What is Mindfulness?
According to Mindful.org, Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. While mindfulness is innate, it can be cultivated through proven techniques, particularly seated, walking, standing, and moving meditation (it’s also possible lying down but often leads to sleep); short pauses we insert into everyday life; and merging meditation practice with other activities, such as yoga or sports.
How Does Mindfulness Help with Recovery?
Mindfulness is a practice that has shown itself to greatly improve client’s mindsets while in recovery. Aside from being able to spend some quiet time to yourself everyday and clear your thoughts, there are many other advantages to practicing mindfulness while in recovery.
Stress reduction
Being able to manage your stress while you are in the recovery process is very important. Stress can cause a lot of problems physically and mentally if we are anticipating future events or worrying about certain situations. Practicing mindfulness allows people to live in the moment without stressing and causing unnecessary anxiety for themselves. Dealing with anxiety, stress and depression can be large triggers that can cause people to relapse. Being able to eliminate extra stressors and anxiety can ease those triggers. It will also allow people to recognize when stress or anxiety is happening to them, and how to eliminate the thought when they pop up.
Exercising your brain
When people enter treatment, they have typically just been surrounded by a lot of negativity in their active addiction. This means a lot of bad thoughts, negative situations, fractured relationships and frequent fights or arguments with people. Needing to get their fix while in active addiction causes a lot of negative and irrational thoughts, as well. Being able to practice mindfulness is essentially exercise for your brain to start thinking good, healthy thoughts instead of the negative ones it was so used to defaulting to. Going through the detoxification process can leave bodies and minds weakened, so practicing mindfulness can also help build them back up to a healthy state.
Better understanding of yourself and your thoughts
Someone who practices mindfulness is much more in tune with their bodies, thoughts and emotions than people who do not. Being able to recognize when an irrational or negative thought has popped into their head and knowing how to eliminate it can greatly help in the recovery process. People who practice mindfulness are also much more aware when something in their body is not right, when they might be getting sick, or when stress is beginning to show.
Tips for Practicing Mindfulness
If you are unsure how to practice mindfulness, or what exactly to do, there are many different ways you can start. While practicing mindfulness is just that – a practice – there are simple things you can do to get started on your journey and see what works best for you.
Meditation
This is the most traditional form of mindfulness. Focusing on your breathing, clearing your mind and being able to stay still are a great source of stress relief. You can simply sit in silence, or you can use a guided meditation to help you along if you’re not quite sure what to do. You can start small around 5 minutes a day, and work your way up. On average, people who meditate can enjoy it for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour a day.
Yoga
Practicing yoga is one of the more popular forms of mindfulness, as it helps calm both the body and mind. With both the body and mind in sync with each other, it can greatly help during the recovery process to gain better overall health. It also helps give practitioners confidence boosts when they are able to achieve new poses, helping with their overall self esteem.
Get outside
Simply taking a walk or jog outside can be a great form of mindfulness. Being able to focus on the fresh air, the nature around you and things that are happening in the moment can prove to be very relaxing and therapeutic.
Set aside time everyday
Since mindfulness is a practice, it is important to set aside time everyday to work on it. This can mean 15 minutes every morning, or an hour at yoga class. Whatever you decide to choose as your form of practicing mindfulness, it is important to make the time for it so you can take on the day with a clear, positive state of mind.
About Pinelands Recovery Center
Addiction recovery is much more than detoxing and working through therapy. It is about getting your mind and body in tune with each other, as well as healing your brain. Mindfulness is one of the many tools learned in recovery that can help you stay sober.
Pinelands Recovery Center of Medford is widely known as one of New Jersey’s finest, most respected addiction treatment facilities. With comfortable 30-bed accommodations and a 24-hour professional staff, we can offer clients a serene, relaxing environment amid the lush piney woods. This stress-free setting with its sense of warmth and welcoming enables you to feel comfortable and confident about your clean and sober life ahead.
We will establish clear goals, both general in nature and specific to your needs. We continue to
monitor those goals, to make sure that our clients are progressing and buying into their recovery
plan. We thrive on assisting clients in feeling connected to the recovery community, share and
demonstrate effective coping techniques, help clients to modify attitudes and patterns of
behavior and everything else you will need to be happy and productive living a sober, healthy
life.
We ensure that clients complete their planned concrete tasks, encourage hope, optimism and
healthy living. Our recovery program is not a revolving door treatment program; it is a recovery
model designed to help clients go on to lead productive, happy lives. For more information, visit
pinelandsrecovery.com