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Choosing health -- complementary practices

Old 02-23-2008, 01:22 PM
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Choosing health -- complementary practices

To the newcomers -- welcome back! You have found some good company here, in my experience.

Welcome back to health and life.
Welcome back from the borderlands of death.
Welcome back from the edge of the waterfall.

What is recovery? That's something each of us should work out for her- or himself.

IMO:

Recovery is not just abstinence. It's rebuilding health in all areas: body, mind, spirit, social relations. Find yourself some complementary daily practices in these areas. They support each other synergistically in restoring one to health.

Some suggestions:

Choose a healthy diet: for general nutrition, for mood support, and to address any other health issues you might have.

Exercise physically, even if it's just a little every day for starters. If three pushups a day is too much, try some brisk walking, simple yoga or stretching to stimulate the tissues and organs.

Exercise mentally, e.g. sudoku or crossword puzzles, journaling, writing poetry.

Meditate to calm the mind and become more relaxed and detached from momentary impulses and upsets.

Pray (according to your beliefs) to reconnect with cosmic wonder, the life-force and everyday spirituality among your fellow peeps on planet earth.

Connect with other people when not required. Get out of the house on your days off. Seek social support in a recovery fellowship, church group or some other group.

(If you have social anxiety and/or tend to isolate, imo that will continue to present opportunities for relapse and worsening of the addiction if not addressed somehow -- so please give some attention to that area.)

Keep practicing no matter what. If you stumble, get back up, acknowledge and move on.

How many trees would there be if they all gave up hope during their first winter? Take in what is good and get your tree growing again.

Wishing you all health, strength and joy!

K
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Old 02-23-2008, 02:20 PM
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Great post Kevin, thanks for reminding us that, at a physical level, sobriety is more than not drinking. Your post reminds me of a book I read a while ago, "The Four Levels of Healing" by ****** Gawain. It basically states that true health is a form of dynamic equilibrium in which all four areas (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) must be addressed.
Naturally in alcoholics the physical area has usually taken quite a beating, yet it's the other three we obsess about the most. At the risk of sounding too new-agey I'm finding that doing some forms of "physical grounding" is therapeutic. Watering the garden, paying attention to my breathing, just basically being aware of my senses... it all helps
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