People get into addictions to escape stressful situations or emotional pain. The repetitive harmful habits formed in addiction result in self-abuse, neglect, and harm. Recovering from an addiction requires many forms of treatments and therapies, including self-care.
Self-care refers to the conscious and intentional acts you do to promote your mental, physical, and emotional health. With addiction, the substance you abused controlled your life. It took center stage. Self-care, however, is about putting yourself first.
It enables you to rewire and reorganize your life by replacing bad habits with healthy ones. You enable yourself to cope with life stressors without being overwhelmed. As a result, you can restore your well-being, self-worth, and esteem.
It’s easier to break the cycle of addiction when you check into a rehabilitation facility such as Jackson House addiction treatment & recovery centers or other facilities close to your area. These facilities have the proper amenities and personnel to help you recover, helping you through your path to recovery.
Checking in to a rehab facility is your start to a new life. But you also need to learn about caring for yourself as you complete your program. Here are eight ways you can incorporate self-care into your addiction recovery process:
1. Set Achievable Goals
When recovering from addiction, every little achievement you make encourages you to put in more effort. Expansive goals that are difficult to achieve will end in frustration, resulting in more harm than good.
Setting specific goals with measurable progress points will encourage you to move at a more manageable pace. Achievable goals can also inspire you to keep moving and help you stay away from substance abuse and prevent a relapse.
2. Keep A Journal
Writing down your thoughts and feelings during recovery is an effective way to pour out your emotions and promote inner healing. Journaling can help you improve and track your recovery progress as you record your struggles and your accomplishments.
Writing about your progress allows you to become honest with yourself and identify your triggers. You’re able to express complicated or painful emotions that may be hard to relate to your therapist through a recovery journal.
3. Set Boundaries
The people you relate with in your daily activities can positively or negatively affect your recovery journey. To protect your sobriety during recovery, you’ll have to prioritize what is important to you by setting boundaries.
Boundaries can be physical, mental, or emotional. You’ll have to make tough decisions by deciding which contact to cut off completely, where not to go, or situations to walk away from. Self-care will demand that you speak up when you feel that something or someone violates your moral compass. There are things you’ll have to learn to say no to.
This doesn’t mean that you should isolate yourself. It means you choose the people you hang out or relate with wisely. You can even form new relationships that align with your new life.
4. Take Care Of Your Body
Self-care means taking back control of your life, and nutrition is crucial to recovery from addiction. Proper nutrition will help you recover your health by correcting deficiencies, strengthening your physical frame, and helping you to resist unhealthy cravings.
As a start, healthy food mixed with daily exercise will improve your mood, concentration, and energy and promote your overall well-being. You don’t even have to do rigorous exercises to reap the benefits. For starters, you can just take a brisk walk for thirty minutes daily as you build your strength.
Furthermore, getting enough sleep every night is not just resting the body but a healing process. Sleeping repairs the body and boosts the immune system. When you allow your mind to relax and your body to recharge with enough sleep, you wake up refreshed and ready to face each new day.
5. Set Aside Some Private Time
Having social support around you during recovery is good. But surrounding yourself with people all the time to avoid a relapse is not a healthy way to live in your recovery journey.
It’s essential to set some private time for yourself. Time for yourself can help you connect with your inner self and learn who you are. You can use your alone time for self-reflection and exploring new ideas.
This is also the time to find new ways to relax and have fun without alcohol or drugs. It might be challenging in the beginning. But with time, you’ll find that you can stand on your feet without supervision. Making independent decisions will be liberating and a plus for your recovery.
6. Find Balance in Life
It can be easy to lose yourself in an activity when you start your sobriety journey to keep distracted to avoid a relapse. This is dangerous and destructive, especially in your early stages of recovery. It’s like substituting one addiction for another.
Try to find a healthy balance between work, social life, and spirituality. It’s crucial to apportion some decent time to each activity because your wellness depends on all of them.
7. Practice Positive Talk
You’ve already taken the huge step of addiction recovery, and that is a great achievement in itself. Instead of focusing your energy on drawbacks, celebrate your accomplishments.
Consider yourself a champion regardless where you are in your recovery journey. When you feel good about your achievements, you fuel yourself for success. Your mind only does what you tell it. When negative thoughts invade your mind, employ positive talk.
It also helps if you write down the experiences you’re proud of or instances where you stayed strong when faced with temptations to relapse. Think of what you like about yourself or the compliments you have received lately. Remind yourself of these good things over and again. Surround yourself with things that inspire you.
8. Practice Mindfulness
Living in the now is one of the most painful challenges of a recovering addict. Because it forces you to face painful issues that addiction shielded you from. Mindfulness is the best state of mind to confront your fears, anger, and other feelings during recovery. It’s the best way to slow down a racing mind.
Mindfulness enables you to focus and acknowledge your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment or criticism. You’ll also be able to regulate your thoughts and allow negative thoughts to drift away. Mindfulness will also help you build a new relationship with yourself and the people you care about.
Conclusion
Self-care in addiction recovery is vital to lasting sobriety. It leads to better physical health, positive emotions, and a sense of overall well-being. Practicing self-care while recovering from addiction will enable you to integrate back into society faster after treatment. You’ll go back whole with every area of your life functioning as it should. Addiction recovery is more than just sobriety; it’s a transformed, healthier way of life.
