Sherry Gaba LCSW, Psychotherapist, Life
& Recovery Coach is featured  Celebrity Rehab on VH1. Sherry is the author
of “The  Law of Sobriety” which
uses the law of attraction to recover from any  addiction. Please download your
copy of “Manifest  Holistic
Health” from Sherry’s Enrich Your Life Series. Contact Sherry at sherry@sgabatherapy.com for  webinars,
teleseminars, coaching packages and speaking engagements. Listen to  Sherry on “A Moment of Change with Sherry Gaba”on CBS Radio.

Being an eternal optimist is one label that is never going to cause you any problems. Unfortunately most people are only occasional optimists or chronic pessimists. This is particularly true when there are addictions involved in a person’s life. The negative impact of the addiction, the feelings of guilt, remorse, loss and despair that go along with addiction can cause people to always see the glass as half empty and draining quickly. “The Law of Sobriety”, my book that focuses in on attracting positive energy in your life to overcome addiction and make changes, highlights several ways to release that negativity and bring good things to your world. I would like to give you three tips to change your view of the world to focus on the positive aspects of change rather than on the negative. Eliminating those negative thoughts that are shaping what your life experience is allows room for different perspectives; the glass is half full view, to fill your mind and life with positive experiences.

Tip 1 Thinking About Doing One of the biggest mistakes that recovering addicts make is to not give enough thought to the specific actions they are taking in their life. In other words they tend to simply “do things” without thinking about why, how and what they are doing. It is like taking a trip without a GPS system or a map. Sure, you are traveling and going somewhere, but it is anywhere you want to be? If you are randomly doing things and taking actions you will likely use those same negative thoughts you have always had to frame the reasons why the actions were selected.

Tip 2 Thinking About Thinking Metacognition is the fancy term for thinking about your thinking. Understanding and releasing those negative thought patterns about yourself will allow you to bring in different and contrasting positive thoughts about yourself. When you stop to reflect on your thoughts and change from a glass half empty to half full positive energy will flood your world, leaving the glass always full.

Tip 3 Thinking About A Positive You The way you think and the things that you do from now on have to focus on the positive vision or image of yourself that you have within your mind. You have to let go of the niggling negativity that says, “You can’t do this and you can’t change” and embrace the image of yourself as you want to be. Seeing a clean and sober you living a happy, rewarding and successful life dispels those negative thoughts and allows you to take full advantage of the change opportunities that you will find all around you.