What Can I Do to Stay Active During Covid-19?

What Can I Do to Stay Active During Covid-19?

Oct 17, 2020

With quarantines and coronavirus still taking their toll on many personal outlets that someone may have, as well as the dropping temperatures that come with the autumn season, maintaining an active, physical lifestyle is increasingly difficult. However, the need for each person to stay active during this time is still important, and so finding ways that each person can combat these elements and continue to engage in physical activity is paramount. While gyms may be closed and outside activities still being difficult to access, there are ways that each person can continue to stay active within their own homes, ranging from personal exercise routines to using technology to one’s advantage to stay physically healthy.

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Finding Resources When Leaving Sober Living

Finding Resources When Leaving Sober Living

Oct 16, 2020

The transition out of a sober living facility to living on one’s own or with family in the “real world” can induce a lot of anxiety as someone prepares for all of the changes that this transition entails. However, that doesn’t mean that someone is left without resources to help with the transition, either in the form of their own alumni program or various strategies they can implement themselves into their daily lives. Even as an alumnus, it is important to continuously adjust one’s coping strategies and life skills in order to continue developing their own sense of self and maintain the success of their sobriety. Making preparations for living in the “real world” ahead of time can help make the transition easier, and there are a number of other resources that someone can implement into their lives through the process.

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Taking Hold of Your Own Recovery Model

Taking Hold of Your Own Recovery Model

Oct 15, 2020

Each person has their own idea of recovery and what it may look like for them. For some, images of people sitting in a circle talking about their difficulties with addiction come to mind. For others, they may picture a more medical setting, or sitting one-on-one with a professional to talk about their childhood. However, the idea of recovery is something that is actually very fluid and doesn’t adhere to just one definition. Recovery can mean many different things to many different people. Because recovery doesn’t have an inherent definition of what can or cannot be therapeutic, it is possible for someone to begin to mold their own recovery model and personalize their own experiences and healing. Taking hold of one’s own recovery model involves not just finding a way in which someone can begin to introduce new and healthier dimensions into their lives, it also becomes a simultaneous exercise in one’s own agency. Recovery is designed not just to help someone confront their vulnerabilities with addiction or mental health disorders, but also to empower each person to pursue their own identities in their personal journey towards self-actualization.

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How Does Eating a Good Meal Affect Your Mindset in Recovery?

How Does Eating a Good Meal Affect Your Mindset in Recovery?

Oct 14, 2020

Good nutrition can make a huge impact on the recovery process. There are a number of benefits that each person can gain from maintaining both a balanced meal, as well as maintaining a steady meal schedule in order to avoid snacking. However, there are even more benefits that someone can gain from making their own healthy meals in recovery. Working to balance one’s nutrition in recovery can be reflective of the progress that someone has made in their recovery journey as a whole. Learning the benefits of simply eating a healthy meal as well as what other impacts it can have on recovery can help each person maintain a positive and healthy outlook on recovery while also helping their bodies and minds be more receptive to the positive effects of a strong recovery program.

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The Stress of Expectation After Recovery

The Stress of Expectation After Recovery

Oct 13, 2020

Graduating from a recovery program and becoming an alumnus is an incredible achievement. Whether someone has been through residential treatment after their detox, or have lived in sober communities and are moving back out on their own, there is a great deal of pride that can come with going through with the difficult path to sobriety and emerging with a transformed state of mind and outlook on one’s life. However, just because a program has ended doesn’t mean that someone is “cured” from their addiction, and there can be some unfair expectations that someone can set for themselves in their newfound title of “alumnus.” Managing one’s own expectations, as well as having a conversation with one’s family and loved ones, can help each person set realistic expectations for themselves as well as for their lives going forward after a recovery program.

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Understanding and Utilizing a Sponsor in Recovery

Understanding and Utilizing a Sponsor in Recovery

Oct 12, 2020

Sponsors play a vital role in recovery. The insight that a sponsor can have into any given part of the recovery process can be invaluable to those who may just be beginning their recovery journey, and the sense of support and community that can develop as a result of their efforts can help establish a healthy mindset for all involved for their own prolonged sobriety and health. Knowing the role that sponsors play in recovery can help those who are just beginning their own journeys reach out to effective peers, as well as understand the benefits of becoming a sponsor themselves as they progress on their own path. Having an effective sponsor can help someone reclaim their identity from a recovery standpoint, as well as influence their personal and professional growth.

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Avoiding Replacement and Prioritizing Balance

Avoiding Replacement and Prioritizing Balance

Oct 9, 2020

Recovery is a transitional process as someone begins to move on from their own previous addictions or unhealthy relationships with drugs, alcohol, gambling, or any other kind of addictive substance or practice. As someone begins to work each day to eliminate the need for these substances or practices, it is easy to look for things that can help fill the void of what they are letting go of in their lives. However, this can lead to the idea of replacement as someone may eliminate their need to drink, but instead, pick up smoking or shopping in its place in order to achieve a similar effect in themselves. This can lead to its own issues in the recovery process, as well as within one’s own life balance. Yet there are ways that someone can look for signs of replacement, as well as structures that someone can use in their daily lives in order to continue prioritizing balance on a daily basis.

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Accepting the Need to Change

Accepting the Need to Change

Oct 8, 2020

The idea of someone preparing for change in recovery can be quite conflicting. Whether someone is in recovery for an addiction, mental health illness, or co-occurring mental health disorder, the idea of change can be daunting. While someone may see change as essential for their own health, there may still be barriers that can prevent someone from seeking the help they need in order to cope with the stresses that plague them. Whether it be a stigma or societal expectations, confronting one’s own shame or guilt in a more public fashion, or even the mental turmoil that comes with not knowing what the future may look like, these barriers can make the idea of change a difficult prospect. However, internalizing and accepting the need for change is the first major step in recovery, and it is important to break down any of the barriers that someone may face in order to effectively pursue their own journey to sobriety or healing.

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How Can You Identify Your Own Worth in a Community?

How Can You Identify Your Own Worth in a Community?

Oct 7, 2020

Community is a huge part of the recovery process, and it plays an important role in order to help each person feel supported through the difficult transformational period of recovery in their lives. Community provides a constant wealth of new ideas and practical therapeutic approaches that someone can take and implement into their own lives. However, for each person to truly get the most out of their recovery community, especially when living in a transformational living environment, each person needs to be able to identify their own worth in that community. While finding one’s worth takes a degree of confidence and voice, there are a number of ways that someone can begin to improve their self-esteem and discover the value that they have in their own recovery community.

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Maintaining Self-Esteem and Motivation for the Long Run

Maintaining Self-Esteem and Motivation for the Long Run

Oct 6, 2020

Even after someone has gone through intensive recovery programs and become an active alumnus, or even after someone has celebrated their first, second, or third year in sobriety, there will still constantly be a battle to maintain one’s self-esteem and motivation. Just because someone has been through an addiction treatment program doesn’t mean that their recovery journey has somehow ended completely and that they will never experience the urge to drink, use drugs, or the anxiety or depression that may come with any kind of addiction or mental health disorder. Finding ways for each person to continue to feel good about themselves and their recovery can help combat feelings of relapse early and provide necessary skills that can help encourage continued success.

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