For years, millions of people across the world relied on yoga and meditation as tools to create a sense of calm in their life. Users found these activities work exceptionally well for improving focus, helping relieve stress, and helping them to improve decision making in their lives. Now, more rehabilitation facilities are incorporating these activities into their treatment routines to treat individuals with addictions.
Meditation in Recovery
There are several forms of meditation that can be used during recovery. This practice helps individuals distract their mind so they are not focusing on things that cause them anxiety or upset them. Some of the forms of meditation that you can use are:
- Guided Meditation: This form of meditation is used during periods of rest during yoga classes. Users are encouraged to keep their eyes open and focus on a single object. Quite often, flames from candles or tranquil images are used as focus objects, allowing individuals to visualize positive outcomes in life.
- Body Relaxation Scans: These are used to bring awareness to different parts of the body in order to calm your physiology. This form of meditation is used to help improve self-awareness in users.
- Nature Walks: This form of meditation encourages individuals to walk through nature and enjoy their surroundings. These walks are done silently so users can absorb the sounds, smells, and sights around them.
- Primordial Sound Meditation: This form of meditation encourages individuals to sit silently. Individuals should keep their eyes closed while focusing on a sound in the background. This allows users to shift their focus away from harmful thoughts and focus on the quiet instead.
Yoga for Recovery
In addition to using meditation, a lot of addicts find yoga is extremely beneficial as well. Quite often, yoga is incorporated into 12-step meetings as a way to increase focus and spirit. There are several ways yoga benefits users. Some mental and physical benefits are:
– Relaxation and lower stress levels. Yoga helps by triggering physiological changes that generate relaxation responses. As a result, users experience lower heart rates and blood pressures, as well as lower adrenaline and cortisol levels.
– Help control anxiety and depression. Regular use of yoga can help participants drastically manage their depression and anxiety. As individuals in recovery often experience these negative emotions early on, it is crucial to begin yoga as soon as possible during treatment.
– Calm the mind. Yoga helps slow down an overactive mind. This drastically helps individuals improve their self-awareness and help them sleep better.
– Help individuals cope with trauma. Yoga helps users cope positively with PTSD.
Yoga is a fantastic tool for exposing addicts to a calm and drug-free setting as well as improving their overall physical fitness. Making these healthy changes go a long way in ensuring a successful recovery that will last.
At Asana Recovery, we offer both indoor and outdoor calming sessions for recovering addicts. Our trained professionals work in groups to help individuals develop a sense of calm to get them through their addiction. If you are struggling with an addiction, call us at (949)438-4504 to see how we can guide you.
