When we are embroiled in addiction and mental health issues, our well-being is very often our last priority. We choose to place more importance on everything else in our lives – all our duties and obligations, our families and relationships, our jobs and finances. We don’t realize that when we don’t give time to ourselves, we set ourselves up for breakdowns in our health that keep us from being able to give of ourselves to anything else in our lives. Sacrificing our well-being makes us more vulnerable to depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. We are actively chipping away at our peace of mind and our emotional balance. We’re limiting ourselves and keeping ourselves from growing our emotional strength and resilience. How can we learn to prioritize our wellness, especially when we’ve been neglecting ourselves for so long?
One of the ways we can change our priorities is to rethink our value in terms of how we spend our time. We often think that taking care of ourselves is less important than the other things in our lives, and when we do make time for ourselves, we think we’re wasting or misusing our time. We want to shed this thought pattern and start to see taking care of ourselves as an important use of our time. We often don’t want to make time for ourselves out of guilt. We think we’re wrong, or bad people, or shameful when we put ourselves first. We think of self-care as selfish. As a result, our mental, emotional and physical well-being can suffer. We can experience breakdowns in our health and worsened depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses.
We can start affirming to ourselves that we are valuable, that we are worthy of our time, that we deserve our attention and care. We can shed the limiting beliefs that tell us we’re not good enough, that we are unworthy and unlovable. We can try to stop being so hard on ourselves, beating ourselves up for our mistakes, and drowning ourselves in shame. We can work on forgiving ourselves and having unconditional self-acceptance. When we shift our mentality to heal our self-esteem, we naturally will want to make more time for ourselves. We will find it easier to prioritize our wellness when we feel deserving of our own nurturing and support.
Riverside Recovery is a drug and alcohol treatment center offering a full continuum of care for people suffering from addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders. We understand the emotional challenges of addiction recovery and are here to support you. Call us today for more information: (800) 871-5440.