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Throughout life, you have most likely heard sayings like “Change your attitude” or “You need an attitude adjustment.” Such phrases are so common that you might not even consider their meaning anymore. However, in recovery and life, attitude is essential, but you might wonder what attitude is? What does it mean, and how does it apply to your recovery?
Attitude is defined as the way we think and feel about things. Sometimes it comprises a viewpoint or outlook on life that influences a person's behavior. Attitude affects how you treat yourself and others; it correlates to your self-confidence. Having a good perspective on the recovery approach is essential to face and overcome challenges in recovery.
Let's take a closer look at where attitudes come from and how to transition to using a positive attitude.
Attitude Origins
Attitudes most commonly stem from your belief system, these ideas that you interpret as being the truth. These truths find a residence in the subconscious and soon become comfortable living there. These ideas begin to manufacture other beliefs and perceptions based on the initial belief. They offer certainty and comfort, but these beliefs are often not as accurate as you would like to think. Such views could limit you from opening yourself to new experiences, listening to another's advice, and even cause you to behave in irrational ways. The tricky part is trying to reprocess these beliefs to help shift your attitude to a more open and positive outlook.
Research has shown that our brains have cataloged enough ideas and perceptions to form a blueprint of how we perceive ourselves and the world. Unless these blueprints are reevaluated and updated, they could remain assumptive truths. Think, for example, in terms of your computer processing system, without frequent updates; the software becomes restricted to only operating in specific ways until it's outdated altogether. The brain is somewhat similar.
Attitude and Health
Besides having you hold on to false assumptions about certain things, changing your attitude could directly and positively impact your health and overall wellbeing. A positive outlook or attitude (defined as a sense of purpose and optimism) seems predictive of health outcomes. Positive wellbeing -- characterized by enthusiasm, hopefulness, engagement in life, and the ability to face life's stresses with an emotional balance -- is associated with a substantially reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
Attitude and Recovery
Resisting to change your outlook and attitudes on certain things harms recovery success. Since recovery is grounded in the ability to transform yourself, including restructuring your habits to lend positive perspectives and motivation, a positive attitude falls in line with reinforcing the possibilities that sobriety and recovery each require. It begins with motivation. Motivation transcends all efforts in recovery from structuring your day to following through with your goals and tasks, not just in a professional sense, but personally, including self-care, therapy, and avoiding isolation.
Motivation helps to open you up to accepting other ideas and beliefs; this helps build the patience, humility, and resiliency needed to sustain long-term recovery. Adopting a positive attitude helps you to look for the good in everything, no matter how challenging. The best part of practicing a positive outlook and being open to change enables you to see that your attitude is a choice. You can control how you respond to situations. It overlooks the idea of coincidence and luck because you can take charge of your thinking and become empowered instead of feeling helpless.
Positive Recovery
Since attitude is a choice, here are some ways to consider developing a positive attitude. First, always be honest. Negative self-perceptions and self-beliefs cannot be overcome until you are honest about your feelings. Honesty should come with no distortions, depreciation, or half-truths to obscure the reality of this practice. Utilizing a support network, including Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA), helps create an environment built on trust, honesty, and accountability. These environments are also judge-free; therefore, you can become more comfortable with being honest in these communities.
Having an open mind is also essential. Trying different approaches, listening to others speak about their experiences, and understanding that you are not unique helps you develop new and healthier ways of thinking. While you don't have to adopt every idea, being adaptable is essential to reinforce honesty further and sit with the emotions tied to your past. All of this helps you better understand yourself, how you think, and how you want to move forward.
There is no direct path or blueprint toward success, but there is one constant in achieving success: having an open mind and adopting a positive attitude. At START UP RECOVERY, we are motivated to helping individuals find connection and purpose within. You will begin by working with a network of people who help with the personal and professional sides of life. We also believe that balance is essential to long-lasting success in recovery. We are also not typical of many other facilities; this is because we offer a space established in the transformation of self – not just treatment. Our approach is to help you think like a gardener, not a carpenter, which takes being able to manage all facets of your life. To get started on building or rebuilding your success, reach out to START UP RECOVERY today by calling (310) 773-3809. Your best success is waiting for you to take the first step.