Indoor shot of handsome young man practicing yoga. Fitness man meditating with his eyes closed while doing cobra pose in living room.
Recovery is about getting healthy in mind, body, and spirit. Having a healthy body is perhaps one of the most important ways to ensure your ability to recover. Without a healthy body, you cannot expect full recovery to be achieved. Many people entering recovery treatment can be undernourished and physically deplete of strength and the necessary physical elements to attack recovery with their whole selves.
This physical depletion is a result of years of use and abuse of alcohol or other substances blocking your receptors and blocking your ability to understand your body’s needs. When your body needs things like food, water, rest, and movement, it sends signals to the brain requesting food, water, sleep, or movement. Addiction makes one prone to using alcohol and other substances to address those cues. Addressing your body’s cues differently by using alcohol and other substances rewires your brain and your understanding of physical cues.
As part of recovery, physical health is vitally important so you can attack the mental and spiritual elements of your addiction. One of the first things done in most treatments is detoxification, which jumpstarts you into feeling your body’s signals. You will feel sick, anxious, and have many other physical symptoms. This is merely the beginning of a successful recovery. As treatment continues, you will relearn your body’s cues for food, water, movement, and rest. Understanding these cues ensures whole personal health and healing from addiction.
Table of Contents
4 Necessary Physical Elements to Whole Healing From Addiction
#1. Food and Sustenance for Your Body
So often, in the beginning stages of recovery, you are depleted of the minerals and nutrients necessary for your survival in recovery and in life. The use of alcohol and/or other substances has robbed your body of the ability to feel hunger cues, possibly for years. You may even be overweight but malnourished as you have sought out quick fixes for what you think your body needs.
Entering recovery means taking care of your whole body, and one important element is proper nutrition. Your brain and body need carbohydrates, protein, and fats for the proper processing of your recovery. You need your brain and body to work with you in recovery so you are less likely to relapse, seeking out a numbing of your symptoms. With proper nutrition, you are taking one step in the right direction toward full healing.
#2. Your Body Needs Water
Approximately two-thirds of your body is made up of water. You might be dehydrated when you enter treatment, meaning your brain is also dehydrated, and processing is difficult. Your brain and body need water to function. Also, water helps flush your body of toxins, helping you pursue your recovery more fully.
Another important aspect of drinking water is that it helps move nutrients and blood cells throughout your body, ensuring the health and proper nutrition for you to develop strength both mentally and physically. So, water is key to your success in recovery.
#3. Movement Is Essential to Your Recovery
Exercise has repeatedly been proven effective in recovery from mental health disorders, substance use disorders, and even in preventing the possibility of becoming sick physically. Research has also shown that regular exercise might even prevent the onset of mental health difficulties.
Exercise reduces stress, which helps alleviate your sensitivity to triggers, disrupting your potential for relapse. Even if done sitting in a chair, physical exercise will help you overcome your addiction to alcohol and other substances. Exercise might even help you be more engaged in your community when you are discharged.
#4. Rest Is Necessary for Recovery
When using substances, you miss out on your body’s cues for rest. You either rest too much or not enough. Developing a balance in your sleep patterns will ensure your success. So much research has been done outlining hours of sleep needed, how much downtime is needed, and the effects of insufficient rest. So, when pursuing recovery, rest is essential. Balancing rest with your other activities will ensure the proper recovery of your physical body.
Pursuing recovery is not just about cutting out substances but about taking care of your whole self. Your whole self includes your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. In order to even begin the process of mental and spiritual well-being, you need to be physically healthy. Renaissance Ranch helps with all three of these, as well as your social and family well-being.
Your body is your primary source of support. If your body is struggling from malnutrition, lack of rest, dehydration, or a need to move, you cannot expect yourself to function well in recovery.
Physical health is of vital importance in recovery treatment. You cannot approach treatment or recovery from merely a mental or spiritual standpoint; your body needs health to ensure the other elements of your whole self can also experience healing. At Renaissance Ranch, we take your recovery seriously in all elements of your healing. We understand the importance of physical well-being. Through this understanding, we offer clinically-driven treatment approaches with a focus on the gospel, which promises healing for all aspects of a person’s body and soul. This promise includes the healing process out of addiction and into recovery. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction and whole healing, the time might be now for you to reach out and ask for help. Reach out to us at Renaissance Ranch by calling (801) 308-8898 today to find out how you can start healing your body and find your way out of addiction.