We’ve been talking a lot lately about viewing recovery as a journey. In this view, recovery is an ongoing goal, not a final destination. Using this perspective, we can view setbacks as temporary roadblocks, not as insurmountable barriers.
Viewing recovery as a journey also provides other benefits. These benefits include allowing ourselves
- to focus on our current thoughts, which could help ease our anxieties.
- to examine what we’re currently doing, not try to control and predict what will happen in the future.
- to have more fun in recovery and in life in general.
If we’re treating our recoveries as journeys, it might be easier to focus on the present. We could do this by participating in a practice known as mindfulness.
Mindfulness helps us focus on the present. It requires us to pay attention to the sensations of our minds and our bodies. Mindfulness is a part of meditation. Meditation requires us to pay attention to our thoughts. It also urges us not to judge these thoughts.
This lack of judgment is crucial. People often judge themselves. This judgment could cause them to turn to drugs and alcohol in order to calm this inner judgement. But since the effects of the drugs and alcohol are temporary, when people become sober, they judge themselves for their substance use disorder AND their pasts.
Meditation could help ease such judgment. It requires us to focus on the present, not the past or the future. People who practice meditation acknowledge that this focus can be difficult. They say that people can briefly acknowledge such thoughts, but they should then refocus on their present state of mind.
Focusing on the present is a good tactic. After all, we can’t change the past. The future is often unpredictable. But if we focus on the present, maybe we can do something about it. We can focus on our present journeys to help our recoveries.
