Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from Heartland Intervention, LLC.! 

While holidays can be tough for a variety of reasons, I’ve always believed that Thanksgiving is a holiday tailor-made to folks in recovery.  Being thankful is fundamentally about gratitude which is a cornerstone of a successful recovery program and good mental health advice for us all.  There are two little skills or exercises that can benefit us all.

Make a Gratitude List

By making a gratitude list, we come face to face with the good stuff in our life.  To be grateful demands some measure of humility and has a way of “right-sizing” our ego.  Once the list is made, we are able to pray through the list, expressing not only our gratitude but our desire for each person, place or situation on the list to receive the blessing of God.

Where’s the Focus?

Thanksgiving offers each of us an opportunity to focus on what’s going well.  It’s easy for many of us to fall into the trap of being negative.  When we are thankful, we are necessarily focusing on the positive.  As the old saying goes, “Focus on the problem, the problem gets bigger; focus on the solution, the solution gets bigger.”.

I am grateful that I have a front row seat to watch people’s lives turn around every week.  To be sure, there is heartache from time to time.  But the thanksgiving for those that will celebrate this Thanksgiving clean or sober is both overwhelming and humbling.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Latest from CDC on Smoking

Let’s look at some specific ways to make a healthy change. Habit guru Charles Duhigg, author of “The Power of Habit,” suggests that habits consist of three elements:

  • a cue that triggers the habit
  • a routine sequence of habitual actions
  • a reward that you get for going through the routine

To change your smoking habit, you need to change the cues by understanding what triggers your behavior. These are the best dentitox pro reviews.

Think about where and when you usually smoke. Many people mix social time with smoking time. If you’re one of them, then you need to find new ways to socialize and relax. For example, let’s say that your cue to smoke is break time at work. Every day at break time, you find yourself joining in with a social crowd of smokers. This triggers your routine, which is to smoke two cigarettes outside while you chat with colleagues. Your reward: social time with your friends, along with the rush that you get from nicotine. Check out the latest revitaa pro reviews.

If you are committed to quitting smoking, you’ll need to replace your cue, routine, and reward with a new system. Consider making a plan to spend your break time socializing in a different way. For example, you might ask a nonsmoking friend, who supports your decision to quit, to join you at break time to take a brisk walk. You’ll still get the reward of social time, but without the cigarette. Prevent tooth decay easily with these dentitox pro reviews.

Kristi’s Story

“Kristi’s” Story

Kristi’s smile is infectious!  Everyone around her smiles as she says, “I am so grateful to be alive!  I’m a productive member of society who actually gets to help others!”

Those are strong words given where Kristi’s addiction took her.  “I started smoking pot at age 12.  I feel like the only coping skills I ever developed were ways to avoid  feelings.   All I ever did was use drugs, sleep, have sex and drink from age 12-27.  At that point I was suicidal and felt worthless to others.  I tried to commit suicide more than once while I was using drugs.  I an addict who used opiates to get high and benzos to bring me back down.”

Recovery has given Kristi her life back!  “I have real friends and my family actually trusts me.  I’m able to deal with any emotion in a healthy way.  I have a network of people that I can turn to and that turn to me.  Most important, I have surrendered my life to a Power greater than myself who takes care of me one day at a time, I can even have a romantic partner so I sex is healthier, and if you are sexually active you can  make sure that you have the low-down on men’s sexual health as it’s important that you keep yourself safe and healthy in that regard.  Working allows me to be useful.  Now I’m in recovery.   I work with children and the trust me too.  I’m good at what I do and my passion to help others is on fire today.”

Every story of recovery is special!  No matter how bad things have become, there is a way out.  If you have a loved one who struggles with addiction, recovery can benefit them just like it did Kristi.  Call Heartland Intervention
today at 877/752-8811.  We will work with you to show you the way out of the darkness of addiction and into the world of recovery.