There are various healing tools and techniques we can employ to help ourselves in recovery, and one of the most useful can be documenting our progress throughout our recovery. For some of us, this can be especially helpful, but for others, it can be detrimental, depending on the energy we apply to the process. Can documenting our progress help us?
Tracking Our Work
When we keep track of our progress, we take inventory of which things are working for us and which aren’t, which things we’re doing well and which need improvement. We assess which aspects of our treatment are working for us, and which might need to be adjusted, which care providers we feel are helpful to us, and which we might want to replace, and which changes we’re making in our lives that are supporting our recovery, and which changes still need to be made. We take an in-depth look at how we’re coping with recovery. We examine our mental and emotional health. We assess the status of our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and choices to see if they are contributing to our well-being or detracting from it. We look at what things are triggering us and making us more vulnerable to relapse. We examine what relationships and issues are contributing to our unwellness. We take into account all the different elements of our recovery work, our sessions with therapists, our meetings, our conversations with sponsors, all of it.
What the Process Requires
This process is far from easy, and it requires emotional courage if we’re going to be successful with it. It requires that we be honest with ourselves to really get a clear, full picture of what’s working and what isn’t. It requires that we be humble and vulnerable enough to look at ourselves openly, because if we’re hiding things from ourselves, avoiding the truth and suppressing how we really feel, we’re only doing ourselves a disservice. It requires that we be consistent, organized and methodical in our work in order to get an accurate measurement of our progress. Many of us find it helpful to take inventory of ourselves and our work in these ways.
Detrimental Energy
This process can be detrimental, though, if we’re infusing it with an energy of self-deprecation and judgment, if we’re beating ourselves up and judging ourselves for not making as much progress as we would have liked, if we’re treating ourselves with negativity and condemnation if we don’t meet our expectations, if we’re belittling ourselves for where we currently are along the journey. This process works best if we can be self-supporting, optimistic, hopeful and positive while we do the work.
At The Guest House Ocala, our recovery programs include many experiential modalities including traditional therapy, conscious connected breathwork, equine therapy, somatic experiencing, art in healing, grief therapy, mindfulness and other forms of therapy.
Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.
theguesthouseocala.com
3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488