Entering recovery is about building a brand new life from the ground up. We must see that every area of our life was affecting us and keeping us dependent on substances just to get through the day. A new life means, new surroundings, new purpose in life, new belief systems, new ideas and new people we surround ourselves with. So many times I tried to hold on to parts of my old life and it was always unsuccessful in the end. There are some important things we must do to build a strong foundation from the start. With a strong foundation we can stand proud and excited about our new life. We can experience freedom finally.
Surrounding Yourself With The Right People
Ultimately in life, you are who you surround yourself with. The truth of the matter is, towards the end of addiction you probably did not have the best surrounding crowd and something like that can keep us going in the wrong direction for a long time. Meeting and surrounding yourself with people who are taking the right actions in their life everyday can have a life changing effect. The right group of people can inspire you and hold you accountable so you stay on the right path. Some treatment facilities have an alumni program that make it very easy to find peers that have the same intentions as you, to get sober and change their life. It’s usually very easy to draw the line between people who are doing the right thing and the wrong thing in recovery, it’s up to you to choose which side of that line you want to be on.
Getting Honest With Yourself
The life of an active addict is a life tangled in lies. Big lies, small lies, meaningless lies, it really just becomes second nature to lie to people! It’s easier than telling the truth! Most of all however, we lie to ourselves the most, the things we tell ourselves to justify terrible decisions, or rationalize why we did something really bad. It becomes a habit to just tell yourself what you want to believe and go along with it. Upon entering recovery, there needs to be a high awareness of not only what we say to others but what we tell ourselves. If you are feeling a certain way about something and don’t like it, don’t stuff it away and tell yourself something else, find someone and talk about it. Transparency is vital in recovery, especially early recovery. One of the best feelings I have ever felt in my life was when I realized I was no longer hiding anything from anyone and was no longer living a lie, I had nothing to be ashamed of and had major peace of mind from it. I was so used to being worried about getting caught in a lie or someone finding out something terrible that I did. Once that fear went away there was major growth and understanding.
Action Everyday
Starting over and building a new life is a tall order and can easily get overwhelming. I found it best for me to make small goals for the week, not too many, and slowly work on them every day, little by little. I was not going to conquer the world overnight (although my ego thought I could) and I knew that if I just kept working on several areas of my life, organically I would have a new life built around me. Working hard at my job, with a sponsor, on stepwork, at the gym, and many other core necessities, life began to build around me. I would only suffer when I got stagnant, but when I look back and look at my life now, there is so much I can work on to achieve and improve myself. Early on in recovery, just doing some simple things to improve your life will make you feel incredible, doing simple things consecutively is the recipe to a full and happy sober life. I remember hitting a year sober, and reflecting on everything I had worked for and it was an amazing moment to see the life I had built in such a short time just from simply taking action each and every day.
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Guest Author Bio
Daniel Wittler
Daniel Wittler is a writer in recovery from South Florida, he has been sober for 4 years and likes to share his experience to show others that absolutely anyone can get sober provided they are ready to take action.
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Hi Daniel,
Great article and congrats on your sobriety! It really is about taking it one day at a time and creating a healthy routine to build a new life.
I’ve found incorporating yoga into my daily routine has helped me build a good, positive foundation – it’s simple and keeps me centered and focused on my goal. Here’s an infographic by Symetria Recovery (https://www.symetriarecovery.com/ ) that shows some easy moves you can incorporate into your mornings or evenings: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tqfKEr0hZgeMPb7urSPXNeGFUts4B6rN/preview