This article is especially useful for individuals who recently completed our Intensive Outpatient Program here at Coalition Recovery and are now in active recovery.
While therapy and medications are useful in their own sense, we might not be in a position to continually rely on them. There will be times when we feel uncomfortable and may need to rely on ourselves to overcome these challenges. Here are tools anyone in recovery can use at their disposal to correct these unwanted feelings as they happen and also prevent them from happening altogether.
For many of us, these first couple of weeks, months, and even years are going to be different. This new way of life can be tricky to navigate at first. We might feel bored, stressed, and anxious, but without the reliance of drugs to suppress these feelings, we are forced to feel these feelings through. This can make us crave our substance. However, this is what recovery is all about: using the tools and skills we’ve been taught in treatment to supplement our drug usages.
Here is a list of some of the tools we teach at Coalition Recovery. When we feel stressed out or even bored, we have been conditioned to resort to drugs to relieve these feelings but these healthy alternatives can give you the same relief without any negative side-effects. The hardest part of these tools is the mental strength required to choose them over the easy choice of drugs or even other unhealthy alternatives like TV and social media.
1. Exercise
This is the first tool because the benefits go far beyond a beach body. Exercise has been proven to reduce inflammation that can cause stress and anxiety. Exercise also produces endorphins like serotonin in the brain making us feel happier.
The beautiful thing about exercise is that you don’t have to run a marathon to receive these benefits. The minimum amount of exercise for maximum results is just 4 times per week or 2-3 times per week of strenuous activities causing fast heart rate and sweating.
Therefore, by taking a walk around the neighborhood (with your dog perhaps?) 4-6 times per week, you can help reduce the onset of anxiety, depression, heart-related diseases like high blood pressure, and brain-related diseases like dementia and depression.
The beauty of exercise is that it is both preventative and also corrective. For this reason, not only can exercise help keep anxieties and depressive moods at bay, but when you feel them, just a simple walk or run can alleviate them entirely!
Getting on a treadmill when you feel down can be the last thing you want to do at that moment. However, if you start to implement some form of exercise into your daily routine, you’ll find yourself actually wanting to work out. Exercise then becomes a healthy addiction.
2. Meditation
Are there moments in your life when you just say “I could really use a therapist right about now!” Unfortunately, we can’t always rely on our therapist in times of need. Friends and family are great resources too, but we also can’t rely on them over every little struggle in our lives. Sometimes we don’t even know why we are feeling this way.
Meditation is a necessary tool to use in recovery as it is our way of being our own therapist. Once we develop the habit of continual meditation, we begin to become self-sufficient at handling our own emotions, fears, and stressors.
The mind is a beautiful creation, one that we have yet to fully understand. But, like any muscle, we can train it to become stronger and resilient. Studies have shown that meditation can help you:
- Fall asleep faster and sleep soundly throughout the night
- Have more energy throughout the day
- Focus on tasks easier
- Make us emotionally stronger
- Reduce stress and bring peace
As you can see, meditation can be a panacea for many of the struggles we face in early recovery. So today, start your first meditation and notice how you feel after. I suggest at least 20 minutes. There are a variety of phone apps to get you started.
With the combination of meditation and exercise, we can assure you will feel healthier both physically and mentally. Bad days will start to become less frequent. Your relationships will develop to become deep and meaningful. Your entire environment will be peaceful.
The trick with these two tools is that they are not as easy as using drugs or even taking medications. Utilizing these tools takes strong willpower, and during times of distress, are almost impossible to complete without an already established routine. Start this today. Even if it is just going to the gym and sitting in the sauna. The action of doing is half the battle. Take baby steps and in no time you will have adopted a healthy habits that seem just as natural as brushing your teeth.
While these are two of the biggest tools you should be utilizing in your recovery, there are three others that you can use to help you stay focused and on track.
3. Healthy Diet
First and foremost, when we think of a healthy diet we think of sacrificing the joy of eating for the sake of being healthy. Healthy eating seems more expensive and incredibly inconvenient. This is because American culture focuses on fatty, sugary, and high-carb foods. So much in fact that if we even try to find healthy alternatives they can’t be found (or are extremely overpriced). Unfortunately, we all too often resort to the tasty convenience of fast-food burgers and tacos.
Contrary to popular belief, your diet can be healthy, delicious, and cost-effective at the same time. The trick is looking in the right places. Here’s where the beauty of the internet comes in. There are a variety of recipe blogs that walk you through each step of easy and fast meals that are delicious AND healthy.
So, whether you want to become vegan or start a ketogenic diet, or just implement healthy food alternatives into your diet, there are countless resources out there. You will be surprised at the different types of ingredients you implement into your cooking. After a few weeks of cooking, you’ll discover that it is not only doable, but fun!
Two simple rules to start
So, here are a couple great blogs to get you started. Look through the pictures, find ones that catch your eye, and begin!
Here’s an article showing the top 10 healthiest food blogs
If you are not ready to change your entire diet today, start with these two essential things:
- Drink plenty of water
- Cut out refined sugars
Normally a diet is seen as a preventative approach rather than a corrective approach. However, if you eat a salad when you’re feeling lethargic or just down, it can actually help boost your mood. Eating anything sends endorphins through our bodies. Although, when we eat healthily, that rush of endorphins isn’t followed by regret and lethargy but energy and focus instead.
4. Journaling
Journaling is similar to meditation. It helps us organize our thoughts and helps us accomplish a wide variety of goals. These can range from improved mental clarity, improved happiness, and improved productivity.
Journaling is essentially free thought writing. This can range from a variety of journaling techniques, but there are no requirements; the advantages of journaling can be gained through any of these means. Different types of journaling include diary, gratitude, habit, free-from, goal setting, and others.
Free-form
This is a great way to start journaling. This form is as it sounds: no rules, no boundaries, just thoughts. Write whatever thoughts, words, or pictures come to mind. This type of journaling may look a little crazy to the naked eye. On the other hand, this form of journaling can help spark creativity and remove writer’s block.
Diary
This technique is generally what you think of when you think of journaling. Describe what happened during your day, how you felt about it, what you hope to do in the future. This is essentially a log of your everyday life. It can help us remember and document our lives, which is something that our memory tries to do but can’t do perfectly.
Gratitude Journal
This type of journaling helps us appreciate what we have and where we are. By starting the day with gratitude for the blessings in our lives, we can view the world through a brighter lens. This gives us hope and spreads happiness throughout our day.
Habit Journal
Have you ever wanted to start (or stop) a habit but can’t seem to gain momentum? A habit journal is a great way to hold yourself accountable. This type of journal doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it can be as simple as marking a tally on your calendar. The sight of a streak can keep you motivated and on track.
Goal Setting
This type of journaling is for the purpose of guiding your everyday life. Perhaps you want to develop stronger relationship with a friend or family member. You can track your progress through this type of journaling: the goals you’d like to accomplish, the steps to get there, and the things you’ve done to further these goals.
General Journal
There is no need to stick to a strict method here. Journaling can (and should) be a mixture of all of these techniques. Most people will use these as a guide in their journaling. Perhaps one day you feel stuck so you start with free-from. Maybe the next day you feel down and begin a gratification section. Consider using a variety of these techniques in your journal.
Once you begin your journaling, you will start to see the benefits within a couple of days. Your mindset will be changed. You will become more focused, develop healthier habits, and therefore live a happier life altogether.
Here at Coalition Recovery, we teach the benefits of journaling while in treatment so when you leave our drug rehab program, you have already acquired the tool of journaling and can use it to strengthen your recovery.
5. Yoga
While this falls under the exercise category I believe it also falls under meditation too. While yoga can be sweat induced, the vast majority focuses on breathing, which is the premise of meditation. Therefore, if you want to kill two birds, try yoga.
You don’t need to pay for a $20 class to obtain the wonderful benefits of yoga. There are a variety of wonderful yoga videos on YouTube. A particularly good one is Yoga with Adriene. She has a 30-day class that slowly walks you through a yoga practice from beginner to intermediate. After your first week of yoga, you will undoubtedly feel real benefits, both physical and mental.
These Tools Will Work!
So, if you ever feel stressed, anxious, or depressed, these tools will undoubtedly relieve these. The hardest part is getting yourself into a position to do these tools. Too often we resort to scrolling through social media feeds, video games, or tv; but these are only temporary reliefs. Once they are done, the unwanted feelings will inevitably return. The beauty of these tools is that they aren’t just a band-aid. These tools will actually fix the problem you are facing by helping you think clearly, which addresses the problem in a sensible and effective manner.
Bonus: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Approach
While cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) starts with a licensed therapist, the philosophies and tools gained through therapy can extend far beyond the office. The first premise of CBT is acknowledging negative thought patterns. The second part is reshaping these thoughts into ones that are productive
A great way to start performing CBT on our own brains is to start with this little prayer.
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Reinhold Niebuhr AMERICAN THEOLOGIAN
This shapes our mindset to know there are things we stress about that are pointless. There are also things we stress about that we have the ability to change. Once we understand this concept, we can begin to shape how we think, which will in turn shape how we feel, what we do, how we treat each other and therefore how people treat us.
Because this article is for those who have already been in treatment and are now beginning their journey of recovery, we can safely assume that you understand the concepts of CBT therapy. CBT does not stop when we finish our sessions. It is an ongoing practice that we must continue to be aware of throughout our day.
How To ACTUALLY Do These Things
The downside to these tools is that they are not convenient or easy. They might not even be fun (at the beginning) but trust in the process and trust that these actions will help make your everyday life exponentially better. Finding the willpower to do these things every day can be a difficult task in and of itself.
To help with this…
- Find a motivational quote and make it your phone background.
- Make a schedule so you can ensure you have time for these things
- Ask someone else to do these things with you - pushing each other and creating accountability
- Set an alarm to remind you to do these things (preferably during a time when you have nothing else going on - like mornings)
- Remind yourself that anytime you feel uncomfortable, there is a solution, but you need to overcome the uneasy thought of doing a little work to get there.
To Sum Up
You’ve probably been told these things throughout your treatment and even throughout your life, but understand that these tools are ever more important for us in recovery than the normal person. Addiction is not curable. Substance Use Disorders are ever-present in our lives and we must therefore always keep our sobriety a priority. Without our sobriety, everything else will fall apart.
With each of these tools, you will gain invaluable benefits from them. Implementing these things is not an easy task. You will try and you may fail, but keep at it and before long it will happen unconsciously.
Addiction is scary. Relapse is scary. But the beautiful thing about this life is that we have control over it. With just a little motivation and willpower, we can accomplish not only long-term recovery, However, any goal you set your mind to.
Remember that recovery tools for addiction are always in Tampa, Florida. If you need help in recovery, never hesitate to call us at 888.707.2873. We are there for you.
