By Justin McMillen Founder & CEO
“Is there a specific way in which to live my life, have my thoughts, and interact with the world around me that will cause me to wake up every day feeling fulfilled, happy with who I am, what I am, and how I live?”
We demonstrate and teach our clients that the answer to this question is “yes”. Over the course of our addiction treatment program at Tree House, we teach men overcoming addiction about their brains, their psychology, and their thoughts through an innovative and integrated education. We rebuild their physiology, including their physical brain, their muscular system, and autonomic nervous system. We assist them in restructuring their thoughts. We empower them to become free of the pain that holds them back and keeps them sick. We show them how to maintain healthy connections to the world around them including people, places and things. All of these things, both as therapy and as ongoing life practices, equal a full life, filled with self-awareness and empowerment. This recipe is the literal backbone of our program. It “is” the program. We teach it, live it, and offer it as a solution in every part of our program through our modalities.
Ingredients: Recipe for Healthy Living
Physical Intelligence
- Love your body. It is the best tool you have to interact with the world around you.
- Know that your body is a machine and a product of chemistry.
- Know that your brain experiences the world through your body and that stimulating your body equals growth and reformation of your brain.
Self love and Care
- Take care of yourself physically.
- Remember that the best way to tell yourself that “you love you” is through actions, not words. A simple action, like brushing your teeth, can be a way to say “I love me” every morning.
Emotional Intelligence
- Cultivate emotional awareness every day through mindfulness and introspection.
- Master your emotions through a disciplined practice of honest self- inventory.
- Know that love is your most powerful emotional tool. Be generous with it every day.
- Realize that your feelings are subject to change, but your relationship to them is always your choice.
Connectedness
- Develop and maintain strong emotional bonds with a team of people who you trust.
- Know what assets you bring to a team and freely share those assets whenever you can.
- Know what you need from a team and allow it to be provided for you.
- Realize that, no matter what, you will always be part of a team and whether you participate or not is a choice you make every day.
- Know that your team can be as small as a single friend or as big as humankind. The power to decide this is in your hands.
- Understand that the bigger your team, the greater your purpose.
Freedom
- Freedom from your emotional baggage is your choice. Use your tools and work to never let pain rule your life.
- Never let mind-altering substances take away your freedom.
- Stay edgy, maintain your freedom to play and experience the world
at its fullest.
Education
- Never stop learning about the world, yourself and others.
- Know your mind, understand how it works and educate others about how you think so they can better understand you.
The Recipe for Healthy Living is more than a statement. It is a vocal axiom that declares that there “is a way” to live one’s life that will provide peace, stability, and empowerment. There is a recipe for this type of life and we teach this to fluency and mastery at Tree House Recovery through all of our modalities.