On those days, try to go through the motions anyway to avoid breaking your new habit. Force yourself to keep up with your gratitude routine, watch your language and try to keep your perspective clear. Often, just by going through the motions, you’ll find yourself feeling grateful by the end of the day. Whatever method you choose, try to set yourself up for success by being realistic.
- Recovery is undoubtedly a challenging journey, but there are better things laid out for you at…
- Part of this transformation involves incorporating gratitude into your daily routine.
- This should carry over into all the thoughts and conversations you have throughout the day.
- That leads to a cycle of despair, hopelessness and other negative feelings, which in turn lead to returning to being dependent on addictive substances.
- Addiction often creates a sense of self-centeredness and entitlement, which will manifest itself in the selfish thinking and behaviors typical of an addict.
- Are you looking for more ideas for how to stay committed to sobriety?
Reach out to someone you like and trust, and ask to exchange gratitude. When you hear their perspective, when you see where they look for meaning, your mind will respond in kind. You’ll notice more things to feel grateful for, and you’ll open yourself up to new definitions of goodness and beauty. 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.
Dual Diagnosis: Mental Health and Addiction Treatment?
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 importance of gratitude in recovery hostile thinking. 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.
- These things certainly deserve celebration and appreciation, but so does the small stuff!
- Journaling has a long-established history as a tool for self-discovery and healing.
- It is easy to feel overwhelmed and pessimistic when living through the challenges of addiction recovery.
- As the study cited above shows, this is key for increasing your commitment to a relationship and making the other person feel appreciated.
- Learning about the forms of negative thinking can prepare you to combat them with a dose of gratitude.
Mindfulness helps you focus on all those everyday events and experiences that make you feel positive – and grateful. In your journal, take time to note down the things https://ecosoberhouse.com/ and events of the day that you’re grateful for. Whether it’s a chance to sleep a little later in the morning or a meeting with an old friend, note it down.
Overcoming Negative Thinking with Gratitude
Examining our feelings of gratitude is certainly a nice thing to do. When beginning your new life after recovery, changing the way you view the world can be a way to help you along that process. Part of this transformation involves incorporating gratitude into your daily routine. Being grateful for the blessings in your life, whether large or small, helps cultivate a humble, appreciative attitude. Aside from the positive energy it brings, gratitude helps us to focus on the present moment and its blessings right now.
These dark and clouded thoughts can take a negative situation and make it worse. Jordan Kadish graduated Magna Cum Laude from The College of New Jersey with a B.A. Jordan is passionate about all things mental health & wellness and is thrilled to be able to help her community in any way possible.
Understanding Alcoholism: Is It Considered a Mental Illness?
Research into the benefits of regular gratitude practices shows an increase in the body’s ability to fight illness including reducing the risk of heart failure. A research paper published in the Journal of Happiness Studies in 2020, it showed that being grateful regularly could diminish symptoms of anxiety and depression. Most everyone has heard the question, “Is the glass half empty or half full? ” this simple question illustrates being grateful and not being grateful. When we walk through life and see everything that is wrong, everything that isn’t going our way, everything that we wish was different, we will continue to see more and more of the same.
- Some studies have shown that when gratitude is expressed in romantic relationships feelings of happiness lasted through the following day.
- Settings aside some daily moments of reflection where you express thankfulness can also work wonders in developing positive outlooks.
- They also worked out more and had fewer doctor visits than those who focused on what irritated or displeased them as well as the third group who wrote about the negative and positive events that affected them.
- The gratitude journal and gratitude letter are excellent ways to make gratitude a regular part of your recovery plan but it’s also good to express gratitude to the people you care about.
- In this section, I will discuss the various ways in which gratitude can aid in addiction recovery.