In 2020, I was given the opportunity to provide peer support services to individuals who were experiencing incarceration. When going through group topics, I found that there was someone in particular who was very interested in The Alchemist, a story about a boy who goes in search of treasure. I had never read it although it was on my “to read” list, so I told him I would read it over the weekend and we could do a group on it the next week.

I ended up loving the book and we chose a few quotes to use, but we spent a lot of time on this one in particular. In our discussion, we talked about how it is natural to feel defeated or discouraged. Sometimes we may even feel as though we will never succeed or that this is where our stories end, especially if we are in situations in which we have little control over our environments.

This quote gives us inspiration that we can achieve anything if we truly want it, including our recovery. We can create mental health maintenance and relapse prevention plans. We can practice wellness tools, access professional support, or we can advance our recovery in other ways that work for us. We talked about how it seemed like the more we made goal-oriented changes, the more successes came our way, as if we were being rewarded for pursuing recovery.

We are laying the foundation for the universe to set us up for success the rest of the journey. By believing we can achieve our goals and actively working toward them, we open ourselves up to the treasure that had been waiting for us all along.

Elizabeth Crews

Elizabeth is a Recovery Coach at an RRC in Henderson, NC. Her passion is to provide person-centered services and empower guests through strengths-based language.