Think sobriety is boring? Think again. These excursions are proof that life in recovery is more adventurous, exciting, fun and rewarding than a life of using could ever be.
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When you find yourself realising you need help with your addiction, it’s a good idea to look for an addiction treatment facility that provides a peaceful, yet stimulating environment. Ideally, your facility should be well removed from the people, places and things associated with your addiction – a place where you can devote all your time and energy to recovery.
For this reason, many look to Thailand, and specifically The Cabin Chiang Mai. The Cabin offers the wellness-conducive atmosphere mentioned above, plus so much more to prepare you for a life of fulfilling sobriety.
Adventures in Recovery
One unique aspect of The Cabin’s programming is our Sunday excursions. These weekly outings range from hiking in the area’s biodiverse jungles, to Thai cooking classes, to teaching village children English. Not only are these excursions good for your health, with a wealth of physical activities, but they also enhance your treatment with aspects such as service work, fellowship, abstinence, and being the best self you can be.
Discover some of these excursions, and what they could mean for your recovery:
Cycling Tour
The Cabin’s cycling tour is a highly enjoyable way to not only get in some mind-clearing exercise, but also get close-up look at the history and culture of Chiang Mai Old City. While touring the city via bicycle, you will have the opportunity to visit local markets and ancient temples, as well as Huay Tung Tao Lake at the base of the mountains. In early recovery, everything seems a little more vibrant – you’re at the peak of excitement about your newfound sobriety. What better way to start your new life and enhance that excitement than witnessing other lands and cultures first-hand?
White Water Rafting
White water rafting is just plain exciting, hitting rapids interspersed with calm interludes as you make your way downriver. It’s also an exhilarating showcase of teamwork. Everyone doing their part to keep the raft mobile and stable is a fitting representation of the way recovery peers help each other through the tumults and trials of addiction, offering camaraderie and support through the rough patches, and celebrate victories together. While you’re at it, you’ll get to take in the beauty of tropical rainforests and riverside villages, enriching your worldly experience. Trips are safe, supervised by professionals and suitable for all levels.
Thai Cooking Class
In early recovery, it’s important to stay busy. You’ll likely find you have a lot of time on your hands, and learning new skills and hobbies is a great way to start filling the hours that used to be consumed by your addiction. Cooking is one of the most rewarding hobbies, and learning international dishes in the origin country of the cuisine is an experience you’ll remember every time you pick up a pot or pan.
At this one-day cooking class, you’ll learn (literally) from the ground up. You’ll tour an organic farm where you pick fresh produce to use in your cooking and visit a local market where you learn the different Thai cooking ingredients and their acceptable substitutions. Then, take your post at your own cooking station to show your stuff! The most delicious takeaway from this class, of course, is sitting down to a meal you’ve created, surrounded by new friends made in recovery.
Fun experiences like this help you create new memories that will replace unhealthy old habits like ‘stinking thinking’. Acquiring new skills and forging new friendships in sobriety over a home-cooked meal is a Sunday well spent, and a new tool in your recovery toolbox.
Baanchang Elephant Park
Baanchang Elephant Park is a non-profit rehabilitation centre for rescued elephants. During your time there, you’ll learn about elephants, Thailand’s national beast. You’ll feed them, bathe them and learn how to give commands that the elephants can follow – you can even ride one.
The takeaway from this excursion seems obvious – to become one with nature and all her life forms – but there’s so much more you can learn in recovery from spending time with elephants. You learn compassion and understanding for something other than yourself, and you start to learn the importance of issues faced by all living things and how much more important those connections are than drugs or alcohol. It reminds you that life is bigger than whatever problems your addiction has caused.
It’s scientifically proven that helping others makes us feel better about ourselves. This excursion shows us just how far that help can reach, and just how much compassion is a global necessity. All of the money the park makes from admission goes right back into caring for these gentle giants.
A Day in the Life
This excursion introduces you to some of the unique aspects of Thailand. You’ll participate in a variety of activities throughout the day, starting at the Maetaman Elephant Camp, where you get to walk among the gentle giants. From the elephant camp, we make our way to a small rice paddy for some hands-on rice farming and harvesting. At lunchtime, you’ll dine in an authentic, teak Lanna-style house. The excursion ends with teaching English to the children of a Hmong hill tribe village.
This trip provides an educational and enlightening experience for all. Service work is an important aspect of recovery. Reaching out to a struggling addict, becoming a sponsor, helping the homeless – these are just a few of the ways we can perform a service to humanity. There are countless of ways to be of service to our fellow human beings. The Cabin offers the unique, real-life experience of helping children communicate. What could be more rewarding than knowing a child in the mountains of Thailand can say ‘good morning’ in English because you chose to take the time to teach them? There are so many takeaways from this excursion, like patience, compassion, fellowship and achievement, just to name a few.
Life Can Take Your Higher Than Drugs Can
Drug rehabs give you the tools and knowledge you need to live a life of recovery, and the excursions offered at The Cabin encourage you to embrace your sobriety by experiencing new people, new places and new things. Weekend excursions give you experiences you normally wouldn’t have in active addiction – new and exciting experiences that come with being sober.
One thing we find in recovery is creativity. We have to create new ways to manage cravings, negative thoughts and schedules; weekend excursions open up these creative experiences to recovering addicts, widening our scope of what can bring us to peace within ourselves, enough to stay the course and remain sober for life.
Are you ready to start living your best life? Contact The Cabin today to learn how we can help you take that first, small step, and find out just how fun and adventurous recovery can be.
