12 Gifts of Recovery
As you celebrate the season of giving, celebrate the life changing gifts possible through dedicated recovery from addiction:
1. Hope
Hope is the gift that keeps on giving and fosters healing. And a positive attitude is everything. Empirical evidence shows hope can be a vital part of recovery, healthy cultures, and even economic improvements. In addition, hope gets us out of bed and it helps us sleep soundly. Believing in yourself, working to achieve your goals and persevering through challenges; all of these efforts are possible and motivated by hope.
2. Clarity
A moment of clarity kick started your treatment and recovery journey. Being clear in thought is an undeniable gift of sobriety. As you strengthen that clarity muscle over time and it will propel you forward on the road to recovery.
3. Acceptance
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can change, and wisdom to know the difference.” In recovery, acceptance equates to being satisfied with yourself – just as you are. Regardless of past actions or behaviors, your work to find and live in recovery requires that you accept who you are, where you are. It can help ease the burden of regret and the anxiety of future worries.
4. Compassion
At the beginning of recovery, you learn to love your authentic self, to embrace self-compassion not self-indulgence. Valley Hope specializes in making patients feel loved from the moment they walk in the door. We specialize in compassionate care. The gift of compassion motivates us to go out of our way to help the physical, mental or emotional pains of others but it also ensures that we practice self-care as needed.
5. Accountability
One of the great gifts in recovery stems from the practice of accountability. Accountability comes from the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for your actions and your willingness to accept related consequences. In recovery, you are accountable for … your own recovery. Within the 12 Steps, accountability guides you to your home AA group, and supports establishing one of the most important relationships in your life: the relationship with your sponsor.
6. Gratitude
Gratitude strengthens your recovery, ushering in joy, peace and selflessness that will empower your journey and positively impact, even inspire, your loved ones. It will usher you to a place where you truly, innately appreciate the gift of sobriety.
7. Humility
“Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” Humility is essential in recovery. Step 7 requires that you fully embrace humility. Freeing yourself from pride and selfishness can reveal the beauty in your life and being you closer to your higher power.
8. Community
Your support community brings ongoing gifts to your life. These relationships are essential not only to recovery but to maintaining a connection to others, to something bigger than yourself. And as the community supports you, you support others in your community. Furthermore, within the gift of community lie inclusion, purpose and most importantly willing and ready support.
9. Mercy
Benevolence. Forgiveness. Kindness. Give yourself the gift of mercy, and then share it with others. In recovery, working steps 8 and 9 can involve both giving and receiving mercy. As we make amends to those who we have wronged, we may also have the opportunity to show mercy to others in recovery who make their amends to us. So extend the beautiful act of mercy throughout your journey and receive its inherent gifts.
10. Honesty
A key facet of our moral fiber rests in our level of integrity. Being honest with yourself started your recovery and staying honest with yourself and others will ensure your success. Step 10 requires practicing honesty by taking personal inventory and when wrong promptly admitting it. Releasing yourself from dishonesty by openly admitting fault builds your integrity and frees you from ongoing guilt and anxiety.
11. Joy
Recovery sets the table for you to enjoy a life full of joy. Your work to recover from addiction, practicing your program, working the steps, maintaining a body and mind clear and free of substances – you have put in the hard work to experience joy. And in recovery, relationships are stronger and more meaningful, small things can yield great pleasure, your eyes are open to all the beauty around us - the inner peace you have achieved enables you to embrace all of it with pure joy.
12. Service
Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. The gift of service lets you reach back and grab the hand of a fellow addict looking for hope and restoration in recovery. In addition, engaging in the sober community by helping others in need is incredibly rewarding and a powerful reinforcement on the road to recovery.