healing moment: HALT (erin jean warde)
Each week I'll be sharing a resource, technique, or word of inspiration to support you on your healing journey.
healing moment
This post will provide practical insight into recovery, sobriety, changing how we cope, connecting with our minds, bodies, and souls, and more. It could be any of the following: quote, podcast rec, coaching technique, or something else completely. This is a form of free support for you, dear friends! And these posts will continue past October. :) I hope this gives you even more care. <3
HALT
Kicking off our new weekly Healing Moment with one of my favorite tools, a technique I still call on to this day, even almost 4 years sober.
HALT, which stands for:
Hunger & Hydration*
Angry
Lonely
Tired
HALT is often my first line of defense. If I begin to feel off, jittery, triggered, flustered, frustrated, I’ll go through the HALT inventory.
I pause, check in, see which of these items is the possible locus of my challenge, and respond to it using a positive coping tool. This is incredibly helpful if you’re new in sobriety, or trying to cut back. These feelings are normal and you need ways to manage them that don’t include drinking.
And yet, years into recovery, I still find myself using this tool! Sometimes I will be well into the day and notice how off I feel, depleted, or emotionally charged.
I pause — do the HALT inventory — and you’d be surprised how often I realize it is 3p.m. and I have not had lunch. Well of course I am feeling off and depleted!
Here are ways you can respond to HALT with positive coping tools if you locate how one of them is clearly a focus area.
HUNGER & HYDRATION — I keep easy snacks on hand for whenever I realize I need some fuel. Snack size cheeses, sandwich meat, nuts, fruit, protein shakes, smoothies, snack bars. Whatever snacks you will actually eat. Regardless of what you eat, try to get a little bit of protein in there, as it can help with energy and brain support. As for Hydration, I didn’t come up with HALT — it’s a long known support technique — and the regular definition just means Hunger, but Hydration is a part of it for me too, so I am adding it. When I am full of caffeine but not well hydrated, it only increases how I might already be feeling anxious or jittery. To be completely transparent, I hate drinking water because it has no taste, so I use various water enhancer packets to make it tasty, plus they often add vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes. Grab some of these water enhancers if hydration is a challenge for you!
ANGER — Anger is hard, and it ends up being energy pent up in our bodies if we don’t find a way to try to move through the feeling. Plus, when we’re angry, don’t we tend to always run for our favorite vices? I know I do. As with all feelings, we have to feel them (sorry to break the bad news, lol). When I feel angry, I will either: write out some things I am angry about, talk about them out loud to my cats (and I’ll really let ‘em have it — but not the cats, they are perfect). If you have the ability to do any form of movement, it can help use some of that energy, too. You can also set a timer for 1 minute 30 seconds and dedicate that time to just feeling the feeling.
LONELINESS — It only takes a few seconds for me to text a friend a meme to give me a little boost from my loneliness. Maybe make a list of a few friends that you trust to reach out to when you’re feeling this way. Or spontaneously ask someone if they can meet up with you later, if possible. Sometimes even just making plans for later in the week helps me know I am not alone.
TIRED — We have adapted to the idea of always pushing past our exhaustion, when the most helpful option is to let ourselves rest. I know there are things we can’t just abandon, but there are things we can set aside, even if we THINK pausing them would be impossible. If you realize you’re tired, see what you can move to a different day and try to honor your exhaustion. It doesn’t have to mean napping (I can’t nap because it will destroy my sleep), but it can mean loafing around the house when you otherwise would try to push past your body asking for rest.
I hope the HALT check-in is something you find useful. To express how useful it is for me: I realized WHILE WRITING THIS that I was hungry, so I ate 2 snacking cheeses and some sandwich meat as I typed. Trust me — it works! <3
take the discerning sobriety course
Seeking a deep dive into reflection & practical tools to change your relationship with alcohol?
Consider taking my course — Discerning Sobriety — which guides you as you reflect on the role of alcohol in your life, through 20 lessons and 20 spiritual practices. Discerning Sobriety is for the sober curious, anyone who wants to bring mindfulness into their relationship with alcohol, and people in recovery. You will receive one email every day for 40 days, leading you through a spiritual listening (discernment!) process, as you connect with mind, body, and soul.
I even include HALT in the course. :)
Thanks for showing up for this new post. I’ll be back next week with another Healing Moment! <3