Relapse Prevention: How Can I Discover What Triggers Me Personally?
We’re all made up of different thoughts, feelings and life experiences. Just as a person entering a new relationship will need to learn more about what they can/cannot say to their new beau because of past experiences, you’ll need to learn about yourself in recovery to discover what triggers you. Not one of us are…
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Sad Music Can Help with Depression
You may be wondering why someone with depression would want to listen to sad music before when they should be listening to upbeat, cheerful music. This is no different than feeling less lonely when you go to a support group and you hear people talking about their sadness. Listening to sad music will send a…
Read MoreContinuing to Build Your Spirituality in Long-Term Recovery: 12-Step Programs
12-Step programs have helped thousands of people strengthen their recovery over time, and much of it is because of their focus on spirituality. Those in active addiction often find a void that they’re trying to fill: a sense of loneliness, anger, discomfort, pain, or something else that is causing them despair. It is often through…
Read MoreWhat Strategies Are There to be More Mindful in the Present Moment?
Author Lawrence Peltz stated in his book titled, The Mindful Path to Addiction Recovery, “Rather than feeling compelled to fall into our addictive behavior whenever we feel the urge, we discover that we can create a gap between impulse and action – we take a breath, feel whatever is behind our urge, and decide whether or…
Read MoreMaintaining Recovery Long After Treatment: Key Elements to a Lifestyle of Sobriety
Living a life of sobriety is easily one of the most rewarding paths you could take. You’ve spent so much time working on bettering yourself, and you can probably list many of the steps that you’ve taken over the past year (or years) that have lifted you up in recovery. A lifestyle of sobriety is…
Read MoreHow Can I Celebrate Milestones in My Recovery?
Congratulations! Whether it’s your 1-week, 1-month, 1-year or 1-decade of sobriety, you’ve been taking some amazing strides towards your health and wellbeing. Only you can take the steps that you’ve been taking to improve your life, and you’ve been taking them. Milestones are a huge part of recovery because they remind people of how far…
Read MoreCould You Be Sabotaging Your Sobriety?
A common assumption for those who’ve completed treatment is that they’ve got everything figured out. They’ve made it through a year, or two years, or twenty years or more of sobriety thus far, so they shouldn’t have to worry anymore about relapse, right? Well, not quite – recovery is a lifelong process, and that doesn’t…
Read MoreAcceptance, Gratitude and Strength: Positive Messages Received in Recovery
When we’re in the throes of addiction, we often lose sight of what’s real. We become confused about our sense of purpose in life, sometimes with the belief that substances are all we’re meant to seek out. We may lose aspects of our lives that were once near and dear to our hearts – such…
Read MoreWhat are the Dangers of Complacency?
Complacency is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as, “a feeling of calm satisfaction with your own abilities or situation that prevents you from trying harder.” We all become complacent from time to time; we stop pushing ourselves to achieve new goals at work, we become a bit too comfortable in our relationship, and we nonetheless…
Read MoreRecovery Life: The Importance of Establishing Structure in Your Daily Routine
When we’re actively involved in addiction, our daily schedule involves the intense desire to abuse substances. As Harvard Health indicates, craving, loss of control, and continued involvement in substances – despite their consequences – essentially hardwires our brain to want nothing else. In 2017, CNBC covered a study that surveyed 1,057 individuals who identified as…
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