Recovery is a beautiful mess. You have days where you feel like you can conquer the world. Then you have days you would rather forget. Which is why we’re going to focus on how holistic recovery can support and heal you in sobriety so you can cherish both the good and the not so great moments.
Grab a cup of tea or coffee, get comfy, and keep reading to find out how you can transform your life.
What is holistic recovery?
Holistic recovery is a humbling paradox- in unbecoming ourselves, we become ourselves. It’s about shedding and peeling away the layers of toxicity, trauma, pain, suffering, and grief so you find peace within yourself.
At its core, holistic recovery focuses on everything being interconnected- your mind, body, soul, and emotions. When one thing isn’t in alignment, it creates a domino effect, impacting everything else in your life. It’s not about striving for perfection- it’s about cultivating awareness so you can create harmony.
It also doesn’t heal the drinking. Holistic recovery heals why you started drinking because healing the root of the problem is a permanent solution, not the band aid to a potential relapse. It’s about building a deeply enriching and prolific connection with yourself so that sobriety becomes a visceral desire and not an obligation.
Mind, body & soul are one entity
Research has shown the mind-body connection exists. Our mental and emotional states affect our body and health. Yet, we approach sobriety as a mindset/mental health rather than how it impacts our physiological makeup.
For example, if your brain perceives danger (can also be a trigger from past trauma), your sympathetic nervous system gets activated, triggering the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn modes while releasing adrenaline and cortisol throughout your body. To come back into equilibrium, talking it out won’t help because the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode) needs to be activated. This is the mind-body connection. If you feel a sensation that’s throwing you off course, holistic recovery provides you with the tools and the resources to bring both your mind and body back to balance.
When it comes to the soul, it’s my personal belief we have a gentle guiding force working behind the scenes creating ripples of fate to take us to our destiny. Not everyone believes in a higher power and it’s ok. That’s the beauty of holistic recovery- it celebrates our own individuality while finding the interconnectedness with everything and everyone around us.
When we take our core beliefs and combine them with physiological influences and psycho spiritual issues, we heal on a deeply prolific level- more than we could have ever imagined. You’re not just healing from substance abuse.
You heal the root of the escapism.
Holistic recovery is tailored to your needs
Holistic recovery treats you as an individual because everyone has different values, beliefs, psyches, personalities, and emotional needs. You may have endured years of childhood trauma while someone else may have had an idyllic childhood. These experiences shape us in extremely different ways, with systemic trauma rewiring our brains and nervous systems.
Or maybe you need constant stimulation and change to be an active participant in your own life. Someone else may be a creature of habit and will need time to get acquainted with the unfamiliar. Because you are the expert on yourself, holistic recovery encourages you to listen to your needs and wants.
No universal manifesto can tell you how you should be staying sober, how to live, what decisions to make, or even what step you should follow because not everything is going to resonate with you or even work based on what you need. Holistic recovery is about empowering you to engage in a mindful relationship with yourself so you can grow and evolve.
You have the freedom to redefine recovery
We know the surface level definition of sobriety means not drinking. But when we dig deeper, recovery means something different to everyone. Maybe your definition of sobriety is becoming the person you aspire to be while someone else’s definition is just to make it through each day without a drink. We all have different desires.
Holistic recovery encourages you to redefine what recovery means to you so you can live life on your terms. It’s about finding freedom from your mental blockages and bondages, healing your energetic body, and cultivating awareness within yourself. When you’re empowered with the freedom to explore what works and what doesn’t, you awaken parts of yourself you didn’t even know existed.
In unbecoming every core belief, every learned toxic behavior, and releasing trauma stored in your body, you become everything you’ve ever hoped you could become.
How has holistic recovery supported and healed you in your sobriety journey? What challenges have you faced and what inspires you to keep pushing forward? Leave a comment below to help others in this journey.
Please share this with anyone that may benefit from this. I’ll see you soon…in the meantime, love yourself so much that even a Hallmark Christmas movie would be jealous.
