Many holistic practices can help you when stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, or triggered if you are struggling with addiction. One such practice is meditation to stop addiction.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a form of holistic treatment that is regularly associated with Buddhism. However, it offers many benefits regardless of any metaphysical or religious association. Meditation can take the form of sitting and relaxing, praying, reciting a phrase or word repeatedly, or being mindful of your thoughts. But does meditation help with addiction?
Does Meditation Help With Addiction?
How does meditation help with addiction?
With things like mindfulness meditation, you allow yourself to turn your attention inward and notice the thoughts you are having. Some people are afraid to try meditation initially because they don’t like the idea of being alone with their thoughts for any length of time. When we settle into the mind, we become acutely aware of everything happening within our minds. For some people, especially those struggling with mental health disorders or undiagnosed trauma, this moment of uninterrupted focus and reflection can reveal uncomfortable things.
However, that is why mindfulness meditation has another facet to it beyond simply sitting with your thoughts: noticing.
It might seem silly to talk about how drug addiction meditation is there to help you notice your thoughts. However, noticing your thoughts means acknowledging them without judgment, whether they are good or bad. This is much more difficult at first than it seems. With things like meditation to stop an addiction, you might clear your mind and recognize what thoughts you are having throughout a sitting meditation session.
It might not seem like much, but adding that phrase before the thoughts can place emotional distance between yourself and the power those thoughts have over your behavior. By placing distance between yourself and your trauma, memories, and harmful thoughts, you allow yourself more mental space to recover from your addiction and acknowledge those thoughts and feelings without giving them the power to cripple your day.
Marina Habor Recovery is a Bay Area rehab center that offers inpatient treatment and detox in Northern California.
How Can Meditation Be Used in Recovery?
How does meditation help with addiction and recovery? Meditation can be used individually or as a group. No matter how you practice, meditation helps with addiction. Even something as little as a few minutes each day of calming your mind and better understanding the blueprint you are working with can give you insight into what steps you need to take to progress in your recovery.
Meditation can be used in recovery as a tool for centering, returning to things like your breathing when things get stressful. Guided meditations that help you focus on your breathing or teach you to associate affirmations with each inhale and exhale serve as wonderful techniques to manage stress, anxiety, and emotional triggers.
In guided meditation, you might be taught to pick an affirmation for that day, the first thing that pops into your mind. On Monday, that affirmation, in the present tense, might be “I am strong,” and on Wednesday, that affirmation might be “I am loved,” but by Friday, that affirmation might be a little harder to reach, and it might be “I am consistent.”
Whatever the affirmation is, whatever comes to you that day, you can take a few minutes when something triggers you and focus actively on breathing in and out, thinking of your affirmation each time you inhale and exhale. This will slow down your breathing because you have to inhale long enough to think “I am strong” and exhale long enough to think “I am strong.”
But by the end of just a few minutes, you will have slowed your breathing and changed it from the clavicular breathing, where you take short, rapid breaths from the top of your chest to deeper breathing from your core, your abdomen. This action reduces your stress hormones, regulates your heart rate, and helps you remain calm.
How to Find Holistic Treatment and Meditation Therapy in San Francisco
We specialize in holistic treatment and meditation therapy in San Franciso at our facility. We actively believe in fighting addiction by treating the mind and the body at the same time. If you don’t learn things like coping mechanisms, then any type of physical recovery or detox won’t help you long term when things get tough, or you get triggered. That is why we specialize in offering a wide range of holistic therapies, including drug addiction meditation.
Let Marina Harbor help you find a meditation class that works for your recovery today. Contact us today to learn how Marina Harbor can help you with San Francisco addiction treatment.
