Beginning treatment for substance use disorder and mental illness can feel overwhelming. Not only are you learning to manage all the pieces of your treatment program, but you are also beginning to change in ways that you never have before and challenging parts of yourself that are destructive but have become your normal.
Because healing can feel overwhelming and uncertain at times, it is important to take it one step at a time.
Assessing Your Priorities
Your capacity for what you can handle in a day is only so big, energetically speaking. Intentionally healing past traumas, old wounds, and parts of yourself that you may never have looked at healing can take up a lot of time, energy, and space.
To conserve your energy for what is a priority to you right now, it can be helpful to assess what your priorities are. This gives you the time and space you need to connect with yourself, grow, heal, and experience recovery.
Coming Back to the Present Moment
It can be easy to get swept up in the fear of the future, trying to change the past, and controlling what is coming next, especially if you tend to feel anxious. This can give you too wide of a lens on your recovery journey and confuse and paralyze you. This can make it hard to know what practical steps to take to reach your goals.
In moments of uncertainty, overwhelm, change, and transition, learning to come back to the present moment through the practice of mindfulness, deep breathing, and grounding yourself to focus only on today is practically a superpower.
Allow Yourself to Move at Your Own Pace
Comparison is the thief of joy and can be a terrible vice during healing journeys. Perhaps you find yourself comparing how quickly you are progressing compared to someone else. This can cause low self-esteem, self-doubt, and disconnection from yourself.
It can be helpful to set boundaries around the content you consume that leads to comparison, such as social media. Similarly, set boundaries with yourself around the beliefs and thoughts you have created by noticing them with neutrality. This allows you to let thoughts of comparison move along.
The pace of recovery is different for everyone, and there is nothing wrong with what your journey looks and feels like even when those around you may look and feel different.
Taking it one step at a time when healing from substance use and mental illness is a mentality that can help you stay grounded and present in your journey when it feels overwhelming and uncertain. At Avalon Malibu, we recognize how essential taking things one step at a time is to long-term healing and sustainability in your journey. Our team of professionals is here to support you and help you discern what this looks like for you. If you are ready to begin your healing journey, call Avalon Malibu today at (844) 857-5992.Â
