we do recover
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Recovery literature on how to target and install new behaviours and modify old ineffective behaviours.TRANSCRIPT
RECOVERY LITERATURE
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Tiny HabitsSTARTING A NEW HABIT CAN BE EXCITING,
but to realistically start a new behaviour
and to have it stick, you must start from
a ridiculously easy spot. You must also
have the desire. With desire, a minimal
to moderate amount of motivation and
a ridiculously easy action step, you can
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realistically start a new habit and stick to it.
I started to lift weights by making my
routine of a morning coffee turn into a
new way of working out. I would set the
coffee on the stove, which takes eight
minutes to complete. During those eight
minutes, I was ready to do my three
minutes of exercise. Ridiculously easy.
And it sticks.
A couple of nights ago I started to
increase the amount of exercise I was
doing. That was a mistake or rather a
learning experience. So after realizing
that it caused me to stop exercising by
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having made my habit into something too
difficult, I scaled back to the original three
minute routine. Now I’m back on track.
To start a new behaviour, you have to
make it rediculously easy. There also has
be a trigger, motivation, and desire for a
new outcome.
To StartTO START A NEW HABIT, YOU CAN PIGGY-
back it onto a behaviour you already do
and that will become your new trigger
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for your new behaviour. I was already
drinking coffee, so I set starting it in
the morning as my trigger for my three
minutes of exercise. Now when I have a
coffee in the morning I make sure to do
my weights.
When it comes to drugs, when I
have a craving, I have set myself up to
automatically take a deep breath or wait
five minutes. This is possible anywhere
and is easy to implement. When at
home I have it set up so that I read one
sentence from AA Literature, Living Sober if I am having a craving. I thought
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that would be a good new behaviour
for my craving trigger, but today it had
a bad outcome. I was downtown and
had a craving. It just so happened that I
was by the store where I could buy my
drug, I had money, and no commitments
so seeing as it was ridiculously easy to
buy and use my drug, and I was being
impatient and ignoring other methods
of relapse prevention, I did. I would
have read a sentence in Living Sober had
I been at home and made it through the
craving, or even just waiting 5 minutes
and keep on walking. That is why my
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adjustment after that day’s slip is to take
a deep breath and wait five minutes. There
are no ways to mess that up or not have it
at my disposal when I have a craving. I am
sure this will be a new behaviour used to
follow craving and to make it easy to skip
over the using. I will still use the Living Sober trick while at home.
CreateI AM ALSO WRITING THIS BOOK BITE TO MAKE
it so that it is easier to have recovery
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literature at hand. It is not as instant
as a breath or to wait five minutes but
it will take up time when I would be
craving. Super easy, and super accessible.
It’s gotta work! I’ll let you know if it
doesn’t because I’ll be back here revising
a new method.
ReassessSOMETIMES IF YOU TRY STARTING A NEW
habit and it isn’t sticking, you have to
reassess. The trigger stays the same, but
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you have to make the action easier. You
have to make it ridiculously easy. For
example, to exercise, you have to cut
it down to the smallest unit possible:
putting on your workout shoes. By the
time you’ve started that action, the
wheels will be in motion to begin your
behaviour cycle of going to the gym, or
run, or home exercise. Today you might
not take it that far, but at least you
put your gym shoes on. You can take
them off. But remember to put them
on again next time, even if you’re just
going to take them off again. It isn’t
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how big the challenge is, it the fact that
you’re forming a habit. This makes a
big difference. Thinking about it could
be a trigger in itself. If you thought
about the gym, or the benefits of going,
or the drawbacks of not going, it may
help motivate you, but sometimes just
putting the shoes on will get you there.
SimpleIF THE INITIAL ROUTINE IS NOT EASY ENOUGH,
you will not make it, no matter how
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high the motivation. Make your goal
so easy it’s impossible not to do it.
Make sure you have a trigger, which
can be a thought. Take deep breaths.
Do something you enjoy. You can also
blank your mind for just one second,
then focus on blanking your mind for
another second. Focus on your breathing
or just blanking your mind. It works.
I have used this to fall asleep and it is
very effective. If anything here has been
helpful, please pass this on so our future
adults and children can free themselves
from addiction. Thank you.
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RECOVERY LITERATURE