Your Personal Search for Wellness

Wellness looks different for everyone because each person's body and mind react to, communicate with, and perceive the world differently. Searching for wellness means finding a holistic approach to your overall health that allows you to live your life fully, happily, and healthily. In your recovery, your wellness goals could be mental, physical, career, or relationship oriented. All aspects of your wellness connect like dominos; if one falls, the others are likely to follow. 

The Wellness Approach

You want to find a treatment that addresses all aspects of your being in a way that enhances your strengths, supports your weaknesses, and provides you with direction to meet your goals. A personalized treatment plan will address all areas of your wellness, including:

• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Physical
• Social
• Vocational
• Financial
• Psychological
• Environmental

You will not have a successful recovery without tools and coping mechanisms for all the different areas of your wellness. An effective treatment program will help you find your wellness through transparent individualization. 

Transparent Individualization

Transparency means working with a mental health professional to investigate what motivates both your damaging and healthy behaviors internally. A mental health professional should create a plan, not just with you in mind but alongside you. You should work together to identify roadblocks in your wellness and find tools to help you navigate around them. Your mental health professional needs to listen, respond, and invest in you as much as you need to invest in them.

Wellness Modalities

Modalities are nontraditional treatments that a recovery facility offers. Traditional treatment focuses on your psychological well-being, whereas nontraditional treatment focuses on all other areas of your wellness.

Mindfulness, Meditation, and Breathwork

Mindfulness is a philosophy that allows you to experience the world as it's happening, and meditation is a tool that can help you practice it. Through meditation, mindfulness promotes a sense of calm. It encourages you to slow down and process your emotions and memories thoughtfully, which can open you up to new interpretations of them. Meditation requires you to focus on your surroundings, body, and mind, promoting a sense of oneness with the world around you. Sometimes meditation involves breathwork. Breathwork involves several types of breathing techniques that allow you to focus on your breath and promote a sense of calm.

Trauma-Informed Yoga

Trauma-informed yoga focuses on releasing tension and practicing being calm. Sometimes you might reprocess past traumas repeatedly, making it difficult for you to connect with the present. Trauma-informed yoga can help you regulate your body, mind, and emotions by teaching you to focus on the sensations of the present.

Music therapy

During music therapy, a therapist can use melodies, lyrics, and rhythm as a stimulus to evoke and process emotions. You might also work together to create music as a way of processing and understanding emotions. You don't need prior experience to utilize music therapy. It's about finding an outlet where you feel comfortable being vulnerable and exploring that vulnerability.  A musical therapy session might include:

• Singing
• Dancing
• Writing music
• Listening to music
• Playing instruments
• Discussing the meaning of lyrics

Music therapy provides a space to freely express yourself, explore your emotions, and spur connections with others through a mutual love of music.

Adventure Therapy

Adventure can give you a sense of wonderment, promote physical fitness, and help you connect with others. Being in nature and taking in a new or awe-inspiring environment can promote a sense of mindfulness and calm. Some common activities in adventure therapy include:

• Hiking: Hiking can boost your mood and boost your heart rate. Hiking can provide a sense of calm, and mindfulness, and give you a sense of accomplishment when you finally reach the end of a trail. You can go alone or with a group of friends and go on an easy hike or a difficult one. Remember to listen to what your body and mind need. 
• Surfing: Surfing can be thrilling and bring an healthy adrenalin rush. It activates all your senses as you feel the wind's touch, smell the ocean's saltiness, and see the beauty of the waves crashing onto the shore. Surfing allows you to be active and enjoy a calming environment.
• Kayaking: Kayaking can be exhilarating or calming depending on if you kayak on a lake or a river. You can kayak with friends or family and find a sense of community in the sport. Kayaking helps you get exercise, make friends, and relax in nature.

Physical and group activities are essential for an overall sense of wellness. They help you form bonds, find passion, and promote fitness. Wellness is about more than physical fitness and emotional exercises; it's about finding joy in all aspects of life. It's a holistic approach that acknowledges the relationship between all the different aspects of your health. At West Coast Recovery Centers, we believe that your treatment plan should be built with you in mind. Our support team understands that everyone goes through their recovery journey in their own way and at their own speed. Our team believes the only way to have a successful recovery is to address all aspects of a person's wellness, which is why we provide modalities such as mindfulness meditation, adventure therapy, and music therapy. We offer a wide variety of treatments that allow you to find what works best for you. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, please call (760) 492-6509 to rediscover life through sustainable recovery.