Blissfully Fit Blog

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Yoga's Power to Heal the Addicted Mind and Body

Article by Mel Carson

People who practice yoga regularly are well aware of the extraordinary
positive effects that this form of exercise can have, which aren't limited
to the purely physical. Yoga can also have amazing mental, emotional, and
spiritual benefits, too. That's why it's increasingly common for
rehabilitation centers and programs to recommend yoga to recovering
addicts. Yoga is, in fact, a very powerful tool that can help recovering
addicts in many ways.





*Exercise Benefits the Mind as Well as the Body*


Numerous studies show that regular exercise has profoundly beneficial
effects on mood and mental well-being. People who exercise regularly
experience less anxiety, stress, and mental fatigue, and have better
sleeping habits than people who don't exercise on a regular basis. There
are several factors that contribute to the effects of exercise on mental
health, and for the most part they're about body chemistry: exercise
promotes the release of feel-good hormones like endorphins and dopamine,
and promotes the metabolism of stress hormones like adrenaline. The overall
effect, therefore, is that people who exercise have increased levels of
hormones that promote improved mood, and reduced levels of hormones that
promote stress and anxiety.

Yoga has similarly beneficial effects for people who practice this form of
exercise on a regular basis: even though it's not a cardiovascular
exercise, it's still able to induce the production of these healthier
hormones, and help the body reduce levels of stress hormones. Unlike most
forms of exercise, however, the beneficial effects of yoga go far beyond
these.

*How Yoga Reconnects the Mind, Body, and Spirit*


Exercises like yoga are unique in their ability to engage both the body and
the mind, and to do it in a way that also helps the practitioner access and
engage the emotional and spiritual aspects of their being. The complexity
of yoga poses means that a practitioner must consciously think about what
they're doing—yoga isn't an exercise you can do mindlessly—as they enter,
hold, and exit each pose, and transition to a new pose. To hold even a
simple pose correctly requires engaging the mind and the body in equal
measure, to contract the right muscles, hold the body in the right
formation, and control the breathing at the same time.

These are things that conventional forms of exercise like walking and
running aren't able to do, and it's a big part of the reason why it's so
beneficial for people who are recovering addicts.

*Benefits of Yoga for Recovering Addicts*


Addiction affects the body and mind in a wide variety of ways. One of the
most fundamental—which affects virtually all addicts, regardless of the
nature of their addiction—is that the addict feels a strong sense of
disconnection from their body, often to the extent of losing all regard for
their personal safety, in pursuit of the object of their addiction. Yoga,
therefore, is uniquely beneficial for people in addiction recovery, because
of its focus on the unification of body and mind.

There are even particular yoga poses that are especially beneficial for
people in recovery, because they help the practitioner to feel grounded,
and to feel comfortable and safe in their body. These include child's pose
and standing pose, both of which are deceptively simple beginner poses that
allow the practitioner to experience their body's strength in a safe and
non-taxing way, while continuing to focus on breathing and holding the pose.

Yoga also provides recovering addicts with a way of starting to care for
their bodies—something which is typically forgotten by someone in the
throes of addiction. And for people who are working through the 12 steps,
it's an excellent accompaniment to step 11, one focus of which is
meditation.

*Resources*


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