"We become what we think about most of the time, and that's the strangest secret." Earl Nightingale 1921-1989
I love the above saying.
If I think I'm going to recover, then that will happen. And if I think that I will inevitably get high – then I will.
I deal regularly with clients who live with enormous fears. They talk of them as if they're reality. And they spend so much time visualizing them that they take on a life of their own. They become slaves to thoughts of using. And before long they have a needle in their arm. Or a drink or pipe in their hands.
I was like them. When I thought I couldn't function without drugs that became reality. When all I thought about was alcohol or substances, that was what life became. I was afraid to face life without heroin in my system, or a drink in my hands. For 38 years that was my lifestyle, a mess I created because of my thinking.
But one day my thinking changed. And it changed because I was having a lot of pain. I was homeless over and over. I'd build businesses and then lose them. In and out of jail. I went through divorces. All because I thought I couldn't live without drugs or alcohol.
But one day many years ago after I sought respite in a detox center something clicked. I began to think that maybe I could find another way to live. Maybe I didn't need to have a crutch to get out of bed and face the world. Maybe I could communicate with people without needing a few drinks or a shot of dope to do so. In other words, my thinking changed.
And that change of thinking has allowed me to put together over 23 years of recovery.
So if you’re stuck in your recovery - or anywhere else - change your thinking. It worked for me.
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