It’s so important to have a set of wellness tools for our recovery and lives. Here, we take a look at the importance of mindfulness and self-expression.
Part of our recovery work is learning new coping skills and adding wellness tools to our mental and emotional health toolbox. Often when struggling with addiction and mental illness, we haven’t yet found strategies that help us calm down when we’re feeling stressed, anxious or worried, or that help us to navigate life’s many challenges. Wellness tools help us feel balanced and at peace within ourselves so that we can navigate our recovery, and our lives, more healthfully. It’s so important that as we’re working towards sobriety, we’re developing these skills so that we’re giving ourselves the best possible chance at a successful, lasting recovery. When we don’t have these coping strategies and important life skills, we’re much more vulnerable to relapse and continued mental and emotional health challenges.
Mindfulness is one of the most beneficial wellness tools. When we are mindful, we’re able to be present, enjoy the moment, and work through difficulties with grace, calm, presence, and peace. Mindfulness helps us get grounded and centered within ourselves. It helps us to feel stable, balanced, and secure. Mindfulness practices can include meditation, yoga, and energy healing practices such as tapping and visualization. We can practice being mindful in our daily lives by giving only one thing our full attention and concentration at any given time. We can learn to breathe, eat, speak, walk, and listen in more present and mindful ways. Mindfulness is a skill we can apply to every area of our lives. It can help us to more easily deal with stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Being present in each moment can also help us to be happier, kinder people.
Self-expression is another incredibly useful wellness tool. Very often our mental and emotional health struggles are compounded by the fact that we’re unable to express ourselves. When we’re able to find outlets for self-expression, we no longer feel as burdened or overwhelmed by our pain. We have means of connecting with our emotions and processing them in therapeutic, cathartic, soothing ways. When we express ourselves, we’re engaging in an act of self-care, self-nurturing, and self-love, critical elements of our recovery. We can write poetry or music. We can journal. We can paint, draw or explore photography. There is no limit to our creativity, and when we express our innermost thoughts and feelings, we’re able to create something tangible, useful, productive, and meaningful out of our challenges. This can bring us tremendous satisfaction, fulfillment, joy, and healing.
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. Call us today for more information: (800) 871-5440.