Mindfulness and Meditation
Transforming Resistance to Change: The Role of Mindfulness and Meditation in Addiction Recovery
Turning the table on one’s own inner resistance to change may seem an impossible challenge to most recovering addicts, as well as to those who mentor them. Mindfulness and meditation are effective tools in challenging negative mind frames and dealing positively with cravings, and a renewed awareness of ourselves and the world around us helps redefine how we can live our lives.
This is especially important for those who undergo our ibogaine treatments to manage their addictions. It is easy to stay clean and not relapse whilst at our centre, but implementing a solid holistic aftercare plan upon returning home will go a long way in relapse prevention.
Breaking the Cycle of Addiction: How Mindfulness and Meditation Can Help
For hundreds of years, Buddhists have practiced mindfulness and meditation. By focusing on this present moment in time, all energies are pinpointed toward the now, which over time and repeated practice allows for an extreme sense of awareness. The individual becomes highly attuned to the nuances of their physical and emotional symptoms, and when in this state of mind, the recovering addict can gauge cravings to a fine degree, focus on them and force them to subside without recourse to outside assistance.
Mindfulness and meditation techniques also help in reconfiguring the brain, remolding problematic temperaments that were believed to be previously unchangeable. New neural pathways are created through the repetition of new, healthier habits.
Over time, as one continues to show up for oneself, these fresh connections help the brain adapt to new behaviour. In turn, this is what helps give rise to new alternative coping mechanisms, which will then replace one’s former attempts at resolving internal unease with external stimuli.
The Power of Repetition: How Mindfulness Habits Reshape the Brain
It has been proven, for example, that yoga and regular breathwork practice help reduce levels of cortisol, a stress-related hormone. This can and should also be further complemented by massage therapy and bodywork, another element of Ibogaine Treatment UK’s holistic aftercare approach.
Last but by no means least, regular mindfulness and meditation practice will also increase energy reserves while simultaneously boosting the immune system. In essence, the therapy improves the body and mind in many ways, from ridding it of toxins to paving the road for deeper self-awareness and more stable recovery.
As advocates of mindfulness meditation in addiction therapy, our instructors are highly trained and well-practiced having studied and worked alongside leading meditation practitioners and Yoga gurus. Creating daily regimes tailored to the individual, we strive to bring a sense of contentment where there was recent turmoil, a bright present, and an even brighter future where there was once darkness.