When you are addicted to drugs and alcohol, it’s hard to live life looking for the little joys here and there. Since the decision to get clean, maybe it feels like everything is an uphill battle. It’s one of the hardest things you’ve ever done, going through medically supervised alcohol detox at FHE’s detox facilities in Florida. Alcohol detox centers are soothing and safe, and FHE offers it’s patients every comfort with qualified medical professionals there to assure your wellbeing. But even in spite of that, maybe it feels like it’s full-time survival mode, just trying to scrape from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day. And it’s hard to live in that space. We all experience it sometimes but we’re not socially or biologically built to perpetually exist in fight or flight. Little by little, one small victory at a time, you need to find a way to thrive.
What it Means to Thrive
Thriving means to live life and not only have all of your needs covered, but even to exceed those needs, to grow. Seize a moment to be fully present, and totally engaged in the pleasure that that moment has to offer. It doesn’t need to be some grandiose epiphany moment, although those are certainly meaningful. Just take a moment, be fully present and deeply enjoy your first sip of coffee in the morning. Step outside and do nothing for a second other than feel the breeze against your face. Stretch slowly, and only as much as feels good. There are myriad joys in the world, but it takes intentionality to dig them out.
Thriving is about soaking in the joys of the world where you can find them and letting them shape you for the better. It may be hard at first. Especially when you’re in the middle of recovering from substance abuse and chemical dependency on a drug or alcohol. You may not even be successful at it the first couple of times you try. But the intentionality of seeking and experiencing positivity is a deeply transformative practice. It will get easier with practice. Over time it will begin to happen unconsciously. Thriving is a skill you have to hone, but it is well worth it. Once you get started wringing the joy out of moment you can, you will truly be able to live like you mean it.