We are proud to bring you this article by one of our favorite guests, Isabella Koepf. Make sure and check out more information about her at the end of the article!
Untangling the Web of Addiction Through Yoga
Addiction can have a severe effect on a person’s life and the people close to them. Some people struggle with addiction throughout their lives, and recovery is often considered a lifelong process. But there are now so many ways to address addiction, bring it under control, and get back to a state of inner balance.
Whether or not you have experienced addiction in your life, we all tend to have some addictive behaviors. It is essential to be aware of these tendencies before they have a more significant effect on our lives. Even the more socially accepted addictions, such as food, shopping, or exercise, can still have drastically adverse effects on our lives.
Thankfully, we can all begin our journey towards addiction recovery with the help of yoga along the way. In my own life, yoga has been immensely supportive in facing my demons, rooting out my self-destructive behaviors, and keeping my life centered on my path to recovery. Whenever I was faced with difficulty or temptation to slip back into old and comfortable addictive behaviors, my yoga practice helped remind me of what was truly important, and it helped me move through these trying moments with ease. To help you along the way, I have cultivated this list of 5 ways that yoga can help you through addiction as well.
5 Ways Yoga Can Help with Addiction
- Reconnect with Your Body
One of the main effects that addiction has on a person’s body is the numbing of sensations. Through yoga, you can gradually learn to sit with uncomfortable sensations, understand them, and move through them with ease. Our bodies are continuously sending us messages and informing us of our deeply held feelings. By tuning into these sensations, we can get a window into our hearts and souls, allowing us to get to the root of issues and begin to move forward.
- Regulate Your Nervous System
Over time, addiction can severely affect the nervous system’s functioning and the neurotransmitters or the chemicals in your brain. This can lead to many mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Research has shown that regular yoga and meditation practice directly switches your nervous system out of fight-or-flight mode and into the rest-and-digest mode, helping you rebalance your mental health and regulate the neurotransmitters in your brain.
- Build Self-Confidence and Self-Love
Many people who struggle with addiction also often struggle with a lack of self-confidence and self-worth. Yoga teaches you how to discover the beauty of your own body and uncover your immense inner strength. As you move your body through the various complicated yoga postures, you can reaffirm your power, connect with your inner self, learn to love the body you’ve been given, and enjoy the many gifts that it has to offer.
4. Practice Radical Acceptance
One of the primary components of many addiction recovery programs is radical acceptance. Simply acknowledging that you are an addict can have a powerful effect on the recovery process and help you take the first crucial steps. Yoga practice is foundational in building up the self-awareness to realize that you may have a problem and give you the inner strength to face it head-on. As you move your body into a yoga pose, yoga encourages us to radically accept our bodies as they are and not how we want them to be.
- Learn to Use the Breath
One of the greatest tools for dealing with stressful moments in life is the breath. Particularly when faced with the temptation to relapse, using the breath to focus your awareness, calm down your nervous system, and clear your mind can help you cope in these critical periods. A typical mindfulness technique used to deal with stress and addiction is called the S.T.O.P. technique. This technique has four simple steps: Stop what you are doing and pause, Take a breath, Observe your surroundings, and Proceed with mindful action. With these four simple steps, you can use the power of your breath to manage any difficulty you may face.
Are You Ready for a Transformation?
To begin using yoga for addiction, try to check out some classes at your local yoga studio or through YouTube. There are also specific yoga classes for addiction through a program called Yoga of 12 Step Recovery (Y12SR). Both faster-paced Vinyasa Yoga classes and gentler Restorative Yoga classes can be beneficial for people struggling with addiction. But for those who struggle more with trauma, the faster style classes may be better initially until the nervous system can begin to shift into a calmer state. Just remember that this practice is for you, so use it in the way that serves you best and stay in tune with your body to find what feels right.
Isabella Koepf
Isabella is a yoga teacher, yoga therapist, clinical herbalist, holistic nutritionist, Ayurvedic practitioner, and health coach with a B.Sc. in psychology, biology, and religious studies. She currently runs a health and wellness counseling business called Surya Bella Wellness and a digital marketing business for spiritual entrepreneurs called Dharma Digital. She is also the co-founder of Shiva Priya Yoga Ashram, located in Rishikesh, India.
Links:
Wow..so much more than just Yoga talked about here. I went to 1 yoga class but I wish I’d read this prior. I didn’t know how to breathe properly and certainly wasn’t “loving my body” or “connecting” with anything. Too self conscious and self esteem sucks.. Do you think self affirmation is important? As far as addiction goes, are you a believer in the 12 step program?
Thanks! Diana
Yoga is so much more than a physical practice and is a beautiful and broad technique for complete transformation. I think self-affirmations can be a powerful way to practice self-love; give it a try if you are interested! I think the 12 step program can also be a wonderful technique, there is a great program called Y12SR that combines the 12 steps with yoga. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any other questions! -Isabella (Surya Bella Wellness: https://suryabella.com)
I would like to thank you for the efforts youve put in penning this website. I really hope to check out the same high-grade content by you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own website now 😉