Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate all kinds of love—whether it’s your love for your friends, your dog, or for yourself. For those who are single and sober this Valentine’s Day, there are plenty of ways to celebrate the holiday without compromising your sobriety. If you need a few last minute ideas, here are five sober and fun ways to celebrate this Valentine’s Day.
- Treat yourself.
Self-love is an important part of addiction recovery.1 Learning how to love and care for yourself can be difficult after years of addiction, but it is key to a genuine, lasting lifestyle of sobriety. As you continue to work through the 12-steps during your sober living program, you will become more comfortable with the idea of loving yourself and you’ll eventually banish thoughts and feelings of self-hatred. You don’t have to have a significant other to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year. Instead, use this day as an opportunity to care and love for yourself by doing something you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Buy yourself that watch you’ve been wanting, treat yourself to a cupcake or a pastry from your favorite local bakery, or spend a couple of hours getting pampered at the spa. Whatever you do, be kind to yourself and celebrate the personal changes you’ve made in a life of recovery.
- Host a Valentine’s Day party with your sober friends.
If you don’t want to be alone on Valentine’s Day, plan a party and invite all your sober friends and their significant others. Have everyone bring a dish of food, organize some group games and activities, and make a unique Valentine’s Day playlist on Spotify to create the perfect ambiance for your event. These types of social activities are extremely important in addiction recovery, as starting a new life of sobriety often requires people to abandon old relationships and activities and build new social networks that support abstinence from drugs and alcohol.2 Taking advantage of opportunities to participate in group-oriented holiday celebrations while enrolled in a transitional living program is a great way to practice new social skills, build relationships, and cultivate a sense of acceptance and belonging among the group.
- Go to a meeting.
For some people in addiction recovery, Valentine’s Day may bring up old memories, thoughts, and emotions that act as relapse triggers and threaten their sobriety. If Valentine’s Day is a particularly difficult day for you, you should consider attending a support group meeting. And if you don’t want to go alone, ask one of your sober living roommates to go with you. Surrounding yourself with like-minded peers and taking the time to talk through the emotions you’re feeling can provide an experience that is both healing and rewarding.
- Spoil your family or friends.
Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to spoil the ones you love. Ask your family members or friends if you can prepare a special dinner and dessert for them, write personalized Valentine’s Day letters, or just drop a plate of cookies off at your mom’s house. Taking an extra moment to love on your friends and family will show them how much you care and remind them that their support and encouragement hasn’t gone unnoticed. You can also use this day as an opportunity to make amends, which is another important aspect of addiction recovery.3 If you are enrolled in a transitional housing program like Eudaimonia Recovery Homes, you may still be working on repairing some relational damage that was caused by your addiction. Instead of giving your family member a tangible gift, you could offer to come over and clean out the garage, do some landscaping work, or tackle some other household project. You could also confront your loved one and openly discuss the hurt you caused with your addiction, give back stolen property, or reimburse your loved one for any money you stole or property you damaged in the past.
- Spend the day volunteering.
Valentine’s Day is all about love, but not just the type of intimate love two people share. Serving others is a great way to love others and celebrate the holiday. Whether you volunteer on your own or organize a group service project with your sober living roommates, Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to make someone else feel loved. Serve hot meals at your local food pantry, hand out sanitary care packages to people on the street, or spend a day caring for animals at the humane society. There are countless ways you can volunteer while in recovery this Valentine’s Day.
Whether you choose to spend the day pampering yourself or serving others, Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to build relationships with your peers in sober living and to practice self-care. If you’d like more information about Eudaimonia Recovery Homes or our sober living houses in Austin, Texas, Houston, Texas, and Colorado Springs, Colorado, please call today.
References:
- https://www.thefix.com/content/addiction-recovery
- https://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA09-4454/SMA09-4454.pdf
- https://sobernation.com/making-amends-vs-making-apologies/
