When living with addiction and mental illness, fun and adventure are often among the things that most get sacrificed, that we most lose out on. We become so occupied with the pain of our mental and emotional challenges, the difficult circumstances we’re living with, and the daily issues we have to contend with, that adventure can easily get forfeited for the sake of things we assume to be more important. How is adventure therapy beneficial to our healing?
We might think of fun as extraneous, as an unnecessary luxury we might enjoy but don’t actually need. Adventure can, in fact, be a wonderful part of our holistic healing. It gives us something to look forward to, and when we’re accustomed to living a bleak reality, this can make all the difference. We can find ourselves approaching our day, and our recovery, with excitement and lightheartedness rather than with dread. Fun can lift our spirits and elevate our mood, bringing us feelings of happiness and inner peace that serve us tremendously well in our recovery. We shouldn’t take our contentment lightly. It can be a powerful ingredient in our pursuit of health and wellness. It can help us offset all of the stress, worry, pressure and expectations we’ve been dealing with for much of our lives.
Adventure therapy is especially helpful for those of us who struggle with interpersonal relationships, which tends to be many of us. It can help us learn how to build healthy relationships with other people and form deeper, more honest and trusting connections. It can help us learn the skills necessary for conscious communication and conflict resolution. Team-building activities teach us how to lead and teach others and also how to be guided and taught by other people. We learn how to support one another. We learn the valuable principles of humility and cooperation. We learn to shed our pridefulness in order to be an effective team member. The skills we learn in team-building help us in our familial relationships, our romantic partnerships and our friendships. We learn to be a kinder, more patient family member, partner and friend. We learn compassion, understanding and generosity. With adventure therapy, we’re given the opportunity to apply our newfound skills in practice, not just in theory, with our fellow peers in recovery. We can practice everything we’ve learned with the supportive and caring community of our treatment center to help us along. Adventure therapy is a nontraditional but extremely beneficial element we can include in our recovery work.
The recovery programs at The Guest House include adventure therapy and other experiential therapies as part of our healing modalities. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.