MBR Mindfulness Based Recovery
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BLISS WITHOUT SUBSTANCES
Reclaim Your Natural High
Bliss is built in. You don't need to be altered to feel alive.
This workshop explores how to access natural states of joy, euphoria, and presence through breathwork, movement, sound, cold immersion, and energy work. That connection you were seeking through substances? It lives in your body, your breath, and safe spaces with others.
Core message: This isn't about restriction. It's about remembering. That joy lives in your body. That awe lives in your breath. That connection isn't found at the bottom of a bottle - it's found in safe space, shared rhythms, and coming home to yourself.
Redefining "Getting High"
What Were You Really Seeking?
When people use substances, they're often seeking:
  • Euphoria - feeling good in their body
  • Connection - dropping walls and feeling close to others
  • Presence - getting out of their head and into the moment
  • Transcendence - touching something beyond ordinary consciousness
  • Relief - escape from pain, stress, or numbness
  • Aliveness - feeling something, anything
Here's the truth: Your body knows how to create all of these states naturally.
The Natural High
Your body produces its own pharmacy:
  • Dopamine - pleasure and motivation
  • Endorphins - natural pain relief and euphoria
  • Serotonin - mood regulation and wellbeing
  • Oxytocin - connection and bonding
  • Endocannabinoids - your body's natural cannabis
  • DMT - your brain's natural psychedelic
You don't need external substances to access these. You need practices that activate them.
Pathways to Natural Bliss
Breathwork
What it does:
  • Activates altered states of consciousness
  • Releases stored trauma and emotion
  • Floods your system with oxygen and energy
  • Creates euphoria through CO2 reduction
  • Accesses non-ordinary states (similar to psychedelics)
Types:
  • Transformational breathwork (circular breathing)
  • 9D breathwork (multi-dimensional experience)
  • Wim Hof method (energizing, immune-boosting)
  • Box breathing (calming, centering)
The experience: Many people report feeling "high" from breathwork - tingling, emotional release, visual experiences, profound insights, and deep bliss.
Ecstatic Dance & Movement
What it does:
  • Releases endorphins and dopamine
  • Gets you out of your head and into your body
  • Creates flow states
  • Builds connection through shared movement
  • Allows emotional expression without words
The practice:
  • Freeform movement to music
  • No talking, no alcohol, just pure movement
  • Dance like nobody's watching (because they're not - everyone's in their own experience)
  • Let your body move however it wants
The experience: Pure joy, aliveness, freedom, and often cathartic emotional release.
Sound Baths & Vibrational Healing
What it does:
  • Entrains your brainwaves to alpha/theta states
  • Creates deep relaxation and altered consciousness
  • Releases stuck energy and emotion
  • Produces feelings of expansion and bliss
The practice:
  • Lie down and receive sound from crystal bowls, gongs, chimes
  • Let the vibrations wash over and through you
  • Surrender to the experience
The experience: Many people describe it as feeling "high" - floating sensations, visual experiences, profound peace, and sometimes emotional release.
Cold Immersion (Polar Plunges)
What it does:
  • Floods your system with endorphins and adrenaline
  • Creates immediate presence (you can't think about anything else)
  • Builds distress tolerance and mental resilience
  • Produces euphoria and clarity afterward
  • Trains your nervous system
The practice:
  • Breathwork preparation
  • Guided immersion in cold water
  • Focus and breath through discomfort
  • Integration and sharing afterward
The experience: Intense aliveness during, followed by natural euphoria, mental clarity, and a sense of accomplishment. Many describe the "post-plunge high."
Flow Arts & Creative Expression
What it does:
  • Creates flow states (complete absorption)
  • Produces dopamine and endorphins
  • Builds mastery and confidence
  • Offers meditative focus
Examples:
  • Poi, hula hooping, juggling, staff spinning
  • Painting, drawing, sculpting
  • Music, singing, drumming
  • Writing, poetry, journaling
  • Woodworking, crafting, building
The experience: Time disappears. You're completely present. Thoughts quiet. Pure engagement.
Exercise & Physical Challenge
What it does:
  • Releases endorphins ("runner's high")
  • Creates sense of accomplishment
  • Builds confidence and self-efficacy
  • Produces natural euphoria
Examples:
  • Running, hiking, biking
  • Yoga, martial arts, rock climbing
  • Weightlifting, CrossFit, sports
  • Any movement that challenges you
The experience: Physical exhaustion followed by natural high, mental clarity, and satisfaction.
Meditation & Mindfulness
What it does:
  • Accesses altered states of consciousness
  • Creates deep peace and presence
  • Produces feelings of connection and oneness
  • Releases natural opioids (endorphins)
The practice:
  • Sitting meditation
  • Walking meditation
  • Body scan
  • Visualization practices
The experience: Deep calm, expanded awareness, sometimes profound insights or mystical experiences.
Community & Connection
What it does:
  • Releases oxytocin (bonding hormone)
  • Creates sense of belonging
  • Provides support and mirroring
  • Builds authentic relationships
The practice:
  • Recovery meetings and circles
  • Authentic sharing in groups
  • Conscious contact and presence with others
  • Eye gazing, partner breathwork, group ritual
The experience: Warmth, safety, being seen and held, deep connection.
Building Your Bliss Practice
Experimentation Phase
Try everything:
  • Commit to trying at least 3-5 different practices
  • Give each one multiple attempts (first time isn't always representative)
  • Notice what lights you up
  • Pay attention to what your body craves
Integration Phase
Build your regular practice:
  • Choose 2-3 modalities that resonate most
  • Schedule them into your week
  • Make them non-negotiable
  • Track how you feel before and after
Expansion Phase
Go deeper:
  • Join communities around your practices (dance tribes, breathwork circles, etc.)
  • Take classes or workshops
  • Invest in equipment or training
  • Share your practice with others
Reflection Exercise
What Calls to You?
Circle the practices that spark curiosity or excitement:
  • Breathwork
  • Ecstatic dance
  • Sound baths
  • Cold immersion
  • Flow arts
  • Exercise/movement
  • Meditation
  • Creative expression
  • Community circles
  • Other: ______________
Your Bliss Plan
This week, I commit to trying:
What I'm hoping to feel or experience:
Barriers that might come up:
How I'll work with those barriers:
Reflection Questions
What was I really seeking when I used substances?
Which natural practices might meet that same need?
What would it feel like to access bliss without external substances?
Am I willing to believe that joy lives in my body?
Remember
You don't have to be altered to feel alive.
The bliss you were chasing through substances was always inside you. Breathwork, movement, sound, cold, creativity, connection - these are the keys that unlock your body's natural pharmacy.
This isn't about restriction. It's about reclamation. Taking back your birthright to feel good, to feel connected, to feel alive - on your own terms, in your own body, without needing anything external.
Closing
Place your hand on your heart. Take three deep breaths.
Acknowledge:
  • "Bliss is built in"
  • "My body knows how to feel good naturally"
  • "I don't need to be altered to feel alive"
  • "Joy lives in my breath, my movement, my presence"
  • "I am reclaiming my natural high"
Now go try something. Dance. Breathe. Plunge. Create. Move. Connect.
Your body is waiting to show you what it can do.