You can do it!
1. God
2. Work
3. Life Improvement
4. Support Structure
5. Hobbies
6. Health
7. Helping Others
1. God is at the top of the list because that’s where He should be in our lives. I’m not being preachy or talking about religion. I’m talking about having a relationship with our creator. He knows our frame. He understands addiction and our needs. He loves us and seeks us. He desires to save us and give us an abundant life. Go to Him about everything. He has changed my life.
2. Work is important and useful. Not only does it gives us the money we need to survive. But. We can focus on our career. We can learn to be the best at what we do. We can take all that energy and focus on work instead of our addictions and problems. Stay busy. Let God guide you in a job or career choice. He knows you better than yourself.
3. Life Improvement means to start working on improving your life in every way. Pray about it. Listen to God. Let God show you who you are. Then take that vision and start building a new life. Let God guide you. He knows what’s best.
4. A Support Structure is very important. We had people who we partied with, grew up with, and involved ourselves with, who supported and enabled our addictions. Now we need to kick all them folks to the curb and find people who can be supportive in our new life. We can find them at church, school, work, family or friends. Find people who are focused on good things. Just because a person isn’t an addict doesn’t mean they are good for you. The wrong people can drag you down. Trust me, a negative person can destroy all your dreams with nothing more than a comment.
5. Remember your hobbies. Remember the things you used to love to do before the addiction. I went back to writing. Learn new hobbies. I discovered I loved art and travel. Hobbies can bring us peace and joy. It can be an escape. We can join groups that like the same hobbies. Also, your hobby could be the key to a career or side hustle. Stay busy.
6. Your health matters. We spent a lot of time destroying our minds and bodies. Now that we are free we can use it as a chance to heal. I started eating healthy, exercising and educating myself as well as going to school. You can actually become addicted to healthy living. When I was an addict I was addicted to the life as much as the booze. But now, I have allowed myself to become addicted to God, and healthy living. This is the real purpose for addiction. To help us stay focused. Health is not just physical. It’s mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual. Learn about these things. Let God guide you in your health.
7. Help others. Do volunteer work. The things you have overcome in your life can be an indication of where you can help others. But, honestly just love people and help them. Be a better person. I try to help people when I see them. I believe that God is showing them to me for a reason. He is working and wants me to join Him in the work. Be open to such things. We learn a lot about ourselves and heal ourselves by helping others.
You’ll notice that many of the things on this list will over lap. That’s good. This causes everything to support the other things you are doing. You will find that it’s a journey.
If you work on one thing, you’ll find that it leads you to another thing and another thing along the path. You’ll focus on God and your career. You’ll meet new people, and start a sport or hobby. Then, you’ll see change and improvement. So, you’ll keep up the fight. Then, one day you’ll realize you didn’t think about drugs at all. And you’ll get stronger and move forward.
Trouble will come. You might be tempted to go back. But, all these things you’ve been doing will help you resist or get back on track.
Finally we end with God. He was at the beginning of our life and He will be there at the end. He was with us during our addiction, and He pulled us out. God has saved me so many times. Every time I screw up He is there to help build me back a new.
And knowing what He has done. And remembering how far we’ve come. Can help us resist many of the attacks that will surely come.
You can do it.
Bio: Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger from Southern Illinois. He has published in several magazines, and has written a poetry eBook called “Against the Man” and an Addiction Recovery eBook called “Made Free: Overcoming Addiction“ His newest book is called “The Future is Coming” and is a collection of dystopian short stories.
Follow Him on Medium: https://chris-bunton.medium.com/
Read His Spiritual Writings on Blogger: https://chrisbunton.blogspot.com/
Follow Him on Free Life Blog: https://myfreelifeblog.com/
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Support the work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=13514235&fan_landing=true&view_as=public
Photos by the Author.
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