- Don’t pick up, no matter what: This is perhaps the most important rule in recovery. No matter what happens in your life, how good, how bad, or in between, you do not pick up drugs and alcohol to cope. Drugs and alcohol are no longer the solution. Simply put, you can’t stay sober if you don’t stay sober.
- Take it one day at a time: Really, taking it one day at a time isn’t a habit because life only happens in a constant stream of 24 hour increments. As a philosophy, however, it is essential to adopt the mindset of taking life one day at a time. It is said that if you’re depressed you are living in the past and if you are anxious you are living in the future. When you take it one day at a time, you are focusing on the here and now.
- Be good to your body: Addiction and alcoholism are disease of the mind, body, and spirit. Taking good care of your mental health and your spiritual health are intimately connected to taking care of your physical health. Diet, nutrition, regular exercise, and regular sleep are all habits for taking care of your body which need to be incorporated into your daily life.
- Approach challenges with confidence: You have to learn to take healthy risks in recovery in order to build your self-esteem and your confidence in living sober. Rather than live in fear that everything will trigger you to relapse, live in confidence that you are capable of turning to your resources to support you.
- Stay honest: Honesty is key in recovery. The first step in any problem is admitting you have a problem, which means you have to get honest with yourself. First, you have to be honest with yourself about what that problem is. Second, you have to be honest with yourself about having that problem. Honesty resonates throughout the 12 steps and throughout life in recovery. The more honest you can remain, the stronger your recovery will be.
- Maintain an attitude of gratitude: See an attitude of gratitude and see long-term recovery. Gratitude is scientifically proven to change the brain for the better. Being grateful is the opposite of being resentful, which is described as fatal for addicts and alcoholics.
- Be of service: The twelfth of the twelfth steps encourages being of service to others by “carrying the message” of recovery. When you commit your life to living sober in recovery one day at a time, you are a living message to others that getting and staying sober is possible. You can sponsor others, share your story, volunteer at meetings and do more to be of service. You’re also of service by continuing to stay sober and work toward your recovery.
- Make amends: We learn that when we are wrong we have to promptly admit it and do something to right ourselves. Making amends is the way we stay in action in our recovery and constantly work to reduce our ego as addicts and alcoholics.
- Find out what works for you: No two people come to recovery the same way and no two people recover in the exact same way. Treatment offers a wide variety of approaches so that each individual can find what works for them and what does not. What works for all addicts and alcoholics in recovery, however, is staying sober.
- Create meaning in your life: Without meaning there is no reason to stay sober. Your life doesn’t have to take son some radical pursuit of passion, but your life should include more activities that make you feel passionate about living.
You can come out victorious in the fight against addiction. Design For Change offers multiple levels of care through transformational treatment programs helping clients learn how to change one step at a time. For information on our programs and services, call us today: (877) 267-3646
