Even when you have messed things up badly, you can turn your life around. We all make mistakes, sometimes people just make lots of them and it takes awhile to get their lives back on track. To do that, to get headed in the right direction you have to make some changes and those changes are almost exclusively internal.
Today I want to dedicate my blog to the person that is completing her treatment at our addiction recovery center. She has taken the first step by removing the substances that were hurting her and those around her. She will now go out into the world with a clearer mind and a heart that is once again open to loving and being loved.
How did this person get herself headed in the right direction? The following are changes she made that have the potential to permanently alter her life for the better:
• She decided to start believing in herself again. Sure the past has been imperfect but the “now” contains a fresh and clear version of who she can be. This potential in all of us is unlimited if we can only feel ok about who we are today.
• She decided to take responsibility for her life. As soon she quit blaming others and situations, she took back the power to shape her own life. Blaming and complaining makes a person feel helpless because we can’t change others, we can only change ourselves.
• She changed her thoughts from limiting, fearful and negative to open, hopeful and positive. Simply put, an optimistic outlook will make life much more enjoyable. We are about as happy as our mind chooses to be.
• She has begun a dedicated and thorough assessment of her strengths and weakness, what is working for her or not. She will now shape her life with much more awareness and be able to make healthy choices for change.
• She has begun to realize that as a emotional human being she feels the best when she feels all of her emotions. She now knows that acknowledging how she feels keeps her feeling alive. This means she has more energy in motion (e-motions) to create the life she desires.
• She writes to empty her mind, clarify her thoughts and to energize her days with hope and appreciation. Her flow of words onto paper keeps things flowing in her mind, her heart, her body and her spirit.
• She is building a network for success. The more recovery meetings, the more sober friends, the more guidance for the steps along the way the better. The more numbers to call when she needs to reach out to others, when she has a sense she can’t do it all on her own, the greater her chances grow to keep her life going where she wants it to go.
• She has a plan, she has people to help, she has her hopes, she has a heart filled with wanting and now she can give it a try out in the world. There is within her the belief that she can do recovery well and now she gets to go and give it a try. There will be ups and downs but she has the tools and resources to keep her life headed in the right direction.
Yes she has been an inspiration to herself, her peers and us staff. Sometimes the blessings clearly go both ways.