Foundation Four Self-Care In Recovery: Sensorial Embrace

What kind of word is that? I know that is probably what your thinking! To be honest with you I am not sure it’s totally right but what I do know is that in the dictionary is means exactly what I am trying to tell you all here. When we are in recovery we have to take a moment to remember what it is like to feel and embrace everything in life again. I don’t just mean to hug or touch something I mean to really feel and really understand.

Sensory | Sensorial Embrace

Out of touch. That is something we all become when we “check-out” and become devoured by the darkness of our own. We already know we don’t feel anything emotionally really and we sure don’t feel anything within our soul. But one more thing we don’t do is take the time to embrace and feel all the beautiful things in life. So this my friends is something we if we can learn to keep in focus then we can break addiction and heal mental illness because we will feel too wonderful and see life in a completely different way.

Before I started down the road of my “dark days” there was nothing better to me than when my children held my hand in the store, or the sound of them singing in the car, even the simple view of the water on the lake could make my day. I loved life and the life I was given and especially the people in my life.

We lose these senses once we are consumed in darkness. It is probably the hardest to regain control of once we begin recovery and once you start to you will feel things like you have never felt them before. I know that this is the final part of the foundations. I had to learn to embrace life again. So do you.

When your driving down the road in the city at night and you see the lights of the buildings so bright and beautiful with colors and you have to smile or take a deep breath or even get chill over your body? That is you embracing the sensory of your emotional and physical needs. Your mind, body, and soul are feeling the gift of life. The view is exquisite and you can’t hold back the feeling of how much you love that very view!

One touch from your children. Kisses at bedtime, hugs in the morning, excited embrace after school, or holding your hand in the store are just a few moments of sweet love that your embracing. A tear falls down your face or you smile so big it hurts and you think to yourself never could you imagine a better life than what you have in that moment. That is a sensory embrace! You are feeling the love of this life!

Your best friend calls your cell after years of not speaking to you because you have been so out of it that they couldn’t bare to see you that way. You meet your best friend for lunch at your favorite spot and she is laughing that dorky loud laugh that you have forgotten that you missed and you start to cry. That my dear friends is you embracing the sensory of life. The feeling of comfort and belonging because she is the only person who ever made you feel that way!

I could go on for days with the different parts of our senses that we begin to feel more intensely once we begin to recover but I think you know now. These are the emotions, the feelings, the physical parts, the moments and the results of life happening when your in recovery. If we allow ourselves to feel them whether good or bad without going back into the darkness we can find our final foundation to success. It is so intensely important to allow yourself to feel and embrace life as it is with whatever emotion it is so that we can regain control over what we feel. I don’t know how many times I lost myself over and over again because I wouldn’t allow myself to feel anything during my dark days and that is one of my biggest mistakes.

I will always make sure that I embrace every single part this life that I have been given because it is a beautiful life to live and that is what we cannot forget.

TO FEEL IS TO BE ALIVE AND TO BE ALIVE IS TO FEEL.

DON’T CUT YOURSELF OR YOUR LIFE SHORT ANY LONGER! STAND ON A SOLID FOUNDATION!

@chic_sober

Foundation Four Self-Care in Recovery: Physical Alertness | 09+12+19

I am not a person who enjoys a 7 day of the week workout. I cannot tell you that I have ever competed a workout challenge in my life. But what I can tell you is that in the past 7 months the more active I have stayed the better I have felt. Just get up and move! Go to the park and walk the track, grab a basketball and shoot some hoops, workout or try yoga once or twice a week. This doesn’t have to be hardcore workouts; you just gotta keep yourself moving every single day! Our bodies need it! Did you know…

Physical | Physical Alertness

www.wellandgood.com
When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine

When we are depressed or suffering from addiction we can often forget to take care of our physical selves. We don’t eat right, sleep right, or anything that we should. That is why our hair falls out or we get dark circles under our eyes. You’ll notice acne begin to appear and your sick more often than not. We deprive ourselves of nutrition and wellness that we need to survive. These things eventually start to get to the point where we are nothing but a walking skin.

I know that I never want my body to ever feel or look that way again. Knowing how much I was depriving myself of I try to make up for that now. Over the past few months or so I can really understand and feel the difference in my body. I think that no matter what struggle your facing or addiction your recovering from being Physically Alert can help your overall general health.

Do you ever think about why so many people mediate? Why there are so many health guru’s? Why fitness products and supplements are almost a #1 world-wide seller? Because it feels good to feel good! Nobody really wants to walk around looking and feeling bad. So if we can start to just get up and get active we can always make sure that we have the foundation for success.

Basketball is so much fun! I am completely horrible at it but I love to play with TJ. He makes it look so easy and I’m over here looking like a hippo in yoga pants trying to do back flips! It just don’t look right. But I have fun while playing and after when my heart is beating and I can feel the endorphins going crazy I just love it! Yoga is another favorite of mine. Once, again I look ridiculous but I absolutely love to take part in it. There is a sense of freedom and relaxation once you get over not looking right. Your body just yearns for the activity and it feels fantastic after. I know most of anyone thinks that yoga is silly or hard but in reality its neither. It’s pretty relaxing and certainly fun.

You won’t ever catch me running or jogging for that matter because I am just not a runner but I do love to walk the track at the park especially because mine has a trail through the woods and that’s my soft-spot! Just being up and moving around instead of on my phone or in front of the TV junkin out on junk food makes you feel better!

I mention these activities because they are my own personal examples of b Physical Alertness. The more active I am the more alter my mind, body, and soul will be to the things in life that will try to bring me down. Staying alert isn’t always easy and if we are dumpy and frumpy we are more likely to let something slip by us and fall into the sadness or lose grip of our willpower. So I cannot tell you how important it is to stay alert and get active for not just your physical being but your mind & soul too! It is going to be hard at first but just push forward and know that once that initial pain is gone you will feel so much better!

WHEN THE BODY IS PHYSICALLY READY THERE IS NOTHING THAT WE CANNOT HANDLE MENTALLY…

Be ready always!

@sober_soul

Foundation Four Self-Care In Recovery: Spiritual Soul Search | 09+08+19

So today begins the first of our four part series: Foundation Four Self-Care in Recovery: Spiritual Soul Search. I want to begin this four part series with the part of Recovery Self-Care that I find to be the most important and the part that will heal you the most, but it also will take the most work. This is not something that will need to be done one time. This part as well as the other three parts of self-care need to be practiced on a daily basis and day by day you will begin to see and feel yourself getting better. After reading, I hope you will share your thoughts as well share this series of post with your friends and loved ones!

Spiritual | Soul Search

This is the very first and in my opinion the most important of Foundation Four Self-Care in Recovery. We know, that living in addiction is like you are living in Hell and it almost completely destroy our souls. Addiction and mental illness creates a theoretical darkness over our heads and in our souls that take the reins and controls every part of us. This is why it is so difficult to beat addiction or heal a mental illness. Our addictions or illnesses don’t just control our mind’s or bodies but also controls and damages our souls. We are by nature, spiritual beings and this will always be. So when addiction or illness takes the reins on your soul…….

soul
/sōl/
noun
1.
the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
2.
emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance

we become so damaged that it is sometimes seems un-mendable or irreparable. This is why I cannot stress enough how important Spiritual Self-Care is during our recovery journey. I have mentioned before that I call my active addiction days “the Dark Days” and that is so true because it is like darkness consumes our souls and destroys us. So once we begin to come out of active addiction and into recovery we have to mend the spiritual damage that has been done to us. Of course there has been emotional and physical and sensorial damage as well, but I will get to those later in the series. Now, I don’t want to force region on anyone nor do I want to offend anyone, but if you are a follower of my blog than you probably know at this point that I very much have began to walk my life with God’s plan. I believe that his spirit dwells within me and that he is the one that brought me out of my addiction. Now, that I have said that I want to say that when I am talking of Spiritual Self-Care I don’t necessarily mean that you need to find God. What I mean, is to find your soul and find yourself again. There are many different parts that make us who we are; like a very complex puzzle that was put together to make us who we are. When we are in active addiction or suffering from mental illness those pieces are strolled everywhere. Once we make the choice to start on recovery we have to set out to find all of those pieces that make up our own puzzle.

This is the part I call Soul Searching.

Because we have lost all of ourselves during our addiction it is going to be intensely difficult to find what we have lost, but it is possible. Once we get started on our journey of recovery we will have pieces of our lives begin to come together without us even realizing that this is happening and that is a beautiful thing. However, the part of our lives that won’t just fall together is the healing of our souls and the understanding of who we are now, that we have been an addict and suffered from a mental illness and finally began to overcome the things we thought we could not. So how do you Soul Search? How do you start to find and understand yourself when you have been so lost for so long? Well, you have already started to find those two very parts when you have made the choice to get sober or not suffer any longer. Now, this is where life will get real intense incredibly fast. Because you have to face not only the part of your life where you were using or suffering, but you have to face the parts of your life BEFORE using as well. You need to identify what lead you to your addiction or illness. In an earlier post I made called “Reasons Why” I talked about this. We all have reasons why we began using in the first place. To truly recover we need to face these parts of ourselves first.

I recently spoke with a fellow blogger, Adriana, who also battled with addiction. She said that once she realized what the reason was that lead her to use, which she called “a hole in her soul,” she could then use it to help her recover after her addiction. She also noted that this reason dated back all the way to her childhood and I couldn’t agree more. We have won’t all have traumatic or bad childhood’s I know, but the point is that we have to identify and understand what originally damaged our soul in the first place. This is so important for our recovery and to have continuous sobriety for years to come. So when your starting this journey of recovery this needs to be your very first priority. Find your pieces to your soul. Heal your soul. Rebuild your soul.

How can we do that? Writing or creating this blog has had an incredible impact in finding my soul again. Writing all these post and really thinking, addressing, confessing, proclaiming, and so much more here on Sober Soul has given me the ability to find so many different pieces of my own personal puzzle. So again how do you find your soul? How do you soul search? You address your faults, your insecurities, your mistakes, your past! You identify them and then begin to heal from them. Now, I do this on my own. I have always been a person who prefers to deal with her own emotions and spirituality, but if that is not something you can do on your own then find a Life Coach or Sobriety Coach and they can help you to do so. My suggestions is to talk about your life, write about your life, forgive yourself, and remind yourself on a daily basis what you want for your life. We also need to think about who we want to be, what we want to do in our lives, how we want to put our mark on this world, and the ways to get there.

Really understanding what makes you spiritually happy will allow you to break that hold that the darkness has had on your soul. So slowly you will start to find the pieces of yourself that were lost during those dark days. Continuously search for a better you! Doing this daily will allow you to always have the opportunity to be a better version of yourself, do better things in life, and be more successful in life as well.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my dark days and how it completely ruined my life. However, I remind myself that I am not a user any longer and that I have overcome that in my life and that makes me stronger. So many people don’t believe in themselves enough to stop or heal and recover. They think that they need a doctor or therapist or medication to do so and that is just not always true. There is a way to heal but you have to be willing to always put in the work that it will require. You will have to really understand who you are and what makes you happy. It is our minds and our souls to have control over and really understanding who we are is our responsibility. So practice Soul Searching everyday. Don’t ever give up on yourself and mental state of wellness. Always look for those pieces of yourself that are lost because we are the only ones that can see them and put them into the place that they belong (besides God). It won’t always be pretty nor will it ever be easy but I can guarantee you that it will be rewarding.

This is your life. This is your soul. This is your sobriety. This is your mental state of wellness. This is your recovery

Don’t let something or someone else control what is YOURS!

That is all for now.

@chic_sober

Foundation Four Self-Care in Recovery: Series of Four Steps to Recovery Success | 09+06+19

Wow! Yesterday, I was not in a good place. I am intensely glad that this blog has a “Save Draft” button because I was about to get really dark on you guys. Now, of course I’ve done that a time or two but this was just really dark and though I’m not deleting it I won’t be posting it right now either. But it has reminded me that I needed to take a step back and remember who I am, what I am doing, how I got here, and what I am doing everything for.

I need to remember to self-care!

During our active addiction we do anything but self-care. We torture and torment our mind, body, and soul. We don’t think about self-care and how important it is for our everyday life. That is what I want to talk with you all about. Because it is extremely important for our sobriety to have self-care.

If you Google or Pinterest the words self-care you will see a million and one things. You’ll see quotes, or fitness tips, self-care charts, self-care challenges, and lots more. But self-care is different when your in recovery, because lets face it you are working overtime on this and things need to be addressed different. Your mind, body, and soul are not the same as someone who isn’t in recovery so things are drastically deeper than just your everyday self-care needs. So how do you take self-care and put it to work?

I am not a doctor or therapist or addiction counselor so please remember that. I am just giving advice on self-care in ways that it has worked for me over the past seven months.

Sober Soul is here, on this big world wide web because I want to help even at least one person through their darkness and show them that there is a way out and that we can live a good and healthy and beautiful life even after addiction or a dark time in our lives. I normally share my thoughts and opinions on a certain topic relating to addiction or mental health and go on about my own journey, but the past few weeks I have really been thinking of information that I would really be beneficial to those wanting to get sober, those in early sobriety, as well as anyone needing a foundation for bettering themselves after a dark time in their life.

I could sit here all day and list the different types of self-care but I want to talk to you about what I like to call….

For me, the steps of Foundation Four Self-Care in Recovery have kept me focused, happy, alive, and in recovery. I cannot tell you enough how much the Foundation Four has helped! These are not things that I learned in a class or in a meeting, but they are four parts of myself that I have taken extreme self-care in and found that without them I feel as if I cannot succeed. So therefore I want to share with you in detail each one of the four and hopefully they will help you too.

In this series I will dive deep into four parts of personal self-care that isn’t found anywhere else on the world wide web and put a whole new meaning to “Finding Yourself”!

These four foundations are:

Spiritual Soul Search
Emotional Reset and Refocus
Physical Alertness
Sensorial Embrace

Each and every single one of them make up each other and create the whole that we are trying to put together. We are getting another chance at being who we were meant to be and it is so important to be the best version of ourselves. I truly believe that we can begin #breakingaddiction and #healingmentalillness by practicing self-care.

I hope that you will enjoy and that if you will share with me your thoughts on the series.

That is all for now.

@chic_sober