9 Ways to Have More Gratitude in Recovery

Here’s a breakdown of what practicing gratitude is and five concrete ways you can do it. About three months after the psychotherapy sessions began, we took some of the people who wrote gratitude letters and compared them with those who didn’t do any writing. We wanted to know if their brains were processing information differently.

It’s important to understand that the relationship you have with yourself will often be reflected in your relationships with others. Many in recovery, particularly early recovery, feel guilty for past mistakes and beat themselves up. While acknowledging mistakes and making amends is vital for long-term recovery learning to love yourself is too.

Record Your Gratitude in a Journal

Personally, when I’m writing a ‘Thank You’ card, I get the warm and fuzzies. ‘Thank You’ letters may seem like a practice of the past since we have text messages and SnapChat these days, but there is something extremely personal and touching about a hand-written note. The funny thing about our disease, though, is that it resides in our brain. These ideas apply to anyone and everyone—being and feeling grateful just makes life better. With gratitude, you can sense how far you’ve come and where you might go next.

While the benefits of gratitude are clear, learning how to cultivate and practice gratitude can be tricky, especially early in recovery. 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.

Tips for practicing gratitude

Take time to look at yourself and your life and be grateful to yourself. If you are in recovery, you have accomplished so much just by being sober or trying to get sober. Thank yourself for showing up each day to try again, to grow, to face challenges, and to work on being the best version of yourself. Often, those in recovery, forget to show gratitude to themselves for all they have overcome and accomplished. 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 find an issue, the power is in finding the good in each.

Volunteering or being in service is one of the best ways to begin to get grateful. Not only does volunteering help us get out of our heads and inot the present moment. This helps us to see and appreciate the good things https://trading-market.org/art-therapy-for-drug-alcohol-addiction-recovery/ in our lives now. There are many guided meditations on different meditation apps or YouTube that are free. This will not only help you calm your mind but also find things to be grateful for you may overlook.

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That leads to a cycle of despair, hopelessness and other negative feelings, which in turn lead to returning to being dependent on addictive substances. In fact, many people who abuse substances to fight these feelings also suffer from co-occurring mental health disorders such as depression, which creates its own set of symptoms. 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.

Recovery is a lifelong journey and can come with many challenges. Finding things to be grateful for in recovery helps an individual keep their mind in a positive place. Rather than focusing on mistakes from the past or future challenges, it lets a person acknowledge the good they’ve accomplished so far. Recovery can give people with addictions the opportunity https://trading-market.org/a-timeline-for-the-restoration-of-cognitive/ 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. The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratus which means ‘pleasing; welcome; agreeable’.

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The alarming rates of veteran suicide in Oklahoma have highlighted the critical need for accessible mental health services. On average, 137 veterans lost their lives to suicide each year from 2015 to 2019, totaling a devastating 683 veteran suicides. There are many sources of inspiration one can draw on when recovering from substance abuse, and gratitude is the key that unlocks them. Inspiration and motivation work together to support a focus on recovery.

When someone gives themselves over to being grateful they become less selfish. Their recovery tends to be more complete when they stop only thinking of themselves. In order to understand how gratitude affects addiction Building Alcohol Tolerance recovery you have to realize the benefits of gratitude in general and what it does for a recovering addict. Then you can learn the techniques that will allow you to use it to help you in your recovery.