When we commit to sobriety, we’re taking on new challenges that bring all kinds of new things into our lives. We receive hope and optimism. We are gifted new knowledge about ourselves and our lives. We make discoveries about who we are that propel us forward. In addition to all the new things we receive, we also have to leave certain things behind.
One of the biggest things we leave behind when we’re getting sober is our attachment to familiarity. We’ve become so comfortable in our lifestyles that addiction is all we know. It’s easy and comforting. Our addictions and the lives we’ve created around them have become our comfort zone. Pushing ourselves beyond this place of familiarity means detaching from the comfort of certainty. It means becoming comfortable with discomfort and accepting of uncertainty. We leave behind our familiar, easy routines. We detach from the familiar habits we’ve created and perpetuated. We release our toxic cycles that are full of pain but that are so familiar to us they’ve become our definition of comfort.
In getting sober, we also leave behind our attachment to fear. For too long we’ve let fear dominate our thoughts, feelings, actions and choices. We’ve been afraid to admit we’re addicts. We’ve been afraid to ask for help. We’ve been afraid to face ourselves. We’ve formed such an attachment to fear that we’ve let it overpower us. We’ve allowed our fear to keep us small. We’ve let it limit us and hold us back. Our fear, as overwhelming as it is, is essentially a figment of our imagination. What we think will destroy us is actually all in our heads. Our expectations for failure, for example, become self-fulfilling prophecies because we believe we will fail. It is our own mentality causing us so much pain. Once we start to see fear for what it really is, it becomes clear to us that it is merely a mental and emotional block. It is something to overcome and transcend, not something to allow to destroy us. Making the bold choice to get sober doesn’t mean we’ll never feel fear again. It simply means we’ve released our attachment to fear. We’ve let go of allowing it to control us. We can allow ourselves to feel fear when it arises but then move through it using our goals as our driving force.
Riverside Recovery is here to help you reclaim the life you love. We invite you to let us show you how we can give you a chance to start fresh after struggling with addiction to drugs or alcohol. Call (800) 871-5440 today for more information.