The Power Of The Trail – For Your Recovery

At Maple Moon Recovery, aerobic activities like hiking and long walks play a significant role in our treatment regimen for your recovery during addiction withdrawals. We implement exercise and other activities into one’s recovery process that naturally build up the body’s endorphin levels and decrease cortisol levels of the body. The intensified levels of endorphins alleviate stress and improve one’s mood, just like the feel-good dopamine release related to active addiction-only healthier. Reduced cortisol levels (the body’s stress hormone), helps manage anxiety, depression, and stress—key triggers in addiction.

The Role of Endorphins and Cortisol For Your Recovery

Generally speaking, the functions of endorphins and cortisol are significant yet very different, encompassing the body’s physical and psychological features. The brain makes endorphins as a response to exercise, stress, or pain. They act like a painkiller and improve mood.

They reduce the perception of pain, improve mood by inducing feelings of happiness and euphoria, and help alleviate stress and anxiety, contributing to overall relaxation and well-being. Endorphins enhance immune function to help the body resist disease and play an important role in addiction recovery by mimicking the substance-induced feeling of euphoria, reducing cravings, and promoting emotional stability. Cortisol, often termed the “stress hormone,” is secreted by the adrenal glands due to stress. The hormone plays a critical role in maintaining the body’s responses to the flight-or-fight phenomenon. It triggers increased alertness, energy, and focus by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose levels, besides controlling metabolism and inflammation. Cortisol peaks in the morning to aid in being awake and helps in controlling normal sleep-wake cycles.

However, chronically high cortisol levels create conditions for poor health, and therefore balancing cortisol with more endorphins is considered critical to sustain general emotional and physical wellness since the latter was more associated with elevating mood and reducing pain.

There is much one could do to increase endorphin-boosting activities that have a simultaneous effect of lowering cortisol levels in creating emotional and physical well-being.

Other activities linked with increasing endorphins while lowering cortisol include more moderate aerobic workouts, like hiking, running, swimming, biking, or even brisk walks. Nature hikes and relaxation will also serve to lower cortisol and raise endorphins to promote calm and well-being.

Looking for something a little more rigorous? 

Lifting weights and doing resistance training help develop strength, good looks, and confidence. Weightlifting and resistance training can also help release endorphins while putting stress levels low.

This can also be related to the increased levels of cortisol and endorphins, respectively, in a resting body and mind. Practicing mindfulness and meditation cuts down on stress, hence lowering cortisol through the relaxation of the mind. Add this to the mild movements, stretching, and mindfulness involved in yoga to help lower cortisol and increase endorphins.

In Conclusion

It goes without saying that hiking or long walks will be very helpful for your recovery treatment. Besides the exercises, sleep and rest too play a very important role in making a person fit. Good quality sleep, and taking break intervals during the day lowers the level of cortisol, works toward maintaining a stable mood, and helps regularize endorphins.

More than exercise alone, proper sleep, laughing, music, breathwork, being hugged, creative and passive activities, and eating spicy or dark chocolate can balance the response of the body to stressors and heighten feelings of pleasure and well-being. A lifestyle habit of exercising combined with these activities serves to inhale endorphins naturally and keep cortisol in a healthy range to keep the body physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy and recovering!

Contact Maple Moon Recovery with any questions about how we incorporate exercise, art therapy, nutrition, and other activities into our treatment program.