In addiction recovery, there is no time to sit around and wait for feelings of abundant life, peace, and prosperity that everyone truly deserves. The time to be healed and live in the moment is right now. Spiritual, enlightened people have understood this principle for years and years, but how can we take it and apply it to present day addiction recovery challenges? It will take some learning, focus, and diligence to get going in the right direction, but it is entirely possible.
Understanding the “one day at a time” logic when early in recovery can be quite a challenge. It can actually seem like it wouldn’t help in some ways, given the idea that many addicts literally live one day at a time during addiction. Their lives often revolve around obtaining and using whatever substance they are addicted to, thus only thinking about the present day.
Early recovery can also produce a lot of worrying about the past, about poor decisions made, and how much time was wasted using. After time, this worrying can become a crutch to dealing with the present time and uncertainty of the future. Many recovering addicts will spend hours dreaming about accomplishing things sometime down the road, rather than taking steps to reach these goals on a daily basis. Turn that dreaming into courage to build your future right now, today.
Everyone has 24 hours in a day to spend how they please. Most people use 8 hours for work, 8 for sleep, and 8 to do whatever else it is they want to do. What we choose to do with that free time can determine our quality of life, so don’t take that for granted. Take steps each day to reach goals you have planned for, so you have nothing to regret at the end of the day.
One way to tackle this is to make a daily “to do” list. Create a short list of only major tasks that you need to accomplish during the next 24 hours. List them in order of importance and take on the most difficult ones first.
Be sure to include the following to make the list complete:
The daily to do list will help keep your mind in the present and focused on tasks at hand. Dealing with addiction and recovery is not always easy, so don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need it. Contact Hired Power for help with any questions relating to addiction. Call today at 800-910-9299.
