Sometimes I visualize cravings or other kinds of emotional distress as physical pain. My drinking really wrecked me physically so I'm pretty strong through physical pain. When I imagine that the sensations I'm feeling are physical rather than emotional, I usually realize I can sit through them the same way I sat through the awful sicknesses I put myself through.
ETA: To start doing this I scan my body for the physical sensations. For example anxiety is often a chest tightness. Then I focus on those sensations rather than on the thoughts that go with them.