10 tips for Practicing Gratitude In Recovery

Gratitude is a powerful and transformative emotion that plays a crucial role in promoting well-being and personal growth. Cultivating a sense of gratitude allows individuals to appreciate the beauty of life, even during challenging times, and fosters a positive mindset that encourages resilience and self-compassion. Embracing gratitude can help strengthen relationships, enhance mental and emotional health, and create a supportive environment for overcoming obstacles. In the context of recovery, gratitude becomes an invaluable tool that can aid individuals in remaining focused on their progress, celebrating their achievements, and building a strong foundation for a successful and fulfilling journey toward healing and growth.

Scientists studying positive psychology found that a one-time act of thoughtful gratitude produced an immediate 10% increase in happiness and 35% reduction in depressive symptoms.

Source: Berkely.edu

10 Practical Ways You Can Practice Gratitude In Addiction Recovery

1. Utilize positive affirmations: Begin your day with gratitude affirmations that include powerful phrases such as “I am grateful for my sobriety,” “I appreciate my support network,” and “I cherish my personal growth in recovery.” Repeating these statements will help train your brain to focus on gratitude.
2. Keep a gratitude journal: Develop the habit of writing in a gratitude journal daily. Focus on phrases such as “sobriety,” “support,” “progress,” and “health.” Reflect on the positive aspects of your recovery journey and the people who have helped you along the way.
3. Mindful meditation: Practice mindfulness meditation to cultivate gratitude. Focus on phrases like “inner peace,” “self-compassion,” and “healing” as you breathe deeply and observe your thoughts without judgment. This practice will help you connect with your emotions and foster a deeper sense of gratitude.
4. Visualize gratitude: Engage in regular visualization exercises, imagining yourself in a state of gratitude. Include phrases such as “love,” “appreciation,” and “strength” as you picture yourself surrounded by supportive people and experiencing positive emotions.
5. Gratitude buddy: Partner with a fellow recovery friend or support group member, and exchange daily messages of gratitude. Use phrases like “grateful,” “thankful,” and “blessed” to express your appreciation for the good things in your life and your recovery journey.
6. Show appreciation: Practice expressing gratitude to those around you. Include phrases like “thank you,” “I appreciate,” and “I value” when expressing your appreciation for their support and encouragement during your recovery.
7. Reframe setbacks: When facing challenges or setbacks, employ techniques to reframe these situations as opportunities for growth. Use phrases such as “learning,” “growth,” and “development” to shift your focus from negative emotions to gratitude for the lessons learned.
8. Create a gratitude ritual: Establish a daily or weekly gratitude ritual that incorporates gratitude-focused language. This may include reading a gratitude quote, practicing a gratitude meditation, or sharing your appreciation with others.
9. Engage in acts of kindness: Demonstrate gratitude by performing acts of kindness towards others in your recovery community. Use language that expresses your appreciation, and focus on phrases such as “support,” “compassion,” and “empathy” when engaging with others.
10. Celebrate milestones: Acknowledge and celebrate your recovery milestones with gratitude. Use phrases like “achievement,” “progress,” and “success” to emphasize the importance of these accomplishments and to express gratitude for the journey you’ve undertaken.

Gratitude is A Core Principle of Recovery

Most people in recovery have heard the phrase “Attitude of Gratitude.” But what does gratitude in addiction recovery mean?

People in recovery who go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous (AA or NA) meetings have definitely heard the phrase because it’s not only a common theme at AA/NA meetings, but it’s also a foundation of the AA/NA approach to recovery.

Those community support programs urge participants to be grateful for and appreciate their recovery, their recovery communities, and their lives in recovery. Combined with a dedication to service, the focus on gratitude helps people in recovery grow past the cycles of addiction – which often include behaviors that are neither service-oriented nor characterized by the spirit of gratefulness or appreciation.

That’s not judgment speaking, that’s experience: we know because in our work in addiction treatment, we see people emerge from the isolation of addiction to participation in a recovery community every day – and they do this through cultivating a dedication to service and learning the value of gratitude.

The Science of Gratitude

Before we discuss more details about gratitude in addiction recovery, we’ll take a moment to talk about the scientific research into gratitude.

First, what is gratitude, exactly?

Gratitude experts like researcher Robert Emmons, PhD at the University of California – Davis (UC Davis) says experiencing gratitude is a two-step process.

First, you need to recognize that you’ve experienced something positive, and second, you need to recognize that the positive thing you’ve experienced comes from outside yourself. That’s when gratitude happens: when you know something good in life comes from an external source, and you recognize and appreciate that fact.

Researchers began studying gratitude in 2003, and over the past 17 years, they’ve published scores of papers on the benefits of gratitude. There is statistical data showing that people who practice gratitude, in comparison to people who do not practice gratitude, experience at least three different types of benefits:

• social
• physical
• psychological

Social benefits of gratitude include:

• Feeling connected
• Participating in more social activity
• Feeling more forgiving
• Experiencing more generosity and compassion

Physical benefits of gratitude include:

• Better exercise habits
• Lower blood pressure
• Better sleep
• Stronger immune systems
• Fewer aches and pains

Psychological benefits of gratitude include:

• More joy in life
• More optimism
• Increased alertness
• More positivity

When you see all the benefits of gratitude listed like that, it makes you wonder: is this all true? Can simply appreciating the positive things in your life that come from external sources increase joy, decrease loneliness, improve our immune systems, and lower our blood pressure?

The answer is yes. However, the research is correlative, which is why we used the phrase compared to People who experience and practice gratitude regularly report increased levels of everything we list. It doesn’t mean gratitude is the sole causal factor, but it does mean that compared to people who don’t practice or experience gratitude regularly, people who do experience those benefits.

Gratitude in Addiction Recovery

How can people in recovery recognize and celebrate National Gratitude Month?

The first thing people in recovery can be grateful for is recovery itself.

For most people, entering recovery from drug and or alcohol addiction is one of the most important – and most difficult – decisions they make in their lives. That’s not true for everyone, though: for some people, the moment they realize recovery is an option they’re relieved. For them, it’s an easy decision – but it’s just as important for them to cultivate an attitude of gratitude as it is for people who wrestled with the decision.

For people in recovery, remembering the importance of recovery – and being grateful for it – is a way to stay focused and stay on track. It helps them approach each day with a positive attitude and encourages them to support others on the road to recovery.

Now, aside from that fundamental idea, what else can people do to celebrate National Gratitude Month?

Simple Tips To Become More Grateful

1. Start the day with gratitude.

You can do this in your mind, your emotions, or write it out on paper in a gratitude journal. However you do it, we encourage you to do it before anything else, with the possible exception of making coffee. Here’s what to do: think of or write down three things for which you’re grateful. Think and feel about each of them for a couple of minutes – and that’s it. Pay attention to how this practice changes your mood, and then go on with your day.

2. Look for the good things all day.

As you go through your daily routine, identify and appreciate the things in your life that are good. For instance: family, employment, health, or simply the sun shining through the trees. Or the way the fog rolls in on a gloomy day: you can be grateful for that, too. You don’t have to write these things down. Notice and appreciate: that’s all.

3. End the day with gratitude.

You can do this in your mind or in a gratitude journal, as you did in the morning. Think of three things that happened that day for which you are grateful, and allow yourself to experience the emotion related to those memories: this is the practice of gratitude. Then, you can ground into gratitude by returning to the things you identified in your morning gratitude practice. This brings the day full circle and prepares you for restful, restorative sleep, physically and emotionally.

Those three steps take very little time. They’ll gradually enhance your understanding and experience healing through gratitude in a cumulative, step-wise manner. If you do this every day, before long you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing this your whole life. As we mentioned above – and as researchers at UC Davis point out – this basic daily practice can improve your overall physical, mental, and social well-being.

When your recovery peers at community support meetings talk about the attitude of gratitude, you’ll know exactly what they mean – because you walk the walk every day.

Final Thoughts On The Benefits Of Gratitude

In conclusion, the benefits of gratitude are far-reaching and have a profound impact on various aspects of one’s life. By fostering a grateful mindset, individuals can experience increased happiness, improved mental and emotional well-being, and enhanced resilience in the face of adversity. Gratitude is important in recovery and helps strengthen social connections, promoting a sense of belonging and support within one’s community. It also enables individuals to maintain focus on their personal growth and recovery, encouraging them to embrace their achievements and learn from setbacks. Ultimately, cultivating gratitude paves the way for a more fulfilling life, empowering individuals to fully appreciate their experiences and better navigate the challenges that come their way.

The Ridge offers a complete detox program with an inpatient care facility in Cincinnati to help people struggling with addiction. Contact us today for more details.