By making small changes in your mindset and habits, you can reap tremendous benefits that will improve your mental health and overall well-being. Daily Practices for Gratitude, including Journaling, are essential for those on the path of addiction recovery. Cultivating a thankful mindset can help people in addiction recovery to overcome negative thoughts and emotions, combat stress and depression, and find meaning and purpose in their lives. There are several reasons why gratitude is effective for reducing stress and anxiety. Firstly, it helps to shift our focus away from negative thoughts and emotions towards positive ones. 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.

Our evidence-based treatment programs focus on addressing your individual needs. 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. As the gratitude in recovery road twists and turns, some moments will feel like a pleasant stroll while others will feel like a perilous voyage. In treatment, you will learn to incorporate practices that help you as obstacles arise. Gratitude is one key that you can use to unlock new depths of joy in your recovery process.

Mental Health Services

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. Recovery is difficult, and maintaining a sense of gratitude can be crucial to a full and lasting recovery. By expressing thankfulness for everything you have in your life, you can begin to see the glass as half full rather than half empty.

• As a recovering addict, developing a sense of gratitude about the things you appreciate may help you break free from the darkness of addiction.
• After a while, as the addiction takes hold, so does a sense of entitlement to the feeling of getting drunk or high.
• Gratitude allows us to live in the present moment and appreciate what we have right now.
• 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.

It means being thankful for the people, places, and experiences that make your everyday life meaningful and enjoyable. The power of gratitude in recovery lies in its ability to shift your focus from the negative to the positive. Practicing gratitude can help you heal, grow, and transform your life.

How to Practice Gratitude in Recovery

If you’re already using a journal to support your recovery, you can add a gratitude section or allot part of every entry to record things that you’re grateful for that day. You may also want to create a dedicated gratitude journal to keep you focused. If you’re not able to practice gratitude in social settings or in your communication with people, practice gratitude introspectively by journaling or creating a gratitude list.

Set up your routine to fit comfortably in your life so you can keep up this new habit long-term. Now that you know what practicing gratitude is and how it can help you, here are five easy ways to incorporate it into your recovery journey. “Practice https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alternatives-to-alcohol/ gratitude” is one of those platitudes that seems like it belongs in script on a wall next to Live, Laugh, Love. And while it may sound a bit “hippie” and spiritual, this valuable practice is strongly encouraged by most therapists and counselors.