Tag: sober living

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: 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