Joy in Recovery from addiction

The art of finding joy in recovery aims to fill the gaps in how addiction is treated through a balanced approach that attends not only to the disease, but also to the elements that make life most worth living. Joy in life is a core element of this.

Addiction results when people are misguided in pursuing those elements in vein. Joy in recovery does not result from single, or even heroic, leaps, but is cultivated over a lifetime of repetitively forging good habits, building character, and adding to one’s own and other people’s well-being. Enduring well-being and finding joy in recovery requires that positive habit-driving activities become automatic—and become who you are.

Joy in Addiction Treatment

Here is another amazingly in-depth example that describes the essence and the guts of what paradox entails that I want to share with you.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again deep in your heart and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some say “Joy is greater than sorrow, “others say, Nay, sorrow is the greater.” But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced. Kahil Gibran

10 Rules for being joyful in recovery

1. Don’t blame others for making you unhappy! Take responsibility for making yourself joyful.

2. Give yourself permission to make yourself joyful- even if in so doing, others make themselves unhappy.

3. Make time for yourself to do things which bring you pleasure and enjoyment in the short-term without sacrificing your long-term goals.

4. Do things for others and your community without expecting anything back in return.

5. Sacrifice short-term pleasures and put up with short-term discomforts when it helps you achieve longer-term gains.

6. Accept the fallibility of others as well as yourself.

7. Don’t take things personally.

8. Take healthy risks even when you might fail at things at work or in your personal relationships.

9. It doesn’t matter so much what people think about you and what you are doing.

10. See uncertainty as a challenge – do not be afraid of it.