Mindfully Recover | Jay Pignatiello
Incorporating meditation in recovery can be a wonderful tool for some people as a means of controlling the crazy “thinking” that can be part of one’s addiction. Sharing his thoughts on meditation in recovery is today’s guest author, Jay Pignatiello. Jay is the Community Outreach Director for OneMindDharma, an online recovery and meditation community that offers guided meditations, a recovery blog, and support for anyone interested in growing through their meditation and mindfulness practices.
Meditation in Recovery by Jay Pignatiello
For over 80 years, meditation has been mentioned in mainstream recovery as greatly beneficial in recovery. In the twelve steps, meditation is mentioned, ever so briefly, as an essential way of improving a conscious contact with a higher intelligence. Many folks wonder, “how exactly does meditation help my recovery?”
Jay Pignatiello writing on Meditation in Recovery
Consider the thought process behind your addiction: a rapid cycling of thoughts and feelings that eventually turn to an urge or even a compulsion to use in order to find a sense of relief. This cycle becomes less about “will power,” and more about releasing this energy. The problem with using is that it doesn’t release the energy or solve the problematic behavior associated with addiction. It simply muffles it until the next attempt at cessation. Or your addiction might be a slowly building progression that sneaks slowly on you until one day you’ve decided to throw up your hands and say, “forget this.”
How Meditation Can Help You in Your Recovery
While considering that addiction is seeded in the mind, meditation and mindfulness practices help to slow down the racing thoughts and to allow urges to come and go without negative action. By becoming aware of your feeling towns and becoming present in the moment, mindfulness can help you to pause before acting.
Practices like noting feeling states help to raise your level of awareness so that periods of discomfort can be recognized and either talked or sat through. That corny saying, that your body is a temple, or in this case a vessel, becomes more prevalent the more frequently you listen to it. As a baseline is created, it becomes a reference point to return to whenever sensations such as anxiety or anger come to rise.
A Simple Practice For The Recovering Person
Throughout the day, keep track of how you are feeling. What are the thoughts you’re having? What sensations are your body experiencing? Being mindful of these feelings and labeling them such as in a journal can be a starting point for developing mindfulness. During periods of discomfort, walking slowly, focusing on the breath and labeling footsteps can become a great tool to self-soothing, walking meditation, and harnessing mindfulness to develop a beginning practice of meditation and becoming mindful. Remember that anything you’re experiencing is okay, and will pass in time eventually. No feeling lasts forever.
Lisa Frederiksen
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I’ve found that meditation is a helpful tool for those of us with loved ones who abuse drugs and alcohol.
I know what you mean, Fran – it’s been a huge part of my secondhand drinking recovery. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I recently read another article on the value of meditation for anyone, but also how it can be so helpful for those in recovery, so I do think you are on to a helpful support for those in recovery. I love the idea of keeping track of how you are feeling throughout the day, as well as starting a journal practice. Thank you for the reminder that meditation can be a powerful tool!