What has your thinking looked like for the past hour? How many different things have you thought about? Our minds are always on, unfortunately, and while there are things like meditation that can quiet our minds temporarily, the mind is an instrument that will never shut off. We can change what we think about, however.
I am a recovering drug addict who has been clean for nearly five years now. While in the middle of my active addiction, I was a total slave to my mind. No matter how much I wanted to stop using drugs, my mind told me otherwise, and I continued on for several more years than I would have liked.
The mind is a powerful thing. In my opinion, it is the most powerful thing in the world. So, when we’re stuck in one of those funks or having an especially bad day, it usually all starts with the mind telling us terrible things.
Positive affirmations
During my addiction, I spent all day and night completely tearing myself down in every way imaginable. It was completely crippling. Once I got clean, I figured that a lot of those thoughts would go away, but they were still there.
I could be anywhere, doing anything, and the destructive thoughts would flood my head. It was almost worse than it was when I was using, because I was present and could feel again.
After I’d been clean for about six months, I began implementing new practices and ideas to combat the thoughts I was having. The first thing I started doing was writing down the thoughts that really stuck out to me as hurtful.
Something about writing thoughts down really lets you see how ridiculous some of them are. The things I would write down were also things I wouldn’t even say to my worst enemy, and yet here I was, telling them to myself.
Positive affirmations were something I had always heard about and kind of scoffed at. Using them sounded like an over-simplistic solution to a very complex problem, but I decided to give them a try anyway, just by telling myself simple things whenever my mind would get too loud. Here are a few examples:
- “You’re doing great.”
- “I’m so proud of you.”
- “You are brave to face your addiction head-on.”
- “I love my new life.”
- “I’ll never give up.”
- “I accept and love who I am.”
I’m sure that for some of you, even reading those just now provided some relief. When your mind is constantly spewing out venomous, negative thoughts, affirming yourself with positive statements feel so against the grain and refreshing.
Present-day practices
Since I started to use positive affirmations, I have grown into a few additional practices, which I’ve outlined below. I start my morning with these, and they set the tempo perfectly.
- Writing: There is a lot of power in pen and paper, whether you’re writing about what you are grateful for, your plans for the day or just something that you want to tell yourself. Writing is a great way to get some new, fresh energy into your day.
- Visualizing: Picturing what you want in life and where you want to be has quite a mysterious power, in my experience. If you think about your ideal situation in life and picture it every day, you’ll be surprised as to how much this can help you get where you want to be.
- Meditation: Find a time that works for you to sit down, be still and quiet your mind. You can use that time however you’d like, as there is no one way to meditate. You may want to use your positive affirmations, reflect deeply on your life or just try to be completely quiet. Whatever way you practice meditation, the effects are profound.
- Practicing Gratitude: Gratitude is an action word, so go out of your way to tell someone how much you appreciate them, or maybe buy something small for someone you care about out of the blue. The feelings these things can generate on both sides are invaluable.
The best part of all these practices is that they are simple and easy, but at the same time, they can completely shift your mindset and overall attitude about yourself and your life.
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