Whether you’re home because of COVID, work restrictions, furloughs, or layoffs, don’t let your recovery suffer.
Seek out an online meeting.
Connect with recovery-oriented people on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media
Write a guest post for From Addict 2 Advocate
Cherish loved ones
Facetime your recovery friends
Read meditation books
Read recovery literature
Guilt motivates some people to change; they feel bad about their behaviors and they want these feelings to stop, so they change, and make amends.
Shame, however, often paralyzes people. Their distorted opinion of themselves leads them to believe that no one could forgive them for their actions; they think they are so worthless and undeserving of absolution that they often do not try to make amends.
Our barriers are self-imposed for the most part. That’s both good and bad news. Good because it’s an attitude within us, and therefore, we can change it. However, that’s the downside, too as most of us don’t like to feel uncomfortable in our life choices
By: Deb Palmer “We design our lives through the power of choices.”― Golden Flower ____ Choosing Our Fate Runs in the Family When my children were little, I offered choices like clean your room or scrub toilets, get along or spend the day pulling weeds. “You choose,” I’d say with a smile. Choices […]
The success of your recovery depends on maintaining vigilance or awareness. You’ve worked hard to give up drugs and alcohol; that’s the getting into recovery. Unfortunately, some people get complacent or self-satisfied when they have accomplished a part of the whole. It’s rather like someone saying they want to eat some cake for dessert and then stopping with only the eggs and flour in the bowl, but saying, “Look, I’m making a cake. I think I’ll take a break.”
While we’ll get multiple reasons from people we ask, the usual excuses for returning to active addiction seems to fit into the following five excuses.
The level of stress we face is unparalleled in my lifetime, and I’m 72, so I have lived through uncertain times before. But I know that nothing has prepared me for the Corona Virus.
Recovery is more than ‘not using.’ What changes did you have to make even after your stopped using? How did you overcome your ambivalence? How can you encourage someone today?
To break down associations, identify who the person reminds you of; then make a conscious effort to not filter the message by the association or past connection.
Changing the way we think takes time. Recovery allows us to learn new skills, attitudes, and actions, but it also gives us time to unlearn the self-defeating patterns of negative thinking.
When we begin the day on a positive note, it makes the day and our recovery shine.
“Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude.” ― Katherine Mansfield
My realization of the value of life was not an epiphany, striking me with profound insight and wisdom on living and dying; more of a learning experience from seeing how many lives ended quickly from addiction, yet how extended many were by recovery.
“Goals are the road maps that guide you to your destination. Cultivate the habit of setting clearly-defined written goals; they are the road maps that guide you to your destination.” ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
The reality is that change is going to feel painful, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and uncertain. Too often people focus only on their pain, what they will have to go through to change, without reflecting on the pain that their actions have caused loved ones and friends.
