Activities

At our center/ nasha mukti kendra, we focus on incorporating therapies into recreational activities, that help users/addicts with unlearning unhealthy habits, eventually leading them into building a positive self worth and esteem. The center employs cognitive (involves relearning or improving skills such as thinking, learning, memory, planning, and decision making), vocational (aids in building skills for re-entering education or working at a job), art therapy (can aid clients with expressing their emotions, or with developing the feeling of social connectedness), and recreational (helps promote emotional well-being through crafts, games, and animal-assisted therapy) rehabilitation, in order to establish a positive relationship in the clients, with themselves.

Continued substance abuse can often times lead to the building of a negative self-image in users/addicts. These individuals become detached to any hobbies, healthy inter-personal relationships, or ambitions they may have had, before they started using drugs. The following recreational therapies used in our center, offer to bring some of these back, in a holistic way. These activities go beyond providing the clients with a sense of exhilaration or fun- these encourage recovering addicts to tap into a plethora of other mindsets and emotions that can be positive influences on treatment and recovery.

• Adventure Therapy – Having a daily routine that involves a 30-45 minute workout, encourages resilience, trust, self-confidence, and problem-solving skills- all of which rapidly diminish for a substance abuse addict. Through discipline, established by having a daily activity on the timetable, addicts/users can begin to develop a new and a healthier relationship with themselves. The center encourages its clients to involve themselves in activities such as playing badminton, and running- after these individuals have spent a certain amount of time indoors, with the various staff.
• Wilderness Therapy – Under adequate supervision- having activities that are set in a contained outdoor setting (a garden/ neighbourhood park), can encourage team-building and self-sufficiency in recovering addicts/users. Sessions may include various survival skills, where applicable and under a trained staff member. A close encounter with nature can provide healing at a deeper level, thus helping the addicts/users develop smarter skills that substitute unhealthy patterns.

• Holistic Therapies – Yoga and meditation, massage, Reiki, and acupuncture can help foster a meditative mind, often essential in the case of recovering addicts. These can be provided as activities undertaken as groups.

• Art Therapy – These sessions can include music, dance, or visual arts, integrated in a way that encourages self-reflection, introspection, and confidence, and may even assist a recovering addict work through traumatic experiences connected to addiction. At our center, we offer classes on gardening and pottery- that bolsters the recovering addict’s mind into mindfulness- a state that is essential to tap into, when healing from a past riddled with substance abuse. The center also holds karaoke, poetry exhibit and dance nights, which aids with the development of a strong self-esteem among recovering clients of substance abuse.

• Day-to-day recreational opportunities – Depending on the sources available at each center, a variety of activities can be initiated as part of the addict’s/user’s leisure time. Hiking, fishing, trips to a nature reserve, heritage walks, rock-climbing, visits to a local library- can all be beneficial in bringing the recovering addict back to living a fulfilling life. Our center hosts movie nights on Saturdays, and encourages the recovering clients to play board games such as chess- these activities inculcate important skill sets such as the development of a sturdy intuition and a strong mind, both, important in the rehabilitation of an addict.

• Animal Therapy – Having congenial pets in a rehabilitation center can aid the process of healing for recovering addicts. By working and playing in close proximity with gentle animals, recovering addicts can develop their sense of perception, in a way that encourages healing and introspection.
• Professional or executive programs – Professionals from various fields of study can be brought into rehabilitation premises, for an hour-long session on something topical and/or niche. Our center/nasha mukti kendra has an in-house English teacher that helps with developing confidence among the recovering addicts, by teaching them a language that may help them gain employment, once they are ready to step out into the job-world. Facilities such as this, offer recovering clients the time to work and stay connected to their career aspirations. 
• Culinary Diversity – Far too often, in the state of an addiction, persons may not give importance to nutrition in a way that leads to malnourishment. Having weekly cookouts and cook-ins, can help develop an interest in one’s own physical health. Group activities that involve meal prepping and cooking a meal, develop inter-personal skills, and the excitement of taking an active role in one’s health. Visiting a local vegetable market under sufficient supervision, can also help with the development of a healthy relationship with food among recovering addicts. 

Clients recovering from substance abuse, have, for far too long, lived in a manner that did not offer stability, or a focus on the person’s emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical health. A result of this is that many sufferers of addiction may find it hard to believe that an engaging life could exist, after sobriety. Incorporating the above therapies and techniques during the rehabilitation of a user, can bring about a positive perspective in the recovering addict. Although some of the above categories may not outright be activities, their inclusion may allow a recovering patient to begin forging their own day-to-day behaviours or activities, however small, that may help to instill a stronger sense of self and purpose in their life.