Table of Contents
Introduction
Although addiction has been a source of social worry for millennia, advances in cognitive and emotional neuroscience have deepened our knowledge of this age-old, devastating disease in recent decades.
Addiction is being viewed as a loop of compulsive drug-seeking behavior fuelled by dysregulated neurocognitive processes, according to multiple lines of study.
Motivated attention, reward processing, stress reactivity, automaticity, emotion regulation, and inhibitory control are all key mechanisms implicated in addiction.
This is why, many rehab centers include mindfulness activities and meditation in addiction recovery treatment. If you want to know more, you can visit this website.
Why Is Mindfulness Important In Addiction Recovery?
Finding the emotional reason for addiction, whether it’s fear, despair, anxiety, or pessimism, is one of the first stages in dealing with it.
In the desiring mind, we believe that our current condition of dissatisfaction might be alleviated if only we could have the money, job, relationship, recognition, or power we formerly had and now crave. When we want for something that is out of reach or cling to something that has already passed away, we often cause ourselves pain.
Wanting mind may also include clinging to something undesirable, such as an unwholesome notion about how things should be or should have been, or an unwholesome feeling like rage, grief, or envy.
Mindfulness practice aids in the development of the ability to perceive clearly what we’re connected to to let go and stop our suffering. The hidden regions of resistance that come to our attention might be noticed and explored later so that we can choose to reject them consciously.
You’ll never be able to entirely ignore the yearning mind or any other stumbling block. Desire is a natural aspect of the human experience. It motivates us to improve our lives and the world around us, and it has led to many of the discoveries and technologies that have improved our quality of life.
Despite everything that we can achieve and own, we may start to believe that we will not be happy or fulfilled unless we gain even more. This unhealthy perception can lead to rivalry and feelings of resentment or envy toward people who appear to have it easier.
Why Is Meditation Important In Addiction Recovery?
People who are addicted to drugs or alcohol may find it challenging to cope with ordinary circumstances without relapsing.
As people acclimate to life without drugs, they often experience poor sleep, worry, stress, pain, despair, and drug cravings. These grievances might serve as catalysts for relapse. Mindful meditation has been shown in several trials to help with these symptoms.
Meditation may also help people become more conscious of their thoughts, less affected by negative situations, and more capable of controlling their emotions.
Meditation can also help you cope with long-term withdrawal symptoms, including anxiety, problems in decision-making, and intense drug cravings that linger for months after you stop using the drug.
Since there is ample evidence of meditation’s efficacy in addiction therapy, several addiction treatment clinics have decided to incorporate it in their holistic services.
Meditation enhances activity in brain regions related to self-control among smokers, according to one research. The authors of the study came to the conclusion that meditation might be beneficial in the treatment and prevention of addiction.
Best Mindfulness And Meditation Techniques To Enhance Recovery
- Breathing meditation: Sit up straight, close your eyes, focus on your breaths, relax your muscles, and chanelize all your energy that thinks about addiction cravings into your focus on breathing.
- Water meditation: Run a warm bath, light some candles, turn on some soothing music, dip your body into the tub, and focus on breathing.
- Mindfulness meditation: Sit upright, close your eyes, or keep them open but fix your gaze into an object that is put at a little distance from your eyes, and focus on the object.
- Practice being still: It is another mindfulness technique that helps us find the true purpose in life. When you are bugged by addiction cravings, step away from your daily business, find an isolated spot, and sit still.
- Expand compassion circle: Humans are born to connect especially when they are fragile, and recovering from addiction. Connect with people who empathize with you and let go of all your prejudices, and stereotypes surrounding addiction.
How Meditation And Mindfulness Impact Our Brain?
The amount of activity in the amygdala, the walnut-sized region in the center of the brain responsible for emotion regulation, may be affected by mindfulness meditation.
The parasympathetic nervous system kicks in to counterbalance the anxiety reaction when the amygdala is calm.
The heart rate drops, breathing deepens and slows, and the body stops producing cortisol and adrenaline into the circulation; these stress chemicals supply us with fast energy in times of danger, but they may have long-term negative consequences on the body if they’re overused.
Mindfulness meditation thickens the prefrontal region of the brain, which is important for well-being, optimism, spaciousness, and potential. This region is also linked to creativity, a greater feeling of wonder, and the ability to be reflective and examine how your mind operates while dealing with unexpected life problems.
We rewire the brain by creating new neural connections between brain cells, and the brain learns with each new neural connection. The mind is a mechanism that governs the flow of energy and information we put inside.
One of the benefits of mindfulness meditation practice is the creation of new brain networks for self-observation, optimism, and well-being.
As a result, our self-awareness and emotional stability improve as we reduce our harsh judgments of others and ourselves. We learn to master the mind and open the door to creativity so that when life throws curve balls at us, we deal with them instead of seeking refuge in addiction.
Practice Mindfulness!
It’s possible that other practices such as yoga, tai chi, and other forms of meditation, that open up new neural pathways, can produce similar results in addiction recovery.
However, we have mentioned some of the best mindfulness and meditation techniques in this article that can help you speed up your recovery journey.
If you have trouble executing any of them, let us know in the comment box below.
We will get back to you with a reply shortly.
