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Hi there, thanks for joining me. This podcast is all about sharing positive advice and wisdom for daily life in recovery. In this episode, I’m going to share 10 ways you can work to develop resilience in a life of sobriety.

First of all, making the transition from addiction into a sober lifestyle requires hard work, life skills, and the ability to cope with challenges as they arise. After completing rehab, you might find yourself struggling to overcome certain setbacks that make it difficult to stay sober. This can lead to overwhelming feelings of anxiety, depression, or even a full-blown relapse.

Often, relapse is a result of a lack of resilience; an essential skill for anyone in recovery. If you’re newly sober and you’re struggling to survive the day-to-day sober, taking steps to develop your resilience can help you learn how to cope and break free from the cycle of chronic relapse.

So, what is resilience then? Psych Central defines resilience as the ability to adapt to difficult circumstances or life events. In other words, if you are resilient, you can bounce back and recover from challenging life circumstances like addiction, trauma, or financial problems. Instead of getting stuck in a bad place, you’re able to move forward and learn from the experience.

There are lots of ways you can work to develop resilience in your daily life. Whether you’ve been sober for a few days, months, or several years, here are 10 ways you can develop resilience in your own life.

  1. Make sober connections.

Continuing your addiction treatment by enrolling in a sober living program, IOP, or aftercare will provide more opportunities to establish sober, supportive, and healthy relationships in recovery. Regularly attending community support group meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous is also a great way to make sober connections.

  1. Start viewing challenges as an opportunity to improve.

Instead of viewing relapse, financial problems, or relationship issues as personal failures, consider how these challenges can help you improve personally. Life is full of challenging circumstances, but how we approach them makes all the difference.

  1. Accept that you don’t have control everything.

This is a hard one. There will always be things in life that you can’t control and that’s okay. As a healthy, sober person in recovery, having resilience will allow you to cope with the stress and find ways to make it through difficult times without giving in to the temptation to use drugs or alcohol as a crutch.

  1. Develop personal goals and take steps to work toward them daily.

It’s important to have goals and to make progress toward achieving them, even if they are small goals. For example, making your bed each morning, meditating for 10 minutes each day, or meeting with your sober coach once a week are all goals you can start chipping away at right now.

  1. Take action.

When hard times come, rather than retreating into isolation or adopting a victim mentality, take positive action to resolve the issue or work through it. Having a proactive mentality will help you overcome feelings of defeat and self-loathing that could lead to relapse.

  1. Actively seek opportunities for personal growth.

Even in the midst of a difficult situation, ask yourself how you can grow from it. It’s not always easy to find the silver lining, but tough situations like financial problems or personal loss offer opportunities for personal growth and healing.

  1. Believe in yourself and your abilities.

Having confidence in your ability to stay sober and live a healthy, happy life goes a long way. Although it takes time to develop confidence, surrounding yourself with supportive, sober people will also help you learn how to trust yourself and be secure in your ability to solve problems and overcome adversity.

  1. Maintain a level head.

It’s easy to blow things out of proportion, especially when your judgment is clouded by drugs and alcohol. As a sober person, it’s perfectly okay to experience every single emotion, but the way you choose to react will determine whether you stay sober or give in to the temptation to use again.

  1. Practice self-care.

Taking care of yourself physically and mentally has many benefits in a life of recovery and will help ensure that you’re prepared to face difficult situations. Prioritizing self-care in recovery will also give you more energy to help others, improve your productivity, encourage self-discovery, and help you focus on the present moment instead of your past.

  1. Nurture spiritual practices.

Spiritual practices like meditation or yoga can help you restore hope and peace in good and bad times. These practices can also keep you grounded and resolve lingering negative emotions that are holding you back from reaching your full potential in sobriety.


Resilience and recovery go hand-in-hand and maintaining a life of sobriety is about so much more than just abstaining from drugs or alcohol. Addressing the underlying issues like self-esteem problems, trauma, or lack of coping skills is what will ultimately lead to long-term sobriety.

That concludes episode eight of the Sober Now podcast. If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a topic for our next episode, email me at kelsey.brown@novarecoverycenter.com.

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