Are You Depositing In Your Sober Bank?

When you feel bad or feel down and you think nothing is working- that doesn’t mean it’s not working- it’s totally working!

I want you to think about your sobriety and imagine it as an actual bank account- and, at the beginning, because you haven’t made any deposits, it’s totally empty.

Now, your number one job is to make deposits in this account. And look at this like an investment account- it’s not instant gratification, but it’s for your future. And you may be less motivated some days because it doesn’t feel like you are getting great rewards from the work you are putting in- you really do get instant gratification in the way that you are staying sober, but sober, especially in the beginning, doesn’t always feel good. You may be tired a lot, have problems sleeping, your anxiety may be super high- and all these things make it even more challenging to make sure you are making deposits in your sober bank.

We talk a lot about being of service- doing service work which is volunteering your self and your time and this process, building up the sober bank, is really being of service to yourself. The service you give yourself and your sober bank today, creates the sobriety you have tomorrow, next month, next year…

If you spread out your sober investments in different mediums, you start to learn things and feel good, and then you get really interested in it, and you start to practice what you learn- and eventually, you start making better choices, you start feeling better, and your sober bank grows big.

So here are some ways you can make deposits in your sober bank:

You can go to meetings. I don’t care what meetings- it doesn’t matter if it’s AA or SMART or Celebrate Recovery or an online meeting- having conversation with other people who have the same struggles, ESPECIALLY if you share your own story and yourself, makes a huge deposit in your sober bank.

Be of service- volunteer somewhere. It can be at an event, or with kids or an animal shelter or whatever makes you happy- If you volunteer at a recovery center, treatment center, local detox, or something involving addiction and recovery it is 10x bigger deposit.

When you make enough deposits, the interest starts to grow and you can live off the interest a bit because it’s built up. But here’s where you make a mistake- you make a few deposits, you feel like you have really deposited a lot so you start to make withdrawals- you skip meetings, you meet those friends at a bar instead of spending time with your family or sober friends-

And remember this isn’t tied to your self-worth. You aren’t a bad person if you don’t do this well right from the beginning. This doesn’t decide your value as a human

Your sobriety and recovery will always be a direct result of the deposits you make in your sober bank. Your recovery never lies- and the strength of your recovery is always a direct reflection of the deposits you are making.

This means if you are stuck in a pity party and your negativity is high, your problem solving skills and your ability to make healthy deposits will be low.

How can you add value to your sobriety? Every single day. Make deposits, get better at the value of deposits, do not expect immediate returns, and measure the value of your sober deposits by looking at your recovery and how healthy it feels. Notice I didn’t say how GOOD it feels, because it won’t always feel good- but how healthy are you being and how healthy are your sober deposits.