Have you ever pictured yourself living a different life? Most of us have. Perhaps you’ve imagined living the life of the rich and famous. On the other hand, you might have imagined a life having lost everything.
There are many versions of you to imagine. There are the possible selves you’d love to become and those you’d fear becoming.
A person might visualise being the fit and healthy sort who can run marathons and hope it happens. That same person might imagine gaining weight, becoming really inactive, and worrying it will happen if they don’t introduce an exercise routine.
Where you are, the people you spend time with, and what you do all have an influence on the person you are in the moment. The more you spend time in these situations, the more that self of you comes to the fore.
It’s helpful to think about this. You can then identify whether the self you are the most often is what you want to be. If it’s not, you can consider what it is you might need to do to become a better version of yourself.
When you’re in recovery from addiction, learning about the versions of yourself there are and what there could be, healthy and unhealthy, is really beneficial. Doing so can bring direction to your healing process.
The way you find out what the best version of you could be is by using your imagination. You ask yourself what it is you hope or want to become.
This could be in relation to any area of your life. In fact, the more areas you can think of the better; it gives you different things to focus on going forward.
As an example, you might hope to become:
Try listing down things that you hope to become during your recovery. At the same time, you can make a list of those versions of yourself that you really don’t want to become.
For example:
Every person who has ever achieved anything started off by imagining that they could achieve the thing they wanted. What happened after? The vast majority of successful people make a plan, follow it, work hard at it and reap the rewards.
So, how do you do that?
There are two steps that are needed for you to work on. This will help you develop and become new and improved versions of yourself.
Firstly, you need to visualise the best version of yourself within a particular situation. It could be that you imagine yourself learning as much as you can. Here, yoga is a good example.
You might wish you could learn as much about yoga as possible. You might ask yourself why. It could be so you can practise it alone at home every day without going to a class or watching an online tutorial.
You might imagine a life where you get up every morning and practise yoga for 20 minutes before you do anything else. This version of you is strong, flexible, and content to be in your body.
When you think about the different versions of who you are and could be, imagine the best of what you could be or become.
For some people who have addictions, this can be difficult. Feelings of low self-worth and low self-confidence might override the ability to do this.
Remember, in order to heal, you have to be able to imagine that you can. The exercise might feel hard, but you can start small.
The first time you try step 1 (imagining your best self), you might simply start with 5 minutes of imagining yourself doing yoga once a week.
If you’re in this kind of internal space, do this for a week and then the next week, spend 10 minutes imagining yourself doing yoga every morning. Work your way up. Push your imagination each time you use it.
Einstein is known to have said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”.
It’s through imagination and actions linked to it that change happens.
When you have your best self clearly pictured in your mind, say out loud or write down who that version is that you wish to become. So for the yoga example mentioned above, you might say, “In 12 months’ time, my best self is practising yoga every day.”
Once you’ve done the imagining, you have to do a second part. This part is essential if you’re to become the best version of yourself within this context.
Secondly, you need to develop some steps that will clearly outline how you can achieve the version of yourself that you imagined.
This is your strategy. It will be the tool you use that propels you to becoming that yogi you first imagined in step 1!
Yoga is a physical activity, so this example is focused on the physical version of you. There are other versions of you too, that you can work on.
You might also work on the following versions:
To come up with your strategy to become your best self, there are a couple of things you need to do:
As well as taking these steps for your best self, you can do them for the selves you really don’t want to become. Imagining the worst can help you plan so that you avoid it.
This also has the benefit of working harmoniously with your best self-goals.
For your worst self, do the following:
Every day offers a fresh start. You can reflect on the best and worst versions of yourself each day. By doing the tasks above and writing your strategies down, you have a clearly defined plan to follow.
Following these steps will take you towards becoming the best version of yourself. This is how you can support yourself in recovery to become and remain abstinent.
You don’t have to simply focus on reducing alcohol and drugs. In fact, it’s important to focus on other areas you’d like to work on as this can make quitting substances much easier.
There are many factors that come into play in terms of you having a healthy and successful recovery. From accessing professional supportto trying new hobbies, and changing who you spend time with.
One of the most important spaces to navigate is how you feel inside and how you go about making that a more comfortable space to be in.
Spending time honestly self-reflecting through understanding who you do and don’t want to be can help you move towards who you do want to become.
Through doing this, you also start to become more content within yourself. This has the knock-on effect of making recovery a more content emotional journey.
There are lots of people you can speak with who can support you to understand yourself, who you want to become, and how to achieve that. Professionals in the addiction field specialise in supporting you to become your best self.
To meet people who can guide you through this journey, contact Rehab 4 Addiction today.
Boris is our editor-in-chief at Rehab 4 Addiction. Boris is an addiction expert with more than 20 years in the field. His expertise covers a broad of topics relating to addiction, rehab and recovery. Boris is an addiction therapist and assists in the alcohol detox and rehab process. Boris has been featured on a variety of websites, including the BBC, Verywell Mind and Healthline. You can connect with Boris online at LinkedIn or X.com.
