New Year, New You: Your Recovery Plan

The start of the New Year is an excellent opportunity to take a good look at your recovery plan and add some things to your plan to help keep you sober. The key to maintaining sobriety is never going to be one thing, but a combination of various approaches, making use of many different tips and techniques, learning what works and what doesn’t and a willingness to try something new.

ADDRESS YOUR SPIRITUAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH

It isn’t just your body that needs special attention in recovery. Spiritual and emotional health are equally important. There are multiple approaches that are effective in helping restore and rebuild a sense of balance and overall well-being in sobriety.

Some of the most well-known techniques are:

• Prayer –It’s not necessary to be religious to benefit from prayer. Calling on God can help put things in perspective, reduce tension and stress, and produce an overall feeling of well-being. To revamp your recovery plan, prayer is a no-cost, easy approach that is necessary.
• Journaling – This technique helps you keep in touch with internal thoughts and feelings and promotes strength and motivation. Journaling also serves as an outlet to express frustration. Different journal types include daily, spiritual, service and health, and gratitude.
• Walking in nature – Another simple and quick way to add exercise and produce healthy benefits is walking. While any type of walk will do, the most relaxing is likely to engage in walking outdoors. The fresh air brings oxygen to the lungs, walking produces endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemical. For an immediate lift in mood as well to stave off cravings and urges, consider walking outside at lunch, after work, on the weekends or whenever you have a few minutes.

MAINTAIN GOOD SELF-CARE

Beloved, I pray that in every way you may prosper and enjoy good health, as your soul also prospers. 3 John 1:2

Now is a good time to get rid of unhealthy habits like eating poorly, eating the wrong foods, failing to get enough sleep and being too idle. Replace your negative behaviors with healthy choices that will not only make you feel better, they’ll also help in developing self-respect and hope.

Key aspects of good self-care include the following:

• Making better food choices. Eating balanced, nutritious meals regulates blood sugar and helps cut down on cravings and urges.
• Aiming for consistent good sleep. This is one of the linchpins of good self-care. During restful sleep, the body heals and restores itself, contributing to an overall sense of well-being and the confidence to greet the new day.
• Adding exercise daily. Regular exercise serves as a ready outlet to relieve stress. It also helps keep the body in shape and releases endorphins that help lift mood.

ESTABLISH NEW ROUTINES

Daily life should be more than a repetition of the same routines. Yes, some things you do must be done daily, including the necessary items most important to sobriety. This doesn’t mean that you can’t switch the order of doing various tasks or that you can’t add something new. In fact, it is recommend establishing new routines as a way to keep sobriety fresh, maintain interest and motivation and encourage action.

PURSUE MEANINGFUL GOALS

The LORD gave me this answer: “Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance. Habakkuk 2:2

Many times, people new to recovery believe that their goals should focus solely on sobriety. While staying sober must be the priority, this does not preclude pursuing dreams and worthwhile goals. Doing something that makes you feel good and helps fulfill a heartfelt desire is very beneficial to long-term recovery.

Another secret to maintaining sobriety is to get into the practice of completing goals each day. Starting with smaller goals may be easier to put some items in the completed column. But it’s also worth studying or reading to make some progress toward longer-term or complicated goals that take time to achieve.

Goals should be flexible. They will change as you work through them, and this is something to both expect and embrace. This is especially important as you meet new people, develop new interests and find new opportunities to explore.

USE SELF-TALK

You will also decide something, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways. Job 22:28

One tool that’s always available is self-talk. Self-talk is an internal dialogue that helps reframe perspective and can assist in achieving recovery goals. It helps you to remind yourself what’s true, why you want to stay sober and what life was like when you weren’t.

LEAN ON SUPPORT

Support networks, like 12-Step groups, are an invaluable help in the recovery toolkit. Whether it’s trying to manage cravings and urges or just having someone to talk with who’ll listen nonjudgmentally, support groups are a readily available asset to add to your routine. Attend regular meetings, work with your sponsor, find new sober friends and build on your sobriety efforts in a safe and supportive community.

CREATE A RESCUE PACKET

While no one wants to think about relapse, the fact is that relapse is common in recovery. The key point to remember is that relapse doesn’t mean failure. It’s also possible to prevent relapse by being proactive and having a rescue packet on hand to make use of when you feel yourself about to slip.

A solid rescue packet will include:

• Emergency contacts
• Support help lines
• Relapse prevention techniques you learned about in treatment

MAKE IT A POINT TO HELP OTHERS

  For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Hebrews 6:10

Another important part of healing and making headway in sobriety is helping others. This provides meaning and purpose to life, helps remove a constant focus on your  troubles and assists in lessen feelings of worthlessness and shame.