One of the key interventions of an early recovery process from drug and alcohol addiction is the practice of meditation. Meditation assists an addict or alcoholic to begin to take charge of the way they interact with their inner and outer lives.
Pema Chodron, a Tibetan monk teaches that one of the major shifts an addict needs to make is “staying” instead of “running,” running from emotions, thoughts, people, and even confronts those “ghosts” that steer our self-destructive path of poor personal, interpersonal, vocational, financial and spiritual chaos, then change and recovery is possible.
There are four steps of awareness in getting started with a meditation practice:
1) Breathing awareness – begin a process of breathing and increasing consciousness of the breathe. Breathing is fundamental to life and often has been representative as “spirit” in many ancient societies and spiritual traditions.
2) Body awareness – make time to sit and be aware of your body from head to toe. The more you are conscious about your body, you begin to understand that YOU are the relationship that is critical to change to improve your life and the relationships with loved ones.
3) True Self awareness – Sitting with your breathe and body you are confronted with your true self, not the self you’ve constructed to comply with a certain “image” or perception from others.
4) Spiritual awareness – Finally, the more conscious you become that you are not alone, you are a creature that has been created helps in the surrender to the war of addiction.
If you, or a loved one is seeking support for your recovery, please contact us today for a consultation at (215) 834-7979.
