How Yoga Helps in Addiction Recovery

Effective addiction treatment comes in many forms, usually pulling methods from a range of disciplines. Medication, therapy, and other traditional paths can be very useful and can contribute to a successful recovery.

Recently, more and more facilities are exploring the benefits of less traditional methods of treatment, looking into how things like diet, exercise, and creative endeavors can help somebody struggling with addiction.

One of these less traditional options is the practice of yoga. Its powerful effects on both mind and body can have a profound impact on your journey towards wellness. At Recovery Village Ridgefield, we offer yoga classes to all rehab residents. Here are five reasons why.

1. Yoga Helps You To Focus Inward

Recovery is hard work; it takes discipline, commitment, and brutal self-honesty. Many people suffering from addiction first turn to substance abuse a way to escape ‘themselves’, and to avoid emotional and mental pain. Yoga helps you to overcome that tendency by gently directing your focus inward. By paying attention to your breath, the movements of your body, and the shifting of your thoughts, you can use yoga to get back in touch with your innermost self. It can help you recognize the parts of yourself with which you are unhappy or from which you are running away and move you forward on the path to recovery.

2. Yoga Promotes Healing, Inside and Out

Prolonged substance abuse can have negative impacts on your physical body as well as the strength of your mind. Helping both mind and body to regain their health is a large part of successful long-term recovery. Yoga is a tremendous way to slowly strengthen your body, first by a series of poses followed by deep stretching. As mentioned above, by helping you tune back in with your mind, yoga reconnects you to your emotional and spiritual side. This is integral to keeping your recovery on track.

3. Yoga Helps With Relaxation and Sleep

When you are in rehab, you may have difficulty calming down or falling asleep. Often, this is because you relied on your drug of choice to help you relax and eventually sleep. Going without your drugs can also cause increased anxiety, fear, or anger, making it much more difficult to calm yourself.

With its revitalizing poses and stretches, yoga helps tire out the body, making it easier to attain deep, restful sleep. In addition, focusing on the breathing and other relaxation techniques help to calm the mind and reduce anxiety. Exerting yourself also promotes the release of dopamine and other endorphins in the brain, making you feel energized and happy.

4. Yoga Aids Self-Acceptance

Accepting your addiction as a part of yourself is a huge part of recovery; no real progress is achievable without that step. Yoga helps you to not only get back in touch with the deepest parts of yourself, but it lets you identify and test other boundaries and limitations within the practice, increasing self-confidence and promoting self-love. You will reach a point in yoga where you believe you have hit your limit, and then you will go beyond it. That alone can prove very powerful during recovery.

5. Yoga Provides Control

Yoga can act as an excellent coping mechanism and replacement activity when you feel your recovery slipping off track. Regular practice and meditation can help you find ways to control your mind, giving you greater power over the direction it takes. Yoga also helps strengthen the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, responsible for decision-making and one of the areas most affected by addiction. By gaining control over your mind, and therefore your responses, you can lower stress, make good choices, and resist relapse more easily.

Yoga classes are just one of the ways in which Recovery Village Ridgefield helps Washington rehab patients manage their addiction. Our evidence-based treatment plans offer a holistic approach to your recovery, treating your mind, body, and spirit in equal measure. To learn more, contact us today, and start your journey to wellness with Recovery Village Ridgefield.