Yoga and Addiction

Many people believe that yoga can be a useful tool when a person is struggling to break free of an addiction.

There are many forms of addiction. Usually the word conjures up addiction to drink or to drugs but there are people who are addicted to their work to the detriment of their family, and there are people who addicted to sugar and eating. There are also people who have suffered from having alcoholics or drug users in their family.

The work I have read on using yoga to help addictions suggested that any yoga practise should reinforce the steps that Alcoholics Anonymous recommend.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU TURN TO PROFESSIONAL HELP IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING TO QUIT AN ADDICTION. YOUR GP WILL KNOW THE LOCAL AGENCIES THAT HELP WITH YOUR PARTICULAR ADDICTION. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU GET ALL THE SUPPORT YOU CAN.

Yoga can be used as an extra tool to help you. After all Yogis believe that the body is the temple of the soul and that we should keep the body in the best possible condition.

One of the things you can do is use Affirmations when you practise a posture. Firstly you take your time to make sure you are doing the posture to the best of your ability. I have a check list in my mind. What are my toes doing? my insoles? my legs? my knees? my pelvic floor, and so on right up to my head. When I have checked each part of me in the posture I then try and examine how I am breathing. Is it slow and steady? Am I breathing deeply? When I know my breathing is as steady and as deep as I can make it, then I can use an affirmation in the posture and say it to myself time and time again as if it were a mantra until I come out of the posture.

The book Healing Addiction with Yoga by Annalisa Cunningham ISBN 987-1-84409-170-6 goes into great detail and suggests poses for different affirmations. Here I have given you some of the affirmations which you might like to try.

Affirmations

I am calm, I am balanced, I am rooted in faith

I have the option to change my attitude

I lean on God for guidance

I am open and receptive to life's lessons

I have faith in the unknown before me

Everything I need I possess in this moment

I move forward with patience

My spirit is as gentle as a butterfly

Nonresistance gives me peace

I gently open to my inner wisdom

I let go of the past with forgiveness

The power of the deep breath. Do take time to breath and to observe your breath. I suggest you place your hands just above your waist so that the longest fingers of each hand just touch the other. If you are breathing in and making full use of your lungs, the fingers will separate as you breathe in.

You can experiment further and see if your tummy is being involved in the breathing process. Put your hands this time just underneath your waist line and again let the longest fingertips touch. When you breath in, the fingers should move apart.

If you look at any anatomy book you will see that the diaphragm is like an inflatable ball. If we hold our tummy muscles in during an in-breath it is impossible for the diaphragm to fully extend and to help pull in all the oxygen we need into our bodies. So make sure you relax your tummy muscles while breathing in.

Once you are sure you are breathing deeply, start seeing if you can breath in and out to a rhythm. You could start by counting "one elephant, two elephants, three elephants " as you breath in and then count three elephants again as you breath out.

What you are trying to do is to get a very regular, steady breathing pattern.

Sometimes I try too hard and my breathing rhythm breaks up. I don't worry about this. I just allow my body to sort itself out for a few breaths and then I try again to get a rhythm.

Deep, steady breaths are very calming and when you are longing to have another fix, just try giving yourself an oxygen blast by breath steadily and deeply instead. The craving may well fade away.