Recovery doesn’t happen overnight, in fact, sobriety is a lifelong process. It takes time to heal your mind, body, and spirit – and being patient with the process will help you slow down and take things in stride. Learning to cultivate patience will also help as you repair relationships and allow friends and family time to heal any wounds caused by your active addiction.
Benefits of Being Patient
While patience may seem like a virtue of the past, it is a practice that is has a variety of benefits. If you are impatient, you tend to be irritable towards other people, even without cause. You may also feel victimized, or try to force the outcome you want. Both of these can be hazardous to the recovery process.
However, patience gives you the opportunity to take a step back and reevaluate your situations. You can take a deep breath and overcome your anger and frustration. Patience also gives you the freedom to release your emotions in a healthy way. When you act right away, you may end up hurting others or yourself. However, when you learn how to practice patience, you can use healthy coping mechanisms to avoid a blow-up.
How To Practice Patience
We can all stand to practice being a bit more patient – and these steps can help.
- Train yourself to wait. Count to 20 before responding to a text message or intentionally hold out for dessert. Bonus: This type of willpower exercise may also help you fend off any cravings.
- Practice gratitude. Just like you practice being patient, you can also practice being thankful. One helpful exercise: Jot down three things for which you’re grateful for today.
- Vent in a healthy way. Go for a hike, meditate or talk with an understanding loved one – anything that helps you release frustration and make room for patience.
- Concentrate on your breathing. Breathing is a simple way to slow down when you begin to lose your patience. Try it: Inhale slowly and count to 10. Now exhale. Repeat this three times and notice your frustration slowly melt away.
- Remind yourself that all good things take time. If you expect things to happen instantly, you’re more likely to get impatient. Instead, realize that everything takes time – but it’s worth the wait!
Don’t Wait to Get Help
From day one, our treatment model prepares young adults with the skills needed to succeed in sobriety and in life after rehab, including the ability to be patient and deal with life stressors in a positive way. At Red Oak Recovery®, we offer a variety of holistic and evidence-based therapies. These may include:
- Yoga therapy
- Meditation therapy
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Dialectical behavior therapy
- Animal-assisted therapy
All of these therapies can help to teach you how to practice patience. Additionally, we offer a variety of addiction treatments, including:
- Benzo addiction
- Heroin addiction
- Alcohol addiction
- Cocaine addiction
- Adderall addiction
It’s time to learn how to be patient and overcome your addiction. To learn more about how you can start on your journey toward sobriety, or to learn more about how to be patient, call Red Oak Recovery® today at 866.457.7590.
