How do mindfulness and addiction go together? In short, mindfulness based cognitive therapy has been valuable in helping people overcome addiction by retraining or redirecting the mind. Mindfulness is a state of mental awareness. In other words, you are aware of your mind’s activity. Mindfulness has been used in different types of treatment, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy.
The only way that you can comprehend mindfulness is to practice it, first with an instructor, second by yourself. While there are many dimensions to mindfulness, the basic concept is easy to understand and almost as easy to apply. The purpose of mindfulness is to help you become aware of what is going on inside of your mind so that you can successfully control or manage it.
Self-Discipline & Focus: Two Staples in Mindfulness
Mindfulness may be easy to grasp, but it is challenging to master. The main reason for this is that most people do not sit still long enough to focus on their inner being. Their minds are often filled with work, family, personal issues, the past, the future, and stress or anxiety. Therefore, the idea of shutting all of that off for even 60 seconds can be daunting.
To master mindfulness, you must discipline yourself to stay focused for long periods. Granted, this is a process. You can start by engaging in mindfulness activity for five minutes. From there, you work your way to 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or even an hour – as long as you want.
Once you learn the art of mindfulness, you can heal yourself of multiple mental health issues such as:
- Anxiety
- Substance abuse
- Depression
- PTSD
- Stress
You now have control over your mind instead of your mind controlling you.
How Mindfulness Helps You with Substance Abuse
One of the reasons why you may be suffering from substance abuse is because of all the negativity that fills your brain. Much of this negativity involves patterns – broken records of thoughts, beliefs, or feelings that keep spinning round and round.
These negative mind patterns continue to circle back around to your addiction in a routine fashion. It is what we simply call cravings. Triggers can make your mind associate with your addiction. These triggers can be people, places, events, or even your senses. In many cases, these triggers happen so fast that we do not realize what is going on inside our head. As a result, we act on the triggers.
Mindfulness gives you the ability to monitor and identify the negative thought patterns and then act accordingly. You may phone a friend, remove yourself from a situation, go to a support group meeting, or contact a sponsor. Mindfulness gives you the clarity to make a good decision when your mind falls to negativity.
Find Out More About Mindfulness and Addiction Today
Casa Palmera offers mindfulness and addiction treatment for all types of addiction. To find out more about our drug addiction treatment services in Los Angeles, contact us today. We can help you get on the road to recovery.
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