There are times when the challenges of life seem insurmountable. Relationships, bills, mental health, recovery, work Stress – troubles can heap one atop another until it feels impossible to see anything except the towering tangle of complications you have to manage. When you feel overwhelmed like that it is time to pause and take a breath.

One of the most important skills you will learn in Florida House Experience detox and wellness center is stress management. It is a vital life skill for anyone at all, but especially for a recovering alcoholic or drug addict. No matter how hard you try, you can’t solve all of life’s problems in one day. At our recovery houses in Florida you will find your sobriety and strategies to deal with your stresses. You have many more days stretching before you. And surely many more troubles will come in those days too, but each will get its turn, and you will need to manage each one in a healthy and productive way.

Focus on the immediate goal

It is easy to get distracted by giant problems looming on the horizon, or hazy indistinct potential troubles clouding the distance but you can only solve the issues that are actually right in front of you. If you are feeling overwhelmed by everything, take a step back and pick one immediate issue that is in your control. This is the first step to effectively managing your stress. You have to take everything in your life including your recovery one step at a time. Your drug detox isn’t going to go any faster even if you will it. Your relationships will take time to heal.

Map Your Way Out of Stress

Once you’ve decided on a place to start, write it down in capital letters at the top of a piece of paper. Can you resolve it right now with relative ease? Great! Get to work on it then come back and cross it off. Is there something impeding you from solving that problem? Ok, now you have a new step in your process. Write the new obstacle down below the other and draw a small line connecting the two. If something else is preventing you from solving that one do the same thing until you get to a problem you can actually attack. Now you have a map for how to work back through and get into position to resolve the original issue. Cross steps off one at a time, add steps if new obstacles come up, but keep working your way up the paper until you can cross out that capital letter problem at the top. Then pick a new target problem to eliminate and start a new paper. Step by step and line by line you can chew through your obstacles until you have some space to breathe.

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