Substance abuse and co-occurring disorders impact women in many different ways. For this reason, holistic addiction treatment is often the best approach to overcoming destructive behavior patterns and thought processes that prevent inner peace, self-love, and lasting happiness.
In this article, we will explore the many benefits of holistic addiction treatment.
The Benefits of Holistic Addiction Treatment
Holistic addiction treatment involves a unification of mind, body, and spirit. This unification is driven by positive emotional, mental, and relational experiences.
The more that we learn to treat ourselves with love, kindness, and compassion, the more readily we are able to extend this grace and joy to others. This beautiful interaction between ourselves and others is the catalyst that both births and sustains our holistic journey of recovery from substance abuse and addiction.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the many benefits of holistic addiction treatment.
Mind
The mind is an intangible concept, comprised of the invisible influence of our thoughts, feelings, and experiences on our daily lives.
Many of the current treatments for mental health tend to focus on the chemistry and connections going on within our brains, but our minds are much more than the organ contained within our skull.
Holistic treatment views healing as taking place with the restructuring of our subjective realities in a way that brings peace and wellness. Learning to direct the orientation of our minds can improve our mood, our relationships, and our future.
Mindfulness
Many of the negative experiences that we endure center around our failure to accept things just as they are. In our attempts to argue with ourselves, cast blame, and frantically find solutions, we are often making the situation worse.
With mindfulness, we learn to quiet our inner critic and roll along with the waves of our daily journey.
Mindfulness allows us to maintain a nonjudgmental perspective, which, in turn, creates the space necessary to make sound and rational life decisions.
Talk Therapy
There are many distinct types of talk therapy available, each with a specialty in working with individual personality preferences and treating specific disorders.
Talk therapy is useful in addressing hindrances to individual growth, assisting in navigation of relationships with others, and overcoming difficulties with moving forward from traumatic experiences of the past. The connection that is made with the therapist within the privacy and confidentiality of the session creates a safe space for self-exploration, emotional expression, and healing of old wounds.
Coping Skills
While it is preferable to not have to deal with uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and temptations at all, the reality is that these unwelcomed experiences are part of our journey as human beings.
The most effective approaches toward these inevitable occurrences involve the use of coping skills. Holistic treatment will provide you with a customized tool kit of mental tips and tricks to use when coping with the ups and downs of your recovery.
Body
Our bodies are the vehicle which allows our conscious minds to navigate around the planet. When the health of our body is compromised, it can be difficult to obtain the mental clarity necessary for becoming the successful authors of our lives.
Treating our bodies with attention, care, and kindness rewards us with both life-giving energy and an increased connection with our inner selves.
Nutrition and Exercise
The body is a biological machine. Just as with other types of machines, the body benefits from regular maintenance and high-quality servicing. The foods that we eat provide the fuel for our bodies to continue to function, and the physical exercise that we engage in keeps the gears running smoothly.
A holistic approach to wellness will include a focus on education surrounding the benefits of good nutrition and regular exercise on our overall wellness. As we take charge of our physical health, we gain the confidence to take on even more challenges.
Yoga
The practice of yoga has increasingly been integrated into holistic treatment.
A unique characteristic of yoga is the ability to address all aspects of existence through the practice. While the focus of yoga can be adjusted according to preference, the exercises are designed to engage the physical body in a conversation with both the mind and spirit.
Skilled practitioners of yoga are able to obtain a state of inner peace and connection with themselves and others.
Physical Therapies
When our bodies are relaxed, it is much easier to calm our emotions and obtain a peaceful state of mind.
Holistic treatment programs will offer options for relieving your body of pent-up stress. Typical options for this include traditional massage therapy, acupuncture, sauna, and reiki sessions.
Spirit
Much like the concept of mind, the existence of spirit is not empirically observable.
While the outward manifestation of our minds can be categorized and observed by others, however, the nature of spirit is a very private and subjective experience. For those practicing holistic wellness, finding a way to connect with and nurture the spirit within us – as well as connect to the experience of spirit which transcends our own humanity – provides a path to the insight and revelation necessary for moving successfully forward along our individual life path.
The following are some of the options for spiritual healing which are offered during holistic addiction treatment.
Meditation
Meditation is comparable to an advanced state of mindfulness. With mindfulness, we learn to become aware of our inner experiences as they occur. With meditation, we are purposeful in crafting an environment and experience which provides us with the opportunity to connect with the invisible world in a way that transcends our daily reality.
Nature
For some, the connection to spirit lies in connection with Mother Earth. When we spend time in nature, we are feeding our souls. This spiritual experience can be gained by visiting places of natural beauty, interacting with non-human animals, or cultivating the foliage through planting trees or gardening.
Shamanic Journeys
It may seem counterintuitive to approach substance abuse by introducing another substance, but the healing power of ancient psychedelics is increasingly gaining the attention of our modern world.
Unlike the types of drugs that are used to escape the painful realities that we face, shamanic practices utilize carefully and focused drug applications for the purpose of increasing the awareness of our full reality.
Once we have gained the ability and courage to face our true selves, we are empowered to make the changes necessary for our own, inner, healing.
If you find yourself turning to prescription drugs or alcohol regularly to numb uncomfortable feelings, consider exploring our holistic healing program.
Take the first step to healing your mind, body, and spirit today.
