To harness the benefits of yoga, you need to be familiar with the best yoga poses for addiction treatment. The first step in adding yoga to your recovery routine is to understand which yoga poses best work addiction treatment. Also, if you or your loved one is battling addiction and you are wondering, does Yoga help with addiction recovery? The answer is, Yes!
Not everybody is aware that practicing Yoga helps you stay calm, reduce stress, and strengthens your mental health. These are all part of the recipe for quick and effective addiction recovery.
The journey towards recovering from addiction can be tough. In fact, most people are scared to embark on it due to fear of relapse. However, dealing with addiction can be easier with the introduction of yoga.
This article will explain the best poses you can practice for addiction treatment. Also, we’ll discuss the benefits of yoga for addiction treatment.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a system of meditation routines that help to orchestrate human mindfulness with the divine consciousness. Also, yoga is an art as well as science. It is a science because it offers practical techniques for controlling the body and mind, thereby making extensive meditation possible. It is an art, for unless it is practiced spontaneously and delicately, it will yield only partial results.
Although it may seem as if yoga is just about putting yourself in a particular position and keeping it that way for a few minutes, there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Yoga is effective in controlling your mind and connecting your body and soul. As a discipline, it does not only help with addiction but also helps in maintaining control of the state of mind.
Does Yoga Help With Addiction Recovery?
Generally, people engage in yoga to help lift their spirit and state of mind. The breathing modulations and posture practiced during yoga will help enhance your physical strength, relaxation, and spirituality.
So, if you are wondering how yoga helps with addiction recovery, then you should know that practicing yoga will help keep you mentally stable during addiction recovery. This benefit can go a long way in your addiction recovery journey.
In the same vein, yoga is useful for addiction recovery regardless of the type of addiction. This discipline is helpful to people who are recovering from alcohol dependence and even to those who have a problem with drug dependence. Furthermore, meditation and yoga are useful for those who are determined to quit smoking cigarettes as well.
Best Yoga Poses for Addiction Treatment
Now, you’ve been introduced to yoga and how it can help boost your overall health during addiction treatment. Let’s take a look at the best yoga poses for addiction treatment:
The Downward Facing Dog
This position will help you in dealing with stress. Basically, it’s an excellent stress relief pose. It gently strengthens and lengthens your physical body and muscles. This pose also helps to release physical and mental tension. To practice downward-facing dog pose, follow the instructions below:
- Walk your hand down to the front from the tabletop position and extend it to about 5 or 6 inches.
- Ensure your palms are directly facing the floor.
- Raise your hips to make your body form an upside-down V-shape.
- Keep your heels in that position and stretch your calves, ankles, and hamstrings.
- Maintain this position and take ten deep breaths.
The Yoga Corpse Pose
Just as the name implies, the corpse pose is about lying in a position and in total silence. Although it is a challenging pose to master, it’s one of the most effective yoga poses. This is because it helps to master the art of discovering oneself and identify one’s problems. To do this, below are the procedures:
- Lie down and allow your legs, which should be extended in front of you, to be completely relaxed.
- Rest your hands by your side, close your eyes, and find a neutral breath.
- Focus on your breath, then hold the position for 5 to ten 10 minutes.
The Yoga Low Lunge Pose
The Low Lunge helps to stretch the groin, psoas, hips, and flexors. All these are parts of your body that tend to hold much of your emotional trauma.
To practice this pose, follow these instructions:
- Start from The Downward Facing Dog position.
- Then bring your right leg forward so that your right knee will rest atop your ankle.
The Butterfly Pose
The Yoga butterfly pose which is also known as Baddha Konasana is one of the best yoga poses for addiction treatment.
Mastering this pose will help you learn how to relax and have a clear mind while dealing with cravings. To practice butterfly pose, follow the instructions below:
- Sit straight on the mat.
- Then touch the bottom of your feet and push them towards your groin.
- Make your knees point outwards.
- Clamp your feet together then press your forearms on your thighs and press your legs to the floor simultaneously.
- Maintain this pose for a minute or two, then exhale deeply.
Seated-forward Bend Pose
Also known as Paschimottanasana, this pose is a great way to strengthen your hamstrings, lower back, and spine.
When practiced correctly, this pose inspires a sense of calm and peace. This does wonders for addiction treatment and recovery. To practice this pose, here are the steps to follow:
- Sit properly and stretch your legs forward.
- Keep a straight posture and keep your feet flexed.
- Inhale gently and lift your arms above your head.
- Then exhale, bend from your hips towards your knees simultaneously.
- You can place your hands on your feet or you can keep it on your calves or ankles.
- Take a deep breath 10 times in the same position.
The Sitting Mountain Pose
When done regularly, it can infuse your body with the thunderbolt’s vitality and the diamond’s strength.
Remarkably, despite being one of the few simple poses you can practice, the benefits are exceedingly wonderful and there is a lot you can gain from it. This is why it is one of the best yoga poses for addiction treatment.
To practice the sitting mountain pose, follow the instructions below:
- Kneel down properly on your training mat.
- Point your knees outward while keeping your feet together.
- Stretch your hands forward and sit on your heels.
- Maintain a straight posture with your chest wide open.
- Exhale deeply for about one to two minutes and relax your shoulders.
Conclusion
Finally, there are more useful yoga positions you can try throughout your addiction treatment process. However, we’ve carefully selected those that offer more benefits and are classified as the best yoga poses for addiction treatment.
When practiced appropriately, you’re likely to recover faster and also avoid any relapse as yoga not only strengthens your physical strength but also your mental strength. Furthermore, ensure to take your yoga classes seriously as there are several advantages to practicing yoga for addiction treatment.
What we’ve discussed above are the best practices you can follow to benefit from yoga and manage addiction issues. Nevertheless, this shouldn’t stop you from getting professional addiction treatment help.
Here at Addiction Rehab, we balance the finer tenets of yoga with other equally effective addiction treatment techniques. With these in mind, our experienced therapists can design an addiction treatment plan for effective recovery. Contact us today to get started!
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