Alternative Ways of Relaxing Without Alcohol

Alternative Ways to Relax without Alcohol

When looking to navigate post-rehab life after struggling with alcohol addiction, finding alternative ways to relax can feel like a challenge. It doesn’t have to be!

At New Leaf Recovery, we not only provide you with effective rehabilitation for alcohol addiction, but we provide you with well-founded techniques that can help with anxiety, stress or relaxation in sobriety. These can be used outside of rehab in daily life too!

Take some time to understand the alternative ways of relaxing without alcohol with us and find a healthier balance in your post-rehab journey.

Understanding Why Alcohol Is Not A Relaxant

Although many people can feel relaxed when consuming alcohol, it is important to remember that this substance is in fact a ‘fake’ relaxant. Alcohol is actually a central nervous system depressant that mimics the calm feeling whilst spiking your cortisol levels, known as the stress hormones, when it leaves your system.

Being able to find alternative methods of relaxing can help to teach your nervous system how to regulate itself naturally, taking a step away from needing alcohol to feel relaxed.

Call New Leaf For Support 24/7 on 0300 999 0330

What Alternative Ways of Relaxing Without Alcohol Look Like

There are many different ways of relaxing naturally, including focusing on physical resets, soothing your senses, engaging with high dopamine activities, and getting a good sleep routine each day.

Focusing on Physical Resets

When you feel stressed, it is natural for your ‘fight or flight’ nature to kick in, causing you to feel more stressed or anxious in the moment. Some physical alternative ways of relaxing can include:

Taking active notice of breathing: Inhaling, holding and exhaling slowing for counts of 4 can help to reset your nerves, calming down your stressed instincts.
Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR): This progress of tensing each muscle and releasing it in turn can help to calm your body naturally.
Immersion in cold water: Taking a cold shower or splashing yourself with cold water can trigger the ‘mammalian dive reflex’. This instantly slows your heart rate, calming you down in the moment.

Soothing Your Senses

Alcohol is known to numb the senses. Taking time to sooth your sense without alcohol in your system helps you to rediscover them in a way that also promotes healing and calm.

Herbal Rituals: Drinking loose-leaf teas or juices that contain natural melatonin can give the notion of a drink without the addictive toxins.
Weighted Blankets: Using these can provide deep pressure stimulation. This reduces cortisol levels and increases serotonin levels within your body naturally, helping you to feel calm and engage with your senses.

Being able to re-engage with and understand your sense can help you in day-to-day life with maintaining sobriety and avoiding temptations or triggers that pose challenge.

Engaging in High Dopamine Activities

In recovery, the brain is healing it dopamine receptors. Engaging with high dopamine activities can create a flow that bridges the gap, helping recovery seem less bleak for many individuals. High dopamine activities can include:

Creative outlets: This can include a wide range of activities that engage the brain in a unique way. For example, painting, Lego sets, woodwork, dancing or singing.
Physical activities: Any form of physical activity that requires focus can help the brain to move away from stress or cravings. Activities like yoga, cycling, running or rock climbing are some good examples.

Having a Good Daily Sleep Routine

Ensuring that you have a good daily sleep routine can help your brain and your body to relax and recover. If you have broken sleep, this can often lead to exhaustion; however, a quality night’s sleep can promote deep rest and natural circadian rhythms.

If you have been struggling to sleep well, this can prevent the body from healing post-recovery, as well as the brain being unable to process emotions and flush out toxins. For those who have struggled with alcohol addiction, the brain may require a re-train in order to find the natural rhythms of deep sleep again.

Some tips for helping you fall into a deeper sleep naturally can include:

Avoiding screens 1 hour before going to bed
Don’t eat heavy meals in the last few hours before going to bed
Have a warm drink or juice that contains natural melatonin
Use soothing sounds or audio tracks like Yoga Nidra to help your mind and body relax once in bed

There are many options when it comes to helping your body and mind relax with each individual being different and more susceptible to one way than another.

Why Finding An Alternative Way to Relax is Key in Post-Rehab Life

Once you have been through the detoxification process and all alcohol and toxins have left the body, it can sometimes feel like a real challenge to relax naturally without the ‘support’ of the substance. It is key to remember that often, finding natural means of relaxation can provide your body and mind with a much deeper form of relaxation that alcohol simply cannot match.

When alcohol is in your system, you can often experience:

Fragmented sleep and exhaustion
Anxiety in the hangover stage
A loss of control the more you consume

During this time, your brains healing is also inhibited.

Finding an alternative way to relax without alcohol in your system can help tackle these struggles with healthy alternatives. Your brain will begin to re-train itself in order to promote uninterrupted deep sleep and rest, baseline stress is reduced which results in a stronger resilience against anxiety, you remain in control of your emotions and actions and your brain is encouraged to grow new neural pathways for healing.

In post-rehab life, this is vital for maintaining a stronger mindset towards sobriety. It can also help with ensuring that moments of stress or temptation are handled well.

How New Leaf Recovery Support Your Relaxation in Recovery

At New Leaf Recovery, we believe in helping set up all individuals with a strong foundation for recovery. Once individuals have been through the detox process, we engage in effective rehabilitation that is tailored to engage the mind and body in new ways, focusing on maintaining sobriety in the long-term.

As part of our rehabilitation programmes, we provide a range of rehab therapies, each proven to help individuals work their way through recovery and find new ways of processing their emotions, whilst understanding the root of their addiction too.

Our rehabilitation therapies include:

Each form of therapy that we provide for our clients helps them to engage their minds in new ways. Meditation can help with soothing the senses, whilst art and movement therapy can help release high levels of dopamine.

We also provide confidential 1-2-1 and counselling sessions with professionals in order to help clients understand more about their addiction, its root cause and how they can mend broken relationships caused by addiction through accountability.

At New Leaf Recovery, we also help clients start the 12 Steps Programme. This is a structured pathway that helps individuals work through stages of honesty, self-examination, accountability and service. Whilst we do not finish this programme in full with clients, we actively work with each individual to help get them started on this life-long process, helping them to understand how it can help them move forwards through post-rehab life in a healthy mindset.

If you know someone who has been struggling with alcohol addiction for some time, or have been struggling yourself, don’t hesitate to reach out to New Leaf Recovery today. Our 28 day rehabilitation programme is here to support everyone through detox, rehabilitation & post-rehab life. In recovery, it is key to remember that you are not alone!

Contact our team today for yourself or a loved one and have a confidential chat before starting our admissions process. Take the first step towards turning over your new leaf today!

Call New Leaf For Support 24/7 on 0300 999 0330