The Mindset of Active Addiction vs the Mindset in Recovery
The inner landscape of the mind during active addiction can be a scary place. Over time, addiction can completely distort the way people perceive and think about the world around them. Addiction can lead to a mindset of hurt, mistrust, and sometimes, full-blown paranoia. An addiction mindset can slowly change a person before their active addiction may lament over how much they have changed. People often push away the people who love them. The addiction mindset can also prevent someone from seeking out the help they need. One of the most important components of recovery is learning to challenge negative thinking. It is about identifying truth from lies and moving forward with love. A recovery mindset is a positivity, optimism, and hope for the future. Cultivating a positive mindset takes time, dedication, and commitment, but it can transform someone’s life and bolster recovery.How a Positive Mindset Can Improve Your Life
You may be wondering how a positive mindset can make a difference. The answer is that a positive mindset can transform someone’s life by helping them remain resilient during their recovery and staying positive during life challenges. The saying, “Whether you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right,” is true because thoughts are generated from people’s beliefs about themselves and can later influence their actions. Positive thoughts can lower levels of depression and improve self-esteem. Additionally, it has been proven that positive thinking can even have health benefits such as strengthened immunity, increased energy, and reducing the impact of stress and anxiety. Positive thinking can benefit someone’s life, and recovery is endless.“How Can Someone Change Their Mindset?”
Drug and alcohol treatment is a safe place for those struggling with addiction to start shifting their thought processes. Rehab centers are healthy spaces for patients to devote themselves to learning all they can and diving headfirst into the groups, therapies, and activities offered. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most proven and effective therapies for getting rid of negative and self-destructive thought patterns and is offered during treatment. Overall, the shift in someone’s mental state will begin when they start identifying negative and self-destructive thought patterns. Even outside of treatment, individual therapy sessions are a perfect place to begin sorting through those distorted patterns. A therapist may be able to identify thought patterns and beliefs that people may be unaware of. Furthermore, people can begin to shift their thought patterns by practicing mindfulness exercises or meditation. The most important thing for people struggling with addiction to remember is to seek help from those around them and be patient with themselves. Learning new ways of thinking, coping, and handling life takes time, but the results are worth it and can help people start their new life.Get Help for Addiction Now
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Anyone who has done something they regret knows the power of an apology. Mending relationships is a crucial step towards moving forward in a recovery journey, but the most important apology is often overlooked.
Self-forgiveness is the most important forgiveness to ask for and accept. Just as calcium is useless to the body without Vitamin D, a person can’t absorb positive thinking unless the person can forgive themselves. In this way, they begin to embrace positive thinking.
It’s often difficult for people to forgive themselves, as humans tend to be their own worst critics. Rather than seeing someone worthy of forgiveness, sometimes people see a failure in the mirror. With such a distorted self-image, it can be impossible to see beyond negative self-esteem.
However, fear not. No matter what, it is never too late to grow. There is little that can’t heal with patience and love. Finances, friendships, and physical bodies can all heal and grow if we choose to let them.
If one were to lower their guard, they could take the first step by asking themselves for forgiveness and accepting their apology.
How To Forgive Oneself or Others
Everyone, at some point, has had to apologize. How people behave when accepting an apology can be influenced by remembering what it’s like being on the other side. How can one forgive themselves or others? By remembering, we are all human, and every person has a different path and story.
People forgive each other because there is love. Where there is love, there is growth potential. People forgive themselves because no one got to choose their childhood, upbringing, or parents. Life is a game of chance, and no one got to choose the hand they were dealt.
When shame and blame no longer hold power, the mind can breathe and begin to embrace change and positivity. What’s in the past is over, and it can be let go because there is no changing it. What matters is where one is and where they want to go next.
Why Does Our Mentality Matter?
Our thoughts can either help or hinder us; our thoughts can invoke feelings of happiness or lead us into deep despair. A person’s thoughts can influence their actions, and even if you do not act on some of your thoughts, it determines your perception of the world around you.
Hopefully, over time as people learn to grow and embrace change, they may realize it is the thought that counts.
It’s important to remember the benefits of keeping one’s thoughts. By cultivating positive beliefs and attitudes about oneself, life can become revolutionized and create a brighter perception of their life.
With health and positivity prioritized in life, anyone can rise to the challenges in life and overcome even the toughest trials.
How Do I Move Forward From Here?
Life will always have its ups and downs, but someone’s outside circumstances don’t have to measure and dictate the way they feel inside.
When people take control of their mindset, it can open a whole new way of living life. People can see things with fresh eyes and accomplish things they may never have thought possible.
Sources
Positive thinking: Reduce stress by eliminating negative self-talk – Mayo Clinic
Positive Mental Attitude and Health: What the Public Believes – Bruckbauer – 1993 – Image: the Journal of Nursing Scholarship – Wiley Online Library
