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Putting your recovery first can be challenging, especially on the days when healing feels particularly hard. Sometimes healing makes you feel on top of the world, and other times it can leave you feeling as if you are hanging on by a mere thread. Since motivation will not always be present, it is important to begin shifting your perspective on how you show up for recovery.

Finding a therapist you feel aligned with can be challenging. It is also the most important thing to consider when it comes to experiencing trust in the therapeutic relationship. This is often considered the most important part of therapy because it allows for the most healing.

The first thing you lose contact with when experiencing stress is your breath. Connection with your breath is the key to accessing deeper states of presence in yourself. To begin rekindling a relationship with yourself and feeling more centered in your life, you must begin to build an intentional relationship with your breath. Allow it to serve as the guide home to your body and the present moment.

Journaling is an activity that you can practice to help make sense of challenging thoughts and emotions. Plus, there is something cathartic about sitting down and expressing your feelings on paper. Your journal is a private space for you and your thoughts, where you can be honest without fear of judgment. As you work through your troubles in a linear and organized fashion, you can start to connect with your inner voice. Journaling is a form of writing therapy, a creative approach to helping you heal from a past of substance abuse, trauma, and mental health conditions.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a form of therapy that focuses on ideas of cognitive-behavioral therapy. It is rooted in recognizing how your thoughts influence your feelings and how your feelings influence your actions by way of practices rooted in mindfulness. These types of therapies can help you experience a new relationship with your thoughts and feelings that allow you to experience freedom from them rather than attachment to them.

The stories you tell yourself can either empower or oppress you. They can either lead you closer to your goals and desired reality, or further away from them. Recovery is an intentional time that asks you to rewire your mind and rewrite the stories you tell yourself to experience liberation and freedom.

Anxiety can feel like a blanket, only instead of comforting you, it suffocates you. It can feel heavy, dark, isolating, and can leave you wondering if it will ever leave. Although anxiety may feel like it is consuming your life, there are practices you utilize to intentionally and mindfully soften the weight that anxiety brings to experience freedom.

Crystal meth is short for methamphetamine, an artificial stimulant chemically similar to amphetamine. Some would argue that meth is one of the most addictive and toxic drugs out there. Recreational use can quickly devolve into addiction, which is accompanied by a number of serious health concerns. A methamphetamine addiction will most likely require medical detox in order to start recovering.

Allowance is the amount to which you permit something into your experience. In the absence of allowance, you may find yourself meeting resistance and feeling stuck physically, relationally, emotionally, or spiritually.

Beginning treatment for substance use disorder and mental illness can feel overwhelming. Not only are you learning to manage all the pieces of your treatment program, but you are also beginning to change in ways that you never have before and challenging parts of yourself that are destructive but have become your normal. Because healing can feel overwhelming and uncertain at times, it is important to take it one step at a time.

What is your relationship like with acceptance? It is common to confuse acceptance with staying “stuck." The line between acceptance and stagnation is thin and sometimes blurry. Despite that fact, what if acceptance of yourself and your situation was the launchpad for change, growth, and healing?

A functioning alcoholic is a person who does not match the classic image that usually comes to mind when thinking of alcoholism. Learning how to identify this person in your family can clarify when it is time to get help for alcohol abuse. Flexible treatment programs like partial hospitalization may be the most appropriate and effective way to get your loved one on their path to sobriety.