Hope can be a fickle thing in recovery. It comes and goes, ebbs and flows as an individual journey from being addicted to substances to healing. Many counselors believe therapeutically a person can glean hope in any circumstance. What hope does is provide light in the darkness, a lamp that provides direction forward. The belief things will get better is really a key part of being in recovery. It helps someone feel more in control of their own destiny. Hope is a catalyst for opening doors to hidden strength and possibility that was not available before.
Hope vs. Positivity
Long-term recovery means a person has been working the steps or being doing recovery longer than a few years. They are further down the path and have been doing this for a while. With all the ups and downs, they are looking for open doors to hope for things to get better. It may be that their recovery is stalled, relapse made a close call or they generally feel like they need to revise their recovery goals. Positive thinking is not going to cut it when it comes to keeping the momentum going when chips are down. What really helps is to have hope, a deeper knowing things can, and will, get better in spite of what is happening. There is great power in this knowing, more so than positive thinking can do. The power of positive thinking cannot be denied, but oftentimes people need hope to see them down the long road.
Find Hope
Key attitudes that shape hopeful and wishful thinking might include:
- Belief in self-control to change the trajectory of their own life
- Seeing multiple pathways to a goal
- Belief the future can, and will, get better given time
- Obstacles will occur but hope and perseverance (among other things) will get them there
Hope is a feeling, a thought, a deeper desire for something better. It is goal-oriented in that it is practical and requires work from both the heart and the head. Transcendent thinking with reason is necessary to find hope for the future.
Making Progress
Long-term recovery takes a lot of work. This means focused intention and a desire to keep getting up every day to do the things that need to be done. This might include more meetings, different recovery groups, making other friends, or leaving old people and places behind. Setting goals, creating measurable steps, and choosing how to get there are important steps in creating pathways of hope. This is not as easy as it sounds. Hard work is required but it pays off when those goals are met. A goal like saving up money to buy a house is lofty, but broken down into smaller steps builds hope for something better. The goals have to have personal meaning for the individual in recovery in order to make sense. They should be something that builds on previous goals and helps them overcome obstacles with support from loved ones. Hope keeps the dream of staying clean and sober alive and is a necessary component of long-term recovery.
The Guest House Ocala knows you cannot build a dream from hope alone. We help you locate hope to keep going tomorrow and the next day until you build momentum in recovery. If you are stuck, have relapsed, or need help for the first time, we are here to support your journey. Wherever you are right now, we can help. Call us to find out how to get started: 1-855-483-7800