You’re in the rooms, meeting with your coach, therapist, support team and there’s endless conversations about staying busy. Get a hobby, engage in sober events, join a gym, the list goes on and on. You feel overwhelmed, like they’re all butting in to your life. Truth is, they are and they’re right. All you may hear is them dictating your life to you. What you’re not hearing is them steering you away from getting bored with your sobriety.
Boredom is an unsung trigger, a road to anxiety and depression which can lead to relapse. It’s a danger zone where your selective memory can wander, choosing to recall the fun and never the consequences of misusing drugs &/or alcohol. It can be disconcerting to discover how much time you have on your hands when you’re in recovery. All kinds of time to think about when you used, how you used, how you want to be using again.
The remedy for that boredom is curiosity. According to Dictionary.com, curiosity is both a rare or novel thing and the desire to learn or know. Curiously, both of these definitions can be applied to recovery. When you’re newly sober your life becomes a curiosity, everything seems all weird and unfamiliar. Being on a recovery journey requires learning about living in a whole new world. It requires getting curious about how to live a sober life.
Adding curiosity to your toolbox helps fill that space between what you know and what you want to know. You know how you were and now you want to know how you can be. It activates boredom management tools and strategies that allow you to re-direct your thoughts toward positive activities and outcomes. Being curious, exploring the possibilities and looking beyond fills up your time and space in ways that are meaningful and valuable for you.
OK, so what are these tools, these strategies to keep you from getting bored with your sobriety? Well, it’s what everyone’s been telling you to do all along. All those things they’ve been bothering you about? Those are your boredom busting tools and strategies. They’ve been handed to you on a silver platter. All you have to do is put their suggestions in your toolbox, mix in curiosity, and you’ll be on your way to living your best sober life.
Being so used to using can make you lose sight of alternatives, of your ability to discern what are and what are not good productive activities to fill your time and attention. This can lead to making bad decisions which is why building boredom relieving systems is so important. Activate your curiosity and start questioning, ask what else is possible. Adding tools to your sobriety toolbox is opening yourself up to becoming interested in anything and everything. It opens you up to following and achieving your dreams.
Do you, someone you know or someone you work with need help with building a Sobriety Toolbox? The Recovery Coach NY provides Individual and Family Coaching, Companions & Transport, Interventions and emergency services for you and your loved ones. More information and additional services can be found on our website:
The Recovery Coach NY has years of experience and a vast array of resources that can help those in need find the path to the life they deserve, filled with joy and purpose. We come with an empathetic ear and solution-oriented actions that can begin to bring the relief you and your loved one seek.
You can reach out to Cindy Feinberg, President of The Recovery Coach NY via:
Phone or text: 631-921-4085
Email: recoverycoachcindy@gmail.com
Through her website: www.therecoverycoachny.com
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