There comes a time in your recovery journey that involves rebuilding your life. We often talk about getting our life back, however, rebuilding from scratch is often the best and only option we have. To have a successful recovery journey often means learning a completely different way of being and going back to the old ways spell disaster for most of us. Rebuilding your life after addiction can be done.
When you’re ready to rebuild your life, small changes make a huge difference. However, those small changes can feel like huge losses at the time. Putting new actions in place and trying our best to maintain them can help you to stay focused. Once we know the path we need to take, it makes it easier to stay on track.
The following are some steps you could consider taking to begin rebuilding your life.
The company you keep
You don’t have to tell any person in addiction how the people you surround yourself with influence how you live your life. Humans will seek out the people who fill their needs and support their life choices. People in addiction will most certainly do this as a way to feel okay about what they are doing. It’s important to take a good look at the behaviours of those around you. Will they support the new version of you or will they drag you back to a place you don’t want to be?
Mentors as teachers
People in recovery are no strangers to having mentors in their lives. Learning from those who have already walked the path can be a hugely beneficial. It’s never been easier to find someone who we can relate to and who talks about the issues we face. We live in the age of technology where learning, listening and reading are at the click of a button. Even if finding a mentor face to face is not your thing, a podcast, youtube channel or indeed something like InTheRooms.com can be just what you need.
Giving back
Once you have the clarity of mind to give back in the right way, giving is such a rewarding action. Sure you can help another in your recovery community, but even a random compliment to a stranger, feeding a hungry stray cat, offering to carry someone’s shopping creates a new energy internally that will make you want to do it more. It’s all about developing new pathways in the brain to joy, rather than using. It works if you work it.
Self talk
Your inner dialogue is something we don’t give much thought to, but it’s time to change that. The way we speak to ourselves, in general, can be pretty tragic as humans. Most of us find it really hard to be kind with our words towards ourselves. We may have learned from others how to feel about ourselves. If we grew up in a critical or unsafe environment our inner dialogue may also be critical and unsafe. Becoming aware of what messages we are telling ourselves and reversing those messages if needs be can make a world of difference to our mental and emotional health. Give it a try!
