Many individuals experience changes in mood and anxiety upon quitting using drugs and alcohol. It can be difficult to find sober coping mechanisms, especially ones that are healthy alternatives. One beneficial choice is yoga, a practice which involves physical exercise through poses and flows, various breathing techniques, the concept of mindfulness, meditation, and philosophy. Through meditation, one can learn to observe and receive the world around them.
Yoga, Meditation, and the Twelve Steps
In 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous first noted the importance of prayer and meditation within their Big Book’s transcript. The text fails to discuss the important connection between body and mind within the healing process. When a person is engaged in active addiction, they focus all their energy on drugs or alcohol. They are absent to the present moment, as the substances aid in their ability to dissociate from the real world. On the other hand, yoga allows an individual to be present within the world around them. This skill of being “in the moment” translates off the mat as well as on it. By grounding yourself, you can evaluate what is real versus the story your mind is telling you.
Yoga is based upon Buddhist philosophy. One facet of this is the Four Noble Truths. The first truth states that our reality leads to suffering. The second noble truth explores how this suffering happens in response to a craving or desire for something. The third truth explains that there is a way to stop this suffering from occurring. Finally, the fourth truth provides the method of ceasing your suffering, which is through meditation on the Eightfold Path. Thankfully, meditation can aid with understanding your suffering, cravings, and what you are clinging to. Once you have that insight, it is much easier to figure out ways in which to handle these issues. When a person works to unite the body and mind within a healing process, self-acceptance can be obtained. This budding self-acceptance plays upon that which is gained through the Twelve Steps.
In fact, the correlation between yoga and the Twelves Steps was discovered to be so strong that an individual named Nikki Myers helped found Yoga of 12 Step Recovery. Nikki came to an understanding that, while there are recovery addicts interested in yoga, there are also individuals who do not subscribe to the traditional Twelve Steps alone. She noted that, while Twelve-Step programs think of recovery on a cognitive level, yoga includes a somatic approach. By creating a method that includes both the Twelve Steps and yoga, Nikki states she can work with others on a physical, mental, and spiritual realm collectively. To aid her students to find more insight from yoga within their recovery, she incorporates texts, including the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita, into her classes.
A Wonderful Recovery Journey
It is important to gain insight into your disease. This will aid you in finding healthy coping strategies to maintain your recovery from illicit substances and alcohol. Join others who have gained their lives back. To begin your journey of sobriety from alcohol, opiates, or cannabis, Discovery Place of Burns, Tennessee is just a phone call away. Previous clients have testified to how well our treatment alternative works. Contact us at 1-800-725-0922 today.
