Addiction Recovery Healthy Habits & Lifestyle

Recovery Meditation and Other Activities

Why Build Healthy Lifestyle Habits?

Treating mental health conditions or substance use disorders is foundational to other good life habits. Establishing healthy habits enables each of us to live a fulfilling life with a built-in level of stability created through well mapped out routines — during treatment and beyond.

Live a Legacy of Sobriety and Good Mental Health

Establishing Exercise and Diet Habits

At Legacy Recovery Center, clients have the opportunity to participate in yoga and meditation on a weekly basis. Relationships between meditation and addiction recovery and meditation and alcohol use have long been established. Meditation helps the mind cope with stress and is often used with other therapies to treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other disorders. Yoga and meditation for alcohol recovery and drug recovery help reduce stress and calm the mind while strengthening the body. Yoga and Meditation have been proven to help reduce symptoms from anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders. We will have a professional yoga instructor guide you through the sessions during your stay. You can also understand the relationship between meditation and addiction.

Further, we recognize that yoga may not be preferrable for everyone. As such clients at Legacy Recovery Center will have access to an offsite gym. Clients will need to be screened to ensure they are medically appropriate for using weights, and other gym equipment prior to our staff members transporting them to the gym. Lifting weights, and engaging in cardiovascular activity has been shown to help the brain recover faster from a wide variety of disorders such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. It can also help create a routine and picking up new hobbies is always important when re-creating one’s life.

Our Chandler, Arizona facility also provides home-cooked meals and nutritional guidance to help you learn to eat healthy meals during and after recovery. We promote eating a variety of healthy foods, limiting fast foods and sugars, drinking large amounts of water and taking a daily multivitamin. While we promote healthy eating, we also encourage balance and variety. Enjoying our favorite foods whether it be a slice of pizza, or home baked cookies is also important, and as such we will ensure you have access to your comfort foods.

Many Modalities Offered at Legacy Recovery Center

There are many different types of modalities that can help process mental health and substace use disorders. We believe clients should be able to explore what works best for them which is why we offer so many options

Acupuncture

Acupuncture – the ancient practice of inserting thin needles at specific points on the body – is gaining attention as a complementary therapy for mental health conditions and addiction recovery. Many people struggling with depression, anxiety, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), or addiction are looking for holistic ways to find relief. The good news is that growing research supports acupuncture’s benefits for these challenges. It’s a gentle, natural treatment that aims to restore balance in the body, and studies show it can help improve mood, reduce stress, and even curb cravings.

Acupuncture is rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which teaches that it balances the body’s vital energy, or “qi,” to promote healing. In Western terms, acupuncture stimulates the nervous system and influences various biological processes. Research suggests that when the tiny needles stimulate certain points, the body releases natural chemicals that can improve our mood and well-being. For example, acupuncture has been shown to affect the nervous system and trigger the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin and noradrenaline, which are brain chemicals that help regulate mood

How acupuncture helps with depression: Acupuncture’s mood-boosting effect comes from its impact on both mind and body. It stimulates the brain to release serotonin and other “happy” neurotransmitters, which can help restore emotional balance. It also promotes the release of endorphins, helping to relieve pain and stress that often accompany depression. Interestingly, acupuncture can calm down the body’s stress response – studies show it may reduce hyperactivity of the HPA axis (the system that controls cortisol, our stress hormone) and thus physically ease feelings of tension and anxiety that feed into depression

How acupuncture helps with anxiety: Anxiety is basically our “fight or flight” response in overdrive – your body is stuck in a high alert mode. Acupuncture helps flip the switch by engaging the nervous system’s relaxation response. When the needles stimulate specific points, they send signals that reduce the output of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. At the same time, acupuncture can increase production of serotonin and endorphins, which are chemicals that stabilize your mood and promote a sense of well-being. It also appears to regulate the autonomic nervous system, which means it helps rebalance the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (rest-and-relax) activity. The result? Your heart rate and blood pressure may drop, muscles unclench, and you feel more at ease. People with anxiety often also struggle with insomnia or restless sleep – acupuncture is known to improve sleep quality by calming the mind, which in turn can break the cycle of anxiety feeding on poor sleep. All these effects work together to dial down anxiety and panic, providing both immediate relief (often you’ll leave a session feeling noticeably calmer) and cumulative benefits with repeated sessions.

PTSD is a condition that can occur after someone goes through a traumatic event, causing symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, insomnia, and depression. Standard PTSD treatments include therapy (like CBT or EMDR) and sometimes medication, but there is growing interest in acupuncture as a gentle, non-drug approach to help PTSD sufferers – especially among veterans and others who may prefer a non-stigmatizing treatment. Acupuncture is being used in military and veteran healthcare settings as a tool to reduce PTSD symptoms and improve overall quality of life.

How acupuncture helps with PTSD: PTSD often keeps the body and brain “stuck” in trauma mode – the sympathetic nervous system remains overactivated, leading to constant anxiety, poor sleep, and even physical pain. Acupuncture can help “unstick” the nervous system by inducing the relaxation response and regulating the same stress pathways involved in PTSD. The placement of needles (for example, points in the ear like Shen Men or point combinations often used in trauma treatment) sends calming signals to the brain

How acupuncture helps with addiction: The needles (often placed in ear points corresponding to organs and nervous system functions) send signals that help regulate the body’s withdrawal response. Acupuncture can trigger the release of endorphins and other neurotransmitters that ease physical pain and discomfort, which is crucial during withdrawal. It also has an anxiety-reducing effect – since anxiety and agitation are common when someone is coming off drugs or alcohol, the calming influence of acupuncture is hugely beneficial. The NADA ear points are believed to help the body detoxify and rebalance. For example, points like Shen Men (which translates to “Spirit Gate”) are known for their strong calming and centering effect, helping to quell the jitteriness or emotional turmoil that comes with cravings. By balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, acupuncture helps manage the stress response, making it easier to resist urges.

Moving Beyond Diet and Exercise

The professionals at Legacy Recovery Center help our clients learn life skills and develop routines that help them remain healthy and sober. Routines provide the structure that we all need to keep anxiety at bay, reduce the number of decisions we have to make daily and help us sleep better, which, in turn, decrease our stress levels. Aside from meditation and recovery, we teach self-care and hygiene, stress management, time management and healthy relationship management skills.

We also help you learn to set goals. Without goals, you won’t know where you’re going, and you won’t know when you get there. In addition to the overall goals of recovery from substance abuse or learning to live with a mental disorder, we encourage you to get in the habit of setting life goals. What will your legacy look like?

We Accept Most Private Insurance Policies

We work with most insurance policies, verify your insurance quickly and easily and know your options. We cannot accept Medicare or Medicaid (AHCCS)