Surya Yoga for Addiction

We get addicted to anything. One of the major problems which affect today’s youth is addiction. There are biological, genetic, and environmental consequences of developing an addiction. More importantly, there is also an emotional consequence, of developing an addiction.

Surya Yoga in its foundation is only detachment. As its foundation, is based on “Citta Vritti Nirodha” which means annihilation of the tendencies of mind, it remains as a perfect tool for de-addiction or in the more generalized term – detachment.

Eliminating the social risk of Addiction by Surya Yoga Therapy

The central foundation of addiction is the changes, which happen when the brain interacts with the environment. This interaction makes the basis of how we make choices and decisions in our life. If we make some choices towards certain addicting objects, it gets a certain kind of intense attachment, with those objects.

The growth of this intense attachment has a social and environmental cost. Not only that, it seriously affects the quality of life, and it has more probability of developing crime rates in society, as most crimes are found to be, affected seriously with some or other addiction. Spending one rupee in Surya yoga therapy for addiction is itself saving two rupees, from the social risk of increasing crime ratios.

Why Does Surya Yoga help in Addiction Treatment?

To understand how Surya Yoga helps in addiction treatment, we have to understand first how addiction develops, with the changes in the brain while it interacts with the environment. This is critical as by these changes of the brain, we are making choices and decisions in life. Looking at issues of impulses and compulsion, what we develop becomes a major factor influencing these choices.

How Do We Resist Temptation?

These aspects are fundamental to our understanding of ourselves, understanding our conscious and unconscious desires. When we start practicing Surya Yoga, a whole new world opens before us, where we start becoming more aware, of our conscious and unconscious desires.

More awareness develops, clarity grows about what we desire in life consciously and unconsciously. This clarity makes our thoughts to moves inward, which in the case of addiction moves outward.

This inwardness of thoughts, which happens with practicing Yoga, brings us back to ourselves. We become more centered, and then we have the understanding to make choices and decisions which are based on knowledge and not based on addiction and temptation.

The growth of wisdom is the fundamental basis of making choices and deciding which grows the quality of life, and brings us health and wellness, by removing the clinging we have to different forms of addictions. Not only that, practicing Surya yoga, and applying it to addiction treatment, in the form of Surya Yoga therapy, helps one to cure the disease of addiction, but at the same time, also helps to significantly improve the mental health of a patient.

What is Addiction?

Addiction has an effect is human thoughts, and behaviors, and emotions.

But, what is an addiction and how does it develop? And what are the key distinguishing features?

Addiction is both and simple and complex question. It is a challenging condition and it can affect anyone. It develops slowly, often without our awareness. Addiction touches all aspects of our lives, and it causes significant harm. Addiction doesn’t respect who you are whether you’re rich or poor, privileged, educated, male, or female. But addiction happens for a reason. It’s functional. It serves a purpose. For some people, it’s seeking the experience of a good time and for others, it’s the means of escape from physical or emotional pain.

The first step towards, developing an addictive behavior is that it gives us something that we need. It removes our pain, our sadness. It helps us to cope, or it just helps us relax, and enjoy our spare time. The most obvious and fundamental initial experience is that any addiction to start with, makes us feel good. The first step towards developing an addictive behavior is it gives something which relieves our pain and sadness

Creating an Alternate Reward Path for Addiction

Neurologically, all addiction increases activity in the reward center or the pleasure center of our brain.

Any addiction will increase a chemical within our brain called dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. Its presence in regions of the brain, that regulate emotion, and movement, cognition or thinking, the development of new memories, and most importantly, the feelings of pleasure. In dopamine gives an entry for a reward pathway of the brain.

This reward pathway usually becomes activated, when we do something that’s important for our survival, something like eating, spending time with our children, spending time with our loved ones, and mostly spending doing things, that we love.

By engaging in these behaviors, we are rewarded with feelings of pleasure and euphoria. This feeling has itself an addictive quality. We feel good, so we want to do it again. However, while doing the natural and spontaneous things for our survival and things we love, our own nonsubstance abuse ways, to develop the reward path of dopamine, in the brain is not harmful.

However, there is also a way; we can develop this rewarding path, chemically through a different kind of substance abuse. That is what drugs and alcohol do, they overstimulate, the rewards system, and make us want to take those things again and again. So generally, the root of addiction comes from the lack of feeling of pleasure and emotional contentment, lack of joy, and bliss in life.

Surya Yoga is a system, which helps us makes, our thought inward, and move towards the presence of the inner sun, within our heart. This movement of thought towards the inner sun, makes attachment towards certain addictive objects lose relevance.

By regulating breadth, Surya Yoga and Surya Kriya revitalize our nerves, and send more neurotransmitters like dopamine, across the system, as when we breathe well, our channels of nerves work better, that ensures, a higher degree of the flow of neurotransmitters, in our system, which makes us emote well, think well and have a feeling of joy and bliss, along with high energy in life.
Finally, the journey out of addiction is one of great challenge and effort. The alternate reward path, which develops to practice Surya Yoga, helps to make the addiction treatment less challenging and effortless.

While it can be really difficult to quit an addiction, just say no, and often takes several attempts. But with Surya Yoga, addiction can be treated successfully, with developing people to access the emotional contentment and feelings of bliss and joy which exist within us.