holistic healing Archives - Enlightened Solutions

Benefits of Holistic Healing

Written by enlightened solutions on July 12, 2022. Posted in Holistic Treatment.

What does holistic mean, anyway? The term “holistic” refers to the whole person. This means addressing the social, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of someone as part of their lifestyle or, in this case, treatment experience. Think of it as a mind-body-spirit approach.

Someone who lives a holistic lifestyle sees the big picture. Instead of focusing on one area of weakness or striving to improve just one portion of their life, those who live holistically focus on all areas of wellness. For example, someone with a holistic lifestyle may begin their day by meditating, and they may follow a strictly organic diet. Holistic living can include prioritizing therapy or forms of self-care. Living a holistic lifestyle is not a one-size-fits-all practice. What is important is incorporating things that benefit the overall health and well-being of the whole person.

What Are Holistic Treatment Modalities?

Holistic treatment modalities can be beneficial to those experiencing a variety of ailments. When it comes to addiction treatment and recovery, holistic healing can be especially advantageous. Substance abuse impacts so many things. Addiction takes a huge toll on the physical body, impacting organ function, appetite, and immunity. Substance use also can induce mental health challenges by increasing stress and anxiety, symptoms of depression, and impacting sleep patterns. Addiction often results in loss or strained social and emotional relationships and can leave someone feeling disconnected or lost spiritually.

A holistic approach to treatment allows a person to address the disease from every angle and ensure healing in each of the above-mentioned areas. Poor physical health results in poor mental health. Poor spiritual health results in poor emotional health. Poor emotional health can lead to poor physical health. Do you see a pattern emerging? By understanding that each of these dimensions of wellness directly affects the others, a whole-person approach to healing and health can be implemented.

Examples of Holistic Treatment Modalities

Holistic healing can encompass many different forms of therapy and experiences. Some may be offered in a group setting, while others may be more intimate. A few examples of holistic treatments can include art therapy, music therapy, chiropractic, yoga and meditation, and nutrient-rich organic food. While each of these treatment methods may serve a different purpose, all work together to improve the health and well-being of the whole person.

Art Therapy

Art therapy is used in many different settings and can help heal those struggling with various challenges. This form of therapy encourages self-expression through painting, drawing, or other art forms and can be helpful in processing and understanding feelings and emotions. Sometimes, words can be difficult to use when it comes to processing grief, trauma, or even addiction. Art therapy provides an outlet for expression and promotes processing tough things in a freeing and non-verbal way.

Music Therapy

Music therapy is another treatment method used to release, process, or understand feelings and emotions. Music has a way of helping people connect and remember and can sometimes serve as a calming technique when needed. A music therapy session could involve singing, listening to music, or even playing an instrument. Music therapy can be used to improve social skills, coordination, and motor function, along with helping many with self-expression.

Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care uses a mind and body approach to help heal. People tend to store tension, stress, and anxiety in their bodies resulting in stiff or sore muscles, headaches, etc. Chiropractic therapy can help release these negative emotions by targeting specific areas of need. For those who experience chronic pain, chiropractic care can sometimes be a healthy alternative to opioids.

Yoga and Meditation

Practicing yoga and meditation can benefit anyone. The physical practice of yoga has many advantages, such as reduced stress, better digestion, increased strength, and so on. Meditation allows for connecting with one’s inner self. During treatment and throughout recovery, the ability to self-reflect and self-regulate is incredibly important. Yoga and meditation encourage a mind and body connection that is invaluable throughout the journey to recovery.

Organic Food

Eating organic, nutrient-rich food is an excellent way to boost your immunity and ensure your physical body is at its best. In addition, a healthy diet can be beneficial to mental health by balancing mood, improving focus, and encouraging good sleep.

Each of these treatment modalities addresses and improves various parts of the whole person. When combined, all areas are restored. By choosing holistic treatment for addiction, healing from the inside out can be possible. Making more whole-person-focused lifestyle changes can not only be beneficial during treatment but can also make for a longer, healthier, and happier life throughout recovery.

Holistic living is something that is becoming more recognized and practiced in today’s society – and for good reason. Treating the whole person is always a good idea, regardless of the issue. When it comes to addiction, holistic treatment is the best practice. Substance abuse affects physical health, mental health, socialization, emotional well-being and regulation, and spiritual health. By addressing each of these areas, recovery is not only more attainable but becomes more sustainable with the lifestyle changes adopted during treatment. Enlightened Solutions utilizes various holistic treatment modalities and teaches clients to make long-lasting lifestyle changes to best support them in recovery. We develop an individualized treatment plan to address your specific needs, making alterations as you progress through treatment to ensure your success. If you or someone you care about is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, give Enlightened solutions a call today at (833) 801-LIVE.

5 Critical Reasons for Taking a Holistic Approach to Treatment

Written by enlightened solutions on September 19, 2017. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

In many ways, the journey from the prison of addiction to the authentic self is inherently holistic. Addicts have lost their internal sense of belonging because they have become excessively focused on self. The pathway to recovery is paved with methods for returning as an integrated member of their communities, our families, circles of friends and professional associations. They heal by getting out of the cycle of physical dependencies and taking actions to be reunited with others. Holistic approaches can support these challenges with greater success by bolstering the recovery process.

Recovery is really hard, so why not do it once.
Getting clean and sober is one of life’s greatest challenges. Holistic treatment can support greater success in staying clean and sober at the first attempt.
Getting beyond survival and into thriving.
When the whole person is not considered, recovery can sometimes become about getting back to grind. With holistic approaches, the patients are given access to the wholeness of their internal self. They can engage with their creative and visionary self, creating a more fulfilling life for their recovered self.
Every person is here for a reason, so live it.
Fundamentally, every person is born to live out some certain societal contribution. When we get lost in an addictive cycle, we lose touch our purpose. A holistic model can support you in getting free from the addictive cycle. It can also support reconnection to this deeper sense of purpose that lives in the union of body, mind and spirit.
There’s a lot to make up for, so go for the greatest vitality.
Many people in recovery have lived in their addictive cycles for a long time. Holistic models of treatment offer the opportunity to elevate the health and well-being to previously unknown levels. In many ways, this part of recovery, as we make amends to all aspects of ourselves.
There’s one life, that we know of, so live it as fully as possible.
In many cases, when someone enters recovery, they are not only discovering freedom from addiction, they are also on the journey of breaking intergenerational cycles. Holistic models offer opportunities to re-learn some of the core behaviors that have been learned in our families, facilitating new possibilities for future generations as those in recovery teach what they learned.

Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers a harmonious approach to holistic treatment, bringing together the best of evidence-based, alternative, and 12-step therapies. Call us today for information on our transformation programs of treatment for addiction and alcoholism: 833-801-5483.

The H.O.W. Of Recovery: Honest, Open Chakras, Willingness

Written by enlightened solutions on May 19, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Addiction Recovery, Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

We are repeatedly told that recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, as well as most co-occurring mental health disorders has to be holistic. Holistic healing, holistic wellness, and a holistic approach all mean the same thing. The word holistic means comprehending that everything is made of many parts and all of those parts are intimately interconnected. Addiction and alcoholism are not isolated to the mind or the body or even the spirit. When someone is overcome by addiction and alcoholism they have to recover in mind, body, and spirit. Trying to define mental illness by just one part of the equation does an injustice to the complexity of mental health disorders and often does an injustice to someone getting the treatment they need. A key to understanding the holistic approach is understanding that the only way to explain mental illness is by referring to the whole person- mind, body, and spirit.

Spiritual wellness, spirituality, and spiritual healing are an important part of the recovery process. Most treatment centers take the holistic approach and include some therapeutic components in their programs which reflect spiritual wellness. Massage, acupuncture, yoga, meditation, reiki, are common examples. One area many treatment centers don’t focus on is healing the chakras and opening them up. Opening the chakras allows the energy in the body to effortlessly flow from head to toe. Chakras which are closed and have been closed for many years stop the flow of energy which can cause emotional as well as physical health problems.

Chakras are seven energy centers in the body starting from our sacral region in our low back and center all the way to the top of our head. We work with our chakras through yoga, meditation, and reiki to release the energy. Breathing exercises focused on opening the chakras can help release the blockages there. Most often, our difficulties in treatment are reflected in which chakras are closed. There are correlations between what each chakra represents and regulates to what we go through on a daily basis. Keeping the chakras open helps us to be more open to live, recovery, and the freedom recovery promises.

At Enlightened Solutions we provide an integrative program of holistic healing, clinical therapy, and 12 step philosophy for total transformation. Our partial care programs are designed for dual diagnosis patients needing healing for substance use and mental health disorders. Recovery starts with you. Start your recovery with us. Call us today for more information at 833-801-5483.

Laughing Yoga? Using The Breath And Humor For A Good (Healing) Time

Written by enlightened solutions on March 22, 2017. Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health, Recovery, Sober Living. Leave a Comment

Laughter yoga has a simple goal: to make you laugh. Laughter is good for the soul. According to research, it’s also good for the heart, the body, and the mind. Voluntary laughter is a practice of getting yourself to laugh for an extended period of time. For laughter yoga sessions, the goal is usually about an hour. Laughter requires a lot of air intake, either in short spurts or long breaths. In between hysterics there are usually pauses of taking a deep breath, to replenish the lungs. This is the hidden benefit of laughter yoga: oxygen.

One certified laughter yoga practitioner explains that “laughter leads to deep breathing, which sends ample oxygen to the brain When the brain has obtained proper oxygen levels, it functions at peak capacity.” The breath is critically important. Basic physiological science teaches us that breath is a matter of life or death. Once we stop breathing, oxygen stops flowing to the brain. The brain needs oxygen to survive. The brain needs to survive so that it can tell other organs to keep working- like the heart. When we are sad, depressed, or not focused, we breathe in a very shallow manner. Short, shallow breaths cut off oxygen to the brain. It’s because of the amount of oxygen we take in during laughter that makes us feel so good. After a good laugh we might as well say “I need all that oxygen!” rather than say “I needed a good laugh”. A healthy brain is an oxygenated brain. An oxygenated brain is one that feels more positivity and releases higher levels of dopamine, serotonin, and influences production of endorphins.

The Spiritual Undertones Of Laughter Yoga

Forced or voluntary laughter is a way to create more authentic laughter. Laughter can be uncomfortable when we are taking life very seriously. Breaking through the ice is what laughter yoga does. Through a series of exercises, the laughter yoga coach creates forced laughter. Soon, everyone bursts out into real laughter and can’t stop laughing. The philosophy behind this exercise is about letting go, surrendering, and realizing that sometimes you have to laugh. There is a famous saying in recovery “don’t take yourself too seriously”.

Recovery starts with you. Start your recovery with Enlightened Solutions. We know that addiction is no laughing matter. Recovery will bring a smile to your face again. If you are ready to heal, call us today for more information on our partial care programs at 833-801-5483.

Processing Stress In Recovery

Written by enlightened solutions on November 17, 2016. Posted in Healthy Living, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Nobody likes stress. In fact, no body likes stress. Stress, it has been proven hundreds of times over, is incredibly bad for your health. Stress is one of the leading causes of disease, heart failure, and poor health throughout the world. To deal with stress, the body produces adrenaline, which stimulates the fight or flight response. Inherently we don’t even really “deal” with stress, we either fight it off or run away from it. Going against our survival instincts and choosing to work through stress is a major part of growing in recovery. Life can be stressful, but the stress does not have to win. Here are some tips for learning to grow through stress rather than run from it, fight it, or be consumed by it to the point of ill health.

Failure Happens

“Progress not perfection” is a popular saying in the rooms of recovery and twelve step meetings. The Big Book of Alcoholics in Chapter 5 titled “How it Works” reads, “No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.” The truth is, nobody is perfect. Trying to bear the responsibility of being that one perfect person is just too much for anyone’s back. As alcoholics and addicts, we tend to convince ourselves we’re “special”. We have to succeed because we are capable of it, even if nobody understands. Consequently, we begin to view failure as stress and stress as failure. Stress is a natural reaction to life. Being the wonderfully imperfect beings that we are, we get stressed and sometimes we “fail”. It’s okay.

Give It Away To Keep It

Stress is actually a gift of recovery. In early recovery, we work hard to keep our stress at a minimum in an effort to support our treatment. We continue to grow and begin living our life again. Jobs, responsibilities, all the little pieces of life come trickling back in, and cause us stress. The truth is, we worked hard to get here. We’ve earned our stress because we’ve developed an entirely new manner of living in which to handle it- even if we don’t always handle it well.

Being of service is a critically important component in recovery. One of the quickest and most sure-fire ways to get out of self when you are super focused on your stress is to be of service to another person. You might be thinking you don’t have time to be of service because you are too busy with all the stressful things you have going on. Usually, that’s the strongest indicator that you need to make the time. It will significantly help you reduce your stress by helping you get grounded and grateful for the life you have created!

Enlightened Solutions compassionately treats each patient with the therapeutic skills necessary to help them build a new spiritually founded life. Our treatment programs for addiction and dual-diagnosis disorders are integrative, combining twelve step philosophy with effective therapy models and holistic healing modalities. Call us today for more information 833-801-5483.

Tag: holistic healing