If you’re searching for guidance on where to turn next during addiction recovery, ALYST Health is here to provide all the recovery resources you need. Our Certified Recovery Agents specialize in making rehab accessible to anyone with an at-home, concierge recovery approach. Your CRA can help you develop and practice gratitude as a daily part of your recovery plan. Give us a call to start developing a treatment program tailored to your lifestyle around our full suite of addiction recovery services. Expressing gratitude each November is part of tradition, but for people in recovery, gratitude is a year-round practice and an important tool. By practicing gratitude daily, people in recovery remind themselves of all the blessings they have and foster positive thinking, happiness, and wellness.

  • When others share their successes, listen, and let their gratitude rub off on you too.
  • Practicing gratitude is a way of pushing against our natural tendency to dwell on the negative.
  • Three related studies found a strong correlation–and one study found evidence of causation–between frequent and regular expressions of gratitude and greater communal strength.

As the 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. Sadly, people in recovery are often notorious for being grumpy, but that stereotype doesn’t have to be true for you. Being kind to loved ones, friends, and strangers, regardless of the type of day you’re having, is an honorable way to live.

Graduate School of Addiction Studies

Take the time to express thoughts of thankfulness in your head or with another person when possible. When properly cultivated, gratitude becomes an action of expressing your love for someone or something. If you’re grateful for your recovery, you stay committed and contribute to it. Practicing gratitude helps us connect more deeply with the people and things we love in our lives, while acknowledging how they enable us to live a better life each day as we navigate recovery. Even when you’re committed to sobriety and living a healthy, growth-oriented lifestyle, it’s easy to overlook the importance of gratitude.

How do you use gratitude as a coping skill?

  1. Take a moment. Think about the positive things that happened during the day.
  2. Journal. Make a habit of writing down things you're grateful for.
  3. Savor your experiences. Try to notice positive moments as they are happening.
  4. Relive the good times.
  5. Write to someone.
  6. Make a visit.

The third group was asked to write about the negative and positive events that affected them. After 10 weeks of study, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. 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. Cultivating gratitude is an important part of recovery and gratitude is recognized as one of the foundational virtues in the creation of happiness. If individuals are grateful to be on the road to recovery, then it’s less likely they will relapse because they are empowered to move forward.

Cultivating a Grateful Mindset during Addiction Recovery

Getting to this point in recovery is not an easy process, but when we have an attitude and behavior of gratitude; it can change our entire outlook on things. But if you’re in early recovery or beyond, it’s https://ecosoberhouse.com/ that much more important. 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.

These poisonous feelings served to strengthen our addiction’s grip on us. If you’re struggling with sobriety and want to break free from addiction’s hold so you can reclaim your life, there is help. At Gateway in Chicago, Illinois, we want to support you so you can find a life of gratitude and sobriety. Our evidence-based treatment programs focus on addressing your individual needs. Every day, take just a moment or two to write down a few things that make you grateful.

Impact of Sober Companionship on Long-Term Recovery Success

Other studies have also shown that practicing gratitude can lead to increased feelings of well-being and a more positive outlook in life. At its core, gratitude is about developing a state of openness and vulnerability. It allows you to appreciate what you have instead of dwelling on your difficulties. According to studies, gratitude and happiness are always strongly correlated. In one study, researchers asked one group to note the things they were grateful for. They then asked another group to write about the daily irritations or things that had displeased them.

why is gratitude important in recovery

Thankfully, nurturing a daily gratitude practice is simple, and it can be woven into your day-to-day life. It starts with a mindset shift, and a concerted effort to think more positively. Gratitude is also the antidote to negative thinking that reduces hope and happiness. People who dwell on the negative aspects in their lives almost always find it difficult to reach a state of contentment. In recovery, excessive negative emotions put people at risk for relapse.

This applies whether you’re volunteering to help others, doing things that make your friends and family happy, or working in a way that contributes to your community and surroundings. Volunteering actually triggers the reward system in your brain, causing you to feel happier and more satisfied. This happens because most humans are ‘wired’ to benefit from social good, including helping others. When you do good things, you just feel good, which will help you to feel better.

Those who kept the gratitude list expressed a higher level of happiness and a sense of well-being. The Journal of Psychotherapy Research evaluated 293 participants in a study entitled Does gratitude writing improve the mental health of why is gratitude important in recovery psychotherapy clients? All participants underwent psychotherapy, but when researchers followed up at four weeks and twelve weeks, participants from the group who also wrote gratitude letters reported a more positive mental outlook.

Writing a gratitude letter assists in rewiring our brains to focus on the positive aspects of life rather than dwelling on negative experiences. Recent studies display that writing just one gratitude letter a week for three weeks consecutively provides significant benefits for up to six months. Do you find yourself being consumed by negative thoughts and emotions? By focusing on gratitude, you can train your mind to overcome negative thinking. In recovery, we are given the space to be grateful, but it still takes time to practice and train the mind to notice and cherish the beauty in life.

Is gratitude a spiritual need?

give thanks in all circumstances.” Sometimes things just really aren't that great, and that is where gratitude as a spiritual discipline comes in. Gratitude should never be expected or demanded, and while we are called to it through Scripture, it is a spiritual practice we should take on in joy, not out of obligation.

You stub your toe on the way out of bed or you spill your coffee all over your clean shirt? For a lot of people, this seemingly negative event sets off a train of thought and then everything seems to go wrong for the rest of the day. 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. Gratitude is defined as the quality of being grateful; readiness to show appreciation for and return kindness. Basically, gratitude is seeing what is good in life and the goodness in others.

Futures Recovery

Others may concentrate on evidence-based modalities and implement other practices, like medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Both are appropriate treatment avenues, but you may be more receptive to one than another. While in the throes of active addiction, the ability to experience gratitude may be diminished. There are simple ways to incorporate gratitude enhancing activities into any daily routine.