How To Live A Healthier And Happier Sobriety Journey

How To Live A Healthier And Happier Sobriety Journey
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Sobriety is difficult. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile, but starting and keeping your sobriety is one of your most challenging yet rewarding journeys. It’s normal for you to encounter roadblocks and close calls toward relapse in your journey. However, there are ways for you to live happily and healthily while on your sobriety journey.

If you’re still starting, you may think these to be impossible. After all, you’ve grown accustomed to old habits, and you may not be able to imagine a life free of alcohol that’s simultaneously healthy and happy. Thus, it’s important to remember that choosing to be sober is a choice toward health and happiness.

If you’re wondering how this is possible, here are some tips below:

Build A Support System

Your old friends are likely alcoholics or enablers of your alcohol dependence. While it may hurt to cut ties with them, remember that real friends should support you as you choose a healthier path for yourself. If your sobriety is at risk because of the circle of friends you have around you, it may be time to look for new ones.

This isn’t an easy task by any means. It may isolate you even further, tempting you to drink. In this case, it may be a good option to enter a recovery center like westcoastrecoverycenters.com to be away from your usual triggers temporarily. You may meet others in the same spot, allowing you to feel a sense of camaraderie.

It’s vital that your support system genuinely understands what you’re going through and won’t knowingly tempt you to drink. There’s nothing wrong with choosing your sobriety over people you once thought were your friends but were actually just drinking buddies.

Go To Therapy

The idea of going to therapy can be frightening. It takes courage to admit that you have a drinking problem and set forth with sobriety. But going to therapy is an entirely different ball game.

Therapy requires you to hold a figurative mirror in front of you as you reexamine and open the most vulnerable parts of yourself. However, alcoholism isn’t solely caused by alcohol. People often turn to alcohol because of deep trauma or poor coping mechanisms toward stressful situations. This is where therapy can help you—it’ll allow you to safely revisit your past while you and your counselor work towards building healthier habits, including sobriety.

You may discover what led you to alcohol and the triggers or situations that fueled your drinking habits. Ultimately, going to therapy is embarking on a path toward reconciliation, liberating you from the addiction that ails you.

Exercise

If you haven’t created a regular exercise routine, now is the time to do so. Exercise helps you physically as it boosts your cardiovascular health. Not only that, but it also positively affects your mental health. This is thanks to the release of endorphins, which can reduce stress and improve your overall mood.

The beauty of exercise is that you can explore plenty of activities to find the one you like best. You don’t have to limit yourself to weightlifting or running on the treadmill—you can try biking, yoga, swimming, or even learning a new sport.

Exercise can also give you a new group of friends to hang around with, whether they’re from the gym or a local fitness club. Having friends with the same interests can further motivate you to pursue them and invite some friendly competition.

man offer alcohol but woman refuses

Eat Healthily

It’s common for those in sobriety to move from one addiction to another. One example is moving away from alcohol and choosing food instead. While food may seem benign compared to alcohol, remember that you can be addicted to anything, be it substances, food, or people.

Thus, now is a great time to work on your diet while you work toward maintaining your sobriety. As you may know, alcohol affects your physical health, and it may already be starting to show in your body. You may not be able to undo that damage, but you can treat your body better by eating healthy food.

Integrate more fruits and vegetables into your diet. If you have underlying conditions like hypertension or diabetes, it’s best to adjust your diet around them.

Meditate

Meditation may be clichéd advice, but it’s frequently repeated because it’s true. The moment you choose to be sober doesn’t mean that your demons will no longer haunt you or you’ll suddenly be free from all your anxieties. Thus, you’ll likely encounter a point in your journey where you’ll be overwhelmed and tempted to reach for the bottle.

In moments like these, you can choose to meditate. Meditation will let you focus on the present moment without judgment of your past or your thoughts. It allows you to take a much-needed pause to focus on your breath and reconnect with your inner self.

Meditation can be intimidating, but you don’t have to dive right in. You can start by meditating for thirty seconds to a minute and slowly increase the duration when you feel more comfortable.

Practice Gratitude

Each day offers a different set of challenges yet also provides a different set of grace. In your sobriety journey, never underestimate the value of a single day. Each day you choose your sobriety over alcohol is a day of achievement.

However, forgetting this is easy when you’re occupied with daily life. This is why you should practice gratitude in your life, even for the tiniest things. You can create a gratitude list in a notebook or on your phone and list a few things you’re grateful for daily. It doesn’t have to be grand—you can be grateful for waking up before your alarm, eating a healthy meal, and, of course, for another day of choosing sobriety.

Be Kind To Yourself

It’s easy to forget how far you’ve come, and at some point, it may feel like all your efforts were for naught. With the help of gratitude, reflection, and a few friends, you can restabilize yourself. However, nothing trumps self-forgiveness, self-understanding, and self-compassion. Sobriety isn’t a perfect journey nor is it meant to be perfect. You’ll make mistakes, and it’s easy to beat yourself up over it.

Learning how to forgive yourself isn’t easy, but it gives you peace. Start by acknowledging your shortcomings and make amends as you see fit. Yes, that includes amends to yourself, too.

Takeaway

People have different reasons on why they chose sobriety. It may be to be free from addiction or from realizing how alcoholism has hurt you and those around you. Regardless of your reason, choosing sobriety is choosing health, happiness, and yourself. Keep your chin up and remember that things can and will get better.


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Anna is an avid blogger with an educational background in medicine and mental health. She is a generalist with many other interests including nutrition, women's health, astronomy and photography. In her free time from work and writing, Anna enjoys nature walks, reading, and listening to jazz and classical music.

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