Alternative Treatment

A pen and paper are powerful tools for mental health.  Journaling is easy, practically free, and anyone can do it. The best part is, the simple act of journaling carries an array of benefits for our minds. Journaling lets us access creativity and greater self-awareness. It’s a simple, therapeutic, and a great addition to your recovery toolbox. In this article, we’ll delve into some of the many benefits of this simple practice.

A look at the profound effects of the breath on our state of mind. We breathe involuntarily. It’s one of the many functions that our body performs naturally, without our conscious awareness. Have you ever stopped to notice your breathing patterns during a stressful event? Typically, the breath is shallow, quick, and focused on the chest. It may even be hyperventalatory, meaning that you’re not taking in enough oxygen. Likewise, if you stop and observe your breath while you’re relaxed, either in meditation or sitting near the ocean or chatting with loved ones, your breath is likely to be slow, steady, rhythmic, and deep. While the breath is something that happens naturally in the body, we can also control it. The beauty of being in tune with the breath is that we can actually change our states of mind when we change our breathing patterns. Here, we’ll discuss how breath impacts mental health and a few ways to use the breath in order to live a calmer, more relaxed life.

Meditation has become mainstream due to its incredibly powerful effects on our minds, bodies, and spirits. It’s often touted as simple. After all, meditation is all about stilling the mind, sitting in one place, and basically “doing nothing.” How hard could it be? The truth is because our minds are so active, often bouncing from one subject to another all day, it’s very difficult to quiet the chatter in our heads and simply sit. While our brains need to rest and reset, our egos are naturally very resistant to quietly observing our thoughts instead of taking action, thinking about the future, or dwelling on the past. Here are a few tips for the beginner meditator to keep in mind while attempting to still the mind and be here now.

Exploring the world of yoga and its many options. There’s something for everyone. Yoga has become mainstream, and for good reason. It’s a great exercise for the body, offering increased flexibility and strength. It’s also an incredible way to connect the mind and body, as yoga is all about connecting with yourself and your breath. The word yoga actually means to yoke or to unite. In the practice of yoga, we’re uniting our movements with our breath and therefore, fusing our minds and bodies. This is why yoga is considered a great way to unwind. Now that yoga has become so popular, we have access to several different kinds of yoga. Whether you’re looking to unwind, increase your spiritual connection, or get a serious workout, there’s truly a kind of yoga for everyone. Some people are more anxious and need to unwind with more relaxing, slow-paced movements. Other people want to feel like they’re in constant motion, moving along with the music and breaking a sweat. This is a guide to understanding some of the different types of yoga. You might want to try several different kinds before you settle into a routine. Additionally, there are days when you’ll want a more relaxing practice and days when you’ll need an energizing flow.

Meditation has become so much more popular in the United States than it ever was before, and this is largely due to the fact that Americans have picked up on the importance of these practices in their daily lives. Meditation has been shown to not only reduce stress but can help a person control anxiety, experience enhanced emotional wellness, increase their self-awareness, lengthen their attention span, reduce age-related memory loss and so much more. If you’ve been contemplating practicing meditation, one of the first steps you can take is to familiarize yourself with some amazing meditation gurus to learn more ways that meditation can benefit your life - especially as it pertains to addiction recovery. Born in India, Swami Vivekananda was the first Hindu monk that Americans were really exposed to - and with a goal to bridge the gap between India and the United States, he worked effortlessly to teach Americans about philosophies related to yoga, meditation, and better living. Yet another renowned meditation teacher is Paramahansa Yogananda, who was once told as a young man that he was meant to be a messenger of Kriya Yoga to America. Eventually, he went on to create self-realization centers, with beautiful meditation gardens and more located throughout the United States. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is another prominent individual who led the Spiritual Regeneration Movement which influenced meditation all over the world. He once stated, “The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” The teachings of these amazing gurus can help us connect more deeply with meditation, and can help us find a more firm grounding in addiction recovery. The road to happiness, healing, and wellbeing is ultimately a lifelong one - but meditation can bring us so much grounding in return. If you’re ready to embark on a beautiful journey through meditation, yoga and other holistic practices that will aid in your recovery, speak with a professional from Avalon Malibu today.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health explains that massage therapy is: “...Used to help manage a health condition or enhance wellness. It involves manipulating the soft tissues of the body.” Massage therapy can become an excellent addition to addiction recovery, as the mind, body and spirit work to heal and rejuvenate from the negative aftermath of substance abuse. One type of massage therapy in particular - Thai massage - can be incredibly relaxing in more ways than one. It’s a bit different from traditional massage therapy approaches in that it involves the client lying on a padded mat on the floor, in which a masseuse guides and manipulates a person’s body into yoga positions and stretches.  Medical News Today, a website that publishes articles related to a variety of health conditions, notes that Thai massage can yield a number of benefits, such as:

Day-to-day life can bring up different thoughts, feelings, situations, and emotions, and how we navigate these moments can say a lot about how we lead our lives. When addiction is involved, it’s easy to rely on alcohol or drugs to numb bad feelings - but in recovery, it’s all about developing the proper tools and building a network of support for working through bad days in healthy, productive ways. Whether you’ve recently begun your addiction recovery journey or you’ve been working at it for quite some time, it’s time to assess how you currently handle bad days:

If you do some research on addiction recovery treatment options, you’ll likely come across two main categories: traditional treatment and holistic treatment. Traditional treatment options tend to fall along the lines of medication, psychotherapy (also known as “talk therapy”) and similar options. Previous research has shown that these methods are incredibly effective - but as with any treatment approach, there are some gaps that another route, such as holistic treatment, can fill.

If you haven’t realized this by now, our moods tend to hold some pretty heavy weight when it comes to how we navigate daily life. A good mood versus a bad mood could yield in extremely different experiences - that is, unless, we know how to manage our emotions effectively. Even the most stressed individual could essentially channel positive energy towards the present moment, giving them strength even the most upsetting of situations.  Tiny Buddha, a website that publishes information related to love and relationships, healthy habits, letting go, meaning and passion, and more, recently published an article related to this exact topic; the writer described energy as: “...Anything that evokes a reaction inside you. In other words, anything that makes you tick, ponder, feel or react. Energy comes to us in different forms. The chair you’re sitting on, the music you’re listening to, or the book you just finished reading, all provoke some sort of reaction within you.” Energy can be positive or negative for us, inciting feelings of rage or annoyance all the way to utter joy and gratefulness. A lot of it depends on how we choose to translate the situations and messages being sent to us, and it also depends on how we choose to live our lives. If you’re wanting to harbor more positive energy on a daily basis, consider incorporating more of the following holistic activities that are absolutely wonderful for your mind, body and spirit:

Emotions run deep, yet our society doesn’t always place much emphasis on talking about them. From a young age, we’re told to “suck it up” to “keep our chin up” and to otherwise keep everything tucked away so that everything seems fine. This is rarely the case, however, as we all going through troubles every now and then. In these instances, holding it in can actually be horrible for our health; just last year, Time Magazine explained that emotional stress,  “...like that blocked from emotions, has not only been linked to mental illness, but also to physical problems like heart disease, intestinal problems, headaches, insomnia, and autoimmune disorders.” In other words, there’s much more to holding in emotions than simply not “seeing” them. In order to avoid some of the harsh consequences that this avoidance can have on the mind, body, and spirit, consider using music to open up those emotional pathways. A 2015 study called “Music and Emotion” confirmed that not only does music have the capabilities to evoke intense emotions such as sadness, nostalgia, tension, relaxation, and pure joy, it also influences the production of dopamine, the “feel-good” chemical, in a healthy way.  Of course, it’s important to utilize music in a healthy way, rather than listening to songs that could send you into a spiral of depression or anxiety. A 2017 study published by Frontiers in Psychology found that even being musically inclined can improve a person’s emotional ability - for example, a person who plays a musical instrument or enjoys singing can greater tell the emotions of others through music. In turn, a greater connection can be built - but even those who aren’t musically inclined will find that they’re able to relate to a beat, a musical composition or a message that’s being conveyed through the songs they’re listening to.  The next time you’re feeling down, either play a soothing song to ground you or play a sad song to help you feel the emotions. Just be sure to manage your emotions in a healthy way - and if you find yourself turning destructive, speak with your therapist right away.

Mindfulness is the practice of staying grounded, aware of one’s surroundings and what they are doing, and not feeling overwhelmed or over-reactive about what’s happening in their environment. Mindfulness can help greatly with addiction recovery because it opens mental space for the development of tools to be used in stressful situations and to better work through challenging thoughts and feelings. For example, mindfulness has been used in cognitive-behavioral therapy and has helped individuals with anger, anxiety and circumstances that could increase a person’s risk for relapse.

The American Holistic Health Association (AHHA) explains that holistic health is an approach to life. It emphasizes the connection of the mind, body and spirit – and with this approach, we’re all responsible for maintaining our own levels of wellbeing. Holistic practices in addiction recovery are used to help restore the balance of a person, and they’ve become increasingly popular as Western societies have begun realizing just how much of an impact these practices can have on a person’s wellness. Susan Walter, MBA and current president of AHHA, explained that holistic health is based on several truths: