Blog - Maintaining Your Sobriety: Pleasurable Daily Habits

Addictions are hard to beat – but they’re far from unbeatable. 75 percent of recovery seekers succeed in getting clear of their habits, and so can you. According to UCLA Health, the key to recovery is replacing your indulgences with joy: You reward yourself by engaging in pleasurable and healthful activities frequently, instead of spending time or energy on bad habits. You essentially attempt to recreate the same pleasure of your addiction without any of the pain or harmful consequences.

In this mini-guide, Therapy For All offers pleasurable daily habits that you can practice every day to maintain your sobriety:

A positive start to the day gives you extra energy, puts you in a good mood, and is likely to brighten up your entire day. Below are three activities that ensure your start off on the right foot:

Meditating after you wake up: Meditating for a few minutes every morning gives you peace of mind, helps you focus, and makes you more productive.

Seeking positive news: Negative news makes personal worries worse, causes acute stress reactions, and leads to symptoms of PTSD. Seeking out positive news, instead, fills you with hope and makes your day brighter.

Skipping social media: Consuming social media in the morning is like eating junk food for breakfast – it doesn’t fill you up, depletes your energy, and only feeds your ego.

Nature has several healing properties – it reduces stress, soothes anxiety, heals your body, and relieves pain. Spending a few minutes in a garden, park, forest, or other natural setting daily is a simple but powerful way to find joy in your life and beat unhealthy habits. For added effect, you can walk barefoot in the grass.

Good mental health is your best safeguard against dark thoughts, negativity, and self-sabotaging emotions and patterns. Simple ways to maintain your mental health are going to your happy place, having breaks to let off steam, interacting with positive people, exercising, picking up a hobby you enjoy, and practicing mindfulness.

Breathwork – the art of harnessing your breath for positivity – is one of the most powerful tools there is to release trauma, tension, and blocked emotions in your mind and body. Simply learning how to breathe properly can keep you mentally strong.

You need willpower and discipline to stop yourself from falling off the wagon and maintain your sobriety. You don’t develop either overnight – it takes conscious effort and practice. One of the best ways to build up your mental strength and discipline is to practice self-affirmations or mantras like “I can, I will. End of story.” Simply holding on to or repeating a mantra daily when you’re feeling tempted can help you beat temptation.

You need patience and empathy for yourself as much as you need discipline and willpower. Nobody is strong all the time – and that’s okay. Make it a habit of appreciating yourself and praising yourself for trying to keep to your resolutions. Also, a relapse doesn’t an addiction make. If you fall, just get back up and try again.

Sticking to a commitment to sobriety is hard mental work. The more tired you get, the harder it will be to resist and stay the course. Get plenty of sleep every day to recharge and re-energize your mental batteries. Besides keeping you fresh, sleep also has a positive impact on your overall well-being. If you find yourself flagging in the day, you could take power naps in the afternoons.

The more joyful you are, the easier it will be to stay sober. Creating and maintaining a personalized self-care schedule, starting with a healthy morning routine and leading into a day full of pleasurable activities, is arguably your best bet to being happy, long-term, and achieving your goal of remaining sober.