Often times, the dialogue surrounding discussions of early sobriety involve a wide array of prescription of things we ought not do. We shouldn’t involve ourselves with old friends that are in active addiction, we shouldn’t find ourselves in toxic environments where we could be triggered, we should avoid isolation, and we should not, under any circumstances, go back to using or drinking. These are all wise prescriptions, however, sometimes in our discussion we fail to address the things in sobriety that we need to do, and which are equally important as factors that will protect us against relapse. Because there is no prescription or answer to the question of “how do I find my passion?” this topic is often left unaddressed.
Finding something that we are passionate about in early sobriety doesn’t just help to fortify ourselves against the temptation of going back to drugs and alcohol, but it also help to orient us towards goals that we will seek to achieve in our future. A passion doesn’t have to be, and typically isn’t, something that we can translate into an occupation. If we are fortunate enough to find a passion that is easy to monetize, and one that we happen to be exceptionally talented at, we can then look to see if the passion can be translated into a career. This often isn’t the case, however, and that is completely fine because a passion is defined simply by the desire to voluntarily engage in an experience whereby, we feel rejuvenated and revitalized as a consequence. A passion could be a particular sport such as basketball, surfing, or skateboarding, it can be a field of study that we are interested in such as biology, psychology, or physics, and a passion can be a hobby such as sewing, gardening, or various forms of exercise. The main point here is that it doesn’t actually matter what passion we choose to immerse ourselves in; what matters is that we find something we love to do because not only will we find joy and happiness in engaging in the passion, but because our passions act as a strong defense against the temptations that addiction produces.
We spent months, years, and even decades being passionate about our addictions, and at the end, were left not only with nothing, but with less than when we initially started using. If we can adopt the same vigor, commitment, and diligence that we had in our addictions to our newfound passions, we will be able to give ourselves a better chance of resisting the temptations of our disease.
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