For those in recovery, managing holiday stress is of major importance during the holiday season. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, and let your sobriety fall to the wayside.

One of the best ways you can safeguard your sobriety this holiday season is by prioritizing self-care, even when you feel like there’s no time or you’re too tired. Doing so will ensure that you enter the new year feeling refreshed and strong in your sobriety instead of frazzled and exhausted.

What is self-care?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), self-care is “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”1

To simplify this definition, self-care is anything that relates to maintaining physical health, such as maintaining your nutrition, hygiene, and getting proper medical care, such as going to drug rehab Austin if you’re struggling with addiction. However, self-care can also mean taking care of your emotional and spiritual health too. In short, self-care incorporates a wide range of activities that improve your overall well-being.

Why is self-care important?
In today’s busy world, setting aside time for ourselves to rest and recharge is not something we all naturally do. Instead, we tend to fill every second of every day with work, errands, cleaning, or just general busyness, leaving no time to rest. Although this tends to be normal in American culture, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Self-care is extremely important to your health, especially if you suffer from mental health issues or medical conditions like addiction. It can be hard to learn to put yourself first, especially if you have put drugs and alcohol ahead of everything else in the past. However, a daily self-care practice helps you to make sure you are the first one on your list of priorities. Research studies indicate that frequent and consistent self-care practices can help you manage your stress levels and improve your resilience. Self-care also promotes other positive health outcomes, such as living longer, having less stress overall, and bolstering physical, mental, and emotional health.2

If you’re recovering from addiction, you may have already gone to drug or alcohol detox Austin, followed by rehab, but if you don’t continue doing the work to stay sober and caring for yourself, you could easily fall back into old habits and relapse. This is especially true during the holidays, when stress levels are higher, you’re exposed to more alcohol and drugs, and you’re more likely to suffer from feelings of anxiety, depression, or loneliness.

Relapse is more common during the holiday season for several reasons:

● Americans tend to drink more alcohol during the holidays.
● You may have more access to addictive substances and alcohol.
● Christmas shopping and traveling can cause financial stress.
● We have unrealistic expectations about how things should be.
● Consumerism culture makes us feel like we need more.
● Family dynamics can be stressful, especially when everyone gets together.
● You’re likely to be around more toxic relatives and friends.
● It’s more difficult to maintain your normal routine and you may miss recovery meetings or therapy sessions.

Self-care strategies for the holidays
While you were addicted, you probably turned to drugs or alcohol to relieve stress. However, now that you’re sober, you need to find other ways to practice self-care to make it through the craziness of the holiday season. The great thing is, there are so many ways you can prioritize self-care and none of them have to involve spending unnecessary money!

Here are some examples of healthy ways you can care for yourself and prioritize your recovery during the holidays:

● Going to therapy
● Attending recovery meetings
● Drawing, painting, or taking art classes
● Practicing yoga
● Meditating
● Eating healthy foods
● Taking nature walks
● Swimming
● Journaling
● Practicing gratitude
● Playing music
● Dancing
● Working out or taking exercise classes
● Setting aside time to read your favorite book
● Getting at least 8 hours of sleep each night

There are a lot of options here, so as you try out new self-care strategies for yourself, make sure to pay attention to what relieves your stress and makes you happy. Not all of the strategies listed above will work for you. Or, you simply may not enjoy some of them. That’s fine! The important thing is that you experiment and find what works for you.

How to create a new self-care routine
This holiday season is the perfect time to start implementing some self-care strategies into your daily routine. At first, this might feel overwhelming, so to prevent any additional stress, the best way to start is by picking one self-care activity and weaving it into your weekly routine. Start small and don’t pick the most challenging self-care practice to tackle first. Maybe pick something that sounds enjoyable first. That way, you’re more likely to follow through.

To ensure that you stick with it, make sure to block out a specific time each day for that self-care activity and don’t make any exceptions. Self-care should be non-negotiable! During your self-care time, you may also want to minimize all other distractions, such as setting your phone on silent, turning off your TV, or finding a quiet place where you can focus.

By gradually adding one self-care practice at a time, your daily and weekly routine will eventually reflect healthy, well-rounded practices that contribute to your overall health and well-being and support a continued lifestyle of sobriety.

Find additional support if you need it
In addition to implementing the self-care strategies listed above, it’s also a good idea to seek out treatment if you need it. For example, enrolling in sober living Austin Texas might be the best way for you to get consistent recovery support and accountability while also reducing triggers and temptation during the holidays. Or, perhaps you just need to plan on scheduling extra sessions with your therapist to get extra support and help managing holiday stress and triggers.

However you may feel about your sobriety this holiday season, the most important thing is that you are being honest with yourself and others about where you are. Don’t be afraid to take action and get help if you need to. Remember, you are a work in progress like everyone else. And ultimately, your sobriety is more important than others’ perceptions of you, or any holiday plans that may need to be canceled or rescheduled.

References:
1. https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/self-care-interventions/definitions/en/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080382/