It's difficult to do yoga on a cafeteria floor, especially when you are distracted by people dropping quarters into a nearby vending machine. Especially when you are fighting for your life.

But stretching and breathing deeply are essential features in the rehabilitation program at the Santa Fe Recovery Center. That's why a new stand-alone space for exercise and meditation is under construction at the drug and alcohol treatment center off Airport Road.

It's also exciting for facility director Dr. Yolanda Briscoe that construction on the addition is happening at the hands of 16- to 22-year-olds who are part of the YouthWorks program. Work on the 700-square-foot building should be done next month, said construction crew foreman Francis Gingras.

The Santa Fe Recovery Center has been in operation since 2005, when it took over the building formerly used by the Recovery of Alcoholics Program. Although the program began with residential treatment for 23 people at a time, it has expanded to include outpatient treatment program facilities in Santa Fe and Española.

In addition to psychiatric treatment and life-skills counseling, the recovery center uses a holistic approach, Briscoe said.

"It's more than just the addiction that needs to be treated, it's the body, proper nutrition, healthy food and exercise, and the spiritual component," she said.

Right now, the facility's exercise equipment is kept on a porch where it gets weather-beaten and exposed to blowing dirt. Yoga, meditation and acupuncture is offered where they can squeeze it in, including the facility cafeteria.

Even though it was a challenge to concentrate sometimes, yoga was a good fit for Otis, a Native American from Santo Domingo Pueblo who said he didn't want his last name published.

Otis completed the inpatient program about two years ago at the center and has recently been hired as a medical technician there.

"I thought yoga was fruity. I wasn't really into it," he said about when he first heard about the physical part of the program, "I just thought it would give it a try ... I underestimated it. That yoga stuff is the bomb. I was able to breathe easier and I was a lot more flexible."

Otis, who turned 40 on Sunday, said he also felt like practicing yoga helped him calm down. "It was just taking time to exhale," he said. "The little stuff."

Future clients will benefit from having a quiet, separate space for yoga and exercise, he said. One bonus will be that no one will come into the room to use vending machines during the practice.

YouthWorks foreman Gingras said his crew, paid for through a Youthbuild grant, will also work on affordable housing projects. Helping to build community assets at the recovery center and elsewhere is good for the youth, he said.

"It's not just building houses," he said. "It's mentoring the kids. It's teaching them how to be on time, and developing good construction skills ... A lot of these guys are a perfect candidate for what is happening inside [the recovery center]. They are at-risk youth. They are struggling with their own issues. They are trying not to drink and drive, trying not to use drugs or trying to not be involved with gangs."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.