Mindfulness in Recovery

Alcoholics Anonymous’s Step Ten is “Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it”. This step is intended to prevent the recovering alcoholic from drifting back into the alcoholic mindset and old behaviors that lead to drinking — it’s also for those in long term recovery to continue to grow. Another word for this practice of self reflection is mindfulness. Mindfulness is used in meditation, and, understandably, AA’s 11th step has to do with meditation. Psychology, as well as AA, has recognized the healing power of taking a “time out” and experiencing the present moment with full awareness.

In addiction recovery, those who practice mindfulness have a better chance of establishing long term recovery and personal growth. In day to day life there are so many distractions, so many demands on us to do this and do that, so many technological toys to keep us zoned out and dumbed down, it’s very difficult for most people to take time out and think deeply about what’s going on in the present. But most recovery actions that are difficult to perform are also rewarding. The challenge of getting to know our own minds pays off as we are better able to understand ourselves, our thoughts, our emotions, and to do those things that lead to human flourishing.

Anxiety can either lead us to do destructive things, or we can listen to the tension, understand it and discover something new about ourselves. Depression can push us into isolation and a lonely, negative place, or it can instruct us on what we need in order to move beyond the depression. Often, if we share our thoughts and feelings with friends or counselors or family members, we hear ourselves talk about what we’ve discovered about internally and it makes even more real.

Mindfulness in recovery helps the person adjust to a new way of life and a new way of thinking — recovery becomes deep and personal — recovery becomes real.