It’s common knowledge that a positive mindset and outlook will greatly increase your chances of long-term success in recovery. Learning to surround yourself with positivity will give you a whole new outlook on life.
Surround Yourself With Positivity: The Benefits
A positive mindset offers mental, physical, and emotional benefits. Surrounding yourself with positivity is also one of the most powerful things you can do in addiction, trauma, or mental health recovery.
According to NIH News in Health, research has found “a link between an upbeat mental state and improved health.” These improved health outcomes include “lower blood pressure, reduced risk for heart disease, healthier weight, better blood sugar levels,” and even a longer life.
Benefits of Positivity in Recovery
If you’re in recovery, surrounding yourself with healthy relationships, uplifting activities, and all-around positivity can help you move through your journey more easily. Plus, positivity can be contagious. It gives you hope for the future and gives you confidence to stick to your goals.
An article published in 2017 In Addiction & Health recommended that addiction treatment centers “teach positive thinking skills to drug-dependent people. This can increase both their hope and quality of life, allowing them to approach the recovery process with a much healthier mindset.
The Opposite: How Negativity Can Derail Your Progress
While positivity can help you grow and meet your recovery goals, the opposite can be true, too. Negativity like unhealthy relationships, low self-esteem, and critical self-talk can derail your progress. It may even lead to relapse.
Removing negativity from your daily life is not always easy, though. For example, the 24/7 news media cycle is often very negative, yet it’s hard to stay away from. Negative news and conversations with others can hurt your mindset or trigger you. In some cases, these influences may even impact your mental health or cause re-traumatization.
Removing Negative Influences
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) outlines ten clinical relapse prevention strategies, and many of them have to do with removing negative influences and emotions from your life to surround yourself with positivity.
One of the VA’s major strategies includes helping patients “reduce, identify, and manage negative emotional states.” Negative feelings like depression, anger, anxiety, and boredom can all be associated with relapse.
The VA also points out that recovery support networks “should not include people with negative feelings about the patient or people who are using substances.” Being around negative people can easily propel you backward instead of setting you up for a healthy and bright future.
Surround Yourself With Positivity in Recovery
Even though it may seem like we live in a negative world, and even though recovery may even seem negative in itself, there are ways you can start surrounding yourself with positivity right now.
The more you actively seek positive relationships and experiences, the more positivity will open up in your life. It’s like a domino effect of positivity to help you reach your goals to discover long-term happiness and sobriety.
Positive and Supportive Relationships
According to a 2023 article published in Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, social support is “frequently noted as an important factor in recovery from alcohol and drug use.”
Having a positive support system has been a predictor of lower substance use rates both during and after treatment, helping people remain abstinent. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly mentioned that strong and supportive relationships have even been “linked to positive health outcomes for individuals in recovery, such as greater quality of life and subjective well-being.”
Surrounding yourself with positive people who have your best interests at heart can be one of the best things you can do for your recovery. It’s important to identify who is already in your life that can support you. If that area is lacking, you can find support options from treatment centers, programs, and more.
Positive Activities for Your Mind, Body, and Soul
The other major source of positivity in your life will come in the form of your daily activities, habits, and routines. You can brainstorm different activities you can do to strengthen your mind, body, and soul. Meditation and yoga, for example, have a history of helping people overcome personal struggles, anxiety, addiction, and more.
You may have neglected your body for some time while you were in active addiction. Understand that this is okay, and it’s a normal part of the process. However, you can begin to bring more positive love and care back to your body through activities like daily exercise and healthy eating.
You may also want to do some soul-searching. The Spirit2Spirit program at The Guest House is a great example of an offering that can help you rediscover your own self-love and care while also connecting with your highest self and spirituality.
Surround Yourself With Positivity at The Guest House
If you’re ready to bring some true positivity into your life, look no further than The Guest House. Our cutting-edge program includes a blend of both traditional and holistic therapies that can give you strong social support and heal your mind, body, and soul.
Sometimes the best way to create more positivity is to remove yourself from your old daily routines and habits. The Guest House allows you to not just take a positive break, but also rediscover yourself through therapies like meditation, conscious connected breathwork, equine therapy, and so much more.
No matter what brings you here, there is truly something for everyone at The Guest House.
Surrounding yourself with positivity is one of the greatest things you can do on your journey of recovery. Unfortunately, that’s not always so easy when you’re going through big life changes and healing. At The Guest House, we’re here to help you create a more positive life one step at a time. Our world-class support, clinicians, and peers will help you through any difficulties you may face. Here you’ll also find an amazing blend of traditional therapies combined with holistic modalities like meditation, breathwork, equine therapy, and more. The Guest House is all about re-discovering yourself and building a positive life that will foster your long-term sobriety and success. Call us at (855) 483-7800.