There are many things we can do to help ourselves during the addiction recovery process, and as important as these things are, such as therapy and professional treatment, they are only as helpful as we allow them to be with our mentality, outlook and perspective. Perhaps the most important thing we can do for ourselves is believe in ourselves, believe in our capacity for healing and our ability to recover.

When we have been struggling with addictions, many of us for most of our lives, we often live with deep feelings of self-hate. We live in fear that we’ll always be suffering in the same ways. We are filled with self-doubt. We don’t believe in ourselves. We don’t believe we can get the help we need or sustain our recovery.

Our lack of self-belief holds us back and limits us. When we don’t believe in ourselves, we block helpful people and resources from coming to us, everything that we could be taking advantage of to help us. Our energy is closed rather than open. Our subconscious fears direct our actions – fears that we aren’t good enough, fears that our past will dictate our future – and we stay stuck living in fear rather than pushing ourselves to make the changes we need to get better.

Believing in ourselves comes from developing unconditional self-love, one of the most important elements of our addiction recovery and emotional healing. If we want to heal, we have to believe we can. We have to love ourselves and believe in our strength and goodness. Without self-love, we will continue to sabotage ourselves and our progress. We will derail ourselves at every turn, whether consciously or subconsciously.

Loving ourselves can feel foreign for many of us. It can feel like another impossible task to add to our recovery checklist. While it is a new concept, it doesn’t have to be so hard. Building self-love has a lot to do with all the things we let go of. We’re releasing self-blame, self-hate, shame, regret, fear. We’re choosing to hold onto only what serves us. We’re making room only for what uplifts and empowers us. This can feel liberating, and the more we practice, the easier and more freeing it feels.

The process of believing in ourselves involves taking inventory of our thoughts and emotions. Which ones deplete us and which ones strengthen us? Which ones knock us down and which ones lift us up? When we start to become conscious of what we are thinking, saying and feeling about ourselves, we can monitor ourselves more closely and create lasting self-love in order to believe in ourselves and our ability to recover from our addictions.

We’re here to help. Call 888-570-7154 for information on how we can support you in your recovery.