Mindfulness is a practice that helps you learn to be more present in your daily life. By cultivating mindfulness, you can reduce your stress levels, improve your overall health and find peace and significance in the world around you. While becoming more mindful can benefit anyone, the habits you can learn and reinforce through mindfulness are especially helpful in addiction recovery.
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness originates with Buddhist philosophy, which views the practice as an essential way to become aware of the causes of suffering. While Buddhists believe that examining your inner self is a path to wisdom and a more meaningful life, people from any spiritual background can benefit from becoming more mindful.
Mindfulness requires deliberately focusing on what you are thinking and feeling in the present moment and accepting it without judgment or criticism. While traditional meditation is one way to cultivate mindfulness, there are many methods for bringing more mindfulness to your day. You can start small, with brief daily sessions, and gradually escalate from there.
It’s human nature to want to avoid painful emotions like guilt and shame, but mindfulness encourages you to accept adversity instead of denying it or pushing it away. In that way, mindfulness is the opposite of the self-defeating negativity that characterizes active addiction.
How to Live More Mindfully
With so many distractions competing for your attention and ongoing pressure to multitask, today’s fast-paced world makes it challenging to pause and be present. However, if you are intentional about bringing mindfulness to your everyday life, you can live with more purpose, focus and happiness.
Being mindful makes it easier to savor life’s pleasures as they occur and helps you become more emotionally resilient. By focusing on the here and now instead of worrying about the future or dwelling in the past, many people who practice mindfulness find they are less likely to become preoccupied with concerns about success and self-esteem and are better able to form profound connections with others.
It can be tricky to stay mindful as you move throughout your day. You can get back on track by pausing to practice these simple exercises.
- Yoga stretches: An easy forward bend is all it takes to recenter yourself.
- Breathing techniques: Deep breathing can have a calming effect and help you stay grounded. If you feel angry or anxious, take a long breath in through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, then slowly breathe out through your mouth.
- Progressive muscle relaxation: Spend 10 minutes tensing and relaxing your muscles one group at a time. With practice, you’ll learn to recognize where you hold tension in your body, so you can release it.
Clinically Sophisticated Treatment and Specialty Services in One Facility
Hemet Valley Recovery Center is a fully accredited, hospital-based addiction treatment facility in California. We have designed specialized health and wellness programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. Our clients benefit from receiving a full continuum of care in a safe, clinical environment while receiving treatment for co-occurring conditions such as chronic pain and mental health disorders. To learn more about our amenities and treatment philosophy, contact us today.
