How Yoga Can Help Improve The Recovery Process

When a person develops an addiction to drugs or alcohol, he or she is often trying to fill an empty space. Many addictions develop due to stress, mental illness, isolation, past trauma, and a multitude of other environmental and emotional factors. However, there are healthier ways for a person to cope with these factors. Yoga is a holistic health practice that many addiction recovery centers are using to help improve the substance abuse recovery process and benefit their patients’ mental health.

What Is Yoga?

Yoga is a holistic form of medicine that uses physical movements and postures to connect the mind, body, and breath. Yoga does not require any expensive equipment or a gym setting. A person recovering from substance abuse can practice yoga movements at any time, in any place, whenever he or she feels the need.

When used in conjunction with traditional substance abuse treatment methods, such as medication and group therapy, yoga can have numerous benefits for a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual health. Yoga can help prevent relapse, reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms, and help patients develop a healthier coping mechanism than dependence on substances.

Yoga Increases Physical Fitness

Yoga focuses on movement and strength, but it is not a strenuous exercise. Many people who suffer from substance abuse are not in a strong physical condition. Some drugs and alcohol can cause people to gain weight, while other substances decrease a person’s muscle tone.

Yoga is a low-intensity, low-impact exercise that a person in recovery can use to ease back into regular exercise routines. Yoga has a number of benefits for physical fitness, such as increased flexibility, building muscle tone, and strengthened breathing. After a person builds up their physical fitness through yoga, they can transition into higher intensity exercises such as cardio and strength training.

Yoga Provides A Healthy Coping Mechanism

As a form of meditation, yoga can significantly lower stress and increase relaxation. People who practice yoga report a greater sense of peace after they practice. Many people use drugs and alcohol to relieve stress and deal with difficult situations. Replacing these strategies with yoga provides a healthier, calmer coping mechanism for people in recovery.

Yoga Strengthens The Connection Between Mind And Body

When people turn to drugs and alcohol, they often feel a dissociation between their mind and body. Yoga includes a set of teachings that promote a connection between the mind and body. This teaching helps patients in recovery develop a more holistic sense of self and increase their mind-body awareness.

Yoga Produces Natural Endorphins

People turn to substances such as drugs and alcohol because of the sense of euphoria they provide. Drug and alcohol addiction trigger the “reward” centers of the brain, which produces endorphins and dopamine that create the “high” that people seek. Yoga also naturally releases endorphins and dopamine into the body. With yoga, a person can receive similar senses of euphoria without the dangerous effects of drugs and alcohol.

Yoga Offers A Sense Of Achievement

Yoga is similar to other forms of exercise in that there are multiple levels of practice a person can master. Yoga can give people recovering from substance abuse a sense of achievement and ambition as they master positions and styles that are more difficult. A person can always improve their techniques and learn new methods thanks to the vast repertoire of yoga styles available.

Yoga Keeps The Mind Occupied

Without a regular schedule or enjoyable activities, a person can easily relapse into drugs and alcohol. A person’s risk of relapse increases after they leave a recovery center and lose the sense of structure. However, if the person learns yoga techniques before they leave the facility, they have an accessible mental exercise to ward off the risk of relapse. They can do yoga anywhere at any time, since yoga requires no equipment to practice.

Yoga Improves Self Discipline

The first step on the journey to sobriety is to learn how to say “no” to an addiction. Giving up an addiction can be extremely challenging. Yoga allows for those in recovery to practice self-discipline by committing to its practice for the long run.

Yoga Builds Community

One of the greatest benefits of an addiction recovery center is the sense of community that is available. However, people can lose that sense of community when the center discharges them. Isolation can lead to depression and stress, which can lead to relapse. Joining a yoga group or attending a yoga class can help a person in recovery retain this sense of community and enjoy the benefits of social connection.

Yoga Helps People Find Spiritual Peace

Yoga began in ancient India, where it has been a form of spiritual practice for thousands of years. However, yoga is not religious and does not require anyone to practice a particular belief. People from all walks of life can enjoy the spiritual benefits of yoga to find inner peace. The practice does not require anyone to believe in a specific higher power – all you have to do is believe in spirituality greater than yourself. This belief can provide a sense of relief and peace to people who practice yoga.

Seek Holistic Treatment For Your Addiction Today

Yoga can improve your overall health and wellness significantly. You develop healthy exercise routines, increased energy, emotional and spiritual healing, and heightened self-confidence. Many addiction centers can focus solely on physical symptoms; however, yoga and holistic remedies are vital to the sobriety journey.

If you are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, help is available. Holistic treatment is vital to helping you recover from all the effects that substance abuse can have on you, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Many treatment centers offer yoga as a treatment program to improve your recovery journey.

Maryland Recovery provides comprehensive and holistic treatment to help you on the journey to sobriety. Contact us today to learn more about our treatment programs at our private facility in Bel Air, Maryland.

Reviewed by Christopher Schwartfigure MS, LGPC, CAC-AD

"Maryland Recovery gave me the tools and counseling to accept my past and forge a new future for myself. Life today has a hope and brightness to it that had not experienced before. I got a job and an apartment with the help of Maryland Recovery. I am able to be part of my family’s life again."
— Robert M
"I am certain that this program helped save my life. I was provided with an opportunity to learn how to live a sober life. I learned to be responsible and accountable for my behavior. When practicing the principles of the program and remaining willing to grow on this journey, I experience a freedom I never knew, but always wanted."
— Morgan S
"The only things that I knew when I arrived at Maryland Recovery (MR) was that I was broken: spiritually, emotionally, and physically broken and that my way of doing things had gotten me there. The people at MR understood who I was better than I did. They assured me that I was not alone, with that came a glimpse of hope and some relief."
— Hubbard