There are a lot of conventional and alternative therapies that can be used to help you through your recovery journey, such as mediation. You may be thinking, how can meditation help my recovery? It has so many physical and mental benefits to help you work through your emotions and thought processes related to your substance use. We at Spero Recovery want to help you find the right treatment plan to thrive in your long-term sobriety.
What Is Meditation?
The use of breathing techniques, mantras, and visualization to unify the mind and body is meditation. Another important part of mediation is mindfulness, which is the process of making an unbiased analysis of the present moment. The use of these practices can help improve your quality of life.
These practices work to help you take a pause in the moment to properly digest it so that you can determine the proper way to respond. Mindfulness makes it easier for you to analyze situations and emotions to have the best outcome possible.
Benefits of Meditation
There are both physical and mental benefits of meditation.
Physical Benefits
Some physical benefits include:
- Lessens the intensity of both chronic and acute pain
- Reduces high blood pressure
- Improves insomnia and quality of sleep
- Helps lose weight by managing eating habits
Mental Benefits
Some mental benefits include:
- Reduces feelings of depression and anxiety
- Decreases stress levels
- Lessens symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Improves ability to focus and have clarity in situations
Can Meditation Help My Recovery?
In short, it can. Mediation can assist you in evaluating your behavior, emotions, and the reason behind your substance use. It allows you to focus on what you are feeling, how it relates to what you are doing, and how your emotions may be impacting your responses to situations.
Some of the ways meditation can strengthen your recovery include the following.
- Fights cravings
- Helps you come to terms with past behavior and those you wronged in the process
- Uncovers triggers and exposes new ways to cope when they surface
- Shows how to deal with the negative emotions of others regarding your substance use
Finding a facility that uses it as part of your treatment plan can greatly benefit your recovery and ability to maintain long-term sobriety.
Spero Recovery
A non-profit recovery facility that works to provide the best recovery care is Spero Recovery. We use grants and donations to fund our residential 12-Step model recovery programs. This helps keep the cost of our programs lower than the national average. It also makes us an ideal match for those that are under and uninsured individuals seeking high-quality care and long-term success in sobriety.
Our recovery programs use peer-led experiential therapy sessions. This is the use of participation in new activities such as meditation, hiking, cooking classes, and woodworking. We believe this type of therapy can help work through the Twelve Steps, bring peace to someone, and allow the participants to better connect with themselves and others. The alumni that run the sessions are able to give back to their community, and the participants are able to communicate with someone that has successfully completed treatment.
We have separate programs for men and women because we understand that each gender has different needs to thrive in their recovery journey. An emphasis is put on rewiring the male brain so that the belief in “being a man” is changed. This means we work to stop the thought process that men can’t show emotion or reach out for help because it is seen as a weakness.
Other Alternative Therapies
There are therapies that can help treat you that don’t fall under primary or contemporary therapies. These can include art therapy, hobbies, and acupuncture.
What Is Art Therapy?
Art therapy is the use of creating with a qualified therapy professional to help process emotions, reach treatment goals, and improve your quality of life. It helps engage your mind and body in a productive and healthy outlet and makes it easier for you to express yourself.
Examples of art used include:
- Painting
- Sculpting
- Writing
- Photography
Hobbies
Taking up new activities and skills can help keep your mind concentrated on something other than your substance use disorder. It can be a great stress reliever. Trying new things in recovery can also help you discover who you are without your substance use.
Some hobbies include:
- Yoga
- Puzzling
- Reading
- Bike riding
- Swimming
- Listening to music
- Weightlifting
- Creating music
The goal is to find something that you enjoy doing and find soothing.
Acupuncture
A Chinese therapy called acupuncture uses special thin needles and specific points on the body to cause physical and mental benefits. These needles are inserted in different parts of your body to better the flow of energy running through you depending on what they are trying to treat, according to eastern medicine. Western medicine thinks of it as using needles on specific pressure points, nerves, and muscles to treat you.
Some conditions that this has been seen to help with include:
- Stress
- Pain
- Menstrual cramps
- Headaches
- Arthritis
- Anxiety
- Nausea
- Depression
- Insomnia
The Steps of Acupuncture
The process of acupuncture includes:
- Needle insertion: They can be inserted at different depths and usually cause no discomfort. Five to 20 needles can be inserted per session, depending on what is being treated.
- Needle manipulation: This involves the twirling of the needles or the application of heat or light electricity to them.
- Needle removal: After 10-15 minutes, the needles are taken out without pain.
Meditation can be an effective tool to help with a variety of conditions, including both physical and mental. It can be used in conjunction with primary treatment to help with blood pressure, breathing, anxiety, and more. There are other alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, art therapy, and the use of hobbies, that can be used to help you. These alternatives can give you a different outlet for your emotions and give your body a different way to help your condition. If you feel like meditation could help you in your recovery journey, reach out to Spero Recovery at (303) 351-7888 for more information today. You don’t have to struggle alone.
