Our relationship with ourselves and the world around us matter, but not when addiction is at the center. Many people who have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol recognize this challenge. People who have an unhealthy relationship to substances don’t have a good relationship with themselves. Alcohol helps us escape our own minds but it is not going to work forever. Eventually, it catches up, and we have to pay back the piper. If you want to repair broken relationships with yourself (and others), there are some simple steps to get started on the journey of recovery and reconciliation.
Connect with Yourself
When you stop drinking, you develop other things in the midst. Perhaps meditation or yoga, or some other means to connect with yourself. Learning to connect with yourself, accepting love, means you remove the need to reach outside yourself and connect instead in a more meaningful way with yourself. This is a healthy way to go but it takes time to get there.
Develop a Connection with Others
Instead of using alcohol to pretend to be someone else, you can be authentically who you are and lead a more meaningful, enjoyable connection with others. These authentic, therapeutic relationships are only possible when you have a healthy, loving relationship with yourself. When you are unhealthy, you count the days or hours until your next drink. When you stop, you can improve relationships and connections with others.
Get Into Nature
The more connected you are to yourself and the world, the more you appreciate everything. It is liberating to have pleasure in simple things. When you wake up and hear birds singing, they are not ringing in your ears. They are singing outside, in the natural world, and you are hearing their beautiful song again. This also builds gratitude for the journey.
Be Self-Aware
When you begin to look at repairing broken relationships with others, it helps to know yourself. Self-awareness is about making better choices. You can exercise control over decisions and get to care for yourself better. If you stick to commitments, you know you will be healthy and eating well instead of reaching for bad food and also doing what is best for your family and friends rather than self gratification. This is a huge step towards honoring those relationships and seeking to reconcile them for healing.
A Step in the Right Direction provides quality care for clients seeking support for addiction recovery. We teach people how to live a sober life through programs, therapeutic support, and evidence-based therapies. Our recovery program is staffed by people who understand the power of addiction. For more information sober living programs for men and women as well as recovery programs, call (877) 377-3702.
