When addiction has taken over our lives, we’ve become so accustomed to all of the difficult circumstances and painful emotions that we can forget there is another way to live altogether. It is actually possible for us to feel at peace and to be happy. We can feel grounded and secure. We can regain our confidence and sense of purpose. Recovery gives us the tremendous gift of being able to redesign our lives and shed our toxic, self-destructive patterns.
One of the most important elements of recovery is learning how to work with our emotions. We’ve developed patterns of trying to avoid and escape our pain. We’ve been using our addictive substances and behaviors to distract ourselves from feeling the full weight of our emotions. In recovery, we learn it’s ok to feel our feelings, to express and communicate them. We experience moving through them and processing them in healthy ways. We realize that not only do our emotions not have to overtake us, we can learn to live with them and even use them to fuel our creativity and self-expression. When we allow ourselves to feel the full spectrum of our emotions, we realize that avoiding some of them, the ones we considered negative, was actually taking away from our ability to experience the fullness of life, in all its contrast and beauty.
When in recovery we get to finally release the shame and regret we’ve been holding onto for years. Being in recovery lets us feel redeemed. We’re finally doing what we know is best for us, for our lives and for our loved ones. Recovery invites us to practice self-forgiveness and to let go of anything that is weighing us down and holding us back. We get to feel lighter and freer. We start to feel and embody clarity. Along with this clarity comes a feeling of calm and balance that might feel totally new to us but that soon becomes our new normal. We start to feel more stable and secure within ourselves and within our lives. We develop a self-confidence and a renewed sense of self-worth that can feel foreign at first but which we can continue to grow and benefit from for the rest of our lives.
Being in recovery can bring us a renewed faith in ourselves. We start to open ourselves up to new opportunities. We allow our blessings to come to us. We stop blocking ourselves from developing our gifts and pursuing our passions. We realize that a whole new life awaits us.
We’re here to support you along your recovery journey. Call 888-570-7154 for information on how we can help.
