If you or someone you love is struggling with recovery, it might be time to consider guided meditation for addiction recovery as a holistic treatment.
Contact Casa Serena’s premier women’s drug and alcohol rehab in Santa Barbara.
What is Meditation?
Meditation comes in many forms. It can also be beneficial for just about every circumstance. Meditation and addiction recovery have proven effective at helping teach gratitude, keep individuals grounded in the present moment, and cultivate openness and tenderness toward the self.
Meditation is any practice where you relax, stay mindful of your thoughts, recite a word or phrase regularly, or even pray.
What Are the Benefits of Meditation?
Meditation for addiction recovery or any other practice brings with it a world of benefits.
Impulse Control
Meditation for addiction recovery can teach impulse control. This impulse control is an essential component in reducing the risk of relapse. When you learn to set your daily intentions, focus on the present, and meditate when things get stressful, you can bring your attention back to how you are feeling, how you are breathing, or how you are thinking in the middle of an extreme craving or right after facing a trigger. You do this instead of turning to drugs and alcohol again.
Focus on the Present
Guided meditation for addiction recovery can help you focus on the present. One of the most important skills you can acquire through meditation and recovery is being able to bring yourself back to the present.
Too often, we get caught up in worrying about the future, like whether or not we will make it through the day, find a new job after graduating rehab, or be able to stay sober next week. If we aren’t focused on the future, we’re stuck in the past, like reflecting on how we disappointed our family because we went and used instead of going to a family reunion or how we lost our job because of substance abuse.
Meditation helps you focus on the present instead of letting past grievances or future concerns get in the way of living in the moment.
Distance from Emotions
Meditation and addiction recovery can place a distance between thoughts and feelings. For example, suppose you feel overwhelmed because of workplace stress and you desperately want to turn to drugs or alcohol. In that case, meditation can help you pause, take a deep breath, and acknowledge that you are having the thought that you are overwhelmed and want to turn to drugs and alcohol.
Being able to say something or think something to the effect of “I notice I’m having the thought _______” helps place distance between that thought and your perceptions and actions. Without that space, your thoughts change to “I am overwhelmed” or “I am craving.” With that space, you are not defined by those thoughts; therefore, the thoughts don’t control you and your subsequent actions.
What is the Relationship Between Meditation and Addiction Recovery?
Studies have found that meditation and recovery go hand-in-hand. Meditation and addiction recovery can help prevent future relapse. How? Meditation offers an opportunity to set rituals or routines. Meditation can look different for everyone. Most people commonly participate in guided meditation.
Guided
Guided meditation is an opportunity for you to relax sitting down, lying down, or in a dignified but comfortable posture of your choosing while someone else guides you through the practice of staying mindful, focusing on your breathing, maybe a sound or music in the background.
Eating
Eating meditation is one popular form of meditation where you purposefully consume while paying attention to all aspects of the experience ranging from the smell of the food, the taste of the food in different parts of your mouth, the feel of the food as it transitions from your fingertips or your fork past your lips and into your mouth.
Eating meditation can help you stay relaxed and mindful of the things you put in your body and how those things make you feel. This type of intentional meditation can serve you well during your recovery.
Walking
Some people prefer walking meditation. Not everyone can sit still, with their eyes closed, in perfect peace and harmony with the world. Some people need to move. In fact, this was the central idea behind the practice of Tai Chi: a form of moving meditation.
Walking meditation is a very simple practice where you can set the goal of meditating intentionally every day and setting the ritual of walking around wherever you happen to be. During that time, you focus on the slow, steady pace of your footfalls, the impact and feel of the ground under your feet, the sounds around you, or the temperature outside, even something as subtle as the feel of your clothing against your skin.
Casa Serena Offers Holistic and Meditation Therapy in Santa Barbara
At Casa Serena, we specialize in holistic treatment and meditation. Our women-only rehab center places you against the serene backdrop of Santa Barbara, where you can simultaneously focus on healing the mind and body.
As part of our wellness and health program, we integrate a handful of holistic practices to help you stay centered, turn your attention inward during the recovery, and maintain a purposeful life. While you might participate in restorative yoga, nutrition and body image classes, and gardening, you can also find time for gratitude and setting a daily intention with our meditation classes. Casa Serena is a dual diagnosis treatment for women that offers lifetime aftercare. Learn more about how we can help you today.