I like to tell people in early recovery that we should look at sobriety as an adventure, filled with fears and uncertainty, but also wonderful discoveries. Some of these discoveries help us to grow and understand ourselves better, two important ingredients for greater happiness, while others help us with our fears and believe we can remain sober through tough times.
We may need help from others along the way. But this can help to encourage us that our adventure will only get better.
Ultimately, as we continue to grow, we discover an inner strength that we didn’t know we had and this newfound “self-confidence” becomes our biggest discovery to date. Even with fears and uncertainty still a part of our lives. We begin to believe that we can be all right no matter what our current circumstances are. We become aware that we’re doing better emotionally. And we start to see that many of our fears are like the boogeyman, not real.
We also see how our story can benefit others and find yet another wonderful discovery. We are no longer the same selfish person that we once were and enjoy helping others.
There’s certainly much more to recovery than what I’ve written here, which entails different paths for different people. But as I said, sobriety should be looked upon as an adventure. All we need to do is remind ourselves of how our lives were before we began our quest for a new life.
By doing so, we see how much better it is to live a life of discovery along with any fear and uncertainty we may have than it is to live a life where fear and uncertainty are the only things we know.
Fills my soul with hope!!!
I’m glad you feel that way Miranda, and it’s funny you should say that. I originally included something about hope at the end, but decided to write what you see now instead. Sometimes when I write something, even though I like it and post it, I feel something is missing and add it later. As you can see, I added hope to the second paragraph. Thanks for your comment. It not only made me feel good, but it made my post better. 🙂