addiction and brain health in the news

At Acceptance Recovery we believe yoga and meditation can be a powerful part of addiction recovery. Check out this short note from Nikki Myers, founder of Y12, on the healing powers of yoga. -Dan Tallman, Executive Director

Most experts agree that trauma’s effects live in the body—and that’s why yoga works. A three-year NIH-funded study conducted at the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts, revealed that  participation in trauma-informed gentle yoga leads to a significant reduction (over 30 percent) in symptoms of post-traumatic stress, including fewer intrusive thoughts and less dissociation from the body.

In addition to the recently concluded NIH study, other studies and plenty of anecdotal evidence support the claim that yoga mitigates the fight-or-flight response through a combination of active asanas, pranayama (with particular emphasis on the exhalation), and deep relaxation. It does this by decreasing the sympathetic nervous system’s reactive response and increasing the parasympathetic relaxation response.

Whether you or someone you know is living with addiction or trauma, we can work together to share these yogic tools and resources with our communities.

"It was after that second relapse that I realized there had to be a union between the cognitive approach to addiction recovery offered by 12-step programs, and the somatic approach to healing offered through yoga." - Nikki Myers