How the Practice of Mindfulness Assists with Addiction
The practice of mindfulness is a holistic practice that can assist with sobriety. At Recover Clarity we strive to use as many holistic practices as possible when working with addiction, whether it is opioid addiction (Opioid Use Disorder) or any addiction. Mindfulness is a state of mental awareness or consciousness which a person achieves by a truthful acknowledgement about their feelings, thoughts, and sensations. An important aspect here is that this awareness is at the present moment in time. Mindfulness is usually related to the internal state of the person, but it is important to also encompass being conscious of your external surroundings.
There is a vast amount of information pertaining to the concept of mindfulness. The information out there on mindfulness will have minimal to great variances on the view of this topic, all based on the area of the world that their view of mindfulness originated, as this can vary based off the religious views associated with the concept of mindfulness. Regardless of the differences, the practice of mindfulness, especially in addiction recovery and treatment, is a helpful holistic tool. Mindfulness also is a great practice for everyday life and to help people live a more stress-free life, which is a great place for anyone regardless of where you are at in life.
Despite there being differences in views on mindfulness across the world, there are some concrete similarities on this holistic approach. These concrete similarities are the seven basic principles you will find with almost all views on mindfulness. The seven principles are letting go, non-striving, patience, non-judgment, beginner’s mind, trust, and acceptance. These principles are in no specific order, but all do apply to the concept of mindfulness. And the seven principles all relate to each other and work together to make a more stress-free life.
Non-Judgment is as simple as it is named, it means to not be judgmental overall. This applies both to being free of judging others equally as much as not being judgmental on yourself. We do have standards for ourselves, which is fine, but that is a different concept. A way to view this about yourself would be how we can be judgmental on ourselves for the thoughts that enter our mind. With addiction recovery this is very important, cravings and urges will happen, and a person should not judge themselves for having these. This is a natural part of the process that with time gets easier and will happen less. Being mindful that these can and will likely happen will assist in avoiding a relapse. Viewing oneself by terms as such as, my situation is because of opioid addiction, is judging, it is acceptance (a later principle to be discussed later) that will work with this principle to make your life more pleasant and in the present.
The concept of beginner’s mind is a more difficult concept to grasp, especially in a shorter blog, but here are the basics. The idea here is that you need to view everything as a beginner or novice. A beginner does not have past experiences to cloud their judgment, and that is how we should view all situations. Every situation is unique and should be approached in such a manner. This does not mean experience is a bad thing, just that we need to allow for openness in viewing situations. For individuals in addiction treatment and recovery, they need to not allow for those past experiences to cloud new ones in life. This will help with eliminating triggers and make a more peaceful and fuller new chapter in their life free from substance abuse.
For the principle of trust in mindfulness, it is important to trust our instincts more, think of this as those “gut feelings”. What this means is that it is important that a person trusts their instincts instead of the noise of society and what other people state is the correct path in life. Only the individual knows what their correct path is. This does not mean that it is a good idea to go against all societal norms or morals, but it means to stay true to those that are important to you. Being knowledgeable of societal norms and morals is important to help navigate the world we live in and to keep peace in doing this. For those suffering from opioid addiction or any type of addiction, they will unfortunately notice stigmas about their past, but that is not what should cause their actions in life.
The principle of non-striving is a very important one and can help any person with living a more stress-free life. The concept is related to how many people strive for things in life, often striving for an area of life to increase or have a greater value. As this is perfectly fine to have and having goals in life is a great thing, it is how we view these that can cause stress in life. Striving too hard in life will cause a person to not be happy with their current situation. As being better is a great thing it is important to be happy with where you are at in the current moment which will bring peace in life. For addiction recovery this is of the upmost importance. Everyone will be at a different part of their recovery, but regardless if it is just thinking of starting a treatment program or 20 years of sobriety, you should be happy with where you are in life. Even just contemplating entering a treatment program such as with Recover Clarity for opioid addiction (Opioid Use Disorder) is a huge and important step and a person should be happy that they have even made it that far. Not everyone gets to this point in life, and that should make a person proud of their situation of even contemplating addiction recovery.
Patience is the principle in mindfulness that is about the person living in the present. Along with living in the present is the concept of being more mindful of your current point in life. The idea here is that many individuals are often preoccupied with either worrying about the past or trying to control the future. The past is what it is, it cannot be changed, all we can do is to look at that as lessons and knowledge and help make things better in the present. Trying to control the future is not possible, yes it can be guided some by your current actions and paths in life, but that is still unknown. By living more in the now and the present you will be more at peace and mindful of your current situations, which ultimately will make better at the current point which could only have positive impact on the future. In addiction recovery often stress is a factor that can lead to relapse, as many have used substances as their main coping mechanism. By practicing patience and living in the present, you will have less stress and will be more successful in your recovery from substance abuse.
The next to last principle of mindfulness to discuss is that of acceptance. This one is a little more difficult to explain as it is not as many would think by the name of it. Many would view that acceptance is the approval of something in life. In mindfulness the principle of acceptance is understanding what is happening in the current moment is true. With this it is important that you see the moment in time for what it truly is, which does not require approval of the situation. This principle will help bring clarity into your life by seeing situations as they truly are. By having this ability in combination with the other principles you can better understand your situation and how it affects you and how your actions will affect the situation. With any addiction recovery this is important to know what is truly happening around you so that you can be at peace with the situation, alleviating how it may affect you and your emotions, which will assist with relapse prevention.
The last principle of mindfulness is that of letting go. Letting go, is a very important principle to pair with that of acceptance. This principle is a simple one and means that you can be in the present and not ruminate or fixate on a situation. As it is a simple concept to understand, in practice it is harder and takes time. When you are able to not ruminate or fixate on a situation and pair this with acceptance and are able to see the situation as it truly is, this will decrease the stress around the situation. Many individuals in recovery will tend to fixate on situations and worry about how their past has affected these situations. When you can let these go, then you can truly move forward in life.
