How to Practice Patience
We live in an age of instant gratification. Everything from our coffee to our messages arrives instantly so that we don’t have to wait on anything. So, it should be no surprise that we expect instant results during recovery from addiction. Thankfully, drug or alcohol addiction treatment programs teach us how to practice patience and realize that overcoming an addiction takes time.
How to Practice Patience: Follow These Five Steps
It takes a great deal of patience to explore the root causes of addiction and develop a plan for creating a sustainable recovery. Below, we look at five ways in which you can learn how to practice patience as you recover from your addiction. The more patient you become, the more you will see value in the step-by-step process in healing from addiction.
Understand That Personal Change is a Process
It took you several months or years to develop an addiction. The constant repetition of addictive behaviors became ingrained in your brain to the point that you couldn’t quit on your own. Therefore, reversing destructive behaviors and negative brain patterns doesn’t happen overnight.
You have to retrain your mind to disconnect from your cravings and temptations. This is a step by step process that includes:
- Acknowledging you have a problem
- Going through detox from drugs or alcohol
- Completing a 30, 60, or 90-day rehab program
- Creating a strong support network after rehab
- Continuing personal growth and improvement
Your process of recovering from your addiction is never-ending. Instead of reaching a destination, you are on a constant journey to live your best life.
Establish and Focus on Your Goals
Recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction should include more than just ending your addiction. It’s more about learning how to move beyond the underlying problems that led to your addiction in the first place. Therefore, your goals should include changes you want to see in your life as a whole.
Create goals that are tangible and measurable. Include goals for improving all areas of your life. Your therapist can help you establish goals as you go through your addiction treatment program in New Jersey. Staying focused on your goals can help you stay patient during your recovery. They can also motivate you to keep going.
Create Benchmarks to Measure Your Progress
Sometimes goals can seem overwhelming. You may believe that they are not attainable, so you don’t even try to meet them. Benchmarks break your goals down into ‘bite-size’ targets that you are more likely to reach. Benchmarks can help you measure your progress and make you realize how far you’ve come.
For instance, if ending your addiction to alcohol or drugs seems too lofty a goal, then you may want to focus on just getting through detox. Completing detox is an observable benchmark and a win toward meeting your goal. If completing a rehab program seems too overwhelming, then set a benchmark to get through the first week. That reduces the stress of getting through the entire program.
Prepare for Challenges and Setbacks
Recovery from addiction is hard. You will quickly discover that it is one of the most challenging things you will ever go through. So, you need to prepare yourself mentally for the challenges and setbacks that will occur along the way. Challenges may come from cravings, triggers, situations, home life, or stress at work.
Your challenges will be both internal and external. You will have to deal as much with your mood and your attitude as you will situations that arise from day to day or interacting with other people. Don’t be surprised if getting over your addiction is an uphill climb. What matters most is that you keep climbing.
Live in the Present Moment
Most of the struggles that we encounter in our minds are a result of our constant obsession with the past and future. We either feel guilty or bitter for things that happened yesterday, or we worry over the perceived struggles that we face tomorrow. This can make us anxious and impatient.
One of the best ways to learn how to practice patience is by engaging in mediation or mindfulness as a part of your outpatient addiction rehab program. This practice can instill your sense of awareness about what is around you so that you stay focused on the present moment. Staying in the moment can relieve you of anxiety and depression, reinforcing your sense of patience.
Contact Victory Bay to Start Your Recovery from Addiction
Are you ready to move forward with your recovery from addiction? If so, then contact Victory Bay. We can teach you how to practice patience as you go through each step of recovery. Call Victory Bay at [Direct] to find out more about our alcohol addiction treatment center in New Jersey.