Yoga For Addiction Recovery: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Trying to stay off alcohol or drugs, and finding the evenings, the cravings or the restless nights the hardest part? You are far from alone, and recovery is something people build day by day. Yoga, yogic breathing and mindfulness can be a steady part of that. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar, Dr Timothy McCall and the research say about yoga for addiction recovery: for alcohol, for other drugs, and for the hard weeks of withdrawal. Last updated: 8 November 2026.

By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, Flametree Yoga Darwin.

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Does yoga help addiction recovery? The short answer

Yes. Yoga for addiction recovery is well worth adding to the support you already have. In randomised trials, yoga used alongside usual care eased anxiety, low mood, pain and craving, and in some trials people used less. A mindfulness course for relapse prevention led to fewer days of drug use and heavy drinking a year later. In a 2026 trial, men going through opioid withdrawal who added yoga to their medicine settled in 5 days instead of 9. Mr BKS Iyengar taught people in recovery himself, and a recovery centre in India has built Iyengar yoga into its programme for decades.

Two things to keep in mind as you read. First, in nearly every trial, yoga and mindfulness were added to the care people were already receiving, not used instead of it. Second, the trials tested yoga in general, breathing practices and mindfulness courses. None has yet tested Iyengar yoga, the style we teach, for recovery. In our view as certified Iyengar teachers, precise, well-taught poses that hold the attention are likely to go further than yoga in general. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for recovery

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, several times a week. Regular practice settles the restless, anxious feeling that so often comes with early recovery, and gives the day a steady shape.
2. Add breath work (pranayama). A slow, quiet breath calms the mind and brings stress, worry and anger down, which are among the most common triggers.
3. Practise riding out a craving. In the mindfulness trials, people learned to notice an urge, breathe with it and let it pass. Holding a yoga pose with steady attention builds the same skill.
4. Keep it active at first. Mr Iyengar taught that standing poses and gentle backbends lift a flat, empty mood better than long quiet poses on their own.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Who was Mr BKS Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major teacher who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Overall evidence: Moderate. Best study: A review of eight randomised trials found that in seven of them, yoga, used alongside usual care, eased anxiety, pain or craving, or cut substance use (Walia 2021). The trials tested hatha yoga, a rhythmic breathing practice called Sudarshan Kriya, yogic breathing and meditation, for alcohol, opioids and tobacco.
• Mr BKS Iyengar: taught that people in early recovery often feel empty and flat, and need active poses, close attention from the teacher, and practice that keeps them in the present.
• Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr BKS Iyengar, author of Yoga as Medicine: alcohol and other drug use is no. 1 on his list of conditions helped by yoga, and drug withdrawal is no. 26.
• The research: reviews and trials of yoga, breathing and mindfulness point to less anxiety, low mood, pain and craving, fewer days of use in some trials, and a faster settling of withdrawal.
• Related guides: anxiety and anger, depression and low mood, stress and burnout and quitting smoking.
• Take it further: our free ebook Cutting Stress With Yoga, the 2027 masterclass on anxiety, upsets and anger, and classes in Darwin and online.

What recovery from alcohol and drugs involves

Addiction (doctors call it a substance use disorder) is when alcohol or a drug becomes hard to stop, even when it is causing harm. It can involve alcohol, prescription medicines such as opioid painkillers or sleeping tablets, cannabis, stimulants or other drugs. Recovery usually has two parts: withdrawal, the first days or weeks after stopping, when the body and mind readjust, and staying well, the longer road of building a life that does not need the substance.

It is common, and nothing to be ashamed of. In the Australian Bureau of Statistics National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing (2020 to 2022), 3.3% of Australians aged 16 to 85 had a substance use disorder in the previous 12 months: about 647,900 people. In 2022 to 2023, about 131,500 people received help from alcohol and other drug services, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Mr Iyengar saw the roots of addiction in the person’s life as well as in the substance. In a 1982 interview he named disappointment, sorrow, dissatisfaction, broken families, frustration and simple experimentation, often when young and under pressure from friends. That is why, in his view, recovery means working on the whole person: body, breath and mind.

How yoga breaks into the craving circle

Because stress, worry and low mood sit so close to cravings, several of our other guides go further on that side:

• Anxiety and anger and stress and burnout
• Depression and low mood
• Sleep and energy, for the restless nights of early recovery
• Quitting smoking, for nicotine
• Chronic pain, for people whose opioid use began with pain

“The main causes of negative stress are anger, fear, speed, greed, unhealthy ambition, and competition.”

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about addiction?

In short: fill the emptiness, keep the person active, and keep the attention in the present. What follows is known from long practice and teacher experience, and has not been tested for addiction by modern research. Not yet tested is not the same as wrong.

In 1982, Mr Iyengar was asked in an interview whether yoga helped people come off alcohol and drugs. Yoga Rahasya, the Iyengar yoga journal published quarterly from Pune by the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, reprinted his answer in 2007 as guidance for teachers. In our own words:

• Start with the person. He said a teacher should first talk with the person about what they need, in a friendly way, and plan the poses and breathing around that.
• Fill the emptiness. He described people in early recovery as often feeling empty, dull and absent. The teacher stays with them from moment to moment, so that the practice fills their attention and they learn to live in the present.
• Keep it active. He found standing poses, inversions and backbends the most useful. Quiet forward bends on their own helped less, because a heavy mood can sink further. Sometimes he had people move through standing poses and backbends briskly, to refresh the mind.
• Lift the spirits. He named backbends such as Upward Bow (Urdhva Dhanurasana) and the supported backbend Viparita Dandasana, and arm balances such as Handstand (Adho Mukha Vrksasana), as poses that bring cheerfulness, and Headstand and Shoulderstand as poses that sharpen the brain. Several of these are advanced poses, learned step by step. Be guided by your teacher.
• Change from the inside. In his experience, the poses brought changes in the body’s chemistry: the smoker begins to enjoy fresh air, and the dullness of a drug loses its pull. He said he had seen many people freed from smoking, alcohol and drugs in this way. That is his view from teaching, not a trial result.

Mr Iyengar’s approach to recovery, in outline

“The chest expansion gives a feeling of happiness and joy.”

The Kripa Foundation: Iyengar yoga inside a recovery programme

In India, the Kripa Foundation has worked for more than 40 years with people recovering from alcohol and drug use. Its founder, a Catholic priest known as Father Joe, trained with Mr Iyengar, and Iyengar yoga has long been part of Kripa’s recovery programme, alongside a 12-step approach. In August 2006 Mr Iyengar was guest of honour at Kripa’s 25th anniversary, where he guided members in their practice and spoke of health as having many layers: physical, emotional, intellectual and moral, not only the body.

The documentary Iyengar: The Man, Yoga, the Student’s Journey shows a Kripa detox group lying back over bolsters to open the chest, and one of its teachers saying that fear and anxiety pull the chest inward. “The body never tells lies,” he says. That is the teacher’s view, shown in the film, not a tested finding.

What does Dr Timothy McCall say?

In short: both sides of recovery are on his list. Dr McCall’s June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga puts “Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse” at no. 1 and “Drug Withdrawal” at no. 26.

• What his list rested on (no. 1): trials of yoga alongside methadone treatment, yoga for women going through heroin detoxification, yoga therapy in alcohol dependence, yoga for women with post-traumatic stress and alcohol or drug risk, meditation alongside medicine for relapse prevention, and a review of Transcendental Meditation.
• What his list rested on (no. 26): an Indian study of yogic exercises for withdrawal symptoms, published in the journal Yoga Mimamsa in 1992.
• His textbook: in Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care, which Dr McCall co-edited, the mental health chapter calls the addiction research promising, and asks for larger, better trials. The newer trials below have started to answer that call.

What the research shows

In nearly every study below, the yoga, breathing or mindfulness was added to usual care. Studies are listed with their main finding first. The trials tested yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga. Why that matters.

Reviews of many trials

• Seven of eight randomised trials found yoga improved anxiety, pain, craving or substance use. Walia and colleagues, 2021, Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine: a systematic review of 8 trials of hatha yoga, Sudarshan Kriya, yogic breathing and meditation, for alcohol, opioids and tobacco, mostly alongside medicine. The reviewers ask for larger trials. Read the study.
• Most studies suggest yoga reduces substance use and craving in the short term. Kuppili and colleagues, 2018, Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice: a review of 16 studies, 12 of them randomised, with 18 to 624 people each. Read the study.
• In alcohol use disorder, exercise including yoga eased anxiety, depression and stress, and yoga did better than aerobic exercise for depression. Liu and colleagues, 2025, BMJ Open: 15 randomised trials. The drop in drinking did not reach a clear result. Read the study.
• Exercise, including yoga, went with fewer drinks a day and better mood and fitness in alcohol use disorder. Li and colleagues, 2024, PLoS One: 17 randomised trials with 1,905 people. This review covered exercise in general, with yoga as one type. Read the study.

Yoga trials in withdrawal and early recovery

• Men in opioid withdrawal who added yoga to their medicine settled in a median of 5 days, against 9 days with medicine alone. Goutham and colleagues, 2026, JAMA Psychiatry: a randomised trial of 59 men on a hospital addiction ward in India. Ten 45-minute sessions over 14 days of relaxation, poses, breathing and guided relaxation. The yoga group also had better heart rate variability (a sign of a calmer nervous system), less anxiety and pain, and fell asleep about an hour sooner. Read the study.
• Women going through heroin detoxification who did six months of yoga had better mood and quality of life. Zhuang and colleagues, 2013, Nursing Research: a randomised trial of 75 women in China, compared with routine hospital care. Read the study.
• Yoga did as well as group psychotherapy alongside methadone, and both went with less drug use. Shaffer and colleagues, 1997, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine: a randomised trial of hatha yoga in methadone treatment, on Dr McCall’s list. Read the study.
• Yoga classes on site at an opioid treatment clinic eased anxiety and pain, and most people kept practising at home. Uebelacker and colleagues, 2019, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment: a pilot trial in people with chronic pain on opioid treatment. 61% of the yoga group practised at home. Read the study.
• Two one-to-one sessions with a yoga teacher helped people keep up about two and a half hours of yoga a week. Uebelacker and colleagues, 2026, Drug and Alcohol Dependence: 192 adults with chronic pain taking buprenorphine or methadone. Read the study.
• A month of breath-based yoga improved lung function in men with long-term opium dependence. Roj and colleagues, 2026, Frontiers in Psychiatry: a before-and-after study with no comparison group; estimated lung age fell by about 6.7 years. Read the study.

Opioid withdrawal: days to settle

Breathing practice

• Two weeks of a rhythmic breathing practice lowered low mood and stress hormones more than usual care, in people recovering from alcohol dependence. Vedamurthachar and colleagues, 2006, Journal of Affective Disorders: a randomised trial of 60 hospital inpatients after detox, using Sudarshan Kriya Yoga. Depression scores, cortisol and ACTH (two stress hormones) fell further in the breathing group. Read the study.

Breathing was also part of the yoga sessions in the opioid withdrawal trial above. No trial has yet tested pranayama as taught in an Iyengar class for recovery. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. In our classes, pranayama means slow, quiet breathing such as ocean breath (Ujjayi) and staircase breath (Viloma), learned gradually with a teacher, never forceful breathing with long breath-holds.

Mindfulness and meditation trials

• A year after treatment, people who had done a mindfulness relapse-prevention course had fewer days of drug use and less heavy drinking than those in a standard relapse-prevention course or usual care. Bowen and colleagues, 2014, JAMA Psychiatry: a randomised trial of 286 people who had finished initial treatment. At 6 months, both relapse-prevention courses beat usual care. Read the study.
• Nine months after a mindfulness programme, 45% of people with chronic pain who had been misusing prescribed opioids were no longer misusing them, against 24% after a support group. Garland and colleagues, 2022, JAMA Internal Medicine: a randomised trial of 250 adults. Pain, craving and distress also fell, and opioid doses came down further. Read the study.
• Across 14 randomised trials in opioid misuse, mindfulness programmes went with less craving and use, and better mood and pain-related functioning. Kedia and colleagues, 2026, Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment: a systematic review. Study quality varied. Read the study.
• Mindfulness-based relapse prevention eased withdrawal and craving symptoms and the harms of use. Grant and colleagues, 2017, Journal of Addiction Medicine: a review of 9 randomised trials with 901 people. No clear difference in relapse itself. Read the study.
• Mindfulness courses reduced craving across 17 randomised trials. Demina and colleagues, 2023, BMC Neuroscience: 1,228 people. The reviewers rate the evidence low quality because results varied widely. Read the study.
• Mindfulness had some of its most consistent support in addictive disorders, along with depression, pain and smoking. Goldberg and colleagues, 2018, Clinical Psychology Review: a review of 142 groups of patients, 12,005 people. Read the study.

To be fair to the whole record: a Cochrane review of 40 trials (Goldberg 2021) found the evidence for mindfulness in alcohol and drug use still uncertain, with a possible slight drop in days of use compared with other approaches. Read the review. That is why we rate the overall evidence Moderate, not Strong.

Prescribed opioids and pain: one mindfulness trial

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for alcohol or drug recovery. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. What we have is long experience: Mr Iyengar’s own teaching of people in recovery, and decades of Iyengar yoga inside the Kripa Foundation’s programme. Where an Iyengar trial has been run for other conditions, it has tested yoga taught by trained Iyengar teachers, and in our view as certified Iyengar teachers that is likely to show something beyond what studies of yoga in general show. Why the difference matters in the research.

How long and how often?

The trials ran from two weeks to six months. The breathing trial ran for two weeks in early recovery. The withdrawal trial gave ten sessions in two weeks. The mindfulness courses ran for eight weekly sessions, and their benefits were still showing 9 to 12 months later. The heroin detoxification trial ran yoga for six months. Pankaj, in his story, was still practising five years on.

“Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flow into you.”

Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness: how they work together

Several of the studies above tested mindfulness courses or a breathing practice, not yoga poses. That still counts for our classes. Mindfulness is steady, present attention, and yoga poses and pranayama (yogic breathing) are old routes to that same state. Mr Iyengar’s own aim with people in recovery, to keep the attention in the present from moment to moment, is the same skill the relapse-prevention courses teach. No trial separates which part does the work.

We suggest coming to both a yoga class and a pranayama class. Mr Iyengar taught that asana (poses), pranayama and meditation are not divided, and in our experience the two together do more than either alone. See every class time. We trace the history and the links in Yoga And Mindfulness: Why The Mindfulness Research Points Back To Yoga And The Breath.

“Freedom is about dropping the shackles of fear and desire.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach yoga for addiction recovery in Darwin and online. You do not need to tell anyone your story. If you would like your teacher to know you are in recovery, a quiet word before class is all it takes, and it stays between you.

• Active work first: standing poses build strength and steadiness and give a restless mind a clear job to do.
• Chest-opening poses: supported backbends over a bolster or chair lift a flat mood, in the way Mr Iyengar described.
• Close, careful teaching: our teachers watch and adjust, which keeps the attention in the present, the heart of Mr Iyengar’s approach.
• Props in every class: blankets, bolsters, belts, blocks, chairs and the wall, so every pose can be adapted to how you feel on the day.
• Breath and rest to finish: every class ends with supported rest, and our pranayama classes go further.

See the timetable and book a class. Yoga goes alongside the care and support you already have, not instead of it. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting.

A week of yoga for recovery

Read more on calm, mood and habits

• Yoga and anxiety
• Yoga for depression and low mood
• Yoga for stress and burnout
• Yoga to quit smoking
• Yoga and sleep
• How to quiet the mind
• How to quit sugar cravings, a personal story of breaking a habit

Books, for further reading: Kyczy Hawk, Yoga and the Twelve-Step Path (Central Recovery Press), which links yoga practices to each of the twelve steps; Katy Cryer, Yoga for Addiction (New Harbinger), a yoga and mindfulness workbook for people in recovery; and Sarah Bowen and colleagues, Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors (Guilford), the programme tested in the 2014 trial above. These are other authors’ approaches, not Iyengar yoga.

Take it further

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See the timetable and book.
• Masterclasses: Yoga for anxiety, upsets and anger, Sunday 18 April 2027, one of our 2027 masterclasses with Chris Lalor, where you get the twists, supported forward bends and calming breath that settle the stress response. See the 2027 masterclasses.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for addiction recovery: questions people ask

Does yoga help with addiction recovery?

The research points that way. A review of eight randomised trials found that in seven, yoga used alongside usual care improved anxiety, pain, craving or substance use (Walia 2021). Mindfulness relapse-prevention courses led to fewer days of drug use and heavy drinking up to a year later (Bowen 2014). Yoga works best as part of recovery, alongside the support people already have.

Can yoga cure addiction?

No. Recovery is built over time, and no single practice can promise it. What the research points to is less anxiety, low mood, pain and craving, an easier withdrawal, and in some trials fewer days of use. Mr Iyengar saw yoga as a way of working on the whole person, body, breath and mind, as part of recovery.

Can yoga help with cravings?

Yes, in the trials. Reviews found that yoga and mindfulness courses reduced craving (Walia 2021; Demina 2023), and mindfulness-based relapse prevention eased withdrawal and craving symptoms (Grant 2017). The skill is to notice the urge, breathe with it and let it pass, which is what steady attention in a yoga pose trains.

Does yoga help with drug withdrawal?

In a 2026 randomised trial of 59 men in opioid withdrawal, adding ten yoga sessions to their medicine helped withdrawal settle in a median of 5 days instead of 9, with less anxiety and pain and better sleep (Goutham 2026). Yoga was added to medical care, not used instead of it. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting.

Is mindfulness good for relapse prevention?

In a randomised trial of 286 people who had finished treatment, a mindfulness relapse-prevention course led to fewer days of drug use and less heavy drinking at 12 months than a standard course or usual care (Bowen 2014). A Cochrane review of 40 trials calls the overall evidence still uncertain, so we rate it honestly as Moderate.

Which yoga poses did Mr Iyengar suggest for people in recovery?

In a 1982 interview, reprinted in Yoga Rahasya in 2007, Mr Iyengar said standing poses, inversions and backbends work best, because they lift a flat, empty mood, while quiet forward bends on their own help less. He named chest-opening backbends for cheerfulness and Headstand and Shoulderstand for a sharper mind. Several are advanced poses, learned step by step. Be guided by your teacher.

Can I do yoga in early recovery?

Yes. Trials have taught yoga on hospital wards during withdrawal and at opioid treatment clinics, and the Kripa Foundation in India begins its recovery day with yoga. Start at your level, keep it active, and tell your teacher only what you want to. Yoga goes alongside your care, not instead of it.

How often should I practise yoga for recovery?

The trials used ten sessions in two weeks during withdrawal, eight weekly mindfulness sessions, and up to six months of regular yoga. Come to class two or three times a week, add a pranayama class, and keep going: the mindfulness benefits were still showing a year later.

Can I do yoga for addiction recovery in Darwin or online?

Yes. Flametree Yoga teaches Iyengar yoga in Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online, with pranayama classes for the breath and gentle and restorative classes for tired days. New students can begin with our new-student offer of 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Book a class

“It is never too late in life to practise yoga.”

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, “Hints on teaching those afflicted by addictions” (a 1982 interview) and “Kripa: compassion”, both in Yoga Rahasya, volume 14, number 2 (2007); Light on Life, The Tree of Yoga and Iyengar: His Life and Work. Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women. Pankaj’s account in the same issue of Yoga Rahasya. The documentary Iyengar: The Man, Yoga, the Student’s Journey. Timothy McCall MD, his June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga and its reference list, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), and Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care (co-edited). Australian Bureau of Statistics, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020 to 2022; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2022 to 2023. Studies as linked above, each looked up in PubMed in November 2026. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.