Go Boldly Into Your New Life of Sobriety!

Enough with the negatives. While saying “no” is important in recovery, there is so much to say “yes” to as well—and that includes healthy lifestyle changes. The choices you make every day can support your overall goals, as well as your well-being in the moment. Here’s a closer look at some elements of self-care and how they contribute to your overall well-being, brought to you by Fierce and Fine.

Engage Regularly in Physical Activity

Physical activity is crucial in maintaining your mental health and positive momentum. Getting into a routine can help you avoid falling prey to the stress, anxiety, and depression that lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms, and you’ll also benefit from an elevated mood and better sleep.

Exercise works its magic by rewiring the brain to promote positive emotions, and you don’t have to be a fitness fanatic to see such changes. You can start with just 10 minutes of aerobics or strength training per day and build from there. You can even make Alexa your health coach, as the system has several options that you can use to support your overall program.

Develop a Professional and Social Support System

Recovery can be a challenging journey that requires a lot of patience, resilience, and persistence. Professional and social support systems are necessary to help individuals recover from addiction successfully. These systems, available in rehab centers in the US, provide a supportive environment where individuals can share their experiences, receive guidance, and connect with others on the same journey.

Professional support systems, such as licensed counselors and therapists, offer evidence-based treatment plans that help individuals overcome addiction. Social support systems comprised of peers, family, and friends, offer mental, physical, and emotional support necessary for individuals to remain committed to their sobriety goals. You can even seek out 1:1 Coaching through Fierce and fine to help you maintain your goals. The combination of these support systems forms a critical foundation that plays a vital role in achieving and maintaining long-term recovery from addiction.

A Healthy Diet

According to Sutter Health, processed foods are actually designed to be addictive, but eating them causes inflammation in the brain that can trigger anxiety and depression. Eating healthy, whole foods, on the other hand, will energize your body and brain. There’s no complicated meal plan to follow; it’s simply a matter of eating wholesome, natural food —including vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins—while avoiding caffeine, sugar, sodium, and hydrogenated fats.

Cooking for yourself is essential to controlling what you eat, so if you don’t know how, it’s time to learn! There are plenty of internet-based solutions for honing your culinary skills. Websites like Epicurious offer free recipes, menu planning tips, and videos, or you could even enroll in an online cooking course through a site like Upskillist, which is free for the first week—plenty of time to get a sense for whether or not you like the courses, and then you can cancel without penalty.

A New Hobby

There are other benefits to developing your talents with a knife and skillet. Kettering University notes that pastimes such as cooking carry many of the same benefits as exercise, relieving stress while building self-confidence. Consider painting, learning to knit, or playing a musical instrument. These activities bring calming effects into your day and fill your downtime; you can focus your energy on the rhythmic motion of your hands as you put brush to paper, knit a scarf, or play the notes to a beloved song. They may also leave you with a result that makes you proud.

If you’ve discovered that your job isn’t meshing well with your journey, hobbies are also a great way to develop a career from home. You can turn skills that you’ve honed through the practice of your hobby into a business that can refocus your energy during your journey.

Hobbies play a role in holistic therapies, too, which go beyond the immediate symptoms of mental illnesses to address the body, mind, and emotions as an integral whole. They can also incorporate therapy animals, prayer, meditation, and art to deliver a long-lasting sense of peace and well-being that goes beyond the time of your treatment.

Find a Healthy Routine and Stick with It!

There’s one missing ingredient to this recipe for Well-being: consistency. The activities described above are as enjoyable as they are fullfilling, so focus on implementing 1-3 new things per week in order to ease into your new routine. A routine that works for you, your journey, and your schedule, is one worth sticking to. Now, get back to work with a smile and laugh!

Written By Guest Write - Anya Willis