The Law of Caring in Recovery

Can you think back to a time when you were involved in some type of activity, perhaps at work or school, where you were trying to achieve a goal, but the goal was of little personal importance? Perhaps you were doing something a partner was passionate about or maybe it was something your boss required you to do.

If you are like most people, if something is not personally important it is hard to be motivated to stay the course of seeing it done. This is certainly true in recovery, where the person starting the journey of sobriety has to be intensely and deeply desiring sobriety as an outcome.

The Laws of the Universe

In “The Law of Sobriety,”I talk about the commitment that a person has to have to be able to overcome the challenges, barriers, and obstacles that moving from addiction to sobriety can entail. Often when addicts in recovery relapse, it is due to a lack of actual commitment to sobriety in the first place.

This is often the case when someone is entering into recovery treatment to make someone else happy. It may be a parent, a partner or a friend, but it is an outside force and not an internal drive that is motivating the individual to enter into the recovery treatment.

The Law of Caring is one of the Laws of the Universe. It states that in order to achieve something that is difficult, we must personally care about the outcome. The more we care, the more energy and effort we are willing to put into achieving the desired outcome when challenges occur.

Harnessing the Law of Caring

There are many reasons a person with any type of addiction may want to achieve a life of sobriety. It may be for health reasons, to mend relationships, to return to the family or the partner or to build or rebuild a life.

There are some steps that anyone can use at any time in the journey of recovery to tap into the Law of Caring. Consider the following strategies to create a powerful internal motivator for sobriety:

• Create a vision board – vision boards can be actual boards or they can be scrapbooks, online collections of images, or other types of visual presentations. Use this space to create a representation of what is important to you in achieving sobriety. These are things you care about and that are positive, motivating factors in your life.

• Set mini-goals – based on what you want to achieve and what you care about on a deep, personal level, create a goal and then break that big goal down into sequential mini or micro-goals.

• Create a timeline – with the micro or mini-goals in place, create a timeline in achieving those small steps. This allows you to see yourself working to achieve those goals, building up motivation and passion for achieving your goal.

• Explore challenges – sometimes, during the process, you will notice you aren’t as passionate about a goal as you initially thought. This is normal, as goals change over time.

Don’t see changing goals or passions as a loss, but rather evaluate your achievements and your future steps, making modifications to ensure what you are working towards is what you truly desire and care about in life.

Sherry Gaba, LCSW is the author of “The Law of Sobriety: Attracting Positive Energy for a Powerful Recovery” on Amazon.  Join Sherry’s group coaching  tribe www.wakeuprecovery.com for only $19/month where she combines the law of attraction with addiction recovery and codependency.