As the new year begins, it can be a great time to reflect on your recovery journey. How do you feel about your recovery? What might you want to work on or change? The beginning of the new year is a great time to reflect and make those changes.
Journeying through treatment was a time of growth and discovery. Now that you are in recovery, that growth and discovery continue. Here are a few different areas of your recovery that you may find useful to assess and analyze.
Do You Have Goals
Do you still have clear and concise goals that you are working towards? Do those goals still align with what you are doing every day? Recovery is a unique process that is different for everyone. It is perfectly okay for your goals to change as you grow as a person.
Goals are an essential part of recovery. If you find yourself not working towards any goals, now is the perfect time to establish some. What do you want to work on? Where do you want to see yourself a year from now? What about two years from now?
What Did You Struggle With
What did you struggle with this year? Were there aspects of your recovery that caused you stress or anxiety? Did you relapse? Take time to think about the parts of your recovery that did not go as planned. Recovery is a lifelong process, and it is common for it not to go as exactly as you anticipated.
Growth can be an amazing process. Mistakes help with growth and discovery. Think of all of the mishaps this year as learning lessons. These lessons will help your growth in the new year.
What Went Well
What aspects of your recovery went well? Were there moments when you felt proud of yourself? Did you have moments where you surprised yourself with good decisions and determination? While it is great to think about all of the things you want to work on, it is also important to acknowledge all you have succeeded with and everything you have accomplished.
Often successful therapy focuses on your strengths and your weaknesses. When you are analyzing your recovery remember to think about the positive and the negative. You are a complete person, and acknowledging who you are as an entire person is important.
Changes for the New Year
As you begin to assess how your year went, you may realize that you want to make some changes. Making changes can be wonderful. Do not feel ashamed of changing goals, moving boundaries, or assessing relationships. As you continue through recovery, you will change as a person. What you enjoy doing, who you spend your time with, and the triggers you experience will all change as you move through recovery.
If the idea of making changes causes you anxiety, that could be a sign you should work with your therapist to make those changes. Talk with your therapist about how your year went and what aspects you want to change or try differently. Even in recovery, your therapist is there for you and ready to help you with anything you need support with.
Assess Your Support
Did you receive the support you needed this past year? Were you surrounded by people that brought positivity and comfort to you? Having a strong support system is so important. Do not feel bad about expressing that you did not receive the support you wanted or needed. This is the time when you can express what you need.
Work with your therapist to determine what did and did not work with your support system this past year. Your loved ones may not fully understand what you need from them. As a new year begins, try to find the courage to talk with them about your recovery and what struggles you still face. The people who are your support system want to be there for you, and they want you to succeed.
Determine the High and Low of the Year
What was the happiest moment during the previous year? What did you feel was the greatest success of the year? What was the moment where you felt the lowest or struggled the most? Think about those moments. What made one positive and one negative? Could you have changed anything in the low moment to make it feel less negative? By thinking about your highs and lows of the year, you can grow and learn from them. What do you need to do differently this year to have more high moments? What do you want your year to look like or feel like?
As the new year begins, it can be a wonderful time to assess your recovery and how your mental health has been this year. Making changes to improve your mental health and strengthen your recovery is terrific. You may want to think about the goals you have set and whether those goals still apply to what you want to work towards. Assessing your support is also something to consider. Having a solid support system in place is an essential part of recovery. If you did not receive the type or level of support that you needed, now is a great time to talk to your support system about that. Set yourself up for an excellent and productive year. Here at The Guest House, we are ready to help you regardless of where you are in your recovery. Call us today to learn more about how we can support your journey at (855) 483-7800.