Tips for Staying Sober: Meditation
Legacy Healing Center Blog
Meditation in recovery can reduce stress, increase self-acceptance and help the healing process.
At Legacy Healing Center, our focus is healing from the inside out. As a part of our holistic treatment programs, one tool we teach our patients is meditation: it’s a powerful recovery tool with many benefits. Meditation is a mind and body practice that can enhance the benefits of the other therapies we utilize.
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Incorporating meditation in one’s recovery can help heal the mind and body, prevent relapse, and stay focused and on track in early sobriety and beyond. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of meditation in addiction recovery.
What is Meditation
Meditation is an exercise that centers on the mind-body connection. The ultimate goal of practicing meditation is to cultivate relaxation and serenity.
Everyone’s meditation practice is different, and everyone can not only practice meditation, but benefit from it. There are a few common components of practicing meditation:
- Find a quiet place, free of distractions
- Sit or lie down in a comfortable position
- Focus on one thing (typically its breathing)
- Keep an open mind
Beginners to meditation can start by practicing for just a few minutes and build up over time to achieve longer meditation sessions.
Meditation promotes mindfulness, or awareness of the present: thoughts entering the mind, how the body is feeling, and what is happening in your surrounding environment. Accepting everything you feel in the present moment, letting them pass without judgement and clearing the mind is what meditating is in its basic form.
Why Meditation Works
Meditation can help individuals heal from the inside out. It can also be a powerful tool to safeguard their sobriety. Here are four ways to show you how and why meditation for recovery works.
1. Enhances Awareness of Spirituality
Meditation for recovery can lend individuals the time to connect with themselves and their higher power. For those trying to decide what or who their higher power is, meditation can allow them time and space to explore what their higher power means to them. Meditation breaks down the walls of your mind, allowing you to let go of the things that are holding you back.
Learning to meditate is not easy, especially training yourself to sit still and allowing your mind to be at rest. Through practice, meditation can be mastered and offers you strength in your recovery. Later we will touch on meditation steps and tips.
2. Meditation Helps with Self- Acceptance
Meditation allows you time to address negative emotions while practicing self- acceptance. This can be done by teaching yourself to practice compassion and forgiveness not only towards others but toward yourself. Learning to meditate for recovery gives your mind and your body the chance to connect. It can give you better insight to your strengths and weaknesses.
3. Burnout Prevention
Meditation reminds you to slow down, to not take on too much and to focus on the present. The first weeks and months after addiction treatment can be difficult and although rebuilding your life will happen, it won’t happen overnight. When individuals try to take too much on after treatment, they can relapse. Slowing things down and taking time to meditate can let you feel satisfied with who you are and where you are in life in this moment and remind you to take one day at a time.
4. Stress Reduction
While meditation cannot completely eliminate stress, it can help you manage it. Stress is one of the main triggers for relapse, which is why it is extremely important to understand what causes stress in your life and what you can to do respond to it. Meditation allows your brain to rest and release neurotransmitters that regulate mood and release tension. Meditation helps you feel good in the moment and can also help train your brain to better deal with stress in the future.
If you are unsure of where or how to begin meditation you can try the following things:
- Start out small, by sitting down for 5-10 minutes alone, allowing yourself to be with your thoughts. As you get comfortable you can work your time up.
- Find the right time by deciding which part of the day you would like to hold your meditation session; morning, afternoon or evening.
- Try out different types of meditation. This can mean listening to a guided meditation, following a set of movements, or even sound healing.
Meditation can be a part of your daily routine; it can help you be in the present, accept yourself and the blessings in each day. More importantly, for those in recovery, in can help you stay focused and on track in your sobriety.
If you or a loved one is in recovery, or needs help call Legacy Healing Center today 888-534-2295 and speak to someone who can help.