The power of positive thinking should never be taken for granted, especially in addiction recovery. In recovery, you are rebuilding a life rooted in health, happiness, and meaning. This is why it is so important to maintain a positive mindset, as this period marks a time of many positive life changes.
Restructuring your thinking in drug and alcohol rehabilitation is as easy as practicing a few skills and tools, and reading uplifting words that will keep your outlook positive as you embark on a new way of living and being. Changing your thinking is as easy as changing your perspective. Doing things for yourself that maintain a positive outlook will continue to serve you far beyond your recovery from addiction.
Therapeutic Activities to Promote Positive Thought
We recommend breaking bad habits by replacing them with healthy ones. Our favorite therapeutic activities that will restructure your thinking include:
- Meditation
Meditation is a mindfulness practice, that allows for you to stay fully in the moment. Meditation holds many benefits for your mental, physical, and spiritual health. By practicing meditation regularly, and building it into your routine, you will be able to restructure your thinking to promote positive thought patterns— reaching a place of inner-peace and contentment.
- Yoga
Practicing yoga is beneficial for your mind, body, and spiritual growth. Yoga has so many benefits, including: strengthening and toning muscles, increased energy and vitality, a balanced metabolism, weight reduction, cardio and circulatory health, improved flexibility, mindfulness, and core strength, to name a few. When you are practicing yoga, you are practicing being mindful and fully engaged in the present moment.
- Making or Listening to Music
Choosing to listen to uplifting music is proven to have a positive impact on your mood and mental health. Choose music with powerful lyrics, uplifting beats, and a quickened tempo for increased productivity and positive thoughts.
- Create Artwork
Whether you are doodling, drawing, painting, sculpting, etc.; creating artwork will help you restructure your thinking and you will gain insight on how you think and feel in that moment. Clarity comes from creating artwork, as it is a therapeutic process with a world of benefits for you in the recovery process and beyond.
- Read Something
Choose to change any negative, ruminating thoughts you may have by picking up a book with inspirational and motivational messages. Reading is equivalent to feeding your mind and soul, so be weary of what you choose as your soul food. Make sure what you choose to read is uplifting and positive.
- Positive Affirmations
Affirm yourself with positivity! Try making a list of positive affirmations for yourself, and read them whenever you are feeling like you’re entering a negative state of mind. Don’t underestimate the power that positive and affirming words, especially when they are coming from you. We tend to be our own worst critics, so why not change into being our biggest supporter instead?
- Write it all Down
A healthy way to let out negative thoughts in an effort to recognize them, and move on from them, is by using a journal to write it all down. Any negative thoughts can be written in a journal, that way you can use your entries to gain insight about what negative thought patterns you have, what time of day they usually invade, what triggers those thoughts, and what they are usually about. Writing down your negative thoughts is a great way to release them, and give you the opportunity to learn from them.
- Play Devil’s Advocate
Each time you indulge in a negative thought, counter it with a positive one! Fight your negativity by meeting it with positivity. This is a great way to fight off negative thought patterns in the moment, and it works also as a long-term solution.
Inspirational Quotes
Sometimes, all we need to restructure our thinking is by introducing positive thoughts. Inspirational quotes are a great, and quick, way to change your mindset from negative to positive. How to restructure your thinking in addiction recovery can be as easy as reading a short, uplifting quote. Because inspirational quotes are such an easy way to restructure your thinking, and can provide instant relief, we’ve put together some of our favorite quotes to promote positive thought processes in your life:
- “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”- John Wooden
- “Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.”- Roy T. Bennett
- “The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”- Buddha
- “You’ve done it before, and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration, and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.”- Ralph Marston
- “The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”- Winston Churchill
- “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”- Oprah Winfrey
- “Sometimes, when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried but you’ve actually been planted.”- Christine Caine
- “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”- Stephen King
- “Once you realize you deserve a bright future, letting go of your dark past is the best choice you will ever make.”- Roy T. Bennett
- “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”- Dale Carnegie
- “Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results”- James Allen
- “We can complain because roses have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”- Alphonse Karr
- “You’re going to go through tough times— that’s life. But I say, ‘Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.’ See the positive in negative events.”- Joel Osteen
- “We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.”- Swami Vivekananda
- “You may find the worst enemy or best friend in yourself.”- English Proverb
- “A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.”- Patricia Neal
- “Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals. If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more?”- Roy T. Bennett
- “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”- Joseph Campbell
- “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.”- Roy T. Bennett
- “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”- Nelson Mandela
- “In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.”- Les Brown
- “Anything that’s not positive, I don’t have the energy to focus on it. Anything that’s not going in the right direction, I don’t have the time or the energy.”- DMX
- “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”- Henry Matisse
- “The beginning is the most important part of any work.”- Plato
Treatment
During the time you enter into treatment, through out your treatment program, maintaining a positive mindset will do you the greatest service. Recovery from addiction is your time to rebuild a happy, healthy, and meaningful life. Don’t let negativity limit you. Any treatment facility will support positive thought patterns, and will provide guidance and support to you through out your recovery process. Reach out to us to discuss your treatment options, the biggest thing you can do for yourself is ask for help to begin the addiction treatment process.
Our treatment centers offer a variety of programs, including: medical detox, a residential inpatient program, a partial hospitalization program (PHP), an intensive outpatient program (IOP), an outpatient program (OP), sober living and graduate housing. Royal Life Centers has both inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment options. Our substance abuse treatment uses proven effective methods and only the best practices. Make the best decision for yourself by choosing to overcome your alcohol or drug abuse, Royal Life Centers is here to help. We have rehab facilities in both Washington state and Arizona; for a list of our locations, click here.
Reach Out
If you or someone you know is seeking addiction treatment, please reach out to our addiction specialists at (877)-RECOVERY or (877)-732-6837. Our team is available to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Because We Care.
References:
Team, Power. “50 Positive Thinking Quotes For A New Perspective.” Everyday Power, EverydayPowerBlog, 12 Feb. 2019, everydaypowerblog.com/positive-thinking-quotes/.
