Building Resilience after addiction treatment: Aftercare travel
Recovery from addiction is a long-term process and accepting that you need help is the first and most important step to recovery. After going through and successfully completing the treatment program of your choice, the most tricky and challenging stage of your recovery begins, and that is where aftercare services come in handy to help you make a smooth transition into a new life.
What is aftercare program?
Aftercare program is a follow-up treatment that occurs after an initial rehabilitation program aimed at ensuring success in the recovery process. Aftercare programs like initial treatment programs vary in the way they are planned and executed. There is therefore need for prudence in selection of the best program that suits your individual needs. Aftercare programs may be recommended by the initial treatment institution as part of discharge plan, but patients are free to choose from the variety of existing programs. The main purpose of an aftercare program is to prevent relapse.
How aftercare travel helps build your resilience
Aftercare travel program is a unique way of beginning life again after initial treatment. It involves going out of your comfort zone and traveling to environments that help you get in touch with your core being. Sometimes people engage in self-harming behavior like addictions because of failure to connect with their surroundings. Aftercare travel provides an opportunity to see life from different lenses and this provides an opportunity to identify the heart of the problem.
Benefits of Aftercare travel program
- Broaden your horizons
You can only truly appreciate what you experience. Your worldview is limited to, your knowledge and practical experiences. Travelling ushers into your life new world views and approaches to solving problems. For example, where does resilience of the people of Africa originate from yet the continent is associated with poverty, famine, disease and war? Where do people of Africa get the energy to dance in the rain? A chance to visit them and learn from their worldview is likely to broaden your horizons and expose new possibilities.
- An opportunity for self-reflection
A temporary move away from the epicentre of change is necessary, in order to direct the flow of your creative energy back to what is important to you, to build, enhance and nurture a good relationship within yourself. Travelling removes you from your familiar environment to whole new settings and this enables you to re-look and re-think your life choices. It becomes easier to identify selfish practices and explore possible options. Travelling literally forces you to become more open-minded about yourself and your daily experiences. It enables you to reconsider your priorities and this helps in personal transformation. Flexibility and readiness to change boosts resilience.
- An opportunity to heal your loved ones
Aftercare travel provides the opportunity to heal your loved ones too. Addiction is often referred to as a family disease because all close family members are affected by your behavior. Traveling and receiving professional help together provides a perfect opportunity for the family to come up long term restorative strategies. Your healing can be frustrated by those close to you and healing together is the best way forward. At the core of resilience is social support.
- Reconnect with nature
Connecting with nature takes us back to our roots and we get pure happiness that liberates from the modern day pressures. We lose our resilience when we detach from mother nature and in order to regain our bouncing back ability, we need to reconnect. Nature is slow, gradual and effortless, yet modern life is fast-paced and neck-breaking. Learn to slow down and enjoy the present moment. Use your five senses to reconnect with nature. For example, walk barefoot, breathe with the trees, document your happy moments, eat fruits inside the orchards, listen to the sounds of nature, slowly and deliberately, and if they say Africa is the cradle of mankind, there is no better place to begin reaching out to mother nature.
In conclusion, the best aftercare travel is the one that is custom-made to fit your individual needs. Aftercare travel includes medication, transportation, counselling and therapy among others. It is important to appreciate that the treatment process does not end after detoxification or initial treatment, aftercare programs are part of a continuum of treatment for overall recovery. Wishing you the best in your recovery efforts.
