How to Fix Your Life When it Becomes Like a Broken Record
Every single day and year of your life is different. You progress through tracks in school, you work your way up the ladder at work, and hit milestone after milestone throughout your life. Whether you like it or not, life continues moving forward. When life stops becoming about hitting milestones, you begin to feel like it is a broken record. Suddenly, everyday feels the same and you look for something to change. Find out why we sometimes feel our lives are like a broken record and how to fix what feels broken.
Breaking the Habit Loop
If your days, weeks, and even years feels like you’re on a loop, you’re not alone. Many people, especially in recovery, feel like they’re doing the same thing over and over again, on endless loop, for eternity. These loops span a lifetime and can be as short as five minutes or as long as several hours. The majority of what we do is habitual. This allows us to learn how to drive, brush our teeth, and breathe without thinking. Habits are formed from doing the same things everyday that inform those habits. Breaking the habit of addiction is much the same. It is getting your brain and body off the loops that got it addicted in the first place and creating space for them to heal. Habits form in your brain and body in a way that routines start. If you want to stop a routine, you have to get your brain and body away from what is causing the habit. If you want to get away from it, you can try the following:
- Identify the reward: you have to know what is causing your habit. If you don’t find another way to get the reward, changing your behavior is going to leave that void unfulfilled. Figuring out what makes you tick may require new perspective. Don’t hesitate to talk it over with someone you trust. Think about what triggers the habits and how you are acting on it. When you know what flips the switch, it is easier to find the ‘off’ switch
- Take a vacation: if you don’t have much time off, give yourself a staycation. Wake up 15 minutes earlier, drive a different way to work, or rearrange your apartment. Do something that shakes up the environment your brain is hardwired to respond to. Prime yourself for change.
- Find a new meeting. Keeping your substance abuse addiction a priority is important, but it doesn’t mean you can’t find new ways to create adventure in your life and recovery.
- Get out and do new things with your sober friends. Addiction to drugs and alcohol tends to replace normal life excitement and it can be difficult to find what you like outside of your addiction. Take a hike, go kayaking, and get outdoors. Experiencing new things in sobriety can bring fulfillment to your life.
Shaking Things Up
If you want to shake things up, you can go get a radical haircut, rearrange your bedroom, wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual, stop eating meat, get a dog, or any number of other things to break you out of a rut. It is not recommended in early recovery to just go breaking up with habits and start new things out of the blue. However, you are going to have more success breaking up with bad habits if you have people surrounding you to keep you accountable and support your journey of recovery.
The Last Resort provides a safe, supportive environment for men in a retreat-like setting. Nature is an important component of recovery and healing. We strive to provide a place of enrichment that cultivates the inner as well as the outer journey of recovery. However you find your way to the Last Resort, we endeavor to provide a haven where you can journey through recovery, feeling like your life and story have meaning and a purpose. Contact us now!