Life Skills

Developing Healthy Habits

Development of healthy eating behaviors can be a fun and challenging journey. From learning how to cook, experimenting with new food groups and finding unique and foreign recipes; being kind to your body and mind and listening to what responses you receive from your food choices is important. When you eat healthy, you feel healthy. Regular exercise is a wonderful way to create helpful endorphins and strengthen your mind and body. Regular sleep hours give you a sense of stability and daytime awareness as well as allowing your brain to rejuvenate itself during sleep. These three major factors of diet, sleep and exercise are major factors in avoiding relapse. 

Time Management

The struggle is real where time management skills are concerned. Using a daily journal or calendar can help organize the time spent during your day to avoid boredom and isolation which are triggers to relapse. Reporting to work fifteen minutes early relieves what could be a stressful situation in arriving late to weather the consequences. School, doctor’s appointments, therapy sessions and meetings with friends all organized in a timely manner to allow responsibility and being on time to avoid conflicts. 

Developing a Routine

Humans seems to thrive on routines. Waking up at the same time, eating the same healthy breakfast, enjoying a leisurely walk at lunch and dinner, then bed at same times every day is a positive accomplishment and reduces anxiety and stress. Planning changes now and then is also healthy, but routines help our minds and bodies. 

Education and Job Transition Support

This key point could be an obstacle without any training while in treatment. Individuals who have spent time in substance abuse may have missed opportunities to obtain vital educational skills that are required in a job search. Finding a job, you would like to work, but not having the opportunity because of legal issues, or lack of a driver’s license, or experience can cause anxiety and stress. Learning what to do to solve these problems before you leave treatment is vital. Discussing and making plans to re-enter the workforce while in recovery makes sense. Know your options and your therapists and life skills coaches can help you make positive choices for the future. 

Financial Management

Learning how to manage money is key to reducing stress in your life and minimizing stress, which will help reduce the risk of relapse. By learning how to budget, you are saving yourself from a great deal of long-term stress. Setting aside money for your responsibilities, learning to design a budget, and trying to stay out of debt can be learned in life skills while in treatment. Setting yourself up for success financially will be a major step to being successful after treatment. 

Managing Emotions – Conflict Management – Negotiation Skills

Communication is key in managing these three life skills. Learning early on in treatment how to communicate with a therapist can be the first step in battling old habits. Habits that you may have used, but were harmful, like using drugs or alcohol, can be replaced with new, helpful habits that will help the transition into sober living. Beginning early on in treatment ARM Dallas will encourage and lead in open communication skills to venture into emotions and feelings that were buried.