Hope: Growing and Nurturing It

Hope is one of the most important things to hold onto when you’re new to recovery. Everyone arrives in treatment or at 12-step meetings with a little hope. (If you didn’t have hope to stay sober, you wouldn’t try staying sober.) However, there are a lot of ups and downs in the first few weeks of recovery. How can you add to your reserve of hope?

Listening to Others Stories

When you are first getting sober, you will encounter many people who have been sober for years in recovery. Some of them may be staff at a treatment center. Some will be at 12-step meetings.

Hearing stories from others will help you hear that you get better! Recovery is a journey of healing and growth. Some 12-step meetings are geared toward the “newcomer” and focus on the first, second, and third steps.

Listening to the stories other people in recovery tell helps you relate to them. You’ll probably hear familiar feelings being expressed. Addiction is painful, no matter what the drug is.

Recovery is a journey of hope. You can hope life will get better as long as you stay sober. You’ll also meet people who are proof that it is possible.

Getting Inspired Through Hope

Writing a journal or doing “homework” about hope may help you understand it. Through understanding, you can cultivate even more hope. Spend some quiet time thinking about hope and what it means in your life. Now think about and answer some questions:

• What hopes do you have for the future? In the very best situation in the future, where are you five years from now?
• What are your hopes for your relationships?
• What have you heard at a meeting lately that you found inspiring?
• Does anybody’s story of getting sober resonate with you and give you hope? Why?
• Start listening to other people about their hopes. How many people who got sober only hoped for sobriety? Did they get more than just sobriety?
• If you live in a place it’s allowed, light a candle every night. Sit and think of all your hopes and dreams. Once you’ve finished listing them in your head, blow your candle out.
• What other hopes have you had in life? Did they come true? If not, think about why this may make you afraid to be hopeful. Can you try, just this once, to hope again?

Hope may not come to you naturally, but as time goes on and you stay sober, you’ll be awarded much more than you imagined. Yes, the 12 steps will help you get clean and sober. But once you get clean and sober, you’ll find there are a lot of things in life to look forward to.

On a bad day, hold on to your hope! It gets better. Just try to stay sober one day at a time.

Getting Help for Addiction

If you or somebody you love has a problem with drugs or alcohol, help is available! We can help you navigate your options and start charting your course to recovery and healing. Give us a call at 619-363-4767 to learn more about how we can help.