In order to better recover from the behavioral consequences of low self-esteem, the SEA's program encourages you not only to utilize the SEA's Program of Recovery but also to alter your lifestyle as well. Your current lifestyle is a product of your low self-esteem and most probably it needs attention. The healthier your lifestyle is, the more likely your self-esteem will be enhanced and promoted.
The SEA's recovery lifestyle involves the following components:
A. Following the SEA's program of recovery - The SEA program of recovery is fully outlined in SEA's Program
B. Restructuring of personal time - Restructuring of personal time is outlined in the Time Management for Recovery.
C. Eating a balanced diet - Eating a balanced diet involves eating three balanced, nutritious meals which are low in fat, low in cholesterol, and at an adequate caloric intake for your height and ideal weight.
D. Getting adequate, restful sleep - Getting adequate, restful sleep involves six to eight hours daily of restful sleep by adequate time management, stress reduction and relaxation activities.
E. Daily aerobic exercise - Aerobic physical exercise of at least twenty minutes a day involves rigorous exercise in which your heart rate and respiration rate increase. This is discussed further in the Exercise Program in Recovery.
F. Maintaining physical health - Maintaining physical health involves taking preventative actions to monitor yourself and to seek professional medical attention when you feel sick. It involves an annual physical and other medical reviews and check-ups as needed.
G. Restructuring of home, work, and community involvement - Restructuring of home, work, and community involvement requires that you reorder your priorities to reduce workaholic tendencies, family life over responsibility or avoidance, over involvement in outside activities and other time wasters or stress inducers in your life.
H. Maintaining a social support network - Social support involves giving and receiving emotional and physical support from the relevant people in your life. This component of a recovery lifestyle is fully explored in Social Support in Recovery.
I. Stress management and relaxation activities - Stress management and relaxation activities to reduce anxiety, tension, and stress in life help you to keep your focus on personal recovery and off the unsettling realities of life. This concept is explored more fully in Coping with Stress in Recovery
J. Adequate recreational and leisure outlets - Adequate recreational and leisure outlets are necessary for you to keep your life in perspective. You need safe, healthy, growth-enhancing fun in your life so as to reassure you that your efforts at recovery are worthwhile.
It will do you no good to address just a few of the components of the Recovery Lifestyle. They are interdependent and essential if you are to achieve a full and lasting recovery from the behavioral consequence of your low self-esteem.
The following Tools for a Lifestyle of Recovery are suggestions and advice on how you can maximize the efficiency of your efforts at recovery. They are practical, down to earth tips on lessening the urge to give up and relapse into old ways of thinking, feeling, or acting. When you experience a struggle in balancing all of the components of the recovery lifestyle, review these aids to help you get back on track.