August 25, 2021

Outdoor Activities Are More Than Just Fun: They’re Healing

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Support

Time and time again, research has shown the importance of sunshine for mental and physical health. Sunshine gives us vitamin D, which is a mood booster and helps promote physical health. However, there are many other benefits to being active outdoors, as well.  The benefits of being outdoors extended to social and natural health, as well as general well-being. Also, being active promotes physical health. So, what are the drawbacks? Only getting wet on a rainy day. Let’s look at some of the benefits. Four Benefits to Outdoor Activities There is a multitude of benefits to being active outdoors. Some of these benefits cannot be measured and are not known, but there are at least the four following: #1. Physical Health: Outdoor activity has been shown over the years to be a promoter of physical health. Not only does our vitamin D level increase, but so does our endurance. Also,…

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August 19, 2021

Taking Care of Your Mental Health

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Recovery

Feeling good is something we all might take for granted. When we feel good, we do not think about what we did to get to that point or what can help us stay resilient to frustrations throughout our day. However, when we are feeling low, depressed, or anxious, pinpointing the reasons is not so difficult. Finding reasons to feel bad is easily done. What is more easily done is taking care of our mental health before we get to that low point.  When we are in that frustrating point of an unhealthy mental state, getting ourselves out of the doldrums is difficult. Taking care of our mental health is easier when we are happy and practicing it regularly. However, seeing the point of keeping up those activities when we are feeling low makes coming back into a healthy state difficult. There are some things to do to keep ourselves mentally…

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August 15, 2021

Reemerging From Lockdown

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Recovery

In most places around the world, things are slowly, and sometimes quickly, beginning to return to some version of “normal.” As the new “business as usual” begins to settle in, many of us are experiencing a kind of system shock, after such a dramatic, chaotic, and isolated period of time. There is much to consider and discuss when it comes to safeguarding our mental health and recovery as things begin to change once again. Even though much appears to be shifting “back to the way things were,” it can be an extremely difficult transition to make because of how different things have been in the recent past.  We all want to keep up with the changing times, but this can be exceptionally difficult for those of us in recovery from alcoholism and addiction, especially if we have mental and emotional health issues to take into consideration, as well. We need…

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August 9, 2021

People Need People

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Support

For those of us familiar with recovery, we are already well aware of the big fact that we simply cannot recover alone. We need each other. People need people in every walk of life, but it is especially true for those of us in recovery from alcoholism and addiction. It is a fact of our lives every single day. Not only that, but it is among the greatest blessings of our lives, as well. The irony is easy to see, of course, when we consider that most of us struggling with alcoholism and addiction-like to fancy ourselves as lone wolves. We all like to imagine we can go it alone and do it our own way — we don’t need anybody. Certainly, none of this is true in recovery, and though we all resist it at first, it comes to be one of the greatest gifts of a 12-Step program:…

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August 7, 2021

Why Does Meditation Help?

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Recovery

Helping others requires us to take care of ourselves. Taking care of ourselves involves many different caretaking strategies, but one of the ways we can take care of ourselves is through meditation. Meditation is not just about breathing or chanting, although that is often what people think of first. There are many different forms of meditation, and it is easy to find one to fit your needs. Four Forms of Meditation There are many different forms of meditation and different forms within these forms. Four of these include spiritual, movement, visual, and guided. Within each of these four forms, there are various alternatives for our mindful practices. #1. Spiritual: Spiritual meditation can take the form of prayer or sitting in reflection. The main theme of this method is understanding that a Higher Power is capable of helping us and that we are listening to and leaning on a Higher Power…

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August 5, 2021

The Importance of Nutrition

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Recovery

When taking care of our clients, it is easy to forget to take care of ourselves. Writing notes during lunch breaks and focusing on making sure our clients are okay are both easy ways for us to forego proper nutrition. We need to remember that we are examples for everyone we encounter. If we don’t take care of ourselves, how can we encourage others to take care of themselves? When people enter recovery, malnutrition is not uncommon. While entering recovery is an immediate boost to wellness, malnutrition takes time to overcome. Our clients’ need for good nutrition is key to their recovery long-term.  As we participate in our own lives and the recovery of others, our nutrition is key to our ability to ensure their well-being and our own. If we are not taking care of ourselves, we cannot expect our clients to practice good nutrition and take care of…

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August 1, 2021

Staying Safe During Summer Party Season

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Recovery

Everybody likes to have fun, especially when the sun is shining and summer is in full effect! There’s always plenty to do all summer long — from simple hang-outs to big adventures, summertime is definitely party season. What does that mean for those of us in recovery from alcoholism and addiction? Aren’t we supposed to avoid parties like the plague? Doesn’t the fun end forever when we enter recovery? Absolutely not! In fact, it says right in the literature of recovery that we absolutely insist on enjoying life. A life in recovery wouldn’t be worth much if it was no fun at all, would it? Most of us in recovery find that engaging with a 12-Step program and the 12-Step lifestyle spells the beginning of true joy and fun, not the end. Of course, there is a lot to keep in mind concerning the safeguarding of our recovery. Just because…

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July 26, 2021

What Is Sober Living and Why Should I Go There?

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Support
sober living

Jaywalker Lodge believes in helping alcoholics and addicts every step of the way in recovery, so we’re especially glad to talk about sober living. Sober living is the transitional living environment between intense addiction recovery treatment and independent recovery living. In other words, sober living is the buffer between working the recovery program in a safe treatment environment and living the recovery lifestyle out in the big, beautiful world. Of course, there are lots of benefits of taking advantage of a sober living environment. But before we discuss why we should go to sober living, let’s get into what it is and why it was created in the first place. What Is Sober Living? Sober living is a little bit like treatment and a lot like living on our own. It’s the transition between an in-house, intense recovery treatment and fully independent living in recovery. Sober living is the safe…

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July 15, 2021

Celebrating Every Victory

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Lifestyle, Recovery
celebrating victory

It’s a major part of the Western mindset to focus on avoiding bad things rather than embracing good things, but especially with alcoholics and addicts like us. We love to focus on the negative, worry about escaping crisis, or generally sell ourselves short. Too often, we forget to celebrate the victories (big or small), embrace the positive, or at least peek at the bright side. It’s time to change all that and start to look at how we can adjust our perspective on a daily basis to include a bit more joy and celebration. Practice Makes Progress There are no quick fixes for altering a lifetime of skewing towards the negative. We’ve trained ourselves for years to see and focus on the bad. Our minds, habits, and attitudes won’t change overnight. It’s important that we don’t get discouraged. Good things take time, and so does learning how to see the…

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June 27, 2021

We Believe #12: The Goal of Sobriety Is To Live a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Meaning

Posted by Jaywalker in Lifestyle, Recovery
life of joy

At Jaywalker Lodge, we are guided by our hearts in everything we do. In fact, the whole Jaywalker operation is guided by heart, and the heart of Jaywalker is summed up in our 12 “We Believe” statements. These are the reasons, motivations, and guiding lights for every single action and for every single person here. We’ve come to our 12th and final belief, and perhaps the most important one. Nothing sums up Jaywalker Lodge better than We Believe #12. If there’s one thing you need to know about Jaywalker Lodge, it’s that we truly believe in this sentiment with every fiber of our being. We Believe #12: We believe that while complete abstinence from drugs and alcohol is an essential strategy in early recovery, the ultimate goal of sobriety is to live a life of joy, abundance, and meaning. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? And the best part is, we know it to…

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