You step into a puddle. Instantly, you are upset that your shoes and socks are wet. They aren’t wet, they’re soaked. Your entire day is ruined. You’re grumpy and cranky and full of resentment. Like a bad omen, you take this incident to predict the rest of your day. Inevitably more goes wrong, worsening your mood with every moment. By the end of the day, you’ve had an awful day. Feeling slighted, you wonder if tomorrow will be any better. You doubt it will. That one incident earlier in the day threw your entire perspective of life into a negative direction.
What if you had chosen differently?
We often don’t realize that what we think, how we feel, and we behave are choices. It takes a certain level of emotional intelligence to become authentic and autonomous. When we have experienced trauma which has had a great effect in our lives, we may not be full connected to our emotional selves. Going into treatment for recovery from trauma, addictions, and related mental health issues helps us connect to our emotional selves by learning to identify, articulate, and communicate our emotions in a healthy way. Rather than be controlled by our emotions we take more control of our emotions. Realizing we have a choice in how we feel gives us freedom.
You step into a puddle. Instantly, you are upset that your shoes and socks are wet. They aren’t wet, they’re soaked. Thankfully, your whole day isn’t ruined. Well, this is uncomfortable, you laugh to yourself. You calculate whether or not you can get home to change your shoes and socks, or, if it’s an emergency, if you can quickly buy new ones. Life has some interesting ups and downs, you remember, and today is one of those days. You are able to find gratitude that you aren’t soaked from head to toe, that the water didn’t go up to your knee, and that you didn’t drop your bag in the water. You’re grateful for more than that. You are grateful that you can have gratitude right now, that you aren’t letting this mishap ruin your day, and that life has more important matters to be concerned about.
You can choose gratitude. You can choose recovery. You can choose a life of your making. Make the choice to go to treatment today by calling The Guest House Ocala for information on our residential treatment programs for trauma, addictions, and related mental health issues. Call 1-855-483-7800 today. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a chance to recover.