Guided Meditation For Recovery
02/14/19: Addiction Recovery \ Drug Addiction
We are living in a golden age of recovery therapies. Today, there are many different forms of therapy for people to use in their recovery process. No longer are people confined to an armchair therapist or other traditional therapies. Art therapy, yoga therapy, music therapy, family/group therapy, challenge therapy, 12 step therapy, and most importantly, guided meditation therapy. These different forms of therapy work for different people and all act as effective ways to create long-term sobriety. One of the most successful and widely used forms of therapy is guided meditation. When talking about addiction, it is not only a physical dependency, but a mental one as well. Your mind starts to think that you need an illicit substance to function normally, and in return, makes your body react. Addiction affects your cognitive psychology and overall behavior. You become mentally and physically dependent on the use of illicit substances. Use a substance enough, you will start to think you need it to feel any sort of normalcy. Your body and mind, at the same time, crave the substance and the effects it creates. The only way to stop this process from repeating itself is by beating withdrawal. Withdrawal can be incredibly difficult for people to go through, rightfully so. Without the illicit substance in your body, your mind and body will start to attack themselves. Your mind will start to tell the body that it needs the substance in order to function properly and if it doesn’t get it, it will react. Signs of withdrawal include headaches, nausea, sickness, sweating, racing heart, difficulty breathing, and many more. In order to fight these symptoms, and the possibility of relapse, you need to clear your mind and body of these toxins. The purpose of meditation therapy is to address the psyche in a person. What is the source of their addiction, why do they ‘need’ illicit substances, how can you alleviate the desire, and other questions like these are all meant to be answered in this therapy. Meditation has been a practice used for centuries, as early as 1500 BCE. The main purpose of meditation is to ground the mind and help a person focus on the things that matter in order to alleviate stress/depression. This can help addicts in recovery immensely. Two of the biggest reasons for relapse are stress and depression. If an addict can use guided meditation to help them cope with stress and depression, the possibility of relapse is lessened. As we discussed, the main objective of guided meditation is to address the psyche in an addict: help them fight desire, cope with stress/depression, and understand what caused them to fall into the pits of addiction. Understanding how it happened, accepting that it happened, and wanting to fight desire are all important steps in the guided meditation therapy process for recovery. Through calm, logical, and optimistic thinking in meditation, an addict can properly accept their past and move on towards a brighter future. We’ve gone over some of the basic parts of guided meditation, now let’s take a look at other reasons for its use.Physical Benefits
Guided meditation has incredible physical benefits. Guided meditation can help lower blood pressure, strengthen cardiac health, reduce stress, decrease pain that comes along with withdrawal, and increase serotonin, which has huge effects on positive behaviors. These are just a few of the incredible physical benefits that guided meditation has in recovery.Psychological Benefits
Addiction is not only a physical dependency, but it is also a psychological one as well. The more and more a person uses an illicit substance, the more their mind relies on the substance to function ‘normally’. Your mind is one of the biggest factors with ongoing addiction. Guided meditation can help calm the mind, realign your thoughts, and help conquer the psychological desires you have for substance abuse. Meditation can help ground a person and calm their psyche. It can also help relieve stress and anxiety, which are huge factors in relapses. Guided meditation for recovery can help a person obtain psychological peace.Benefits The Spirit
A person can be separated into three different parts: mind, body, and soul. Guided meditation not only benefits the mind and body, but the soul as well. Guided meditation helps a person experience open-mindedness, peace, and serenity. When your spirit is at peace, you can create a more positive and creative self. You can become a new person, one that is more positive, happy, and addiction free.Alleviates Withdrawal Symptoms
Easily one of the biggest issues that addicts deal with in recovery, withdrawal can completely break a person and make them bend to the wills of addiction. Withdrawal symptoms can not only be uncomfortable, but can be severe at times. Withdrawal is meant to completely weaken a person and make them fall right back into the depths of addiction. Guided meditation in recovery can help a person cope with their withdrawal symptoms and beat any oncoming relapse. It can fight against any cravings a person may have and help them realize that the symptoms and feelings they are experiencing are only temporary and all part of the recovery process. The recovery process is all about defeating any cravings and negative feelings a person has after kicking their substance addiction. Sobriety can be achieved through guided meditation which helps ease the mind, body, and soul during the first initial stages of recovery. Bringing mental and physical peace to a former addict is essential when trying to beat their former addiction and any possibility of relapse. Content for Arizona Addiction by Cohn Media, LLC. Passionate and creative writing and broadcasting, covering the following industries: addiction rehab, health care, entertainment and technology. Advocate of clear communication, positivity and humanity at its best. www.cohn.mediaIf you or someone you know needs help with addiction, contact 602-737-1619 or email [email protected] to get the help you need. Our acclaimed recovery environment merges upscale, luxury accommodations with affordability, clinical expertise and an unwavering commitment to patient care and aftercare.
