Today is the first day of spring. While March can still be cold, we’re quickly moving towards warmer, lighter, longer days. For many people, spring represents newness and growth. It’s a great time to either get sober or modify your recovery program.
Spring is a Great Time to Get Sober
In the spring, everything outside is blooming. It’s symbolic and inspirational for embarking on your own huge process of growth. People tend to have more energy as the days get longer and warmer, which you’ll need when you make such a big life change. If you feel lethargic, it can be demotivating.
In winter, people typically want to curl up inside in comfortable clothes. It promotes slowing down and reflecting. Winter can be a useful time for people with more sobriety under their belts to process life and recovery. The excited energy of spring is great for early recovery. It gets you motivated to try new things and practice new coping skills. You can ride the hope of moving out of winter into new sobriety.
I’ve written before on this blog about how weekly hikes with a friend were an important part of my first several months of recovery. I got sober in the month of August, so many of those hikes were done in the milder fall months.
Spring and fall both tend to have good temperatures for longer periods of outdoor activity—not too cold that it’s uncomfortable, but not too hot that you might get overheated. Nature is helpful for recovery, period, but can be especially useful in early recovery. This is why many addiction treatment centers—like TruHealing Centers—offer the opportunity to hike local trails.
A spring sobriety date also gets you a little time in recovery before big drinking holidays like July 4th, or the general booziness of summer. We don’t really know how summer will look this year due to COVID-19, but if last year is any indication, people will find ways to drink. It’s good to have at least a couple months sober so you can start building tools to cope with triggers.
Spring Cleaning for Your Recovery
Even if you’ve been in recovery a while, spring is a great time to reflect on what is and isn’t working. Spring cleaning isn’t just for your house! You might find that you are not being as mindful as you’d like, so you commit or recommit to regular meditation. You might have used your phone more than you wanted in the winter, so you set reasonable screen time limits for yourself in spring.
Sometimes we do what we can just to get through the winter, especially if we have seasonal affective disorder. Moving out of this season can make us feel livelier, which may open up more creativity about how we approach recovery.
As the days get longer, we have more daylight to go outside and engage in new hobbies. If you get sober in the spring, the flowers blooming will always coincide with your soberversary and remind you of your own growth.
If you are struggling with a substance use or mental health disorder, there is hope. TruHealing Centers offers high-quality treatment for addiction and mental health disorders in facilities across the country. Our staff—many of whom are in recovery themselves—will help you build hope and growth in recovery this spring. Call an admissions specialist at 410-593-0005.