Addiction recovery isn’t just about stopping the use of substances. It’s about starting a new and better life, which will require you to develop specific life skills. Some of these life skills could include better time management, better financial management, and much more. At Choice House, we will help you develop some of the essential life skills. Developing these skills will improve your home and work life and help you avoid relapse or temptations.
Learning to Communicate
One of the skills that many people in recovery lack is the ability to communicate. When using substances, you may have isolated yourself or not taken the way you communicate with others into consideration. You may have also used substances to ignore the way you feel, never opening up to those around you. It can be challenging to open yourself up, especially to people you’ve never met. However, being able to communicate appropriately is essential during recovery and your daily life.
At Choice House, you can better learn to communicate through our group sessions, one-on-one therapy sessions, or by just freely talking to our other guests. You’ll be amazed at the weight that’s lifted off your shoulders when you can truly express how you feel.
Ways of improving your communication skills can include: learning to listen, having a positive attitude, being aware of your body language, and asking for honest feedback/advice.
Handling Stress and Emotions
Going through addiction recovery can be one of the most stressful moments in a person’s life. You may be experiencing withdrawal symptoms and dealing with emotional turmoil. It is crucial to develop healthy ways of combating this stress; that way, avoiding stress in your daily life will seem easy.
There is a multitude of ways one can cope with stress. During your stay at Choice House, you may find that sharing your thoughts and feelings with a group or your therapist helps alleviate that stress. Additionally, Choice House specializes in outdoor therapy, so you might find hiking or another form of outdoor exercise to be excellent ways of coping with stress.
Other healthy ways of reducing stress include getting a full night’s sleep, creating a piece of art, and practicing meditation.
Forming a Regular Routine
There are many benefits to having a daily routine. For one, it can help you form good habits and avoid falling back into your old, bad habits. With a routine, you can also get more done in the day and be better prepared for any tasks that need to get done.
At Choice House, we will give you a daily routine designed to help you form good habits and learn better ways of avoiding stress.
Managing Your Time
Learning to manage your time goes hand-in-hand with forming a routine. Proper time management is a skill that everyone needs to ensure a productive day. With proper time management, you can feel more in control of your day and have time to do the things you want.
While at Choice House, we can help you take stock of your daily activities and form better ways of managing your time. This can include writing down everything you do in a day, prioritizing your most important tasks, and allowing yourself to take breaks.
Managing Your Money
One of the most significant sources of stress in one’s life can be worrying about money. One way to alleviate this stress is by making sure you are correctly managing your money.
Financial skills are essential to surviving in your daily life. You want to make sure you’ve budgeted money for bills, groceries, and other essentials. The experts at Choice House can help you develop these financial skills to ensure you’re prepared for life outside of recovery.
Taking Care of Yourself
We want our guests to prioritize both their mental and physical health. In practicing self-care, you can improve your mood and reduce anxiety. Self-care can mean a lot of things. It can mean getting more exercise, trying to socialize in a safe setting, or starting a new hobby. There are many ways one can show themselves care, and in doing so, develop healthier coping mechanisms.
Maintaining a Proper Diet
Now that you’ve decided to get sober, why not improve your body even more by eating healthy? Having a healthy diet not only improves your physical appearance but can also help you sleep better and have more energy. Sticking to a healthy diet may seem difficult at first, but once you feel the results, you’ll realize that it was all worth it.
Developing proper life skills is one of the best ways to avoid temptations and falling back into bad habits after recovery. By developing these life skills, you can better control your life and alleviate the stress caused by temptations and past traumas. At Choice House, we will help you develop and maintain these life skills during your time in our recovery program. We help our guests build life skills, including better time management, better financial management, proper self-care, better communication, and much more. Thanks to our location in Boulder, Colorado, you can alleviate stress while enjoying some of the best views. It can be easier to handle stress when taking a quiet walk through nature or fishing in a nearby river. Opening yourself up to our local community and professional therapists can also help you deal with past traumas. For more information about Choice House and the programs we offer, call us at (720) 577-4422 today.