Self-love is an important part of addiction recovery. Unfortunately, most people go through life never learning self-love. We all have times where we are down on ourselves. We think how could we have done this or that, how stupid it was to do. The problem occurs when that is a constant thought. It tends to go with addiction and may even partially lead to addiction.

So when recovering, you must learn how to think of yourself and triggers differently. That begins with learning to love yourself for who you are. The good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life all must be accepted. Appreciate the good, work on changing the bad, and accept the truth of who you used to be but aren’t anymore.

Once you can accept the whole you, past, present, and future, no matter how bad the past was, you can learn to love yourself.

Self-love also helps with building better relationships with friends and partners. If you cannot love yourself you will never trust that others love you.

Pathways to self-love

In addiction recovery you will discover pathways to self-love.

Start a journal about your self-love journey. Write down the reason you want to love yourself. List the things that you do love about yourself; for example, your sense of humor.

One path is through creating a self-care habit. Attending a self-wellness program in recovery and extending it through the local YMCA is a great place to start. Using exercise and a nutritious diet that heals your body will put you on a path of self-care.

Activities and exercises such as yoga, meditation, outdoor activities, and mindfulness meditation are all excellent ways to care for you.

Another pathway is to become emotionally connected to your journey of self-love. You can do this by determining the reason(s) you want to love you. Then you have to examine that reason and make sure it is strong enough to build self-confidence and a commitment to you.

It requires you to remove roadblocks, let go of the past, and forgive yourself to move forward with self-love.

At this point, it is time for patience and self-compassion. Take care of yourself first before others. Surround yourself with people who support you on your journey of recovery and self-love.

Once you learn to take care of you first, have self-compassion, and self-love you can then move forward on your new life of recovery. It will not always be easy. There will be times you may feel the old doubts creeping in, that is the time to take the pledge of self-love, self-compassion, and forgiveness again.

As you practice self-love and understand that you love yourself it will become easier to build lasting relationships with friends and family. When you know love from yourself it will be much easier to understand why and how others love you.

Remember you deserve to be loved by you and others. At 449 Recovery, our therapists can help you with your treatment plan. Contact us today 855-735-7449