It’s important that those in recovery are able to experience a state of peacefulness and power against addiction triggers. Meditation therapy for addiction is used to teach clients the skills they need to achieve this new pattern for thinking and living.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation involves moving beyond focusing on a number of things at once and instead teaches you to focus on becoming mindful of what is happening only in the present moment. This is not as easy as it sounds, since distracting thoughts from the past can interrupt efforts to focus only on what is happening right now. Thoughts about what is next on the agenda for the day, worries or anxieties about future events that may or may not come to pass can also cross our minds when we attempt to stay grounded in the present.
Even random thoughts, like song lyrics, can intrude when someone is trying to learn how to meditate. This is all normal and part of the learning process. With time and practice, they will become easier to manage.
When thoughts do “butt in” to a meditation session, they are to be welcomed without judgment and sent on their way. The same strategy is to be used with memories from the past or thoughts about what needs to be done later in the day or rumination about future events.
Meditation And Dealing With Addiction Triggers
When a client in recovery is learning how to deal with addiction triggers, they lean that mindfulness meditation can be used as a technique to ground them in the moment. It means that they learn to observe the events going on around them, which include their feelings and urges to use drugs or alcohol, as though they are passive observers. This ability to step back slightly from the event itself gives a person the patience and perspective to ride it out while remaining calm.
Beginners may find it helpful to look at triggering moments and try to examine them as though they were a scientist trying to study them in detail. This outlook also takes a person out of the realm of merely experiencing the feelings to that of observing and describing them.
By practicing meditation, those in recovery can learn to process their cravings and triggers then let them go peacefully. Meditation also brings about a sense of peace and calm to battle stress – which is a main factor in relapse.
Holistic Addiction Treatment
At The Dunes East Hampton, our holistic rehabilitation center uses meditation as one of a number of holistic treatment resources available to help our clients reclaim their lives and move into long-term recovery.
Call us now to start your healing and recovery in a safe, serene and comfortable setting.
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