If you’re new to recovery, you may be wondering what summer fun is going to look like in your future, and you may worry that your life is going to become boring. Recovery doesn’t have to be dull during the summer months—but it may take a little planning and creativity to make the most of the season. With some intention, you can create meaningful experiences that support your sobriety while keeping boredom and loneliness at bay. At Safe Harbor Recovery Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, we encourage our patients to find ways to experience the natural highs life has to offer.
Look Within the Recovery Community
An easy place to start, when you’re trying to find fun, sober activities, is to explore what is available to you through your recovery community. Many 12-Step groups have summer picnics and other events where people can gather to socialize in a sober setting. At Safe Harbor, we offer opportunities even after treatment for participants to gather together and engage in activities.
Exploring Hobbies
If the recovery community isn’t offering all of the fun you are looking for, you can still build on what you’ve learned about yourself in recovery to develop additional hobbies. For example,
- Gardening. If you’re finding that eating a well-balanced diet is a big help to you, then growing a garden full of fresh vegetables, visiting a local farmer’s market, spending a day at a farm, fishing for a nutritious dinner or taking a cooking class might allow you to expand your skills in this area, while building on your interest in healthy eating.
- Exercise. If exercise has become your go-to coping skill, you might want to leave the treadmill in your dust, as you explore outdoor options like hiking, bicycling, swimming, or outdoor yoga. These could all be great ways to keep things interesting during the warmer months. Virginia has lots of outdoor activities to offer.
- Spirituality. If your spirituality has been the cornerstone of your recovery journey, keep an eye on your faith community’s calendar of events to see if they might be offering summer activities you would enjoy, or offer to get something started.
- Childhood fun. Relive happy memories from your youth. If you loved to rollerblade, skateboard, or surf when you were a kid, now might be a great time to pick up those activities again. Or maybe there was something you always wanted to experience as a kid, but never had the chance. You have grown-up money now, and you get to decide how to spend it.
- Connect with others. Seek out your people. Think about who supports your recovery and makes you happy, and find time to get together with them. Go to an amusement park, an outdoor concert, the zoo, or whatever sounds fun. Summer barbeques and picnics don’t have to include alcohol and can be done on even a small budget.
- Give back. Giving back is a big piece of most recovery journeys, and summer can be a great time to explore volunteer opportunities in your area that might not be available year-round or that you’re usually too busy to notice are available. Virginia offers many volunteer opportunities, such as Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Virginia State Parks, Serve Virginia Volunteer Centers, and VolunteerMatch.
Get Out of Town
If all else fails, travel. Now that you’re sober, you might be able to afford better activities, enjoy them without hangovers, and remember them later. There is even an entire portion of the travel industry that is dedicated to sober travel. Your budget might not allow for an international trip, but even a day trip to a town you’ve never visited or haven’t checked out in a while can be entertaining and give you something to look forward to, as you plan out your summer. Many communities offer free and low-cost events in the summer, such as outdoor movies, festivals, and concerts. Even just attending a recovery meeting in a different town can offer new perspectives and new opportunities for connection.
At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, we believe that finding joy in life makes recovery easier and more meaningful. We encourage our patients to find replacements for the substances that they came to rely on during active addiction, so that they have new focuses for their lives and new ways to build community.