Did / do you use mental techniques (e.g. Visualization) to get / stay sober?
 

Just curious, have / are you using mental techniques?

And, if so, which one did / do you use? Did they helped you? In what way?

- Visualization
- Meditation
- Affirmations
- inner Child Work
- ...

I used Andrew Johnson's "Stop Drinking" hypnosis track. I would listen in bed at night as I feel asleep- I love all of his work and found it very beneficial.

I've used both meditation and affirmations in the past. I found meditation the most helpful although I wasn't like an expert 'meditator' by any means. I basically tried to spend 30 minutes each day in a meditative state and I found that it reduced my stress and anxiety levels. I'm actually planning on going to a local meditation class because I want to get better at doing it. I'd recommend it to other people. There's some good meditation songs/playlists available on youtube. Just make sure you use an adblocker so they're not interrupted when you're meditating.

Natom

AVRT, great threads on those ideas here on SR in the Secular Recovery forum and Permanent Abstinence sub forum.

I'm not sure that I can say that any specific "mental technique" led directly to me being sober, but I can definitely say that the concept of mindfulness is part of my recovery. I also deal with anxiety so I learned about meditation and mindfulness from my counselor as part of my work to seek help for that.

My personal "plan" for sobriety is really multi-faceted. It's really more of a plan for life overall - i do spend a good amount of time here on SR and I use pieces and parts of some other sobriety methods.

So I guess if you are looking for some kind of magic technique to cure your issues with drinking all by itself, I have not found one.

nothing formal, but yeah, i "put pictures in my head" of future events and situations and what i would be doing as a sober person in those situations.
as basic as picturing myself with a lovely mug of hot herbal tea on an evening in winter when i'm 75:)

yes it helped. it replaced the imaginings of sitting in a rocking chair with a glass of wine or a bottle of beer...i had those pictures in my head though the reality never was "a" bottle or "a" glass.

Like others here, I didn't use any special mental tricks. What I seemed to do naturally without thinking about it, was that I kept paying attention to the achievers in my AA group, those who had achieved years of sobriety and were outwardly joyful. I was aware of other "old timers" who had achieved long term sobriety, but who confessed to it still being hard, but I kept watching the joyful achievers.

Early on, I was taken by their example of joyful long term sobriety devoid of struggle. It did not expect to meet such people. Intuitively, it seemed like a weird contradiction..., but it's what I wanted. I idolized them and used them for my role models. I gained confidence from them, accepting that such a life was within my grasp.

I am really surprised, so few use such technqiues since they are so huge in the Self Help Department as a driver, tool for change.

Why is that?

I envision my AV as an overweight, unshaven, unwashed guy. Specifically Bert Young's character in the Rocky movies.

Yoga has taught me a lot about visualization of intentions and about freeing myself of thoughts.

One thing I am working on a LOT now is an AA concept and like Scott, I'd venture to say one of the overall good life aims I have. It came to me one day in yoga when I could not get thoughts of my step daughter or worse, my husband's ex wife out of my head.

Kickball.
You easily plop off a person's pretty little head and it goes in a clear version of a kickball, with just that rubber band around it. You kick it way into the distance, and they go out of your head in that ball. There's an anti-rebound feature that prevents returning most of the time - but if the ball does bounce back, the head has remained undamaged and can be reattached to that person as you let them go on their merry way. I mean, I'm not a monster, I just don't want the wrong folks getting my mental energy or impacting my emotional balance.

And it makes me giggle to visualize it.