Amber Hollingsworth (Recovery Concepts #7) advises that your thinking, feelings, and behavior reflect the five people you spend the most time with. For early sobriety she recommends being purposeful about who you let into your life — especially spending time with people who are "further ahead" than you in recovery, work, grades, or other growth areas so they pull you up. She cautions against assuming you can keep using friends in your circle by asking them not to bring substances, noting many pitfalls (triggers, cravings, brain mechanisms) and urging reevaluation of time spent with friends whose thinking is counterproductive.
Chapters
Your thinking, feelings and behavior is actually a reflection of the five people that.
You'Re around most in your life.
So being super purposeful about who you let in and who you put yourself around and who you spend time with is essential for recovery. Now, obviously it's helpful to hang around people that are in recovery. I suggest especially early on that you hang around people that are further than you. In fact, in life, I always suggest hang around people that are further than.
Where you are, whether that's in business.
In work, in recovery, in sports.
In.
Their grades, whatever it is, because they're going to pull you up. I know it's more comfortable to hang.
Out with people that are either like.
You know, not doing as well as you, or they're right with you because you can identify. Yeah, that's fun, that's comfortable, that's nice to feel validated and understood, but it doesn't really help. You know, you feel you might feel.
Better about yourself, but you're not growing.
So not just in recovery, but every aspect of your life, keep yourself around people that are at least one grade.
Ahead of where you are in all the areas where you want to improve. Let me give you a hint about this big time newbie mistake that I see all the time.
Like especially with young kids, but even.
With adults too, they'll, with the best.
Of intentions, tell me something like, well.
I'm just gonna tell my friends not to use around me or not to bring it around me, but that's my buddy, I still want to hang out with them. Well, there's some flaws in that thinking for about 25 reasons. A lot of them have to do with triggers and craving and brain stuff, all that kind of stuff. But that's for another lesson today.
I want to focus on the fact that if those using friends think in.
A way that is going to be.
Negative or counterproductive or make you feel like you're missing out or some kind of thinking that you don't need to be around, then you need to think.
About whether or not you want to put that person in your life or at least how much time you want to spend with that person. Because it's the mindset. The mindset is like a magnet and it sucks you in.
