Addiction Recovery and Meditation

Most people wouldn’t automatically associate addiction recovery and meditation, but meditation can play an important role in recovery. Some will reject meditation as foo-foo type stuff, or something that seems weird to them like sitting with crossed legs chanting ommmm, ommmm, ommmm, but meditation is more than that. Originally, meditation meant deep, serious thought. Who can deny that addiction recovery doesn’t require deep, serious thought?

There are many definitions of meditation and many techniques. Two popular type of meditation are concentration and mindfulness. Below is a definition of concentration meditation from Gaiam:

Concentration meditation involves focusing on a single point. This could entail following the breath, repeating a single word or mantra, staring at a candle flame, listening to a repetitive gong, or counting beads on a mala. Since focusing the mind is challenging, a beginner might meditate for only a few minutes and then work up to longer durations.

In this form of meditation, you simply refocus your awareness on the chosen object of attention each time you notice your mind wandering. Rather than pursuing random thoughts, you simply let them go. Through this process, your ability to concentrate improves.

Here is a definition of mindfulness meditation from the same site:

Mindfulness meditation encourages the practitioner to observe wandering thoughts as they drift through the mind. The intention is not to get involved with the thoughts or to judge them, but simply to be aware of each mental note as it arises.

Through mindfulness meditation, you can see how your thoughts and feelings tend to move in particular patterns. Over time, you can become more aware of the human tendency to quickly judge an experience as good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. With practice, an inner balance develops.

In some schools of meditation, students practice a combination of concentration and mindfulness. Many disciplines call for stillness — to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the teacher.

Both are useful. It’s hard to concentrate with so much going on in our daily lives. Most people let their minds run wild from one thing to another, often producing anxiety and depression if the thoughts and feeling become overbearing – nowadays there’s plenty to distract us and overwhelm. Learning to guide thoughts and feelings, and maybe respect their impact, is helpful to living a good, centered life, and it’s certainly very important to addiction recovery. Meditation doesn’t need to be elaborate and filled with strict techniques. It’s probably best to start out slow and simple and build from there. A person has to find their own style that works for them, but there are people who can help you get started. Just Google “meditation” and you’ll find lots of information.

At NewDay we incorporate addiction recovery and meditation in our treatment program and recommend that people follow through with meditation after leaving. Meditation is like working out, once you get into the routine, it’s something you won’t want to miss.