Congratulations on working through your addiction. You have made the life-changing choice of working through your challenges and facing your addiction head-on. Recovery is a lifelong process, one that can look different for everyone. The hurdles that impact you will be different from the hurdles that affect someone else. While in treatment, you probably spent a lot of time focusing on your mental health and learning to understand your thought processes and triggers. It is essential to keep that mental exploration going even after treatment. As the recovery journey continues, many individuals find that they need to be mindful of managing stress and outside demands.
Learning to manage your stress is essential. Stress can be dangerous when maintaining your sobriety. You may have coped with stress in various ways in the past, and some of those ways were probably not healthy. Learning healthy responses to stress will be a necessary part of maintaining your health and sobriety. We are all on unique journeys, so what works for you may not work for someone else. Take the time to understand what your mind and body need. Here are a few simple tips to help you manage your stress and outside demands.
Be Flexible and Know Your Options
Managing stress can be challenging. Being flexible and knowing your options may help. Prioritize what needs to be done first and what can wait. Does it all need to be completed right now? Can some things wait? Do you have to do everything, or can you accept help from others? Learning and accepting that you have options will be a great help to you in managing stress.
Learning that you do not have to do everything yourself can be difficult for some individuals to accept. If you tend to be a perfectionist, learning to be flexible and knowing that you have options can help you. Work on the understanding that there may be multiple ways to accomplish a given task and complete the task successfully. Being flexible will help you to release your stress and not to worry unnecessarily.
Know Your Limits
Know when your mental health is in jeopardy. Putting yourself first is something that you will need to learn to do at times. When you can acknowledge your feelings and emotions, you can learn the difference between simply feeling a little stressed out versus needing to reach out for support and help.
You have put in hard work to live a sober and healthy lifestyle. Making sure you set yourself up for success is key. Do not put yourself in risky situations that you are not ready for. Stress may make you feel like you need to keep pushing forward. Try to stop and think clearly through every situation.
Connect With Your Support System
Continuing to receive professional support and help is often recommended for people in recovery. Peer support can be another option. Having the support of someone who has gone through recovery can have tremendous benefits. You can talk to them about their struggles and how they persevered and pushed through those challenging moments. You can speak to them about how stress has affected their sobriety and how they learned to handle their stress positively.
Acknowledge Your Feelings
Life gets busy. We find ourselves constantly moving from one task to the next each day. It can be hard to stop and focus on what you are feeling when you are feeling it. If you find yourself feeling stressed or overwhelmed, hit the pause button. Ask yourself, what are you feeling stressed over? Who is involved? What options do you have in this situation?
When you acknowledge what you are feeling, you can learn to work through those emotions. Often, people think that they will not be affected if they do not acknowledge feelings or emotions. The truth is those feelings will still affect you. Acknowledging your feelings will help you grow and better understand your mental health and overall well-being.
Believe in and Trust Yourself
Living life in recovery can be an amazing experience. Your sobriety is probably one of the most important components of your life right now. It can be scary to not fully trust yourself or to feel uncertain. Believing in yourself is an essential part of recovery, and trusting yourself comes with time.
During those stressful moments or times when others are demanding a lot from you, trust in yourself to choose what is right for you. If you find yourself struggling to understand how to best handle a situation or emotion, reaching out for professional help can be a great option.
Learning how to manage your stress is an integral part of the recovery process. Acknowledging feelings and emotions and then knowing how to work through them can be powerful. You did the hard work of getting sober and learning about your mental health. Now the work goes on as you maintain your sobriety and continue to grow as a person. Many find it helpful and comforting to continue to receive professional help through the recovery process. You will be faced with challenging situations as you work towards becoming the person you have always wanted to be. Here at The Guest House, we are a group of professionals with extensive experience helping people just like you work towards obtaining their long-term goals. We understand the challenges you will face every single day, and we are ready to help. Call us today to learn more about how we can support you at (855) 483-7800.