Using Meditation during Addiction Recovery

For as long as people have studied recovery from addiction, they've argued over what actually helps. Build a strong support network. Stick to a structured recovery program. Map out a plan and follow it. All of that gets discussed. What tends to get less attention is the holistic side of recovery, even though the results people report from those approaches have been striking. Some of these methods have grown into more than an afterthought; a few recovering addicts now reach for them first. Meditation sits near the top of that list.

The appeal is partly in the variety. No single technique owns the word, and the different styles each carry their own benefits, so there's room to find one that fits you. Reading up on what meditation can do during recovery is a reasonable way to decide whether it belongs among the methods you lean on.

Start with how you feel day to day. A regular practice tends to lift the positive emotions you experience and raise your overall satisfaction with life, and it can take the edge off physical pain. Both of those matter more than they sound. When you feel better, you're more inclined to keep going. When you hurt less, the motivation to do the work of recovery comes easier.

There's a social dimension too. Recovery goes better when your social life is healthy, when you feel connected to other people and are building real friendships rather than drifting. Meditation can help you form those connections, and one of its quieter effects is a reduction in loneliness. Loneliness during recovery is miserable, so anything that chips away at it is worth having.

Focus is another piece. Being able to pay attention, to stay aware of what's happening around you and to stay on task with your recovery, makes a practical difference. People who meditate often notice their memory sharpens and their attention holds longer. That carries over into nearly everything else they're trying to do.

Underneath the focus is the brain itself. Meditation has been tied to improvements in attention, memory and emotional balance, the kind of changes that give the rest of recovery a steadier foundation.

The heart gets mentioned here in both senses. A heart keeps you physically alive, but it also carries your emotional life. Practicing meditation in recovery can strengthen empathy, deepen your connection to others, make you more willing to help, and leave you sturdier when things get hard. Along the way you may come to understand your own emotions better, enough that you can pass some of that on to the people around you.

Then there's something harder to name, call it wisdom. Sitting with your mind gives it a chance to slow down and let go of the racing thoughts. From that quieter place, a different perspective tends to surface, and things you were tangled up in start to look clearer.

Meditation also reaches the conditions that so often ride along with addiction: depression, anxiety, stress. Getting those under control, or even just shrinking their footprint in your life, makes the whole recovery smoother.

Recovery can go well. Folding in a holistic practice like meditation stacks these benefits on top of whatever else you're doing, and that tends to make a good recovery better. - Cara Havens

References: http://www.marylandaddictionrecovery.com/benefits-of-meditation-in-addiction-recovery, https://alishaadhikari.wordpress.com/2014/05/