Finding Gratefulness: A Recovery Tip For Love Addicts
By Jim Hall, MS, Love Addiction Recovery Expert
Recovering from love addiction is not easy. As love addicts, breaking the ingrained relational patterns that have caused us so much pain takes time, patience, and persistence.
Face it, as human beings rarely in our lives great things do not come easy.
If you are a love addict with a genuine desire to recover – I strongly encourage you to-- never give up- no matter how much you slip, no matter how many mistakes, and no matter how many times you fall into the old painful love addicted patterns in your effort to change.
There is hope.
A healthier life, fulfilling love, and authentic inner-love will come if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. It often feels cumbersome, overwhelming, and distressing on our path to recovering.
During this journey- I believe it is critical we put focus on things we can be grateful for in our lives today. This is not always an easy thing to do, especially early in recovery.
Nevertheless, I encourage you to take just a few minutes a day, think and tell yourself what in your life can you be grateful for. Think of this as one of your recovery tools that just may become a lifelong habit.
Gratitude improves a person's wellbeing.
It's Not Happiness that Brings Us Gratitude... It's Gratitude that Brings Us Happiness
(Author unknown)
If you have any difficulty feeling gratitude in your life you might find it helpful to keep this list of world realities nearby to reflect on:
-If The World Were a Village of 100 People-
If the world were a village of 100 people, of the 100 people in this village:
50 live in poverty
53 live on less than $2.00 a day
66 of adults are illiterate
24 do not have electricity
93 do not own a computer
30 are unemployed (many others are underemployed)
28 work in agriculture
20 of them are undernourished
20 have no clean, safe water to drink
44 have no access to clean sanitation
Only 70 people of the 100 own an automobile
Just under half of the married women in the village have access to and use modern contraceptives.
In one year, 28 babies will be born. Ten people will die, 3 of them for lack of food, 1 from cancer, 2 of the deaths are of babies born within the year.
If you do not live in fear of death by bombardment, armed attack, landmines, or of rape, or kidnapping by armed groups, then you are more fortunate than 20, who do.
If you can speak and act according to your faith and your conscience without harassment, imprisonment, torture or death, then you are more fortunate than 48 of the 100 villagers.
If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet, and spare change somewhere around the house, then you are among the richest 8 of them.
If you can read this message, that means you are probably lucky!
(source: Donella Meadows, "State of the Village Report")
Now ask yourself: What can you be grateful for today?
About the Author: Jim Hall MS is a Love addiction Specialist and Relationship Coach who helps love addicts get over insecure attachment patterns, and develop the skills and self-assurance to acquire healthy, fulfilling love in their lives. Jim is also the author of three books and workbooks.
