I’m actually grateful for all the misery I experienced in active addiction, because it led to a transformation in my life that I honestly don’t think would have occurred otherwise.

I had to do what I did in order to get where I’m at today. It seems that for an alcoholic like me, experience is the only teacher. I have to learn things the hard way. I had to almost drink myself to death to realize that I wanted to live.

I’m not sure what makes me learn in this fashion. Perhaps I just like smacking myself in the head with a two-by-four.

But of course, these are the lessons that really stick, because experience is such a good teacher. If someone gives me advice in recovery, I find it very difficult to just accept this advice at face value without testing it first.

So what lessons can we take away from this analysis?

1) Be grateful for the struggles in your life – because they are almost always part of a learning experience. It is of course pretty difficult to be grateful while the struggle is going on, but later you can almost always look back and see how it helped you to grow.

2) Don’t be afraid of a challenging path – just because you can see that there will be problems along the way. We don’t make much growth in life while everything is peachy-keen.

3) Change your attitude towards learning – from being a chore to being an opportunity. Take gratitude in gaining new knowledge. Recognize the freedom and power you get after learning some of life’s harder lessons.

Practicing gratitude seems easy when everything is coming up roses in our lives, but what good does that do us? Very little. We need to practice gratitude when life is giving us chaos and turmoil. The best way to do this is to see the positive in such experiences, even though while we are going through the chaos it often seems like it is entirely “bad.” So when bad things happen in your life, always be sure to look for:

1) The silver lining.

2) The lesson to be learned.

3) The strength gained from the experience.

4) The connections made with other people.

It’s easy to be grateful for the good stuff in life. But if you can find a way to be grateful for the “bad” stuff as well then your recovery will be that much stronger.

Can anyone else look back at the chaos in their life and find gratitude in it?