Finding Joy in Recovery

Addiction is a cruel disorder that eventually strips people of everything they hold dear – their relationships, their livelihoods and even their home and safety. A crucial component of the recovery journey involves learning how to have fun and enjoy life without the burdens of drug or alcohol use weighing you down.

While you might expect to be miserable in an addiction recovery program, that’s far from the truth. On the contrary, rehab is where you can rediscover who you truly are without hiding behind alcohol and drugs. You’ll have the newfound freedom to experience the everyday joys you thought were lost to you forever. Here are our top three tips for finding the joy in your recovery.

1. Surround Yourself With Positive People

Especially early in recovery, you’ll need to avoid places and people that put your recovery at risk. Obviously, that means situations that remind you of when you were actively using, as well as your old drug or drinking buddies, but even some of the sober people you know can jeopardize the progress you’ve made if they belittle you or fail to respect your boundaries.

Instead of spending time around these negative people, find supportive friends and family members who understand your need to prioritize your recovery above all else – people who serve as a shoulder to cry on when you’re struggling, or who are willing to celebrate your successes with you, no matter how small.

2. Manage Your Stress

One of the earliest lessons you will learn on your recovery journey is that avoiding stress is essential if you hope to prevent relapse. When you start to feel overwhelmed, remember there are practical strategies you can use to manage stress in a healthy way.

• Be patient: There are no shortcuts in recovery.
• Learn to say no: It’s OK to set time aside for yourself when you need it. If you feel overtaxed, ask yourself what you can take off your plate.
• Find new outlets: Take up a new hobby, or learn to practice mindfulness meditation, journaling or yoga.

3. Find New Ways to Have Fun

Addiction eventually rewires your brain to the point where you can’t feel good or normal without drinking or using drugs. One of the most fundamental things you’ll need to learn in recovery is how to enjoy your sober lifestyle and find new ways to fill your hours. Boredom is another common relapse trigger for people, so you may have to force yourself to get out and about while your brain chemistry returns to its normal balance. Find activities you’ve never tried before to help stimulate your curiosity and expand your horizons. Take a class at your local community center, or give back to others with volunteer work. There’s no shortage of ways to have fun while remaining sober.

Rediscovering Everyday Happiness

In recovery, you can begin the work of regaining what addiction robbed you of. As you do so, you will begin to feel intensely grateful for everything you still have – including your life and your opportunity to rebuild a sober future. Every year, too many people lost to active addiction never get that second chance, but you don’t have to become part of those statistics. Your recovery is waiting for you at Complete Harmony. Our holistic addiction treatment programs give you the tools to start again. Contact us today to learn more about our California recovery center and start the admissions process.

Smart Tips to Take Control of Stress

It’s Mental Health Month and one of the many important messages of this year’s campaign, Fitness #4Mind4Body, is the link between good stress management and good mental and physical health. 

You likely already know that stress is a relapse trigger – and it can lead to serious mental health disorders like depression and anxiety. Plus, chronic stress can cause inflammation in your body. The result: a greater risk of common colds and viruses, heart disease, headaches, intestinal problems, sexual dysfunction, diabetes and even cancer, according to Mental Health America (MHA). 

The goal isn’t to stress out if you find yourself unable to manage your stress. Instead, try one of these tips – if it doesn’t work for you, try another one – until you find your sweet spot for dealing with stress. 

• Exercise your “no” muscle. If you feel overwhelmed by how many things are on your schedule, it’s ok to say “no” to new activities! This is especially important during early recovery when you need to make sure that you and your sobriety are your number-one priorities. 
• Squash the “superman/superwoman” urge. A constant need for perfectionism can take a toll on your mental health. Ease up on yourself and ask for help if you need it. 
• Carve out quiet time. According to MHA, just 10 to 20 minutes of quiet reflection (via meditation) can help you learn to tolerate stress as well as provide relief for the symptoms of chronic stress. 
• Aim for 30 minutes of exercise. Physical activity benefits both the body and mind and helps the brain release some stress-busting chemicals in the brain. 
• Make time for a hobby. “Zoning out” on a passion project is a great way to relax and take your mind off of your worries. Indulge in your interests, says MHA, whether that means gardening, painting, doing jigsaw puzzles or playing video games.

Continual Self-Growth at Complete Harmony

Our team of credentialed clinicians can help you explore your own recovery journey while learning to better manage stress. For more information about our cutting edge treatments, call today: 866-930-4673.

Stress Management Is Key for Recovery (and Your Heart)

The fact that stress and heart troubles are related may not be news to you – however, researchers have yet to fully understand the full mechanisms. A new study published in The Lancet this week revealed an interesting link between stress and the heart: the brain. 

Researchers found that people with greater activity in the amygdala, the area of the brain that controls fear, stress and emotion, were more likely to suffer from heart attack, stroke and angina (chest pain) in the future. 

Increased activity in the amygdala was also linked to more activity in the bone marrow tissue – and “that in turn may impact the arteries, causing inflammation, which then could lead to a cardiovascular disease event, such as a heart attack or stroke,” study author Ahmed Tawakol told Forbes.com.

While more research is still needed to understand the entire reaction, Tawakol said that stress reduction exercises have been found to reduce both the size and activity of the amygdala. 

Here are a few things you can do today to manage stress and enhance your recovery: 

• Create a mantra. It doesn’t have to be complicated; a simple phrase like “I am in control,” or “I am making progress” can help keep you calm and focused on your recovery. 
• Go for a vigorous walk. There’s nothing quite like exercise to increase those feel-good endorphins and keep stress at bay.  
• Streamline your day. Over scheduling yourself can quickly lead to stress, especially during the first 90 days of recovery, when you’re most likely to relapse. For now, just focus on recovery essentials and aim to complete one or two tasks per day. 
• Make sleep a priority. Seven to eight hours of solid shut-eye can do wonders to restore your body and mind and improve your ability to cope with stress. 
• Start a journal. Journaling is a great way to discover the source of your stress — and then to release it by writing down your thoughts and feelings.

Find Inner Peace at Complete Harmony
At Complete Harmony, we encourage the use of many different cutting-edge techniques — including yoga, meditation, and acupuncture — to help patients control stress on their journey toward sobriety. To learn more about our treatment center and our approach to addiction recovery, call today: 866-930-4673.