JamesSquire

Can some one point out where I can find some info in using mindfulness exercises when faced with urges ie what do you concentrate on when doing the breathing.
I've looked but found only examples of using the breathing but not what you focus on.
Thanks, James

petals

As far as I'm aware you focus on the breathing. How your body feels with each breath .x

Dee74

Hi James

Here are some 'nuts and bolts' links about urge surfing

To put it as simply as I can ...you focus on the urge/craving...try and look at it from outside, dispassionately. Watch it reach a peak then fall away...and trust me it will fall away...

Mindfulness and Addiction: Part 3 | Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

Practice- ?Urge Surfing?- Staying with our Cravings | My Meditative Moments

It's a skill like anything else - the more you practice it the better you get

D

svenissober

Google for
- dharmaoverground (meditation forum)
- Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (free e-book)

s.

lisatryingagain

Mindfulness can be and is a lot of different things.

I have been told one way is to observe my thoughts as they arise WITHOUT become emotionally caught up in them. Just observe, meanwhile having an attitude of gentle compassion to myself (as if I was myself as a two year old for example - I look after and think well of myself). Its very hard to explain. And I have definitely just scratched the surface with my own understanding of it.

Dr google will have lots of info, as will librarys and community centres often run cheap courses as well. I do know that practicising it is helpful for me with my negative thoughts and feelings.

JamesSquire

I like the bit about surfing the anxiety. Thanks for link Dee, I think I've seen it before but glimpsed over it. It makes more sense to me now.

Thanks, James

totfit

There is a good book: "Wherever You Go There You Are" by John Kabat-Zinn, if you want to explore mindfullness a bit deeper. Basically it is just being "ultra aware" of life around you and your body. It is "being" in the present.

StellaPolaris

I started an 8 week course on MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction - based on Kabat-Zinn'z model) yesterday. You can find all the material (including guided meditations) online; I'm using this site: Online MBSR (free)

Very practical stuff, highly recommended.

Soberwolf

Do you meditate James

ItWillBeWorthIt

Mindfulness totally ROCKS for me - it has giving me so much peace in my recovery. There is free courses and information on this site. Definitely something to read about and implement, if it works for you.

Good luck

SereneEdition

I got started on my mindfulness journey with cravings by thinking of the cravings as the voice of the AV. That personification helped me to step out of the craving and start to observe it rather than react to it. Look up rational recovery if you want to learn more about that technique specifically.

Later I built on that with urge surfing and more traditional mindfulness approaches as my abilities improved.

oldsoul1122

Youtube has many videos/ meditations on "mindfulness and breathing meditations/techniques.

JamesSquire

Hi SW

Mmmmmm! NO!

I've been using the 'sit on my hands' with very little success.

I've done the research and found what meditation/ mindfullness is but not many articles explains the precise technique of how you use it, in the circumstance of, for example, getting a huge compulsion to pick up a beer, in the here and now.

I've been reading some of the article that Dee alerted me to.

So correct me if I'm wrong,
I feel like driving down the road to pick up a 6 pack.
I sit comfortably, start my breathing exercise and imagine I'm on a wave with a beer waiting for me if I crash at the end
But I think of alternatives so I can pull out the wave before it crashes. But by that time the wave has passed and ( the urge is gone), I can get to the alternative.

.?????

My swim coach once said a technique done 99% correct is 100% wrong. One of the most profound sayings I keep in mind, when learning something.


JS

Dee74

For me the idea is divorce myself from the wave.

Observe it from a distance - you're not trying to do anything beyond watch the wave rise and fall, trying to be mindful of tension and breathing and ride the discomfort out.

The idea is the more you practice this the easier it is to combat the craving impulse.


D

freshstart57

For me the key was understanding my fear when an urge came. That inner voice would start to panic, what am i going to do i am getting anxious i need a drink omg omg omg. After a couple successes at watching the urge and my reactions to it and succeeding at not yielding to the urge, I began to see that I didn't have to be afraid of them any more. They come and go. Big deal. I have all the control here, and yes, I can prove it by sitting on my hands. That does the trick just fine.

So, my mindfulness practice around urges to drink are just watching the urge come, watching my breathing as I breathe, how it feels as the cool air comes in and the warm air goes out, my chest rises and falls, my shirt moving against my skin, that sort of thing. And then I can watch the urge go, leaving me relaxed and calm.

Now, what was I in the middle of doing again? Onward!

JamesSquire

Thanks Dee .... I know this is the way you do it and others might do it differently but I see it so much more clearly now.


Thanks Freshstart ... the Quote above is so ME! I have panicked, my hands shake, short of breath and then I given in. I don't want to do that any more.

Thanks everyone, it's so much clearer. I ready to start again, I have to go out now but later I'll start a new Thread on the 'whys' of my question.
Really appreciated, all your input.


JS

Anna

I have done this course, Stella and it's great.

And, I also highly recommend Jon Kabat-Zinn's books.

SweatyHands

My graduate program is actually rooted in meditation and mindfulness practice. My department is "Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology." I would suggest picking up Pema Chodron's book How to Meditate, as well as looking at her youtube videos in the "How to Meditate" series. The main focus of our meditation practice is simply awareness of the breath, and the gap between exhaling and inhaling. You start by taking your posture on your mat or in your chair, and focusing your awareness to your body's connection to the ground everywhere it is contacting the floor or mat or chair. Then you shift your attention to your breath. Whenever thoughts arise, just label it "thinking," and let it go. Then go back to your breath. I can tell you from years of practice, as well as interacting with people who have been practicing for decades, that most of a person's time on the mat is spent "thinking," and returning to the breath. No one is a bad meditator. Having a regular practice has given me a solid foundation of personal awareness that helps me identify a craving and recognize that it is just a story from my AV. I can notice it and let it go, or I can feed it and let it become something solid that leads me to wanting that drink. But that's all it is, a story coming from a tiny little microscopic speck in my brain.

buk1000

Here's a link to some guided meditations that have been effective for me. The book is very good as well.

Mindfulness - Meditation Audio Tracks