Staying In The Moment

It's really important for myself to be able to stay in the moment. I have found that by avoiding things like dwelling on past mistakes or worrying about the future I am usually able to get done what needs to get done when it needs to get done.

Within the past couple of days I keep finding myself not staying in the moment. I'll catch myself thinking about past situations that didn't go the way I wanted or things that I feel guilt about.

This usually starts a vicious cycle of me feeling bad about myself, avoiding doing something that I'm supposed to out of lack of confidence, and then dreading what the future will now hold because of my lack of action.

I guess this type of thought process fits right into an addictive thinking pattern but what makes that pattern pop up here and there? I can be going along great, focusing on what I should be focusing on and then...boom. I'm back in a destructive pattern again.

The only good thing I am finding is that I can spot this sort of trend pretty early on and then do everything I can to stop doing it. I guess this means that I'm allowing myself to be more self-aware and by doing so I am able to stop destructive patterns before they get way out of hand.

I'm just curious if this is something that others in addiction recovery have found about themselves? Do you catch yourself falling back into your old way of thinking? Could this be me catching myself at the beginning of what could ultimately turn out to be a relapse?