September is upon us again…school is in full swing, football is back, and your family life probably got a lot busier with the calendar filling up. If you have children, do you suddenly find yourself having to navigate school pick-up lines, take kids to and from sports practices, band rehearsals, and still make time for family dinners and homework every night? This can be taxing, after a summer filled with less structure, vacations, and late nights in the backyard with friends. This hectic pace comes around every year, yet somehow it seems to creep up each time!
National Recovery Month occurs every year in September. SAMHSA and NAMI make time to educate Americans that recovery from substance abuse and mental illness is possible. They use this month to highlight issues that are affecting individuals, families, and communities across the nation. These organizations emphasize the importance of recognizing progress made in treatment and recovery and encourage anyone who is struggling to seek help. This year’s theme is “Join the Voices for Recovery: Together We Are Stronger,” highlighting the importance of community and support that is involved everyone’s recovery journey.
Each website has valuable resources; many are free and easy to download. One concept that I enjoy teaching about is a Recovery Toolkit.
What is a Recovery Toolkit? It is a resource that you can access when you feel triggered, have urges or cravings, are in a mental health slump, or just need to take some time for self-care. It can be a box that you create and have easily accessible, or a figurative “toolbelt” of resources that you can access from anywhere at any time. SAMHSA highlights four key pieces to recovery, which fits with your toolkit:
Health: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Wholeness in health.
Home: having a safe and stable place to lay your head down each night.
Purpose: discovering your purpose in life, how can you make a difference today?
Community: what does your social support look like?
As you build your toolkit or toolbelt, make sure you have aspects of each four pieces included:
Health: include your favorite workout routine, time for devotions/meditations, taking walks in nature to help ground you, your favorite snack to munch on, and access where you are in your spiritual journey.
Home: create a space in your house that is dedicated to your recovery. Maybe a cozy corner of your den or home office where you can curl up with a good book or your favorite meditation app and spend some relaxation time there.
Purpose: part of your recovery journey can include giving back. There is always someone who is in need, and the act of altruism is powerful, for both the giver and receiver.
Community: who can you call on in your time of need? Do you have phone numbers stored somewhere safe, people that you can count on when you need help? What 12 Step meetings are your favorite and most helpful? Social support is a critical part of the toolkit, because we are not expected to do everything on our own. Remember, it takes a village.
What will your toolkit look like? Will you create an actual box, filled with all the good things that help you on your recovery journey to wholeness? Will you have more of a digital toolkit, where you can access things from your favorite social media apps? Will you have a figurative toolbelt…and keep those things close to you, around your waist, so that you can pull them out when necessary? Whatever your toolkit looks like, make sure it helps to ground you, fulfill your needs, supports your whole well-being, and helps you on every step of your recovery journey.
