5 Ways to Honor Your Recovery

Or if you’re not ready to begin a treatment program, check out the Sea Change Blog for weekly posts about addiction, treatment programs, and the recovery lifestyle. Sea Change Recovery offers flexible, comprehensive treatment options that deliver real results. By completing one of our Sea Change rehab programs, our patients begin their journey of recovery and many sober anniversaries. This is a somewhat conventional way to celebrate a sobriety anniversary.

To celebrate sobriety means recognizing the date in which you started on your life in recovery. Achieving a full year of continuous sobriety is an incredible achievement. While each person’s journey to sobriety is filled with its own unique challenges, each person may still experience their own constant stressors and demands for change. As a result, it is important to celebrate these huge milestones along with your sober birthday.

Participate in recovery events

You might find renewed gratitude for them, and they’ll undoubtedly be touched by the gesture. It’s easy to forget to make time for yourself, especially when you’re working on your sobriety every day. Taking a day for self-care, whether it’s staying in with a movie, taking a bubble bath, or heading to the spa, can do wonders in helping you feel fresh and determined the next day. Whether you’re in a 12-step fellowship (like AA or NA) https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/celebrating-the-first-year-sober/ or non-secular recovery (like SMART, Recovery Dharma, or therapy), recovery is a process of continuous change and effort to improve our health and well-being. That process can be incredibly painful and challenging as we sift through our darkest moments and change the ways we respond to our traumas and stressors. A sobriety anniversary is also an opportunity to reflect on where the individual used to be and where they are now.

Visiting your local food bank, helping out at a fundraiser for a local organization or participating in a community clean-up event are positive and worthwhile ways to spend your time. Plus, volunteering provides you the opportunity to feel rewarded at the same time as serving those who need it most. One of the easiest ways to celebrate is to gather together the people who mean the most to you or have supported you in your recovery.

How to Celebrate Your SoBerthday

Even if you’re a casual drinker who spends $20 on a bottle of wine each week, that still adds up to $1,040 per year. Imagine what else you can do with even a small portion of that money! This is probably the easiest and simplest way to celebrate your recovery. Chose something that brings you joy or you’ve been wanting to do for some time. Maybe that’s exploring a new city, taking a class to enhance a new or old hobby or grabbing takeout at your favorite restaurant.

Yes, being 1 year sober is a huge accomplishment, but anyone who decides to get sober is someone worthy of celebration at any given time. If you are not in addiction recovery but your friend is, you might be wondering what you can do to celebrate. Most people celebrate successes by going out for a round of drinks at a local bar or toasting with a glass of nice champagne. Of course, these are not options for individuals who are working hard to stay sober. So what can you do to acknowledge how proud you are and celebrate all of the major improvements your friend has made?

Spa Treatment

There’s a tendency to look at recovery as simply being a person’s decision to stop drinking or using drugs (which, in and of itself, is actually much more difficult and more significant than many people think). However, you have to remember that when someone suffers from addiction, that person lives in the throes of that disease for a long time, sometimes even decades. If part of your recovery includes attending 12-step meetings or something similar, share the anniversary of your last drink so that your friends, mentors and sponsors can celebrate with you. You could go to breakfast together, have a movie night or volunteer to a cause that is meaningful to you. Recovery and sobriety are much easier with the support of a group that understands what you are going through and working towards. Whether you’ve reached one month or one year of being sober, it’s important to celebrate this important milestone in your life.

Some in recovery want to downplay their progress or don’t know how to accept praise. You can help them become more comfortable with success by affirming their journey. Support systems in addiction recovery are vital for life-long addiction recovery.