At Harmony Recovery Group, we believe in holistic anxiety relief—treating the underlying causes of anxiety in their physical, emotional, and spiritual underpinnings rather than attempting to play whack-a-mole with anxiety symptoms. The concept of ‘holistic relief’ emphasizes a comprehensive and integrated approach to managing anxiety, focusing on promoting overall well-being and balance. The Harmony Recovery Group believes in holistic therapies such as Mindfulness and Meditation, Physical Exercise, Breathing Techniques, Nutritional Support, Cognitive Behavioral techniques (CBT), and Stress Reduction Techniques.
Mindfulness and Meditation: Meditation is an ancient practice that has been reinvented in many forms and has gone by many names across the millennia. It can enhance mindfulness and focus or enhance relaxation and calm. It is simple enough for nearly anyone to learn but powerful enough to make a profound difference in your life if you make it a part of a recovery lifestyle.
Mindfulness can buy you the treasured moments of awareness many need before acting impulsively. It’s a technique that can stabilize mood and bring a sense of inner peace. This can help people with substance use disorders combat urges to use or drink. Mindfulness can also help people with mental health disorders avoid reverting to old behaviors and remember to utilize new coping tools.
Physical Exercise: Exercise triggers the release of endorphins and other natural feel-good chemicals in the brain that can help elevate mood and reduce stress/anxiety. Being anxious often leads to physical tension throughout the body. Exercise helps work out knots and relax stiff/tense muscles. People who exercise during the day often benefit from improved sleep at night.
Good sleep hygiene reduces stress/anxiety levels. Better sleep and physical exercise also reduce stress hormones. Physical activity lowers levels of stress hormones like cortisol, which exacerbate feelings of anxiety and tension in the body. Consistent exercise has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety while elevating overall mental well-being.
Breathing Techniques: Taking control of your breathing introduces an element of self-regulation when anxiety feels out of control. It gives you something physical to focus on besides anxious thoughts. Deep breathing helps calm the nervous system and lower stress levels. This provides an alternative coping mechanism. Slow breathing provides extra oxygen to the brain and body. Poor oxygen circulation has been linked to feelings of panic and distress. Specific breathing patterns, like breathing in for 5 seconds and out for 7 seconds, have a calming physiological effect by lowering your heart rate, blood pressure, and relaxation response.
Breathing exercises are easy to do discreetly in public without drawing attention. You can use them anytime anxiety strikes. Over time, consistent breathing practice trains your body’s stress response so anxiety cues don’t escalate as much. Your parasympathetic system strengthens. Focusing outwardly on your breathing takes attention away from anxious feelings and hypervigilance, reducing rumination.
Nutritional Support: What we feed our bodies significantly impacts our physical and mental well-being. When struggling with substance abuse disorders or mental illnesses like anxiety and depression, it’s essential to fuel the body with nutrients that can help counteract withdrawal symptoms and support healing. A balanced diet rich in lean proteins, healthy fats, fiber-filled complex carbs, vitamins, and minerals regulates hormones, improves mood, boosts energy levels, and reduces inflammation in the brain.
When clients benefit from therapy and other clinical interventions, optimizing their nutrition gives their recovery efforts the best chance of success. Understanding how nutrition influences brain chemistry and addresses nutritional deficiencies empowers clients to take an active self-care role in their mental health. With dietary support, they gain complementary tools to facilitate stability and long-term wellness.
Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (CBT Therapy): CBT recognizes the interaction between cognitive distortions and anxious behaviors in maintaining anxiety disorders. By targeting both areas, it treats the whole problem. CBT teaches tangible skills. Unlike just venting emotions, CBT arms patients with evidence-based tools like cognitive restructuring, exposure therapy, problem-solving, etc., to apply in and out of therapy sessions. Rather than focus on the past, CBT coaches patients to challenge current anxious thoughts and adopt helpful coping strategies for managing future risks and uncertainty.
CBT targets the origin of problems for long-lasting relief rather than temporary fixes by uprooting cognitive distortions at the core of many anxiety issues. It empowers self-directed recovery. The skills-based approach enables patients to maintain mental wellness skills without depending on therapy indefinitely.
Stress Reduction Techniques: Some stress reduction techniques we provide at Harmony include art and music therapy. Art therapy is a form of expressive therapy that uses art media such as painting, drawing, sculpture, or other creative activities as a way for individuals to communicate and process their thoughts and feelings. The creative process and art-making can be therapeutically relaxing and help relieve stress and anxiety. It’s a calming, distracting activity. In short, art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that catalyzes artistic expression and creativity to help individuals process thoughts and feelings.
Music therapy is very similar to art therapy. However, it has a deliberate focus on the musical expression of creativity. Music therapy is a creative arts therapy that uses music to improve physical, social, cognitive, and emotional well-being.
At Harmony Health Group, each location offers different services. To learn more about which holistic therapies are available at a specific location, please give us a call anytime, 24 hours a day at (866) 461-4474.
If you are experiencing a behavioral health disorder – or you suspect that someone you care about is struggling – don’t hesitate to seek help. There’s no shame in getting treatment – in fact, it’s a positive first step in your well-deserved journey to recovery. So don’t be afraid to reach out. Together, we can remove the stigma and help make mental health and substance use disorder treatment accessible to all.