges with a positive mindset.

This means that even if we’re going through a tough time, we can still find things to be grateful for – whether it’s our health, our relationships, or the beauty of nature. Beyond the scientific evidence supporting gratitude’s impact on mental health, many people report experiencing personal growth and transformation through regular practice. Gratitude is a concept that has gained traction in recent years for its potential impact on mental health. Defining gratitude and understanding how it works requires considering both the cognitive and emotional components of the experience.

Thinking Positively Helps with Recovery

It’s also moved into non-AA treatment and often into everyday life. This is extremely helpful to recovering addicts, because Gratitude can translate in many ways, from being thankful and appreciative to actively going out of your way to show appreciation. Gratitude helps promote the focus on channeling inspiration and motivation into sobriety. However, someone who practices gratitude can appreciate the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ benefits sober living will have in their life and be better able to maintain sobriety. If you’ve spent months or years soured by a negative outlook, it isn’t easy to swap rose-colored glasses with your current position of seeing everything as gray and stormy. The good news is that gratitude is contagious, and you can practice gratitude with others to help teach yourself to find positivity naturally.

There are simple ways to incorporate gratitude enhancing activities into any daily routine. Chances are if you have been in recovery for more than a gratitude in recovery day or two, you have heard someone talk about gratitude. As a core principle of many recovery programs, the word gratitude gets thrown around a lot.