One of the best ways to care for yourself is finding practices that strengthen your connections between the mind, body, and spirit. At Royal Life Centers Detox, we treat your physical, mental, and spiritual self for a whole healing experience. We are the perfect first step towards recovery, as we will balance your health in each aspect, using proven effective methods of addiction treatment and only the best practices. Addiction recovery is all about learning a new way of life, and at Royal Life Centers Detox, we give guests the skills and tools they need to rebuild happy, healthy, meaningful, and successful lives in sobriety. We seek to improve each guest’s quality of life, through various intensive therapies and teachings.
What is Quality of Life?
Quality of life, as defined by the Encyclopedia Brittanica, is “the degree to which an individual is healthy, comfortable, and able to participate in or enjoy life events” (Jenkinson). Basically, quality of life is a term used to describe a person’s overall health, happiness, leisure, vitality and financial security.
How Does Bettering My Quality of Life Translate?
Researchers found that emotional stability, determination, control, optimism, and conscientiousness were linked to better health, fewer chronic diseases, less depression, less social isolation, and greater financial stability (Priedt). So how do you get emotional stability, determination, control, optimism and conscientiousness? Royal Life Centers Detox will teach you practices that allow you to instill these principles, and work them into your everyday life. These five life skills that boost your quality of life are very principle-based, and require you to practice them consciously, as often as you can.
What Can I Do to Practice Boosting My Quality of Life?
Emotional Stability:
At Royal Life Centers Detox, we provide behavioral therapies that teach emotion regulation, which teaches our guests various tools and practices to help them regulate emotional responses.
Determination:
Through out the detox process, you can practice determination by actively participating in the daily group therapy that we offer. Your determination to get better will show once you are actively working to heal from the inside out.
Control:
Control is a very empowering principle to practice. Anyone addicted to drugs or alcohol has felt like they have lost control at some point or another, so part of the recovery process is taking back your control. We know alcoholics and addicts are powerless over alcohol and drugs, which is why our treatment programs teach guests to take their power and control back. Practice control by immersing yourself in our treatment programs, to set yourself up for manageability and success.
Optimism:
Practice optimism by keeping a positive, open mindset through out treatment. Especially during detox, it is essential to tell yourself that things will be okay and you will start to feel better soon. Trust in the process, medical professionals, and our other staff as they guide you through the early stage of recovery. Keep an open mind that this addiction treatment will work, if you work along with it— all you need to do is keep an open mind, be honest, and follow the guidance you are given.
Conscientiousness:
Practice being conscientious by sticking to the commitments you’ve made, and by doing the next right thing. Just choosing to do the next right thing will lend you inner peace and serenity, and you will have confidence in your decisions. When or if you are feeling overwhelmed, just look at the next task at hand, and choose to handle it with doing the right thing.
What Skills Can I Use?
There are many other different skills that you can practice to improve your quality of life. At Royal Life Centers Detox, we will use intensive therapies to teach guests skills and tools that they need to rebuild their lives rooted in health, happiness, and meaning. Here are more skills that you can begin practicing today:
• Cultivate new interests
Learn something new each day, try and figure out what hobbies and activities bring you joy. Finding new interests will constantly keep you invested in things that make you happy to learn about and practice. Cultivating new interests will also make you an interesting person to talk to, because you will always be ready to share something new and exciting with others.
• Meet new people
Networking will not only allow you to build a strong support network, but you can learn so much from different people. Making an effort to meet new people will bring you new cultures, ideas, opinions and perspectives to widen your scope. In treating alcohol or substance use disorders, we introduce guests to 12-step programs of recovery (like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, etc.)— which make it easy to network and meet new like-minded people. Connecting with others is key to creating a life filled with meaning.
• Practice gratitude
Try writing a gratitude list, or five things you are grateful for, each day. Practicing gratitude will greatly improve your quality of life by reminding you that there are so many things to be grateful for. Often times in recovery, we tend to focus on all of the things we’ve lost or missed out on during our period of substance abuse— now is the time to focus on all that we do have.
• Embrace solitude
Learning how to sit with yourself can be challenging for many people, but starting to enjoy your own company is vital. In recovery, it is so important to make the time to check in with yourself and reflect. A recent study found that “people would rather give themselves electric shocks than be alone with their thoughts for fifteen minutes” (Kataria). Spending time alone can be therapeutic and beneficial, after all, we will be with ourselves forever. There is quite a difference between being alone and being lonely, and at Royal Life Centers Detox, we encourage guests to embrace their moments of solitude.
• Meditation
Meditating provides so many health benefits, from physical health to mental health to spiritual health. Taking just five or ten minutes to sit quietly and stay present in the moment will provide you with inner peace and serenity. Meditation is also a great way to start and end your day, and by practicing meditation you are also embracing solitude.
• Smile, even if you’re stressed
Smiling helps send an impulse to the mind that actually alters your neurochemistry, making you feel happy. Studies show that people told to smile had a lower heart rate after stressful activities or events (Priedt).
• Feed yourself well, and stay hydrated
Your quality of life depends on your ability to stay energized and in good health. Feeding yourself balanced meals, and drinking 64 ounces of water each day will ensure that you are in optimal health and ready to take on the day. At Royal Life Centers Detox, we have an in-house, private chef who prepares three balanced meals for guests each day— to make sure guests are getting the nutrients they need to heal.
• Get at least 7 hours of sleep each night
Sleeping at night seems pretty basic, but getting a full seven hours minimum each night will make sure your cognitive functioning is its best. Your brain won’t function the same on minimal sleep as it does with the proper amount of sleep, so make sure you’re getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night. Addiction truly impacts your quality of sleep, so it should be no surprise that recovering includes getting back into healthy sleep habits.
• Set & review goals
Goal-setting is extremely important not just for the early stages of recovery, but for the rest of your life. Having goals will give you guidance for your next steps, and provide points to work towards. Reviewing goals is just as important as setting them. Review your goals to see where you can improve, what else you can work on to get closer to them, and what accomplishments you’ve made along the way.
• Track and audit your expenses
Creating manageability in your personal finances will be easier if you are tracking and auditing your expenses, as well as making and sticking to a budget. Gain financial stability by familiarizing yourself with a budget and finance goals. Royal Life Centers Detox helps guests gain financial stability by providing them with a case manager, who helps guests manage their finances and offers services to help with financial security.
• Socialize
Socializing with friends will greatly improve your quality of life. Choosing to surround yourself with people who have interesting things to say and new perspectives will broaden your social horizons and bring you happiness. Often times, people get so wrapped up in work and recovery, that they leave out the aspect of socialization. Royal Life Centers helps guests find a balance between working, recovering and socializing. Keeping up with new interests will also help you contribute good conversation in social settings.
These are just a few skills to practice to boost your quality of life. Royal Life Centers Detox encourages guests to practice new skills that will help them through out their recovery process. At Royal Life Centers Detox, we offer a detox program that can last for either 4 or 8 days of stabilization. Guests will have intensive therapies available to them, so that they may begin learning about addiction, tools, and skills. Royal Life Centers also has other treatment options including: a residential inpatient program, a partial hospitalization program (PHP), an intensive outpatient program (IOP), an outpatient program (OP), sober living and graduate housing.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please reach out to us at (877)-RECOVERY or (888) 559-5109. Our team of addiction specialists are available to take your call 24/7. Because We Care.
References:
“25 Habits for Improving The Quality of Your Life.” Improve Your Life by Building Better Habits, Wanderlust Worker, www.wanderlustworker.com/25-habits-for-improving-the-quality-of-your-life/.
Jenkinson, Crispin. “Quality of Life.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/quality-of-life.
Kataria, Vishal. “5 Life Skills You Need to Learn But Won’t.” Aryatra, Aryatra, 4 Oct. 2017, aryatra.com/life-skills-list/.
Preidt, Robert. “Five Life Skills Can Boost Your Odds of Well-Being.” WebMD, WebMD, 10 Apr. 2017, www.webmd.com/balance/news/20170410/these-5-life-skills-can-boost-your-odds-of-well-being.
