Let's Focus On Gratitude

No matter how long you have been in the process of recovery, there is one factor which is common to all who are truly serious about finding a new way of life. It is a key point of importance to learn how to be grateful for everything that you are gaining and everything that you are achieving through recovery.

Gratitude is not a normal part of life when one is using drugs or drinking. Even in instances when very good things happen, one is generally tempted to feel or believe that it is his due, with no real reason to be grateful for any of it. In recovery, however, it is essential to take on an entirely different perspective of gratitude. A good way to begin this process is to acknowledge that nothing is actually owed to you-- everything is either a gift or it is earned.

With this in mind, one of the first things you can feel truly grateful for is your life itself. As there are no guarantees in life, the fact that you are alive today, this day, is something to truly appreciate. Once you have that concept firmly in mind, you can then add to it everything else in your life that deserves your feeling of gratitude. For example, as many people who have placed their time and their focus into using drugs, drinking, and the lifestyle which generally goes along with it, have lost everything from their health to their families to their freedom, if any of these are still in your life giving you the opportunity to reconstruct or rebuild or make amends, you can consider yourself to be quite fortunate.

What do you have in your life? What options, opportunities, choice and challenges are in front of you to prioritize? What benefits have you already seen from your decision to walk away from drugs and alcohol? In addition to clarifying your own personal answers to all of these questions, you can also acknowledge that you have life and much in life to look forward to-- and when you think about it, you will likely recognize that being grateful for it all is the very best point of view.

You can look at today, and you can look at the future. Leaving drugs and alcohol behind has given you the chance to rebuild your physical strength and your health, your personal relationships, your job, your hobbies-- all of those life-enhancing factors which you may have dismissed as unimportant during the period of time when you were drinking and using drugs. Merely being able to acknowledge their true importance is a boost to your feeling of gratitude-- being able to enjoy and appreciate them to their fullest degree is even better!

When you are thinking about everything in your life for which you feel grateful, don't forget one of the most important factors in your life-- and that is you, yourself! If you had not progressed to being the person you are today in recovery, you would be back in that old lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, rather than where you are at today-- making progress toward strength, health, self-assuredness, and fulfillment!

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