Thanks for the comments and poll responses. I have found meditation very important to my recovery:
- Initially I gained a sense of separation from my thoughts. The notion that "I don't have to believe every thing I think", allowed me to navigate a lot of the early delusional thinking about alcohol (and nearly everything else).
- I believe meditation helped me regain some concentration skills. I was in pretty rough shape when I first got sober. I could barely read a page of text before I was hopelessly distracted.
- Right now, I think meditation is helping with gaining a healthy separation from my emotions. By a healthy separation, I mean I don't react to every feeling that comes along. When something annoys me I can see the emotion arise, then decide an appropriate reaction.
Of course I don't have any evidence that meditation helped with any of those things. It could be that my brain is naturally awesome and I would be exactly where I am today with or without meditation, but I doubt it. Given my past history, I don't make consistently healthy choices when left to my own methods...
For those struggling to learn meditation, I highly recommend finding a teacher. Meditation is a skill, and I found great value in having some guidance.