Fitness Benefits the Mind, Body, And Spirit. It Will Help Addiction Recovery, Too

There’s a kind of aura about controlled substances. They’re magic. Instead of just feeling it, you become the magic. Then addiction deepens. You can’t get enough. Finally, it’s just you staring your addiction in the eye.

You’ve lost your job, family, and friends. The addiction has its hooks in your body, mind, and spirit so solidly that you’re going to have to fight as you’ve never fought before to kick it. You have a mind, body, and spirit hostage to a substance you no longer want. What can you do?

Damage to The Mind, Body, Spirit

While the mind visits a perpetual Shangri-La, the brain gets pummeled by the substance. With damaged vital pathways, making proper decisions and choices gets harder for the user. The memory begins to fail.

The immune system suffers too. It can no longer send healing to injured parts of the body or fight off a cold. The lungs suffer due to smoking either cigarettes or a drug. The liver suffers from alcohol abuse and can’t filter the body’s poisons anymore.

The body suffers altogether from a lack of proper nutrition and hydration. The skin dries out and the organs begin to atrophy from lack of water. Vitamins and nutrients aren’t getting to the organs, muscles, tissues, skin, and brain. Can the destruction be reversed or at least helped?

Fitness Is About the Mind, Body, Spirit

Yes, it can. The same mind, body, and spirit that once was paralyzed by a substance can be held in respect and love by a healthier circumstance. The first step is to clear the body of any vestige of the substance abuse.

The next step is to give the patient a healthy replacement for the substance and its temptations. This measure should also reduce the stress inherent in addiction and recovery from it.

For those needing to get help with drug and alcohol rehabilitation, physical fitness replaces the substance. For example, the endorphins used by the substance to make you feel good do the same job in working out, just in a healthier way.

Exercise relieves stress and relaxes people. Those endorphins aid the mind in making healthy the focus. Training also gives you confidence in yourself. It gives you a healthy attitude and the impetus to keep that attitude alive and kicking.

What Kind Of Exercises Work Best?

Yoga, Meditation, And Mindfulness

The object is to bring the mind, body, and spirit flowing into harmony with each other. You’ll be holding a yoga pose while meditating or engaging in mindfulness. You’ll be totally in the moment. Everything else is left outside the door to your mind or the yoga studio.

You’ll learn how to concentrate on just the quiet or the focus of your mindfulness such as your foot or the breeze in your hair. Stress and temptation will be left frustrated they can’t affect you.

Walking and Hiking

Fresh air enters the brain, increasing the endorphins that make us feel good. The exercise gets the body revved up, tones muscles, and distributes oxygenated blood to your cells. Being closer to nature gives you a strong focus, while your mind and body are benefiting from it.

Music and Dancing

Music has ever soothed the savage breast. It can uplift us or make us want to tap our toes and dance. Dancing, too, lifts the spirit. It improves flexibility and mobility, gets oxygenated blood to the muscles, and tones them; additionally, music and dancing are the best stress relief ever.

Along with a healthy diet and emotional support, exercise is a robust, fun way to aid in recovery and make sure it lasts.