Happy International Yoga Day! Yoga for Recovery

Update: June 21st, 2016

Happy International Yoga Day!

This beautiful day of June 21st is International Yoga Day! Take a moment to celebrate the empowering art of mind, body, spirit, and movement this ancient Indian art. Always wanted to try yoga? Why not start today? Yoga mats are about $10-$20 at many major department stores. (Ross has them for a bit cheaper.) A little known secret? You don’t need a yoga mat to practice yoga! 

A quick search on Youtube will give you all the yoga goodness you’ll ever need. There’s yoga for healing, weight loss, general health, general pain, back pain, sciatic pain, depression, anxiety, anger, stress relief, and everything in between!

Yoga for Recovery & Peace of Mind

Yoga’s caught fire the last several years. Not literally, but everyone’s doing it! You can buy yoga mats from major department stores and binge watch days upon days of video content on YouTube on yoga’s philosophy, practice, and asanas. Yoga quiets the mind, and can be a form of “active” meditation. (Although meditation and yoga frequently go hand-in-hand, those who think meditation difficult may find yoga easier to tackle.) Physically yoga helps to heal injuries- as a pseudo form of physical therapy, increases flexibility, invigorates, stimulates cardiac health, and may help to shed a few pounds.

Yoga facilitates inward contemplation and acceptance of both the physical and ethereal bodies. Through the marriage of becoming physically flexible, changeable, and a willingness to push your physical limits, yoga inspires the mind to mirror the physical demands of yoga inwardly. Yoga has proved to lower anxiety, depression, negative thinking, and lack of energy.

Holistic Healing: The Mind, Body, Spirit Connection

Entering the realm of holistic healing, yoga touches upon the mind, body, and spirit– all necessary aspects to remedy the aftermath of addiction and mental health disorders. Physical treatment and rehabilitation are the first vital steps of addiction recovery, yet they are not enough on their own. Therapy is meant to guide people in recovery as smoothly as possible to change harmful thinking, establish healthy coping mechanisms, and dissipate the underbelly of substance use disorders, but we must take an active responsibility to remedy our physical and mental health.

Incorporating yoga and meditation into your post-recovery (and certainly pre-recovery) routine is an easy way to help understand the mechanics that make you tick. It’s not enough to be depressed. It’s not enough to seek and acknowledge the reasons behind your depression. You must actively work through depression, anxiety, anger, and grief. Therapy remains superficial unless you apply its principles to the crux of your being.

But how?

Personal truth is different for everyone, yet many are finding comfort in the “New Age” movement’s holistic healing, vibrational therapies (crystal healing, reiki), yoga for recovery, and connecting with the elements of nature. Holistic healing is no means a replacement for professional residential rehab, but serves as the soul of treatment- the last arrow to pierce the veil of darkness. Holistic Healing brings a clarity of thought and character in a way treatment may fail to bestow. Treatment is concrete, visceral; the principles learned during rehab become your guide to recovery– but you must be beyond recovery, you must redefine your innerself.

You are more than your addiction, and you are thereby more than your recovery.  

Esther Nagle’s Yoga for Recovery eBook

Esther Nagle’s journey to recovery is unique, and is chronicled in her “part memoir, part self help books, part exploration of how a life of Yoga can benefit everyone” eBook. If you join her mailing list, you can read the first chapter of Bent Back Into Shape: Beating Addiction Through Yoga. Nagle touts yoga for recovery saved her life from alcoholism. Check out a preview of her book below:

Holistic Healing for Addiction: To Remedy Depression, Anxiety, and Self-Hate

And of course, there’s my own book, Holistic Healing for Addiction: Enlivening Body, Mind and Spirit to Remedy Depression, Anxiety and Self Hate that will guide you through:

• Crystal Healing for Addiction
• Feng Shui for Environmental Healing
• Chakra Healing
• Daily Affirmations
• The Art of Tea
• An Exhaustive Guide to Different Forms of Meditation
• Practical Recovery Wisdom

You can download each part of Holistic Healing for Addiction separately by clicking the links above, or you can get the best value for FREE and download the complete book. Click preview below for a sneak peek!

Resources for Alternative and Complementary Holistic Treatment at Home:

It Takes a Village: Finding the Right Support in Addiction Recovery

Bibliotherapy: Writing Poetry to Set Your Free from Addiction

Addiction & Recovery eBooks

These 5 Multi-Purpose Essential Oils Will Transform Your Recovery Life Instantly

The Secrets of Crystals for Addiction: Alternative Holistic Recovery; Mental, Physical, & Spiritual Wellness