Whether you’re suffering from addiction yourself you have friends or family who you think may have problems with addiction, yoga is a fantastic way to help them.
These days more and more people are suffering from the disease, with it often a slippery slope from someone taking a drug or two to cope with the stresses of life to then abuse. Abusing cocaine may lead to addiction, and a life spiralling out of control where the only two options are cocaine rehab or death.
Of course, choosing the former is vital, and a big part of treatment and recovery is yoga. So many people become yogis after suffering from addiction, and while it may feel intimidating at first, there are some fantastic poses and stretches you can take to help maintain a successful recovery.
So, what are they?
Spinal Breathing Pranayama
This is a basic breathing exercise that literally anyone can do. It’s one of the more basic yoga poses and helps you keep your mind calm and fully focused on the now.
That can be helpful in preventing addictive behaviour kicking in.
Fish Pose
This is often called the “destroyer of all diseases”, and if you’re suffering from addiction, then you’re going to want that for certain.
This pose stretches the thoracic spine and will also open up your heart. The impact of this is a relief of stress and anxiety, which is one of the main contributors towards addiction in the first place, and relapse.
Yogi Bicycles
Bicycle movements are a good exercise when it comes to yoga for strengthening and lengthening muscles and a positive way to fire your solar plexus chakra.
There’s huge importance to this as it can aid in building confidence levels, and if you’re full of confidence, you’re going to tackle addiction more effectively.
Downward Facing Dog
One of the most popular and well known yoga poses is the downward facing dog and it’s often used to relieve stress. Again, this strengthens and lengthens muscles but is also well known in releasing mental tension too.
Low Lunge
This pose helps stretch the hip flexors, psoas and groin, which are places we typically hold much of our emotional trauma.
By stretching those areas, we release such trauma and tension which contributes to less stress and anxiety and a more focused mind on the task ahead.