Yoga For Your Recovery Regimen
What does yoga have in common with quiche? Men just do not want to have anything to do with either of them! Whether you’re a man or a woman, however, if you’re working on substance abuse recovery, you should take advantage of any yoga classes that are offered. If your rehab center doesn’t have one on its weekly schedule, look for one in your community.
Don’t think that doing yoga merely requires you to assume some outlandish pose and hum ommm. You need to realize, instead, that it’s been in use for over thirty years as a treatment for cardiac disease. It reduces stress, and it helps to keep your joints healthy. When you take yoga classes regularly, you will develop strength and improve your balance. For the person in recovery, it’s a way to get your body moving and relaxing. That means your mind will open up to all the possibilities that lie ahead of you.
Think of yoga not just as a meditation class but as a method for reducing stress. You’ve had plenty of stress in your life recently, leading up to your decision to go into treatment, and even while you participate in group and individual therapy sessions you may feel the outside world pressing in on you. Yoga allows you, in a short period of time, to combine deep breathing exercises with stretching and relaxation techniques. You are then prepared to meet your daily stresses, plus the work you’re doing in rehab, and give all areas everything you’ve got.
Poses
Yes, it’s true there are poses in yoga. You may have heard of hatha yoga, a common style of yoga that utilizes a slow, relaxed pace, putting you through poses that ultimately teach your body to relax. Many doctors recommend it for people who are struggling with hypertension. For some poses, you start from a position lying on the floor and concentrate on your breathing. For other poses, you may have to stretch yourself to the limit and struggle to keep your balance.
The Right Side of the Brain
Some experts believe that yoga enhances the right-side of the brain, which controls how well you can access your emotions and creativity. If you’ve been a person with a lot of responsibility, or someone whose job puts them into a lot of stressful situations, you’ve probably been neglecting your emotional self. Allowing your emotions to surface for an hour a week can make you more open to some of the things your substance abuse counselor may be asking you to think about.
Guided Meditation
We mentioned the deep breathing, which helps the body to relax, but it is often used hand in hand with guided imagery or meditation. This is a technique that helps you to increase your level of self-awareness and promote an overall sense of well-being. Once you become familiar with guided imagery from your yoga classes, you may find yourself putting it to work for you throughout your weekly routine whenever you find yourself facing a little bit of stress. If you’re better able to meet stress, your overall performance will improve.
Natural Healing
Yoga brings you to a state of peace that you have not found in a bottle, or in whatever substance you’ve been using. With the peace and enjoyment that comes through yoga, you will be better equipped to turn away when confronted with the triggers that come with addiction. Ask your substance above recovery counselor what he thinks about yoga, and he’ll most likely say—Namaste!
