What Is Meditation?

Meditation is the intentional practice of focusing one’s attention to calm the mind and improve overall well-being.

Different types of meditation are beneficial to those in addiction recovery. Depending on the type you choose, you may practice meditation to help you relieve stress, counter cravings and triggers, or enhance your ability to remain present without ruminating on the past or worrying about the future.

The Benefits Of Meditation Therapy For Addiction Recovery

Many scientifically proven benefits of meditation may be helpful to persons in recovery. These benefits include:

  • Decreased anxiety
  • Improved ability to handle stress
  • Decreased drug cravings and enhanced ability to cope with cravings
  • Enhanced pain tolerance/reduced intensity
  • Reduced symptoms of depression
  • Improved quality of sleep
  • Decreased symptoms of PTSD
  • Improved ability to think, focus, and problem-solve
  • Enhanced emotional regulation
  • Improved self-control
  • Reduced impulsivity
  • Enhanced mood

Other benefits of meditation therapy include altering brainwaves, which contribute to improved psychological function and reduced cortisol, the body’s stress hormone.

Mindfulness practice can enhance the performance of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that regulates planning and thinking. Meditation also impacts the amygdala, which reduces fear and increases the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, governing motivation and motor control. These positive brain changes lead many people to try meditation for substance abuse recovery.

How Meditation Therapy Can Help With Addiction

Meditation is a powerful yet simple technique with many health benefits, including reduced stress and anxiety. Due to the impactful effects, many people are turning to meditation for addiction recovery support.

Research has shown that substance use disorders are driven by dysregulation of areas of the brain associated with reward and executive functioning, your ability to set and carry out goals. Meditation can help strengthen your neural pathways, which are the connections between different parts of your brain. This can help you better manage stress and reduce the risk of relapse when in recovery for addiction.

Improvements in emotional regulation from mindfulness meditation have been demonstrated through personal reports, physiology, and neuroimaging methods (looking at images of physical changes in your brain). In cases of withdrawal-related symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, or depression, meditation can help ground you in the present moment, calm your nervous system, boost your mood, and improve your ability to sleep and manage pain.

Can Meditation Therapy Help You Beat Addiction?

Meditation provides benefits that may help aid in your addiction recovery. However, it is most beneficial as a complementary treatment along with other forms of addiction treatment, such as individual counseling, group therapy, and family therapy.

Many of these therapies actually include mindfulness (a form of meditation) as part of their therapy process or treatment plan. For example, ​​meditation can aid in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) by reinforcing the focus on one’s behavior.

Meditation can also help to teach individuals to accept reality, manage stress, regulate emotions, and release feelings of guilt or shame associated with past drug use.

Incorporating Meditation Into Recovery

There are many ways you can incorporate meditation into your recovery.

  • You can participate in addiction therapies that integrate mindfulness into the therapy process.
  • You can commit to a daily meditation practice. This may be a practice that you do on your own or with the support of a meditation teacher or group.
  • Consider attending yoga classes where you can practice meditation while moving the body and controlling the breath.

Many inpatient and outpatient recovery centers may offer yoga and meditation as part of their comprehensive treatment packages.

Types Of Meditation For Addiction Recovery

There are many different types of meditation for addiction recovery. Everyone has their own unique needs, preferences, and strengths, so not every meditation technique will work for everybody. It is important to try different forms of meditation to see which is most beneficial for you and your recovery.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness is perhaps the most popular and scientifically studied form of meditation for substance abuse recovery. It is a practice of nonjudgmental, nonreactive awareness of one’s present-moment experience, including one’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions.

To practice mindfulness, you simply pay attention to whatever is happening in the present moment from a place of compassion, curiosity, and nonjudgment. You accept the present without judging, resisting, or avoiding. You meet yourself where you are in the present moment.

Many meditation addiction treatments are based on mindfulness principles. These include:

  • Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)
  • Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)
  • Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MRP)
  • Mindfulness-oriented recovery enhancement (MORE)
  • Mindfulness-based integrative-body-mind training (IBMT)
  • Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

Guided Meditation

Guided meditation is another form of meditation that may help you in addiction recovery. A guided meditation is a meditation that another person guides you through, whether in person or via a video or audio recording.

If you have difficulty focusing, and your mind easily wanders away from the present moment, you may benefit from starting with guided meditations to help keep on track. Many therapists offer guided meditations during their individual and group therapy sessions.

Movement Meditation

Movement meditation refers to meditation that occurs while you are moving rather than seated. Movement meditation can be practiced while you are doing any activity, whether that is sitting, walking, eating, doing chores, or having a conversation with a family member. You can practice mindfulness while you move your body.

Yoga is perhaps the most popular form of moving meditation, as it is a practice of moving your body mindfully in sync with the breath.

Mantra Meditation

Mantra meditation is a type of meditation in which you repeat a word, affirmation, or positive statement to yourself repeatedly throughout the meditation. This can help retrain your brain to think positive, healthy thoughts that support your recovery, as opposed to automatic pessimistic thoughts that may lead to negative emotions and undesirable behaviors.

Examples of mantras you may speak to yourself during a mantra meditation are:

  • “I love and accept myself just the way I am”
  • “I am capable of hard things”
  • “I trust myself to make healthy choices”

Whatever mantra you choose, ensure it remains positive and resonates with you personally.

What Kind Of Meditation Therapy Is Right For Me?

There is no right or wrong way to meditate. We are all different and may receive different benefits from different forms of meditation. Not all styles of meditation will be right for everyone.

If you are still determining which type of meditation is right for you, consider trying a few different types and see which ones feel most comfortable and beneficial.

How To Get Started

If you have never meditated before and you would like to try, below are some steps to help you get started.

Research Different Types of Meditation

Do some research on different types of meditation and decide which ones you think would be the best fit for you.

Be Curious and Open to Trying New Things

Keep a positive and open mind and be willing to try different forms of meditation to determine which one is right for you.

Decide If You Will Meditate Alone or With a Group 

Decide whether you plan to meditate alone, attend a meditation class, or work with a meditation teacher.

Commit to a Regular Practice 

Meditation offers the most benefits when it is done daily. Commit to a daily practice, even if it is just five or 10 minutes at first. You may consider whether you want to do this meditation daily on your own or sometimes attend local meditation classes or use a guided meditation.

Talk with Your Therapist

Have an open conversation with your therapist or treatment team. Let them know about your interest in meditation. They may be able to give you some resources or utilize substance abuse therapies that incorporate mindfulness or other form of meditation in your therapy sessions.

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Meditation Therapy For Substance Abuse Recovery

Meditation offers several health benefits that can support people in recovery. There are many psychotherapies that incorporate meditation and mindfulness into the therapeutic process. That said, meditation should be part of a comprehensive treatment plan and not the only means of treatment.

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, there are many treatment programs available that incorporate meditation. Consider contacting a treatment provider today for free. They can answer your rehab-related questions and explore your treatment options to get you started on your healing journey.