Hawaii Island Recovery 
Addiction recovery is a comprehensive process, with effective treatment affecting many areas of daily life. Although change can be stressful, it can also introduce new opportunities, perspectives, and daily practices. Embracing change through personal interests and routines is paramount, with many therapeutic opportunities being birthed from embracing change and creativity. However, incorporating creative elements into daily life can feel foreign, especially for alumni establishing a new sober lifestyle after treatment. Working with professionals and family while focusing on personal needs can empower sober alumni to find the best ways of incorporating creativity into their daily lives.
The Effects of Creativity on Continued Sobriety
Creativity can benefit those looking to further their recovery efforts, and Hawaii Island Recovery’s unique Hawaii rehabilitation embraces these creative benefits. Understanding the purpose of incorporating creativity into self-care routines, perspectives, and more can empower alumni to be more open to potential therapeutic opportunities, such as art therapy, music therapy, and more. Some of the benefits of incorporating creativity as an alumnus include:
- Embracing personal identity and self-expression
- Stress relief
- Self-care
- Providing a sense of accomplishment or personal goal
- Developing mindfulness practices and perspectives
- Exploring social communities and outlets
- Alternative means of communication and healing
Each of these elements can improve personal resilience, reduce stress, and facilitate communication strategies to prevent slips and relapse in recovery. Likewise, much of a person’s day while engaging with addictive substances can be defined by their opportunities for use. Incorporating creativity and creative outlets can not only help a person explore their identity outside of their use of drugs or alcohol but also further communicate personal needs, feelings, and means of self-expression for a truly transformed approach to their own identity, goals, and ambitions in sobriety.
Daily Practices for Incorporating Creativity
Despite the benefits of incorporating creativity, it can still be difficult for alumni to find the time or opportunity to engage in dedicated creative outlets. Alumni are faced with a deluge of challenges, from navigating new routines and structures outside of a dedicated treatment facility to navigating stresses, professional ambitions, continuing education, and more. However, there are always strategies that each alumnus can use to explore creative outlets and their benefits. Working with peers and even continuing to work with the professionals at Hawaii Island Recovery can all help each alumnus explore their best options in sobriety.
Journaling for Creativity
Journals are one of the most flexible and effective ways to address several unique challenges that alumni face in their continued sober journey. For many, these journals can be used to chronicle challenges, stresses, and daily events. However, they can also be an opportunity to explore creative expression.
Journals do not always have to operate like diaries. Rather, journals can be a way of exploring new perspectives through creative outlets. Looking to explore more creative writing styles, journaling thoughts via doodles in a notebook, and more can all be ways of exploring a journal’s creative potential. Using digital mediums as a journal can further these creative possibilities, with digital art, collages of important moments, and more all making up the pages of a truly expressive journal. These can also be great places to start exploring more creative forms of expression as journals can be kept private, without worry of being criticized, creating a safe space to commit to new experiments in expression.
Celebrating Creative Environments
Incorporating creativity can also come by celebrating creativity in an alumnus’s home. Redecorating or rearranging a room can prove a new way of looking at the potential opportunities therein, and hanging art and having bookshelves can all celebrate various forms of creative work. This kind of atmosphere can inspire an individual to embrace new ways of thinking while surrounding themselves with ideas and perspectives that can impact their own goals or explorations of various expressive outlets.
Incorporating Creativity Can Start Small
An alumnus doesn’t necessarily have to jump into fully committing to an art studio to embrace creativity. Rather, it can be more effective to begin small with something an alumnus already enjoys. For example, alumni who enjoy cooking may benefit from trying a new recipe, or taking an existing dish and exploring adding a new ingredient or replacing one with a new element. These creative expressions can reinforce the positive exploration of new ideas and celebrate creativity. Changing a recipe to incorporate more spicy elements can also reflect a person’s unique palate and identity, further personalizing these dishes for a sense of accomplishment and pride.
No two people will necessarily be incorporating creativity in the same way, and there is no “wrong” way to explore new ideas in sobriety. However, making daily efforts to explore these outlets can have profound therapeutic effects, with many continuing to engage in new hobbies and ideas and improving personal resilience with each new practice explored. Likewise, a creative outlet may take time to manifest its benefits, and daily efforts to commit to an idea before giving up and moving on can be important to reap the benefits.
Embracing your creative side and finding new creative outlets can be a truly profound experience as each person can explore their own needs, goals, and find a new sense of accomplishment. Hawaii Island Recovery champions exploring creative outlets through out comprehensive approach to our unique Hawaii rehabilitation. Finding your best creative outlet not only holds many benefits for your continued sobriety but is also instrumental in exploring new communication strategies and spiritual healing alongside peers, friends, family members, and loved ones. We are also prepared to empower your change through a comprehensive approach to healing, combining your best creative outlets with proven therapeutic modalities for continued success. To learn more, call to speak to us at (866) 390-5070.
