Many of us have a past that we’d rather not remember. We instinctively try to forget the bad things in our past when we were using. When we get sober and look back on how we behaved, we can become ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated and afraid. These are normal feelings.

What helps us overcome those feelings is embracing our past. Realize what the past was and learn from it. Everyone’s past is different but there is so much we can learn. We learn that we never want to go back to being that person we were in the past. Mistakes are some of the best lessons. In our case, our past using has taught us many lessons and if we take those lessons and apply them to our new sober life, we can live better than we did in the past. Embrace that blessing!