Focusing on Recovery

A Hard Six client was having a difficult day.

He was fretting over a medical situation he had and how he was going to pay for treatment. He was really concerned about his new job assignment – he thought maybe he’d maybe taken someone else's job. His mind was racing a thousand miles a second. Everything was tangled up in a jumbled emotional ball. So much so that his supervisor brought him to me to help calm him down.

And I was able to do that by explaining that the most important thing is that he remain sober. He finally admitted that his best thinking has led him to relapse repeatedly.

I further pointed out that his supervisor and I both focus on the most important thing in life: our sobriety. Because we do that, everything else has worked out for us over the past several years.

This client's not unusual. Many of them start focusing on everything but recovery – right before they relapse. And this client was doing the same thing.

Most of the people I know who're enjoying a successful recovery do pretty much the same thing each day. When they get out of bed in the morning their focus is meditation, their recovery, and gratitude for their sobriety. They realize that without recovery nothing else works.

And conversely, they realize it's pretty much all over if they pick up again.