Recovery is an essential component of the process of transformation. Any transformational experience wouldn’t be complete without some form of recovery. The degree, or the depth, of recovery can range considerably depending upon what one is recovering from. Recovery is usually a deeply personal journey, a unique process of discovering and developing new meaning and purpose in one’s life, that is specific to one’s circumstances, which helps pull one out of the muddle one is seeking recovery from. This also usually includes changing one’s attitudes, values, feelings, and goals in order to create a new reality for one’s life, which becomes the new life one lives for, into, and eventually by, after recovery has been completed.
Think of a time in your life when you knew you had to recover from something. What was it that you needed to recover from? How bad did things get before you realized you needed to recover from this? What did it ultimately take for you to finally begin to make progress toward new meaning, a new purpose, or new values? How did you shift your attitudes, identify new goals for your emerging reality, and live into this new reality you had envisioned for your life? Was there a structure that guided your process, such as a twelve-step program? What role did a sense of hope, supportive relationships, or a strong sense of self have in this process? What did you learn about yourself from this experience of recovery? Tell this story in a flowing, conversational way that clearly demarcates the beginning, muddle, and resolution, or the before, during, and after process that you experienced in your recovery.
