Supporting Your Journey Toward Sobriety This Year
The New Year means an opportunity for new beginnings, inward reflection, and self-improvement. Drawing inspiration from the turn of the New Year, the experts at North Georgia Recovery Center are here to share some tips to help you reach your goals in 2022.
Set Attainable Goals
When making the decision to work toward a sober lifestyle, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. However, a simple way to get around this is to break down smaller goals that will collectively help you work toward recovery and wellness.
For most people, removing alcohol and drugs from their everyday lives results in more time, money, and energy to put toward things you'd like to achieve or areas where you'd like to improve. Some of these things may include:
- Building a new skill
- Going back to school
- Focusing on your career
- Rebuilding relationships
- Focusing on your faith
- Improving your emotional health
- Improving your financial situation
By setting smaller goals, it's easier for you to keep track of your progress along the way.
Setting SMART Goals
While maintaining your sobriety is the overarching goal, it's important to make smaller goals that help you to work toward that. You can do so by setting SMART goals. These are goals that are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Remember to Be Gracious
Gratitude and thankfulness also play an important role in the recovery process. Extending beyond saying please and thank you, gratitude is an emotion that evokes positive thoughts and helps you to build deeper relationships with yourself and others.
When in recovery, it’s normal for people to experience major changes in their lives, which can be particularly hard on their mental and emotional wellness. By shifting their focus away from change and negativity, acknowledging the things that they are grateful for can be therapeutic and cathartic.
Benefits of Expressing Gratitude & Thankfulness
A few mental health benefits of expressing appreciation include:
- Improved mood stability
- Decrease in distressing emotions
- Improved optimism
- Higher levels of self-control
- Heightened levels of morality
- Strengthened relationships
Small Ways to Be Grateful Everyday
If you’re unsure where to start, some easy ways to express gratitude everyday include:
- Journaling
- Writing letters and cards to loved ones
- Try to see the positive in different situations
- Practice mindfulness meditation
- Verbally thank people for the things they do
- Acknowledge others’ efforts
Spend Time With supportive Friends & Family
As you navigate the road toward recovery and sobriety, the people who love you and care about you can play a very important role in your success. Although struggling with addiction can make you feel alone at times, it is important to keep in mind that there are people that want to see you lead a happy and healthy life.
Rather than allowing negative emotions to isolate you, surround yourself with the people who truly love and support you. Whether you're having a rough time or you’re feeling particularly proud of yourself, spend time fostering those meaningful connections—not only does this help you to cope, it helps them too.
Some easy ways to reach out and connect with friends and family include:
- Setting up phone and video calls
- Plan a game night
- Watch your favorite movies
- Take a class and learn a new skill together
- Spend time outdoors together
- Spend time doing hobbies you both enjoy
Seeking Help for Addiction at North Georgia Recovery Center
The road to recovery starts with taking the first step. Let us walk alongside you on the path to sobriety and wellness. When you choose to get treatment at North Georgia Recovery Center, you can rest assured knowing that you will be treated by licensed therapists in our state-of-the-art facilities. Every one of our team members is certified to address and effectively treat the issues that come along with addiction.
To schedule your free consultation with our team, call (678) 940-7873 today.