How to Trust Your Instincts in Recovery

by Restorations Therapy Center on Saturday, February 6th, 2021

Understandably, you may not want to trust your gut instinct in early recovery, given it has led you down a dark path in the past. You may only want to take advice from professionals and those that have already been through treatment. However, a significant part of recovery is developing a relationship with yourself, so you can learn to trust yourself. Learning how to trust your instincts will set you up for long-term recovery in the future as you learn to adapt and make changes when something doesn’t feel right.

Understanding Intuition

Everyone is born with intuition, which is an ability to know what feels right or wrong in our lives. If you examine the way children naturally act without knowing right from wrong, you will see them naturally engaging in happy activities that make them feel good. This shows that intuition plays a significant role in people’s lives from the time they are born. Intuition is unconscious, but it helps drive your decisions as you go about life.

Intuition in Addiction

For those struggling with addiction, their intuition has often been skewed. Instead of turning to healthy coping methods, those who grew up in dysfunctional environments or are undergoing a period of stress may turn to ways to numb their feelings. This can lead to a detachment from one’s own intuition. Luckily, there are ways to regain your intuition in recovery.

Trusting Yourself

It can take time before you can begin trusting yourself again in recovery. However, you can build your relationship with yourself by following through on commitments, reaching your recovery goals, and celebrating your victories in recovery. The more you progress, the better able you will be to trust yourself. You will recognize that you are on the right path and have the tools to recover.

Building Intuition

There are various ways to build your intuition and connect with it again once you are secure in your relationship with yourself. Try these tips for rebuilding your intuition and see the difference it will make in your recovery and life as a whole:

• Listen to your body and how it reacts
• Quiet your mind through meditation or writing
• Remember your values
• Discover new hobbies or old hobbies you used to like
• Be creative with art to express yourself

Learning to trust your gut instincts in recovery can be terrifying when you know you were led astray before. However, you must remember that you can regain healthy coping mechanisms and intuition to help guide you on this path. The most crucial step in doing this is rebuilding a relationship with yourself to feel comfortable trusting yourself again. You can get help with this at Restorations Therapy, where the staff has a multitude of experience getting clients back on their feet and ready to maintain recovery on their own. Call us today at (720) 446-6585 to learn more.