Meditate Your Way to a Better Recovery

photo of a woman meditating in the forest

Rise and shine and meditate is the motto at 10 Acre Ranch. Our daily morning meditation sessions help our male clients begin the day with a calm and open mind. And this state of calm can be revisited during the darkest hours of addiction recovery.

Meditation, which has been study-proven to reduce stress, blood pressure and fatigue, is also important for achieving and maintaining long-term sobriety and finding joy in a substance-free life. The ancient practice can help keep you centered, motivated and energized so you can focus on your present task at hand – to fight cravings, avoid triggers, make behavioral changes and other recovery essentials.

At 10 Acre Ranch, our meditation sessions help clients to:

  • Empty the mind of stressful thoughts
  • Concentrate on breath and relaxation
  • Live in the moment
  • Avoid over-thinking
  • Boost overall health and energy
  • Develop compassion, grace and patience
  • Better handle emotionally charged situations

Here are a few more ways that meditation can help in your day to day recovery and lasting sobriety:

  • Stress: You’ll learn to fend off stress and calm anxiety – both of which can threaten your sobriety – with slow breathing.
  • Cravings: You’ll learn to be in the present and to think before you react, essential to fighting cravings.
  • Triggers: You’ll learn to be more mindful of your actions and behavior patterns, including triggers.
  • Self-acceptance: You’ll learn to notice your thoughts and accept them without passing judgment or getting caught up in their stories or meanings. This helps you develop a better understanding of yourself.
  • Emotions: You’ll learn to become more in control of emotional turbulence.

Meditation and Addiction Recovery for Men
At 10 Acre Ranch, meditation is both an individual and a collaborative process. Our trained therapists teach clients the basic principles of relaxation and take them through guided meditations. To learn more about our rehab, call today: 877-228-4679.

3 Ways to Celebrate the New Year – Sober!

photo of two people celebrating new year watching fireworks

Getting sober (and staying sober) takes a lot of grit, determination and courage. Finding a lifetime of sobriety also requires a fair bit of planning to avoid falling back into the destructive patterns of behavior that you worked hard to leave behind.

To reduce your risk of relapse, it’s especially important to plan ahead during the holiday season. With New Year’s Eve right around the corner, take a few minutes today to make some sober plans for the big night.

If this is your first time to ring in the new year without drugs and alcohol, here are a few ways to celebrate and have fun without getting a hangover the next day!

(1) Plan your own camping or fishing trip with some buddies.

Staying sober around people who are using and abusing drugs and alcohol is difficult for most – especially those on a new journey towards sobriety. One way to protect your sobriety is to simply remove yourself from a dangerous situation. If you do want to avoid the bar scene, create your own sober environment instead. If you’re into the great outdoors, invite a few friends for a quick weekend trip.

(2) Focus on your health.

Drinking to excess wreaks havoc on your body – altering your brain chemistry while making you exhausted and irritable the next day. Why not do the opposite and use this day to improve your mental and physical health. Meditate, cook healthy meals, go for a long run and get to bed early. When you wake up the next day energized (instead of reaching for the Advil) you’ll be glad you did.

(3) Attend a support group meeting.

If you’re anxious about celebrating New Year’s Eve sober for the first time, know that you are not alone. Talk to your addiction recovery team for recommendations about the best group therapy options in your area. You’ll likely feel more confident after talking to others in recovery and enjoy having peer-to-peer support.

Relapse Prevention at 10 Acre Ranch

As part of a comprehensive approach to outpatient addiction recovery, clients at 10 Acre Ranch Recovery learn important life skills including relapse prevention strategies including anger management, handling social pressures, handling high-risk situations and long-term sobriety planning. Whether you are seeking help for you or a loved one, our all-inclusive residential facility is affordable and offers one of the industry’s highest recovery success rates. Contact an admissions advisor by phone at (877) 228.4679.

Benefits of a Social Model of Recovery

a photo of a young happy peers stacking hands outdoor celebrating together

Studies have shown that the “social model” approach to rehab, which emphasizes peer support and the process of learning through ‘‘doing’’ and ‘‘experiencing’’ and providing positive role models, is an integral part of drug and alcohol treatment. Here are just a few of the many benefits of this type of addiction treatment:

  • It assists with ongoing recovery through mastery of experiences and finding meaning, purpose, and social connections in your lives.
  • It helps individuals to develop healthy interpersonal skills critical to long-term recovery.
  • It provides real-life experience for living and thriving in a community.
  • It prevents isolation and loneliness — something that many men struggle with along their journey toward sobriety.
  • It promotes greater support and empathy.
  • It emphasizes trust, respect, confidentiality and compassion.
  • It encourages clients to share their relapse stories, which decreases a sense of self-loathing experienced by many who relapse and allows individuals to refocus their energies toward reestablishing abstinence.
  • It helps clients learn to prevent and cope with crises.
  • It builds strong, positive social coping behaviors and social support systems.

At 10 Acre Ranch, our social treatment model facilitates fellowship and fun as clients support one another throughout the recovery process. Clients live together, prep meals together, and attend support group sessions in our homelike six-bed facility. They also participate in softball tournaments, movie nights, supervised outings, and daily exercise outings to a private racquetball club and gym.

Would a Social Model of Addiction Treatment Work for You?
At our beautiful Southern California addiction treatment center, our male clients have daily opportunities to experience life together and to become an integral part of a thriving community for those in recovery from addiction. To learn more about our social model of recovery or to discuss specific treatment needs for you or someone you love, call us today: 877-228-4679. We’re ready to help.

Anxiety and Panic Attacks: Managing the Symptoms

photo of a sad woman worring about a lot of things

Anxiety disorders represent the most common form of mental illness – impacting over 40 million Americans. While the root cause is different for everyone, doctors believe that it’s triggered by a combination of things including stress, personality traits and some people are simply genetically predisposed to the condition. And, it is worth mentioning that repeated abuse of drugs and alcohol can trigger the onset of anxiety disorders too as the result of a brain chemistry imbalance.

Anxiety can manifest itself in a variety of ways including irritability, racing thoughts, fatigue, insomnia and panic attacks – which can be the most debilitating symptom.

If you do periodically experience panic attacks, it’s important to talk to your addiction recovery team. They may recommend tweaking your plan of care or refer you to a specialist. You can also empower yourself! By learning how to mitigate the symptoms, you can reduce your risk of self-medicating with drugs or alcohol to cope.

Strategies for Managing Panic

(1) Educate yourself on the science behind anxiety.

Ask your physician or therapist to help you better understand the biological and neurological underpinnings of anxiety. By understanding the triggers of anxiety and how your mind and body are reacting during episodes of panic, you can feel more empowered and in control.

(2) Learn relaxation techniques and breathing exercises.

The next time you start to experience a panic attack, try to focus on the rhythm of your breath. Take a deep breath through your nose while counting to five, pause, and slowly exhale at the same rate. Repeat this pattern for a few minutes. (And, one huge benefit of this technique is that it’s portable.)

(3) Give your mind something else to do.

Forcing your brain to work (on something other than worrying) can dilute the episode of panic. Try counting backward from 100, work a crossword puzzle or read a book for a few minutes until the feelings subside.

Dual-Diagnosis Specialists

Our addiction specialists have helped many men find sobriety while also getting help for a co-occurring behavioral health issue like anxiety or depression. At 10 Acre Ranch, our highly-trained staff works with male clients to create a personalized treatment plan that addresses mental health along with substance use disorders to reduce symptoms and to increase the likelihood of long-term recovery. To learn more, call today: (877) 228-4679.

Benefits of Gender-Specific Rehab

drug-rehab-Riverside-California

When it comes to addiction and addiction treatment, men and women are far from equal – and, in fact, a growing body of research is continuing to explore gender differences in substance use disorder as well as other addictive behaviors.

What we do know is the men and women tend to develop, experience, and recover from substance use disorder differently – and that’s partly why an all-male environment can help provide comprehensive drug and alcohol rehab.

Here we take a look at a few of the many benefits of gender-specific addiction treatment:

A stronger focus on gender-specific issues and relapse triggers: The separation allows individuals to address core issues specific to each gender. For example, men are more likely to battle barriers such as pride and denial as well as relapse triggers like depression and anxiety. In addition, the following issues often need to be addressed during treatment:

  • Emotional isolation
  • Anger or aggression
  • Sexual problems
  • Narcissism
  • Father/son relationships
  • Spiritual disconnection

Enhanced communication and support: An all-male environment allows clients to be less self-conscious and to freely share more personal, intimate information in groups with same-gender peers. This is especially for male clients who are less assertive.

Fewer romantic or sexual distractions: Romantic relationships during recovery, especially during the first year or so, can be a slippery slope into relapse. An all-male addiction treatment program minimizes this risk and allows our clients to focus on themselves and their recovery in a safe and support environment, without heightened emotions and stress.

Men-Only Addiction Treatment in Southern California
At 10 Acre Ranch, we specialize in treating male clients who are 18 and older. Our residential rehab facility is warm, welcoming, and tailored to healing the whole person. Therapy addresses the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences of drug and alcohol addiction. To learn more, call 877-228-4679.

(Mental Health) Exercise: Building Emotional Resilience

photo of a man lifting weights at the gym

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” – John F. Kennedy

Sometimes life is punctuated by stressful events. Family members get sick. A major financial curve-ball is thrown your way. The basement floods – again.

But, while you may not always be able to prescribe what happens to you, you do have the power to control how you react. That’s why developing emotional resilience is an important life skill to cultivate.

So what exactly what does it mean to become more resilient? It’s not about being tough, turning a blind eye or acting like everything is just okay. It’s actually much more courageous, honest and powerful than that. Emotional resilience is about being strong enough to acknowledge those challenges and uncomfortable emotions. And, knowing how to react.

JFK summed up resilience very well. Life isn’t about focusing on the roadblocks you might encounter. It’s about understanding that you are empowered to solve those challenges – while learning and growing from those experiences.

Learning emotional resilience is important. And, it is especially important for those starting a life of sobriety. By learning how to draw from your inner strength, you can avoid turning to drugs or alcohol as a way to cope.

Here are strategies you can use to build a reservoir of emotional resilience:

(1) Understand that you are not alone. Life happens. To everyone.

The good and the well – not so good. So, the next time you get a speeding ticket on the way home from work, don’t beat yourself up. While it may seem frustrating in the moment, you can lessen the initial “sting” but reminding yourself that other people have gone through similar situations.

(2) Ask family and friends how they might handle the situation.

The next time you face adversity, take a proactive approach and talk to someone about it. Focus on the possible solutions, not the problem. You’ll feel more empowered and you just might learn how they have dealt with a similar situation in the past.

(3) Acknowledge. Learn. And move on.

Try reframing the situation as a learning opportunity. If you’ve had a particularly tough day, take a few moments to think about how you can personally grow from the experience.

Benefits of an Individual Therapy Approach

10 Acre Ranch drug rehab is a social treatment model that emphasizes therapeutic group activities like anger management, cognitive therapy, and 12-step programming. Living in a supportive community prevents clients from becoming alienated during recovery, and teaches them interpersonal skills that are helpful during and after rehabilitation. To learn more about our addiction rehab program and life skills training, call (877) 228-4679.