The holidays are here and you’re clean and sober! Thanksgiving is the perfect day to give thanks for the blessings in our lives. And your sobriety should be the one you’re most grateful for!
4 REASONS TO BE THANKFUL FOR SOBRIETY
Your Life
Addiction is the thief of life. Every single time you used drugs, there was a chance that it would be your last time. If you made it out and are now working on your recovery, be grateful. Getting clean and sober has given you the chance to build any life you’re willing to work for. Enjoy every single minute of it. Live, laugh, love. Be happy. Your future is filled with beautiful and magical possibilities.
Family
How many Thanksgivings did you miss all together because you were out chasing the dope man? Or maybe you showed up and got completely wasted and passed out over your mom’s pumpkin pie? In sobriety, you have the chance to show up and actually enjoy your crazy family. These are the people that loved you when you couldn’t love yourself. Thanksgiving is the perfect day to give thanks to the family who never gave up on you.
Freedom
You can leave your Thanksgiving celebration content in the fact that you will not be catching a charge for driving under the influence. Maybe for speeding, but you won’t spend the night in jail for that. You can have fun in recovery without regrets. And you can enjoy the holiday without having to worry about waking up with a hangover. Or waking up in the bushes behind grandmas house.
Health
Your physical and mental health were probably low on the list of priorities for a very long time while you were chasing dope. We either didn’t eat at all, or we ate nothing but cheap junk food and candy. You didn’t have money for a gym membership. We destroyed our bodies for a peace of mind that we never found. In recovery, your focus is on taking care of yourself. Eat well, exercise and be active. Take up yoga, or meditation, and free your mind.
“If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.”
–the Big Book, pp. 83–84
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