When a person is in active addiction, they are often disconnected from the things they are feeling and what is happening around them. This can be a way to cope when they are not sure what else to do. Mindfulness is the opposite of this. Mindfulness is being fully present and active in the moment and paying attention to your surroundings.
At Safe Harbor Recovery Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, we encourage our clients to utilize mindfulness practices as part of their ongoing recovery from substances, to nurture their mind, body, and spirit. Because mindfulness encompasses a broad array of practices, this can look completely different from one guest to another.
When you give up substances, that is only one piece of the recovery process. Staying sober requires building new habits for managing stress and cravings. Mindfulness is one way to ground yourself, so that you can handle the challenges we all face, without relapsing. It can also make co-occurring mental health or physical health disorders easier to manage.
How to Become More Mindful
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to spend a bunch of money and buy special clothes to sit in a yoga class (unless you want to) to practice mindfulness. Even if you have no money and very limited free time, there are still numerous different strategies that people use to engage in mindfulness.
Some of these include:
- Doing deep breathing exercises to relax
- Naming their physical and emotional sensations throughout the day to increase small moments of awareness
- Engaging in meditation, which can be particularly effective in addressing sleep struggles that are particularly common in the early stages of recovery
- Responding to internal criticism with compassionate thoughts and asking themselves what triggered the negative feeling
- Challenging your negative thoughts, without judging yourself for having them
- When engaging with others who are struggling with something hard, silently telling yourself, “Just like me,” whenever the person mentions something you also struggle with, to normalize that it is human and okay to experience difficult things
- Practicing being still, both in your body and also your mind
- Exploring your spirituality, either within a house of worship or elsewhere
- Trying yoga to relieve physical pain, relax, and sleep better. There are yoga classes built around the purpose of supporting addiction recovery. These classes blend components of 12-Step programs with stretching and breathing exercises. You can also find free yoga videos online that can help you learn the basics.
Mindfulness and Rituals
Rituals are carefully crafted, intentional habits that can help you to remember key ideas and stick to your goals. You can build recovery rituals around a variety of different habits, such as:
- Attending mental health therapy
- Going to meetings with other people in recovery or who are addressing mental health concerns
- Contacting your sponsor regularly
- Journaling about your recovery
- Reading a daily recovery devotional
- Going for a daily walk to get quiet time and exercise
- Saying a prayer of gratitude upon waking and/or before going to bed
Ways to Boost the Impact of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is just one component of a solid recovery plan. There are numerous other things a person in recovery can do to help maintain their sobriety. Complementary practices to consider include:
- Getting frequent exercise
- Eating healthy
- Spending time in nature
- Staying hydrated
- Prioritizing sleep
- Utilizing mental health therapy
- Leaning on healthy supports
- Identifying your stressors and times when you are likely to encounter them, so that you can plan for how to manage them
- Setting boundaries to protect your recovery
At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, our caring staff utilizes evidence-based practices to help our guests build a solid foundation for their long-term recovery. We recognize and honor the differences between each client we serve by building individualized treatment plans that address those unique characteristics within each person engaged in our program. Whether they are in recovery from alcohol, prescription medications, opioids, cocaine, or other drugs, Safe Harbor is here to help, with individual and group therapy; peer support; art, music, and recreational therapies; and aftercare planning.