An important element of our recovery work is learning like skills that will serve us in our healing. Once we’ve completed treatment, we will inevitably face challenges upon reintegrating back into our regular lives. We might feel stressed out, worried, anxious and depressed. We’ve been unearthing deep traumas, uncovering complicated life issues, and facing unresolved fears. The recovery process is demanding and tests our strength and resilience. To help our chances of successfully staying on track with our recovery, we can learn important life skills that will serve us moving forward.

One such life skill is that of self-care. Our addictions and mental health issues can cause us to totally neglect ourselves. We lose our ability to care for ourselves. This can include taking care of our physical health, our financial responsibilities, and our relationships. Learning self-care means getting back to our wellness – getting enough exercise and proper nutrition, making sure we’re getting enough restful sleep, and not overextending ourselves on a daily basis so that we feel stressed out and overwhelmed. Self-care also means learning how to ask for help when we need it, how to allow ourselves to receive support, and how to establish and maintain healthy boundaries in our relationships. Learning self-care means learning how to prioritize ourselves, something many of us have never been able to do because we always placed more importance on our relationships, our addictive behaviors, or our careers. Effective self-care teaches us our own self-importance. If we aren’t caring for ourselves and making sure we’re whole and healthy, we can’t possibly care for other people or for the responsibilities of our lives.

Another life skill we can learn and implement in recovery is that of mindfulness. When we are mindful, we are able to bring our conscious awareness to our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We’re able to take inventory of our patterns and habits. We’re able to monitor our self-talk and self-perception. We’re able to self-correct ourselves when we’re thinking negatively, reacting in unhealthy ways or perpetuating habits that aren’t good for us. With mindfulness we practice meditation and other mindful exercises. Mindfulness teaches us all kinds of emotional skills that are hugely beneficial to our recovery, patience being one of them. When we are mindful, we’re less likely to react out of anger, worry, or panic. We’re more likely to choose responses that are beneficial to us and that help us to move forward. We’re able to shed the limitations and constrictions of our addictions.

Life skills education is an important part of treatment at Bayview Recovery. Call 888-570-7154 for more information.