Top Four Self-Care Strategies for Addiction Recovery
Self-care strategies are essential to strengthening and maintaining your recovery routine. Developing an effective self-care plan can help you manage and overcome triggers and other stressors that can negatively impact your sobriety.
What Is Self-Care?
In recovery, self-care strategies should focus on prioritizing your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. To develop those self-care strategies, people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction need to build self-awareness of their individual situation and what will help each individual achieve their needs and wants, while also being mindful of healthy boundaries.
More than a spa day or other rare social perks, your self-care plan should be comprised of several manageable, efficient practices that you are able to consistently engage in to build and maintain over time.
Self-Care Keys to Healthy Recovery
1. Put Your Recovery First
Working your recovery program is the ultimate self-care practice. Your sobriety must always take priority in your self-care efforts. Achieve this by maintaining your recovery program and schedule. Establish a 12 Step meeting schedule and attend regularly. Adjust your meeting schedule if you need to, but do not skip. Skipping out on your recovery norms can put your sobriety on a slippery slope. Straying from your recovery program and schedule will weaken your ability to power through potential triggers.
2. Meditate
Meditation is a simple, powerful self-care practice. In AA, Step 11 tells us, “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with god as we understand him…” Take control of your thoughts and emotions with a meditation practice. Even five minutes a day can make the difference. Meditation will calm your mind and enhance your spiritual health. There are several apps and podcasts that offer free guided meditations to help you build and expand your meditation practice.
3. Eat Healthy, Stay Active, Sleep
The basics of self-care include a healthy diet, physical activity and sufficient rest. Make sure you are getting enough sleep, as well as resting your mind and body when necessary
A healthy mind relies on a healthy body, so diet and exercise are essential pieces of the self-care puzzle. Staying active is an essential self-care strategy. Whether it’s walking the dog or going for a long run, reserve 30 to 60 minutes each day to get up and move.
And, be mindful of your diet and nutrition, focusing on healthy eating choices and patterns. Taking care of your physical health will naturally feed into your emotional health and reduce stress levels, a basic but core self-care strategy.
4. Practice Gratitude
Keep a daily list of at least three things you are grateful for and reflect on each thing and why you are thankful. Taking a few minutes each day to think about the positive things in your life is a small action with a huge impact on your overall well-being. It can improve your emotional, mental and physical health, strengthen relationships, and even help you foster empathy and compassion.
Self-Care Support
Remember, self-care is a key part of successful addiction recovery. As your recovery evolves, take responsibility for yourself and give yourself the love and respect you deserve physically, emotionally, and socially.
Additional support is available through Valley Hope Addiction Treatment and Recovery, including recovery resources and opportunities that help empower your sobriety.
If you or someone you know may have a problem with alcohol or other drugs, the addiction experts at Valley Hope can provide a free level of care screening to determine if you require clinical treatment.
Valley Hope provides a full continuum of substance abuse care including online addiction treatment through 14 programs across six states including Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Our programs provide compassionate, evidenced-based therapies, medical detox services, residential treatment, outpatient treatment and virtual treatment programs.
For immediate help 24/7, call our Local Admissions Team at (800) 544-5101.