Incorporating a Daily Exercise Routine
Fitness in Recovery is integral to the healing process. While one’s emotional and mental states may seem separate from their physical wellbeing, the two are tightly intertwined when it comes to recovery and overall health. Incorporating a physical exercise routine into one’s daily life is essential for an effective, holistic recovery, but that doesn’t mean that each individual needs to approach these routines in the same way. Knowing how one’s physical health ties into their recovery and the various exercise outlets available to them can help each individual create their own unique fitness plan pertinent to their daily lifestyle.
Discovering the Benefits of Physical Activity
One’s physical health can augment many other aspects of one’s recovery, creating an entirely new and transformed lifestyle. While jogging can help an individual improve their cardiovascular fitness, it also has many other effects that can benefit an individual’s journey to sobriety.
Stress Reduction
Working out is a great way to release pent-up stresses as it can direct an individual to proper, healthy outlets to expend anxious or frustrated energies. Stress isn’t something that simply fizzles out if pushed back in one’s mind, and those navigating the difficult recovery process can have no shortage of stresses. Constant feelings of change, withdrawal symptoms, strained relationships, or personal and professional stigmas are all both plentiful and complicated to process. Having a directed outlet in which to channel this energy is essential in navigating these more difficult parts of one’s recovery journey.
For those that have physically demanding jobs, such as first responders, one’s time exercising can continue to feel like work. While cardio or weight training may be tied to one’s occupation and blur the line between one’s professional and home life, having a unique, more relaxing physical outlet such as yoga can be a great alternative that allows these barriers between personal and professional lives to stay in place while providing the necessary therapeutic outlet.
Creating a Routine
Routines and schedules hold a lot of power throughout one’s recovery. The ability to create an expected and consistent schedule is crucial for mitigating stresses and detaching from the workplace or other stressors of one’s life, and incorporating an exercise routine can continue to scaffold this essential skill. By maintaining a daily workout routine, one can continue to schedule and structure their day, ensuring there isn’t too much downtime while guaranteeing regular access to coping and processing strategies. Scheduling one’s workout can also help an individual further refine their daily routine by working at specified times for healthy meals or to take time away from social media or electronics.
Improve the Quality of Sleep
Sleep is a common hurdle for many throughout the recovery journey, and the energy expended by regular physical activity can aid an individual in not just getting to sleep but staying asleep for an entire restful night. By having a tired body and an outlet for the mind to process stress during the day, sleep, which once seemed elusive, can be more readily accessible and rejuvenating for each individual.
Improving Mindfulness
One’s physical exercise can force them to be more cognizant of their bodies, improving their kinesthetic sense and awareness of the way their bodies and muscles are feeling on any given day. These skills are essential in many mindfulness practices, and physical activity can be a way to begin balancing one’s physical and mental needs while improving one’s awareness of their own feelings and inherent physical responses to daily stressors.
Choosing the Form That Works for You
Fitness in Recovery comes in many forms, and finding the right one for each individual is crucial in developing an effective exercise routine. Working out in a personal gym with weights and a treadmill, jogging alongside a pet, or going to Zumba classes can all be valid forms of tending to one’s physical health.
Hiking can be especially powerful with the unique resources available in Utah, being able to tend to one’s physical needs while also providing a serene and natural air in which to detach from the daily stresses of one’s life. This feeling of freedom can hold immense therapeutic value in a way that addresses many of one’s needs in recovery in a holistic and unique way.
Finding the right recovery environment for all of one’s recovery approaches, from a safe space to rest to a comfortable place to exercise, can make a huge difference in one’s progress, and working with professionals and nutritional guidance can form a complete picture of one’s healthy, transformed future that incorporates all of one’s physical, mental, and emotional needs.
Fitness in Recovery is integral to a holistic recovery experience, and incorporating this kind of routine into your day can be difficult. With the constant changes being made during recovery, finding a place that can help facilitate this balance may be needed.
At Chateau Recovery, we are prepared to help you meet your recovery needs and goals, and our comprehensive facility is equipped to help you begin to incorporate a physical component in your recovery while still addressing your emotional, mental, and social needs.
Fitness programs, nutritional guidance, education, mindfulness practices, and meditation are all available to you during your time here, and nearby hiking trails are ready to help you get the physical exercise you need while providing a sense of freedom and agency.
For more information on how we can help you take the next step on your journey towards a holistic recovery, call us today at (435) 222-5225.