For many of us, there are certain life skills we haven’t learned and developed over the course of our lives because our addictions have caused us to neglect ourselves. Many of us have sacrificed ourselves and our wellbeing for the sake of our addictions. Learning important life skills can help us greatly in our recovery and can help us stay on track and avoid relapsing.
Self-Care
One of the things we neglect most while struggling with addictions is self-care. This can include taking care of ourselves physically, as well as maintaining our homes. It can include our spiritual practice, and all of the mental and emotional skills we can use to deal with stress. Many of us neglect self-care because deep down we believe we are unworthy. We subconsciously believe that we are inherently inadequate and undeserving of our own love and care. Part of our recovery is learning to love and accept ourselves unconditionally, and putting energy towards showing ourselves self-love through self-care. This means being good to our bodies, being more responsible for our health and wellness, and giving time and energy to our mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Implementing self-care into our daily routines can help keep depression, anxiety and addictive urges at bay.
Goal-Setting
When we’re caught in cycles of addiction, sometimes our future is the last thing we’re concerned with. We may feel so hopeless and depressed that we no longer feel we have a future to look forward to. We might have stopped caring and feel apathetic about life in general. An important life skill we can develop is setting goals and intentions for ourselves, and creating plans for how to execute them. We help ourselves immeasurably when we have goals to work towards in recovery. The goal of sobriety can be daunting and overwhelming. We can break it down into smaller, more attainable goals, such as attending weekly support group meetings, attending therapy, and staying in touch with our sponsor on a regular basis. We can set intentions to spend time doing productive, healthy things, with people who help us in our recovery. Try making daily, weekly and monthly plans for meeting the goals and intentions you’ve set, and congratulate yourself for every win.
Relationship-Building
Our relationships suffer a lot over the course of our addictions. They are literally put to the test. There are things we can learn to help ourselves have healthier relationships. Communication, healthy self-expression, conflict resolution and emotional independence are all skills that can be learned, developed and practiced, that we can implement in our relationships to help us live healthy, happy, peaceful lives.
Our treatment programs include occupational therapy which helps you learn life skills and coping strategies. Call 1-888-986-7848 for more information.
