The Best Tips For Keeping Your Sobriety On Track

photo from treehouserehab.org

Guest post from David Garcia of SpiritFinder.org

Getting sober and staying that way takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice, and it can be difficult to stay motivated. However, once you’ve committed yourself to recovery and a whole new lifestyle, you’ll find that the changes are a little easier to make. After seeing some positive results, you’ll be that much more apt to try to stay on track with work, relationships, and living a clean life.

Here are some of the best tips on how to achieve your goals.

Get support

You may already have a recovery group, but it might be helpful to seek therapy or counseling outside of that to dig deeper into what brought on your substance abuse and how you can change those things for the better. This is never an easy task, and you may be tempted more than ever to abuse substances once your emotions begin to come to the surface, but part of recovery is learning not to tamp down those feelings and allow them to be.

Talk to your loved ones

One of the most important aspects of recovery is not allowing yourself to get sucked back into old habits, and that’s easier to do if you stay away from people who are bad influences. This might include individuals from your old life, and sometimes it’s best to just accept that those relationships are unhealthy and leave them alone. However, there may be friends and family members who feel wronged by your past behavior and it’s important to make the decision as to whether or not you want to try and repair those relationships. Talk to them, allow them to tell you how they feel, and let it be known that you want positive change. With a little time and effort on both your parts, you should be able to move forward.

Take care of yourself

One of the hardest parts of recovery is learning how to treat your body well, and this includes eating a well-balanced diet, exercising daily, and practicing self-care. Talk to your doctor about what’s right for you as far as diet and exercise goes--you may have health issues related to the substance abuse that prohibit certain activities--but make sure you make positive changes in these areas. Thirty minutes of activity a day can help improve your mood, your self-esteem, and your overall health and can even help battle depression.

Self-care is just what it sounds like. Choose something you enjoy doing that makes you feel good in a healthy way and practice it as often as you can. It might be something as simple as taking a long, hot bath at the end of the day, or it could be finding time to write a book or learn to paint.

In fact, getting creative is a great way to channel your energy. Try a few different things--writing, drawing, dancing--to see what you enjoy the most and don’t be afraid to let your emotions and past experiences get involved. For instance, if you enjoy writing, you might start a blog for other substance abuse survivors. These activities can help you stay busy, which is a great way to stay healthy. Keeping your mind and body occupied is a surefire way to stay away from bad habits.

Recovery is a long road, but it gets a little easier with each passing day. The key is to have a little patience with yourself, take care, and learn what your limits are. Remember, no one is perfect, and everyone handles recovery a little differently.