Mid-Life Crisis or Springboard for Change? People experience mid-life crises for many reasons. Divorce, an empty nest, a death in the family, and even the realization of our own mortality can send us into what feels like a downward spiral. Often, a mid-life crisis happens some time after a person’s 40th birthday, and it can be a traumatic experience. If you find yourself facing what you believe to be a mid-life crisis, there is hope. You can look at your changing world as the collapse of your youth, or you can embrace the maturity of years and give yourself a rebirth of sorts. Today’s post shares a few tips on finding inspiration within your discomfort. Get help. Some people turn toward alcohol and drugs during a mid-life crisis. Sudden life changes may trigger drug or alcohol use. There is no shame in reaching out for help if you feel yourself spiraling out of control. Get cozy with yourself. As we mature, we change. We are no longer the people we were in our 20s. This is a perfect time to enhance your self-awareness. The Law Of Attraction blog explains that there are many ways you might dive into who you are now. These include identifying the traits that define you in getting more comfortable in your aging body. Start a new hobby like gardening. Starting a new hobby during a mid-life crisis can be a great way to cope with the feelings of uncertainty and dissatisfaction it usually brings. Gardening is a particularly wonderful choice. Not only does it offer a calming outlet for reflecting on these life changes, but the therapeutic process of working with soil and plants can also help improve your physical and mental health. If you’re a gardening novice, visit HomeGardenHero for growing tips and advice. Move for a change of scenery. If you’ve experienced the loss of a loved one or a long-term relationship, such as a marriage or partnership, a change of scenery may be just what the proverbial doctor ordered. Give yourself the opportunity to make a fresh start so that you can live out the other half of your life on your own terms. Before you make a decision, scout out different neighborhoods by viewing listings online. Make sure that you search within a comfortable price range and that the homes you view are in close proximity to the things you need and have enough space for whoever will move with you. Find your dream job. Finding a new job during a mid-life crisis can provide an exciting opportunity to re-evaluate one's direction in life, set goals for the future, and gain confidence in taking the next steps towards greater long-term aspirations. It can also be a great way to combat any feelings of stagnation or anxiety that come with the reflection and introspection of midlife. To create a stellar CV, you can use a template for a CV. Once you’ve chosen a template, add your qualifications, font, and images. Travel alone. Fear is often what keeps us from enjoying life to the fullest. When you find yourself in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, you have to let go of the things that hold you back. A great way to do this, which also comes with the added benefit of exposure to new cultures, is to travel alone. Ohio University also points out that you’ll meet new people, and traveling alone forces you out of your comfort zone and into a stage of growth. Find counseling. Counseling can provide insight into one’s life and help individuals cope with any crisis they are facing. Through counseling, individuals can learn to confront the challenges they face in their lives. Whether you feel stuck or overwhelmed in your career and personal life, need assistance in processing past mistakes, or are feeling intrinsically challenged by current dynamics, Counseling Colorado can aid you in accepting yourself, finding balance again and taking back control of your life’s direction. It’s true that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to managing your mid-life crisis. But you can find positivity within the turmoil. Getting help, getting to know yourself, changing scenery, finding a more rewarding job, and traveling to new places on your own, are all great ways that you can springboard yourself out of a crisis and into life. Image via Pexels 5 Realistic Financial Tips for the Newly Sober Perhaps today is your first day without using addictive drugs or alcohol. Or, maybe you've been sober for a few months. Regardless of your current situation or sobriety, you may be wondering how to get back on your feet financially. Long-term addiction can contribute to poor monetary choices in terms of your credit score, employment status, and living situation. The following are a few realistic financial tips for people recovering from addiction. 1. Don't Make Impulse Purchases Shopping, over-exercising, and even workaholism can often serve as a distraction from the fact that you're no longer drinking or using drugs. Focus on taking things one day at a time and not giving in to impulse purchases to distract yourself from how you're feeling. 2. Break Larger Goals Into Small Ones Perhaps your long-term goal is to own a home. Examine your current finances, health, and employment situation to determine which aspect of that goal you should tackle first. For example, you may need to focus on building credit, saving for a down payment, or attaining steady employment. If you're struggling with your health after quitting an addictive substance, seek professional help with this before you start tackling larger goals. 3. Develop a Budget Creating a sustainable long-term budget can help you save and get back on your feet. Use a budgeting app or download a free template to give you an idea of what categories to budget for and how much of your money to contribute to savings and paying down credit card debt. You'll also know at this point how much you can set aside for a larger goal, like a down payment on a home. 4. Tackle Your Debt If you've accumulated thousands of dollars in debt (or more) due to addiction, don't lose hope that you can fix your situation. Consider consolidating your debt or getting a low-interest loan to pay off high-interest credit card debt. It's easy to be discouraged by a mountain of debt, but you're in a better position now than ever to tackle it for good. Remember that maintaining an addiction — once you add up the cost of drugs or alcohol, medical treatment, and potential legal fees — you're actually saving money by getting sober. 5. Overhaul Your Resume By using a resume builder, you can give your old document a brand new look. All you have to do is enter the information and the builder handles all of the hard work for you. If you're having trouble with large gaps in your employment history due to addiction, sometimes the best way to move forward is simply to be honest with potential employers. If you lie during an interview and your employer discovers your dishonesty later, it may be difficult for him or her to fully trust you. Many people dealing with addiction have a habit of lying to explain addictive behaviors, cover up poor choices, and explain away mood swings caused by withdrawal. If this sounds like you, you're not alone. Seek out mental health counseling through Counseling Colorado if you need help expressing yourself and integrating your new, sober life with your past. If you've made the decision to get sober and start living a more intentional life, congratulations! Your road ahead may not be easy, but it will be more within your control. Use the tips above to make healthier choices when it comes to your finances, and you'll start reaping the rewards of your conscientiousness in no time. Counseling Colorado can help you overcome anxiety, depression, addiction, and more. Call 720-336-0030 for a free consultation.  Self-Care for Entrepreneurs Admit it: in the craziness of running your business, you often neglect yourself. Your needs and health are quickly relegated to the bottom of your to-do list. Realistically, though, you know you can't continue that for long without feeling negative effects. You need to make time for self-care. Develop Healthy Habits How easy it is to stop for fast food on the way home from work! Yet you know full well that this isn't the way to practice self-care, especially if your exercise routine is limited to dashing from one appointment to the next. Start developing healthier habits by making more conscious choices about what you eat. You might prepare and freeze meals so that you can heat them up quickly. Pack healthy lunches, too, with fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains. As for exercise, schedule several sessions a week, and then stick to them. You might start out with an easy walk and then work up into other activities for longer periods of time. Just get your body moving! Learn to Control Stress Stress is probably a big part of your life as you try to balance your business and your other obligations. Therefore, you're going to have to develop a set of strategies to help you control it. SkillsYouNeed.com notes that many people use music therapy to great effect. Create a playlist of calming music, and turn it on when the stress rises. Then sit back, listen, and do nothing for a while. Alternately, you might try guided breathing exercises, prayer, or meditation to fight stress or even spend time on a favorite hobby or reading a book. Focus on Your Environment Better Homes & Gardens points out that part of balancing work with the rest of your life and caring for yourself may mean making some calming changes to your home. These might include decluttering so that you don't feel overwhelmed by your stuff, bringing in some plants for green freshness, and opening up your curtains for increased natural light. Also, set aside a place in your home geared directly toward relaxation where you can unwind in peace. Adjust Your Business As you make more time for self-care, you may also make some adjustments to your business. You might try to delegate more, for instance, or hire specialists to save time and energy. You could restructure your business as a limited liability company, too. This can lower your stress by giving you tax benefits, reduced paperwork, more flexibility, and limited personal liability. Rules vary by state, so do your research and even use a formation service to save money on legal fees when forming a Colorado LLC. There are, of course, more elements that go into running a business, the stress-free way. A crucial part of it is your invoicing, as you want to make sure that you’re paid in a timely way, keeping your business out of the red. You can use invoicing software to make sure your invoices are accurate and sent out promptly. Get Support Finally, if you're extremely stressed or anxious, you might seek mental health support. You can access mental health services securely right online, and online therapy requires less time and a lower level of commitment. You won't have to travel, and you might even save some money. Just choose a licensed professional, and ask for a free consultation to see if your choice is a good fit. Care for Yourself Self-care is critical, especially when you're running a business, so try some of these tips and start to enjoy your life a bit more. Remember to use time-saving techniques and technologies, focus on your working environment to reduce stress, and develop healthy habits. Image via Pexels  |
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4 Steps to Living Your Best Life in Retirement By Karen Weeks
4 Steps to Living Your Best Life in Retirement Are you a senior who is looking to thrive and stay healthy in retirement? Well, contrary to myth and legend, you don’t need a magic fountain to do so. In fact, all you really need to stay healthy and vibrant in your golden years are some tweaks to the choices and habits you make in your daily life, which includes checking these to-dos off your list. Come to Terms with Your Care Needs If you find it difficult to care for yourself on a daily basis, then your first step toward a better quality of life should be to research local assisted living options. Sites like A Place for Mom can make this process less complicated and trained advisors can help you select the right senior housing option to fit your care and well-being needs. With the annual cost of assisted living in Colorado sitting at around $49,140, finding the right facility is very important and having helpful information at your fingertips, such as whether each facility offers social activities, can make finding the perfect fit less stressful. Socialization in senior living can be important for your quality of life because these social opportunities provide a boost to both your physical and mental health. Not only can assisted living make life easier, but it can come with some added perks. Manage Your Mental and Emotional Well-Being Moving to assisted living can be a major life transition, but having help with daily living, resources for social connections, and access to added perks could be the positive change you need to preserve your emotional health. If you are not quite ready to move into an assisted living community, however, there are some other mental health steps you can take to enhance your golden years. Diet and exercise can preserve your emotional health, and finding ways to relieve stress can also help you maintain a better mood. When it comes to your mind, staying sharp can also reduce your risk of cognitive impairments. Maintain Your Physical Strength and Health Healthy aging is all about striking a balance between your physical and mental health. These two aspects of your health are closely connected, and improving one will undoubtedly improve the other. For example, seniors who exercise regularly tend to be less at risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes and stroke, but these seniors are also less likely to be impacted by mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. Exercise can also make it easier to sleep and easier to avoid serious falls, the latter of which can be a serious risk for older adults. So by combining strength training with other healthy aging workouts, like yoga and walking, you can provide a big boost to your physical and mental health while also reducing your fall risk. To enhance those benefits, you should also find simple ways to stick to a nutritious, healthy diet. Understand Your Medicare and Care Options The final puzzle piece that can help seniors live a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle during retirement is finding the right healthcare coverage to fit their increasing care needs. For many seniors, this means using Medicare guides to select the right Medicare plan. Gaining more coverage for things like prescription medications, preventative care, and even the SilverSneakers program can make taking care of your mind and body easier and more affordable. If you are still considering a move to assisted living, keep in mind that Medicare offers little coverage when it comes to this or any other forms of long-term care. In addition to researching Medicare options, you may want to look into ways to cover assisted living costs. Thriving in retirement can be simple but it does require some work on your part. Because at the end of the day, you have the power to preserve your health and well-being as you grow older. So, start making the choices now that will help you live a better life for years to come!
Photo Credit: Rawpixel Karen Weeks is a Senior Lifestyle blogger. After retirement, she struggled to find a new sense of purpose which lead her to learn a new skill and took a computer course. She created Elderwellness.net - a resource for seniors who wish to keep their minds, bodies and spirits well. |
Untitled Post Incorporating Art and Music Therapy into Your Recovery Practice
Incorporating Art and Music Therapy into Your Recovery Practice
Photo via Pexels Hobbies are a wonderful way for recovering addicts to find new purpose and productivity in their day-to-day existence. Addiction often leaves behind an empty hole in people's lives. Fortunately, creative activities can effectively fill that hole and prevent relapse. Finding productive ways to spend your leisure time will help you build confidence, make new friends, reduce stress and find happiness in your new, drug-free life. In particular, expressive art and music therapy are widely used in counseling settings alongside mental health treatment and addiction recovery. Here’s how you can incorporate these into your own recovery practice. What is Art and Music Therapy? Creative arts therapies are used by therapists to help patients express their feelings and discover healthy coping mechanisms through fulfilling leisure activities. It involves learning to understand those emotions that are difficult to communicate verbally, increasing your self-awareness so you can be better prepared to handle negative feelings. These activities involve everything from singing to sculpture art. Simply listening to music, dancing, and storytelling are also aspects of art therapy that can be beneficial for recovering addicts. Therapists will often assess and identify the particular strengths and interests of their patients to determine which particular creative activities will be most beneficial to them. When you’re choosing for yourself, look out for an activity that reduces stress, makes you feel good about yourself, and helps you manage negative emotions. How Creative Activities Facilitate Recovery Art and music therapy has plenty of benefits for both the mind and the physical body. Music may be able to change the neurochemistry of your brain to positively affect the body’s feel-good system. Research suggests that music could cause our brain cells to release endorphins, suppressing pain and making us feel happier. Music therapy has even been proven to reduce anxiety and muscle tension, which is invaluable to people facing a rocky recovery. Also, composing and creating music with others in your recovery circle can help you understand each other on a deeper level, creating an environment that fosters greater acceptance and healing. At the same time, the positive visual stimuli involved in art therapy can change how people experience pain. For example, simply integrating art into the design of hospital facilities has the power to calm patients and improve treatment outcomes. Verywell Mind emphasizes that art is used to treat a variety of mental disorders from learning disabilities to chronic stress, making it perfect for addressing the many issues faced by adults in addiction recovery. Engaging in artistic forms of expression can help you resolve inner conflicts and learn to manage your behavior. Similar to playing music with others, painting, drawing, sculpting, or performing plays in a group is a great way to develop interpersonal skills. How to Get Started Implementing art therapy into your personal recovery practice will be a process that's unique to you. It's important that you pick a few activities that are relaxing rather than frustrating. If one form of expression, like making music or painting pictures, brings you more stress than enjoyment, try something else! For example, if you are anxious about creating art, try drawing simple patterns or getting an adult coloring book. These activities are highly meditative and are a great way to introduce yourself to artistic expression in a state of peacefulness. There are numerous other options out there, including finger painting, journaling, poetry, dancing, scrapbooking, sewing, knitting and woodworking. Other, more specific artistic activities can pinpoint various psychological issues to help you deal with them. For example, if you suffer from anxiety, try drawing or a picture that symbolizes your anxiety and write down what you discovered about yourself afterward. This can help you develop strategies to recognize your anxiety and deal with it in healthy ways rather than turning to substances.
Engaging in art and music therapy is a great way to supplement your addiction recovery program. However, it is still important to integrate aspects of behavioral modification, cognitive therapies, and motivational counseling into your recovery practice. Get on track with a recovery plan that suits you and then talk to your therapist about how art and music therapy can be beneficial for boosting your success in recovery. About Author: Michelle Peterson’s mission is aligned with that of RecoveryPride, which is to celebrate sobriety and those who achieve it |
Make 2018 the Year You Start Thriving in Recovery
Written by Adam Cook www.addictionhub.org The start of a new year is the perfect time to take stock of where you’ve been and focus on the life you really want. If you’re in recovery for addiction, you have already been through the hard process of starting over without using substances. Now is the time to take that process a step further so that in 2018, instead of just surviving addiction and recovery, you move forward in life truly thriving. Eliminate Triggers From Your Home The first step in moving in this direction after you get out of rehab is to make sure your home is a haven that supports your new life, rather than somewhere you’re constantly bombarded with triggers. Rehabilitation experts suggest, “First, ask a friend, relative, or professional to assist you in removing everything that you associate with your previous lifestyle. This includes any remaining drugs or alcohol, as well as any paraphernalia. Then, give the space a good cleaning. Scent can be a powerful trigger, so wash all linens, window coverings, and clothes in a new laundry detergent with a different scent than you’re used to.” Being confronted with triggers affects your brain and may make you feel fear, anger, and despair. These feelings may also lead you to think you aren’t successful in recovery and erode your belief in yourself. To avoid going down this road, once you’ve had someone help you clean your home and start fresh, stay aware of your feelings and try to identify anything else around you that seems to cause emotional upheaval. Being open to identifying triggers and figuring out what’s going on behind them is a powerful tool for moving towards a life where you’re not only successful but also thriving in recovery. Create a Meaningful Life Some people who are in recovery feel at first like they are simply getting by. That is understandable, as the challenges of day-to-day life are a real change from the immediate reward of getting high or drinking. In an NPR profile of three men’s lives after recovery, one of the men interviewed describes how it can feel like you’re starting from scratch, simply aiming for a life of contentment. To break that mold, it’s important to discover what you can do that gives life meaning. For some people, holding down a steady job gives life meaning because you feel good making that contribution. Other people may feel like a job is just a job, but getting in shape or discovering a new passion makes life fulfilling. Many people who are in recovery find that boredom is a strong trigger, which is especially true among retirees. If you have just been getting by up to this point, finding a way to break boredom by jumping into a job or hobby can instantly fill that void. Find Support for Long-Term Success Your environment and past habits aren’t the only triggers to avoid when rebuilding your life. Social situations and friends from the time when you were using can also be triggers, and removing them from your life may leave you without the social support you need. Studies have shown that being in a good environment and having positive social interactions may actually be necessary for the changes to your brain that are needed to stay successful in recovery. To find the right friends, take this fresh start as an opportunity to discover who you really are. Few people really take stock of their relationships and take an honest look at what kind of person they want to be, but you actually have the chance to do that. This opportunity can eventually lead to much more meaningful relationships that really add value to your life. You’ve already taken the first step to recovery by quitting drugs or alcohol. Whatever has been holding you back from really enjoying life, now is the time to get your life back on track and make 2018 the year you start thriving. This process doesn’t happen overnight, but each step in the right direction is one step closer to fully living. Photo credit: Pexels |