We’re talking to our kids or watching TV or sitting in a meeting, but our mind’s a million miles away. Usually, we’re feeling stressed about something that happened in the past or feeling anxiety about what might happen in the future. Or we’re distracted by our phones, our attention splintered by the relentless urge to type, tap or swipe. Introduced by the Buddha as a path to spiritual enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago, mindfulness is the art of being present in your own life.

• Meditation takes practice, but it’s free and accessible to anyone who tries it.
• Meditation also can reduce withdrawal symptoms, including withdrawal-related depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
• For people who struggle to make other forms of meditation work for them, incorporating water into their practice may be the answer.
• For this exercise, simply repeat this phrase in your mind during your interactions with others, and remind yourself that everyone has hopes and fears, dreams and sorrows “just like me.”

Below are some simple meditation exercises for addiction recovery that you or a loved one can try at home. Keep a meditation journal to track your progress and reflect on your experiences. Note any insights, challenges, or changes in your thoughts and emotions. Tracking your meditation journey can provide motivation, help identify patterns, and celebrate milestones in your recovery. Integrating meditation with therapy can enhance the recovery process. As you place your attention here, you may notice the mind begin to wander.

Don’t Start with a Specific End-Goal in Mind

The mantra is the word or phrase you silently repeat as you breathe during meditation. The mantra helps keep your head clear by anchoring your thoughts. Your mantra can be simple like ‘In, out’ or the classic ‘ohm.’ It doesn’t matter what your mantra is but meditation for addiction keep it simple – you’ll repeating it internally hundreds of times. When you first become sober your brain feels like it’s on overdrive. You’re suddenly strikingly aware of the world around you and the responsibilities that come with being a better person.

Yoga poses can also help you deal with stress, and bring a sense of balance into your daily life. The word “Yoga” means to unite, and can strengthen the connection between your mind, body, and spirit. As covered above, this unity is often disconnected when individuals first enter recovery because addiction tends to numb thoughts, feelings, and mind-body awareness.

How meditation helped me rewire my brain after 15 years of addiction

By using mindfulness to focus on the positive emotions and the sense of meaningfulness that emerge from spending time with his grandchildren, this individual may feel more satisfied and contented than he ever did when using substances. Consistent with the reward restructuring hypothesis, by practicing mindful savoring over time, the experience of natural reward may outweigh the drive to use drugs to obtain a sense of well-being – fortifying the individual against relapse. MBIs might also reduce addictive behavior by strengthening facets of dispositional/trait mindfulness. Similarly, in a large cluster RCT of MORE versus CBT or TAU, increases in dispositional mindfulness significantly mediated the effect of MORE on reducing craving following treatment [40]. Finally, MORE significantly increased the mindfulness facet of nonreactivity which, in turn, predicted decreases in prescription opioid misuse [41]. Addiction recovery is one of the intersections of physical and mental health where meditation has been shown to have a huge impact.

Healing relationships is key to addiction recovery Without relationship, there is no practice, there is no recovery. Download Mesmerize and follow the lead of a professional meditation guide to help you drum up specific mental imagery, walk you through breathing, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ and share inspirational stories designed to help you beat your addiction. If you’re intimidated by practicing meditation, then sharing the experience with others and having the expertise of a teacher to guide you can be far more effective than trying it alone.

Does meditation work for addiction?

This increased awareness can help you recognize the triggers that contribute to your addictive behaviors, and can also help you develop healthier coping mechanisms. Coming full circle, MBIs are some of the newest additions to the armamentarium of addictions treatment. It is perhaps no coincidence that the rise of MBIs has been co-incident with advances in the neuroscience of substance use disorders.

Each week, participants are guided by a trained clinician in various mindfulness practices, including mindful breathing and body scan meditations. These in-session mindfulness practices are debriefed during a subsequent group process, after which new psychoeducational material is typically presented. Sessions often involve experiential exercises to reinforce the mindfulness principles that had been introduced didactically.

Advances in biobehavioral science occurring over the past several decades have made significant headway in elucidating mechanisms that undergird addictive behavior. This large body of research suggests that addiction is best regarded as a cycle of compulsive substance use subserved by dysregulation in neural circuitry governing motivation and hedonic experience, habit behavior, and executive function [1]. In that regard, the mainstays of behavioral addictions treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing, were developed decades ago and prior to the current understanding of addiction as informed by neuroscience. Yet, to the extent that behavioral therapies target dysregulated neurocognitive processes underlying addiction, they may hold promise as effective treatments for persons suffering from addictive disorders. Remember that meditation is not a substitute for comprehensive addiction treatment, but it can be a valuable complement to a holistic recovery plan. For individuals seeking to incorporate meditation into their recovery process, it’s advisable to work with professionals experienced in both meditation practices and addiction recovery to tailor the approach to individual needs and circumstances.

• MBIs might also reduce addictive behavior by strengthening facets of dispositional/trait mindfulness.
• The Buddhist Recovery Network aims to promote Buddhist meditation methods for addiction recovery and encourage further research.