How Can I Make Constant Change in Addiction Recovery a Source of Comfort?

Embracing change in recovery is essential to growing as an individual and becoming the person you want to be. However, change doesn’t always seem natural or easy. For example, think about New Year’s Resolutions; most people rarely ever keep them because most people repel change and want to retreat to their comfort zones. Such a feeling of normalcy is safe and doesn’t provoke fear; however, this feeling does not allow you to face challenges that help build you up and grow.

Being open to change is about becoming comfortable with discomfort, which means expanding your comfort zone. While you might fear the constant change in recovery, learning to accept change will propel you toward achieving your goals.

Change is Inevitable

If you avoid change, then understand that you are limiting yourself from ever reaching your full potential and expressing who you are – both of which are critical elements to lasting recovery. Growth takes accepting that change is inevitable no matter how content or distressed you might feel at any given point. Life will continually change.

Sometimes accepting change is realizing that you cannot control every facet of your life and surroundings. Though, often many people try to control everything in their lives to dictate the outcome of a given situation. However, learning that things are constantly changing all around you and growing and expanding helps free your mind to embrace new things. You will soon see that you cannot control everything, and not every circumstance is out to harm you somehow. Attaining this perspective is very liberating.

Analyze Your Thoughts and Behaviors

Utilizing mindfulness and meditation practices helps you overcome thoughts that prevent you from accepting change. These practices bring you in touch with your feelings and emotions and help you understand how and why certain things affect you. When you know how and why you think and respond to specific situations, you can turn irrational thoughts into rational ones. Taking time to understand yourself better helps you get rid of negative habits and negative people that might still be in your life and keeping you from moving forward.

When you understand why you have specific thoughts, you can then control your response to situations that result from the change. For example, looking for the positives and determining why they are more important than the negatives can lend comfort in knowing that good will come from change. Alternatively, recognizing non-beneficial thoughts that cause you to feel stuck in your actions is also essential in learning how to change these behaviors and perspectives.

Make Change Before Change Makes You

When you are consciously aware and working toward change, change is much easier to accept. Exploring new ventures, hobbies, and career-oriented pursuits will, in turn, create more opportunities for you. For example, if you feel stuck in your career, going back to school to advance your degree or pursue another career can lead to other opportunities that either build or transition you out of what you are currently doing. Your recovery offers the same return; however, working on the steps that focus on change and growth is a big part of this.

Your attitude toward life is also affected by your ability to embrace change. Therefore, creating reasonable goals with reasonable expectations helps you visualize where you are going and what you are setting out to accomplish. While the future might not manifest exactly as you would like, it doesn’t have to, so long as you understand your ultimate goal and also understand that attaining a goal requires many stepping stones to get there. Further, sometimes the mistakes along the way are necessary lessons that provoke a realization or inspiration in achieving a particular goal. Without taking these chances, you might miss all opportunities life has to offer.

Everyone Has Doubt and Fear of the Unknown

Without the unknown, the sense of taking a chance and accomplishing something you set out to do might not have the same positive effect on you. Sometimes overcoming the fear and insecurity is an accomplishment because overcoming them helps instill confidence instead of allowing fear and insecurity to prevent you from doing things. Additionally, doubt and uncertainty is a common experience, not just with you but with everyone. Understand that there will never be a time where you are absent of doubt and uncertainty. Focusing on yourself and the things you have overcome builds a compass to guide you toward accepting such feelings but moving forward anyway.

Recovery and change are about making forward progress. When you move forward to achieving the growth you want, you will realize that change is just part of the process. However, trying to prevent change will soon have you feeling stuck. At Choice House, we help men work on their response to change by assisting them to avoid burying their feelings. Our treatment involves both a conventional and alternative approach because we believe recovery is not a one-size-fits-all approach. We provide recovery tools and practices such as mindfulness, meditation, and outdoor therapy to help respond and process thoughts of doubt. Our goal is to help the men we treat find understanding within. We also provide them the atmosphere of incredible Colorado landscapes to ensure your never short of inspiration and motivation. Change is happening every day; instead of resisting it, become a part of it. To learn more about how to get started on your recovery journey, reach out to Choice house today by calling us at (720) 577-4422.