You’ve likely heard the phrase new year, new you before. If you’re trying to stay sober throughout 2023, the phrase has special meaning. When you focus on recovery, you can dramatically change your life and developing healthy habits in 2023 can be your most helpful aid on this journey. Read on to discover some beneficial new year’s resolutions to set for the year.
Beginning the New Year with New & Healthy Habits
Making it a priority to focus on your well-being is an important part of alcohol and drug addiction recovery. Healthy habits are like investments in yourself. When you stick to them, you foster feelings of self-worth and build self-trust. Over time, these feelings can contribute to your success with staying on the straight and narrow road towards full sobriety.
The following are some habits that you can adopt this year. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to adopt all of them at once. Pick one or two and set an attainable goal. Once the new habit becomes second nature, add another. Each small change you make can add up to a big positive impact on your overall well-being.
Stay Active
Exercise is important for every aspect of your health. It strengthens the heart and lungs, builds muscle, lowers blood pressure, and even reduces feelings of anxiety and depression. Physical activity can be a powerful form of stress relief and help you maintain a healthy weight. If you hate the thought of sweating it out at the gym, don’t worry, exercise can take many forms. You can take brisk walks, swim, dance, hike or play a sport. Even pushing a lawn mower or doing work in your garden can be considered exercise.
Be Kind to Yourself
Watch out for that inner voice that tries to steal your happiness. When you engage in negative self-talk, ask yourself if you’d ever talk to your best friend or a beloved family member in this same manner. Allow yourself to make mistakes. View weaknesses and shortcomings as opportunities for improvement or attributes that make you unique.
Acknowledge your accomplishments rather than downplaying them. Managing to stay sober for one week, one month or a full year is an achievement. Look for other successes to celebrate, such as completing a task well at work, cleaning your home when you don’t want to do so, or even cooking a delicious dinner.
Drink Plenty of Water
Water is a key component of every cell in your body, making it extremely important that you stay hydrated. Drinking water is especially vital when you’re exercising or spending time outdoors on hot, sunny days. A general rule of thumb is to drink six to eight 8-oz. glasses of water per day, but some people need more or need less. Your medical provider can give you personalized advice about hydration.
Eat a Healthy Diet
Eating well benefits your body and your mind. During the new year, try to follow a natural, whole-food diet. Consume fewer processed foods that are filled with chemicals and empty calories. Watch added sugars and sodium and treat yourself to a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.
Get Quality Sleep
Getting seven to eight hours of sleep per night is important for your health and well-being. Set a nightly bedtime and daily wake-up schedule and stick to it. Doing so will help to keep your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle running smoothly. Limit blue light from computer, television and mobile device screens close to bedtime and adopt a routine to wind down at the end of your day. Make changes to your bedroom to make the space more conducive to sleep, such as adding a white noise machine or hanging blackout curtains.
Take Time for You
Stress is almost unavoidable in modern life, but you can take steps to minimize it. Simply taking some time out for yourself every day can make a profound difference in your overall stress level. Even if you only have five or 10 minutes to spare, take a break. Listen to the music you love, soak in a tub, drink a cup of tea, read a good book or just sit back and enjoy the beauty of the world outside your window.
Starting the Year Off Right
If you’ve reached a point in your sobriety journey where it’s becoming harder for you to abstain from the use of drugs or alcohol, the new year can be a good time for treatment. Addiction recovery is a process, and relapses happen. Inpatient or outpatient rehab at The Dunes East Hampton can help you recommit to staying sober and keep you on track throughout 2023.
