Mindfulness is a state of mental awareness traditionally used in meditation. It has recently been used as an effective therapy for drug addiction and recovery. If you are looking for drug rehab in Austin, you can consider mindfulness to help you focus on the present and be aware of your surroundings during addiction treatment.
How to Incorporate Mindfulness in Recovery?
You can start practicing mindfulness irrespective of where you are in your recovery journey. You don’t have to be an expert to benefit from it. There are many ways to practice mindfulness like:
Be Present in the Situation
Mindfulness helps you bring awareness to the present moment. Practicing mindfulness will help you focus on your present and prevent your mind from wandering toward your addictive thoughts.
Practice Conscious Breathing
You cannot always control what happens in your life. However, you can always control your breathing. Practicing conscious breathing can prevent you from getting upset over situations out of your control. You can practice conscious breathing by taking breathing breaks during the day.
Make Your Thoughts Background Noise
Harmful thoughts can sabotage your recovery. Mindfulness can teach you to acknowledge your thoughts without reacting to them or judging them. As a result, you will learn to handle negative self-talk, harmful ideas, and false assumptions that could lead to physical and emotional relapse.
Don’t Expect Perfection
When recovering from addiction, you could be scared of making wrong choices. But, there is no right or wrong way of practicing mindfulness. You just need to find an exercise you like and practice it consistently. Similarly, finding coping skills you like and sticking to them can help you stay on track with your recovery journey.
How Does Mindfulness Help with Addiction Treatment?
Mindfulness helps you control the impulsiveness that is associated with addiction. When you are struggling with addiction, you tend to consume alcohol or drugs without realizing how much you have used or how it affects you. Mindfulness can help you control these wandering thoughts and live in the moment. Below are different ways in which mindfulness can help with addiction treatment:
Mindfulness Can Help Reduce Avoidance
Most people use alcohol and drugs to deal with or avoid painful emotions, social anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or physical pain. While they may seem harmless initially, these behaviors can quickly become an addiction. Mindfulness teaches you to embrace the present. As a result, it can help you learn to accept your uncomfortable circumstances and experiences without escaping them. By accepting your current situation, you learn that these unpleasant feelings and experiences are only temporary and can be handled without alcohol or drugs.
It can Help You Find Peace of Mind
When you struggle with addiction and substance abuse, you struggle with psychological suffering that negatively impacts your inner peace. In such situations, you further turn to alcohol and drugs instead of finding organic ways of relieving your suffering, making the entire situation a vicious cycle. Mindfulness helps calm such feelings by teaching you to find internal peace. Mindful walking, body scans, outdoor exercise, mindful breathing, and yoga can help improve your inner peace.
It can Help Increase Your Emotional Intelligence.
Drug addiction leads to poor emotional regulation. In addition, addictive substances make you react irrationally. As a result, you may feel angry and irritable in one moment, sad in another, and paranoid in the next. Mindfulness can help you better understand and manage your emotions without getting too attached to them.
It Can Help You Relax
You must learn to relax for long-term sobriety. Stress can make you susceptible to cravings, leading to relapse. Mindfulness can help you relax intentionally. It encourages you to slow down and sit peacefully. Relaxing, even for a moment, can make you aware of any tensions you feel. It also helps you slow down and prevent you from acting compulsively and impulsively.
It Can Help You Respond Intentionally
Addictive substances reduce optimal functioning in parts of the brain that control higher reasoning. Mindfulness teaches you to experience life without any judgments. As a result, you will feel less threatened by your thoughts, circumstances, situations, and feelings. Practicing mindfulness regularly can also help you control the “flight or fight” response. You can then ignore or control negative feelings and thoughts that could potentially lead to relapse.
Choosing to heal from addiction is the first step toward a sober life. However, this decision is not an easy one. You will need as much support from your family and friends as possible. In addition, you will also need professional help in the form of therapies, treatments, and mindfulness techniques to heal from addiction and lead a sober life. The Last Resort Recovery Center offers personalized addiction recovery treatment for adult males. They offer residential and intensive outpatient programs to help you recover from substance abuse and addiction.
