DarkestHour

I hear from other people and read from other posts that meditation can be helpful in recovery. I've meditated on and off, but never consistently. Anyone here have any tips on meditation or links to guided meditations or any other sources they find helpful? Thanks. Trying to add to my "toolkit."

herculana

Before I became addicted to alcohol, I was a full on yoga and meditation INSTRUCTOR.


The very best, most effective way to meditate for ME... was a mantra meditation.

Pick a short phrase, such as God is Love. or NOTHING CAN BE HARMED. Or I AM. or I AM WORTHY. Or something even in sanskrit ( my instructor gave me BRAHMA as my mantra).

Stick with ONE mantra. Pick something very short and meaningful and postive.

Then... sit with eyes closed for 10 minutes every single morning (I started by using a timer. With time I didnt need my timer... after about 6 months I knew when I had meditated enough).

Silently repeat your mantra, over and over, fast or slow doesnt matter.

The mantra acts as your ANCHOR. It keeps your thoughts ANCHORED to the present moment.

Everytime you feel your thoughts getting active about ANYTHING... drop the thoughts like a hot rock, right in the middle of them, drop them. Go right back to repeating your mantra.

This practice, done daily, will CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

And of course you can meditate as long as you wish, but in the beginning you really need to start with small increments, like 10 minutes at a time.

DarkestHour

Excellent! Morning meditation seems line a good time -- starting off the day on a positive, mindful note. Love the idea about the mantras. I'll take these tips to heart. Thank you!!!

Mummyto2

https://www.yogajournal.com/meditation

kenton

Herculana 's advice is excellent.

I find that because my mind jumps all over the place I need to listen to someone guide me through mindfulness meditations. If you Google "10 minute guided meditations/mindfulness" you'll find plenty on YouTube for beginners. I try to do 10 minutes every morning and it has helped me enormously. Good luck

MidnightBlue

Herculana - thanks a lot for your great advice.

Consistency is the key. I started meditating in my darkest times. For the first couple of months I didn't feel anything. But I kept meditating. Then one day invested efforts reached some "critical mass" and it started working. Meditation really saved my sanity back then.

Somehow I got sloppy and lost consistency. Now I realize I need to get back to everyday routine - it's so worth it!

I used to do Chopra's 21 day challenges and liked them.

Also there are good meditations at Tara Brach's site.

And I use app Insight Timer. It's free and there is a good choice of all sorts of meditations.

Best of luck

nova84

Like kenton I find guided meditations helpful to prevent my mind from wondering...I like the Honest Guys videos on you tube. I have also recently started yoga. When I'm feeling anxious I sit on the floor and repeat "Om na mah Shivaya" over and over. My understanding is that it is considered to be a powerful healing mantra.

Pathwaytofree

I use the meditations from Insight Timer.

Personally I don't like Deepak Chopra/Oprah meditations because they are way too wordy and not simple enough.

I love the post here about saying a simple couple of words mantra. I am going to give that a try.

Someone else I know just sits and focuses on her breath.

Keep it simple.

DarkestHour

These are all great recommendations. I'm looking these up and have already downloaded Insight Timer. I also found some recovery meditations that seemed helpful.

Jezzi

I've heard good things about the Headspace app.

Caramel

Sometimes I think to myself, “In with Mr. Good Air, out with Mr. Bad Air” - from Adventures in Odyssey , when Rodney Rathbone was being given CPR in the Hawaiian Vacation episode

Sometimes I think the word "Peace" with each breath in.

Sometimes I gaze at a beautiful picture.

Sometimes I just focus on the sensation of each breath in the tip of my nose.

Poppy79

Great suggestions.

Butterfly2017

I also need guided meditation because I'm fairly new at it. My favorite is the app Calm, and also Headspace is good.

George3334

Thanks for this! Very practical advice. I aim to try meditation and will follow your suggestion.

Pathwaytofree

That's great, DarkestHour! Would you mind sharing the recovery meditations?

DarkestHour

Hi Pathwaytofree! I just searched YouTube for recovery meditations. There is a series it seems based on the 12 steps. I listened to the first one: https://youtu.be/O-iubSMaFLs

If you don't like this particular one, doing a video search on Google might help. There's tons of stuff. I'm going through them and trying them out one at a time. Best of luck! Feel free to share or PM me if you find any particularly good ones

Bishy

Thank you so much for sharing this - I really find it difficult to "still"my mind - I am definitely doing to try this out!

ZenButterfly

There is a free 8 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction class you can take online, if you google Palouse Mindfulness. I did not include the link because I did that once and I was told not to include links to other sites.

tealily

Herculana and others,
thank you for this great advice and explanation. I have never tried meditation and am intrigued. I know I drank to self medicate anxiety.. this sounds very helpful. Thanks!

Time2Rise

I use mindful meditation and I keep it simple (for right now). This short article by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh helped me get started.