How Can I Make Recovery Fun?
Recovery and sobriety shouldn’t be boring. A boring recovery will make for a boring life, making sobriety unsustainable. Everyone needs a dose of fun in their life from time to time. Your life during recovery should be invigorating and filled with joy, happiness, and hope. Obviously, you won’t experience these emotions every moment of your life; no one does. However, when you are rebuilding your life with sobriety in mind, you should also have fun in mind. Brainstorming how to make recovery fun can help you maintain a successful recovery.
How to Make Recovery Fun
Recovery requires a lot of emotional labor. You need to put in the work for emotional and personal growth to become possible. However, emotional burnout can also be damaging to your recovery. Lasting change will always be slow and gradual. In the meantime, you can’t constantly obsess over it.
Making your recovery fun will give you the break you deserve from analyzing discomforting memories and making action plans to mend your relationships. Fun can provide many benefits to your recovery. While creating fun in your recovery gives you a break from some of the emotionally heavier parts of recovery, it can also help you accomplish your recovery goals.
Contingency Management
Motivation is a necessity for change and, therefore, important for a successful recovery. Some treatment centers use motivational interviewing (MI) to help clients strive for positive change. However, another way to become motivated during your recovery is to implement fun into your recovery through the practice of contingency management. Contingency management is a type of behavioral therapy that rewards positive behavioral change through positive reinforcements, most of which are monetary based.
You can implement contingency management in your own life by rewarding your good behavior with something fun. For instance, you can celebrate your sober birthday by buying yourself a cake. You could also reward yourself for successfully implementing coping mechanisms such as positive thinking or mindfulness. Give yourself a tangible realistic recovery goal and a fun prize to match the achievement. The prize could be watching your favorite movie, taking a hot bath, or playing video games. As long as it is something that brings you happiness.
Rediscovering Interests
Finding fun in recovery means getting a chance to know yourself. It’s a form of self-discovery that can build confidence and provide positivity. This can help you combat negative thoughts or feelings you may have about yourself, others, or the world. One of the best ways to make recovery fun is by re-discovering your interests. Part of your lifestyle overhaul during your recovery may include finding new fun recreational activities. Before your recovery, you might have engaged in behaviors that you now understand are damaging as a recreational activity or as a part of social engagement.
A large part of your recovery is about learning how to have fun without substances. You can do this by keeping an open mind about developing new hobbies or rekindling old ones. This will not only bring you the joy of having a passion project or new goals to set but will also make it easier to connect with others and create new meaningful friendships. You might find passion in an odd place or fall in love with an activity you never thought you’d even like. This is why you must keep an open mind and make an effort to try new things. Once you find a hobby you love, it can help energize your mind and body.
Energizing Your Mind to Make Recovery Fun
Many creative activities can help you energize your mind. It can give you a fun outlet that also helps you understand your emotions. Music and art have been used in therapy settings to help people bond and process their emotions. However, you don’t have to do creative activities with this intent. Creative activities that allow your mind to wander can give your mind a break.
Sometimes you need to unfocus your mind. Creative activities don’t have to mean drawing or painting, although they could. It could be creating something with Legos or building something. You could also write a story or immerse yourself in a movie, video game, or book. The creative hobby shouldn’t feel like work; it should inspire relaxation and enjoyment.
Energizing Your Body to Make Recovery Fun
Any hobby that requires movement will energize your body. This can be anything from playing a game of basketball to dancing to hiking to skiing. Movement is good for your mental and physical health. It keeps your blood pumping and keeps your mind from spiraling by giving you something else to focus on. Activities that involve movement in nature give you the added benefit of relaxation. The beauty of nature can also help you be mindful and stay in the present moment. Taking a walk in nature or going for a hike can be energizing for both your mind and body.
Taking the time to get to know yourself during your recovery will make recovery fun. Your recovery is about reinventing a new life for yourself, and that new life should be one filled with happiness. Restoration Recovery Centers understands the importance of trying new activities during your recovery. We are located in a beautiful wooded area in California that provides various fun activities, such as hiking and kayaking. Our mental health professionals will work closely with you to help you find a fun way to live a sober life. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, call (888) 290-0925 to learn how Restoration Recovery Centers can help you restore your life’s purpose and heal from addiction.
