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It’s crucial to establish wholesome relationships that will support you as you go through your recovery if you’re seeking to keep your sobriety from drugs or alcohol. That typically means that patients in professional treatment programs must have their family’s and friends’ support in the journey.
Avoiding drugs or alcohol when you are with friends is an important first step in maintaining sobriety. Even more crucial may be making new, healthy friendships with people who can aid in your recovery and don’t take you towards drug and alcohol abuse.
The key to a healthy and happy life is not just developing relationships but finding and building healthy ones. During recovery, we should work to develop health and wellness in all aspects of our lives. This includes how you communicate with your higher power, approach your relationship with yourself, and interact with the world around you.
Healthy relationships with friends, family, and others help you evolve in your recovery process and support you in personal growth. They should be stable, supportive, and reliable. They bring great changes in your life and help you navigate the darkness when you lose track.
When you have a healthy relationship with yourself, you easily understand how much you love your life. If you are your best friend, you will be well-adjusted and content. Furthermore, a healthy relationship with the highest power will allow you to achieve your best and become the best version of yourself.
Feeling connected to God, having inner peace, and achieving hope, trust, and faith are a few benefits of building a healthy relationship with a higher consciousness.
Relationships with others are challenging for many individuals in the early stages of recovery. This is because their lives were always centered on toxic relationships due to their alcohol or drug addiction.
The first step to pursuing and developing healthy relationships in your life is to be aware of their characteristics. You won’t recognize it when you see it if you don’t know what to look for. Let’s go over some of the numerous qualities of a strong friendship or other relationship.
A healthy relationship:
A positive connection enhances your quality of life. It motivates you to put forth your best effort. A healthy relationship requires patience and dedication to grow. It is based on a foundation of kindness, care, respect, and trust.
You may want to get in touch with former friends or peers present during your drug addiction days if you are far along in your recovery and want relationships. As tempted as you might be to make up for lost friendships, avoiding any connections that might jeopardize your rehabilitation is crucial.
Try to make a list of your previous connections and friendships. Who encouraged you and your recovery when you finally decided to stop using drugs? Who had faith in your ability to effect change? Who adheres to the limitations and objectives you’ve established for your recovery? You should contact them and bring back those individuals in your life.
When you decide to improve your life and change it completely, the people who laugh at you are the ones who are poisonous to you. The higher chances are that those people were abusive and made you feel awful about yourself. These individuals are jealous of your dedication to recovery and keep offering you alcohol or drugs. The individuals you used to do drugs with and the connections you made via going out and using drugs. These people can endanger your sobriety and put you in relationships that are harmful to your future.
Now, give carefully think about those particular poisonous relationships. Record how they made you feel in the past, what attracted you to them, and why those relationships ended. Consider any reciprocal tendencies that developed in those earlier damaging relationships. You must stay away from those when you decide to build connections during recovery.
Humans are social animals. When surrounded by others who value the same things as us and with whom we can live a meaningful existence, we thrive the greatest. After rehab, when people develop relationships, they commit to a rewarding activity that aids in sustained recovery.
A positive relationship with a friend, family member, or loved one might inspire and support you after you’ve finished addiction treatment. It might be challenging for some people to stay sober, but this is crucial during rehabilitation. The guidance and hope that relationships bring are just as crucial for individuals who don’t require as much help.
When you choose a rehabilitation program like Outpatient Rehab, they will guide you and give you tips to build a healthy relationship with your friends and family. The experts will support you in identifying the right people to ensure your recovery.
Besides that, here are a few things that you need to keep in mind to find new people and build an excellent relationship with them.
First, you must love yourself so that people respect and love you back. Having an excellent relationship with yourself will allow you to make decisions that are good for you instead of following the path of others to impress them.
Think about boundaries you need to maintain before you get a new friend. This will allow you to protect yourself from getting back on the wrong track.
Look for people who are patient, honest, kind, or cooperative. These traits are critical for healthy and promising relationships.
Don’t lie about your addiction and recovery process. The more you are honest with someone, the more others will try to be open with you.
Show your family that you have changed and trying to improve your life. Give them proof that you are trying to withdraw from your addiction. Getting your family’s trust will help you succeed in your journey.
Recovery from drug and alcohol addiction is a challenging process. Not only do you need the help of your friends and family, but you also need the support of highly experienced professionals who can make your recovery process less painful and achievable.
California Prime Recovery has a wonderful team of experts who aims to help individuals dealing with addiction issues. We provide treatment plans that ensure you get back to a normal, healthy life far from drugs and alcohol. So, don’t wait! Reach out to us for help! 866-208-2390
The beginning of a new year offers a perfect opportunity to reassess your road to recovery thus far, and to set realistic goals for the next year. Setting SMART goals can be an important tool in your tool kit to keep you motivated on achieving long term sobriety.
S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that helps you set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Timely. Which means that for each goal you set for yourself, make sure that it has a Specific outcome, and that you have a way to Measure your progress. When you set goals that can be defined with Action steps that are manageable, it ensures your goals are Realistic. Don’t forget to set Timely deadlines so that they can keep you accountable to your goals.
Adopting the framework of SMART goals for yourself makes you responsible for your own success.
The following suggested goals may give you an idea of what could be considered a SMART goal. You may take on one or all of the goals below based on your needs and preferences, or you may come up with your own set of goals that will work for you.
It’s no secret that starting the day right tends to make the rest of the day feel positive. This could include setting an alarm to wake up at a regular time each morning, followed by a healthy breakfast and/or an exercise routine.
And make sure it’s a sober hobby. Many people resort to substance use when they are bored, or to escape from their daily life. Picking up a new hobby that interests you helps ensure that you have something to do when you are bored, or looking for an escape.
Finding causes that you feel connected with gives you a great opportunity to take the focus off of yourself and instead find meaning in helping other people. Even a small act of kindness each day can brighten up your own day in unexpected ways.
On the flip side, remember those who have helped you in your own journey, and make it a habit to send them a thank you to let them know how much you appreciate them. Expressing gratitude has been shown to improve both physical and mental health in the long term.
Recovery is ultimately an inside job. Staying in therapy, reading, journaling, and seeking solutions that work for you go a long way towards taking responsibility for your own recovery. Commit to a goal of how you want to do the inner work for yourself.
Does it feel strange seeing Compassion as a goal? This could take the form of learning self-care, how to take care of yourself in a compassionate way. Small acts of self-care can ensure you are taking care of yourself physically and mentally. Metta meditation could be another way to practice this.
As you make progress on your goals, make sure to look at how far you’ve come on your journey of recovery. Celebrate even the smallest of successes to keep you going strong and steady. If you slip, be sure to forgive yourself, and then get back on your path.
Do whatever you need to achieve your goals, whether it is daily checklists, or gold stars, or writing in your journal about your daily progress, but do not feel guilty or ashamed if you fail. “Failure” is simply information that tells you something about the goal. You can change the goal into something that works for you, or create a new one that’s more realistic.
Are you ready to get serious about recovery?
Text us at 949-749-3026 or Call us at 866-415-6313