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Mindfulness on Your Mind? Here’s What You Need to Know

What Is Mindfulness?, What Does Mindfulness Practice Involve?,

Imagine you are in bed getting ready to get a good night’s sleep (after all, you know how important sleep can be for your mental health and/or your recovery from a substance use disorder). Your pillow is just the way you like it. The room is cool and dark. You yawn and close your eyes, ready to drift off to dreamland.

And then your brain reminds you that you have plenty of things to worry about. Maybe you feel unprepared for an upcoming meeting. Maybe your kid is having trouble in school. Maybe you think you have let the “check engine” light glow in your car longer than you probably should have. By this point, maybe you are worried that you will never get to sleep.

Or perhaps your brain is not focused on the future. Maybe it would like to replay a highlight reel of things that have gone wrong in your past. That time you threw up in the backseat of a friend’s car. The mean thing you said to a sibling when you were both in elementary school. That opportunity passed you by because you were too timid or too unprepared to grab it in the moment. That time your credit card was declined in front of a lot of people waiting in line.

Sometimes, it can seem as though our brain’s primary purpose is to remind us what we have done wrong and to worry about what might go wrong in the future. And this doesn’t just happen at night when we are trying to sleep. Regret and worry can color our days, too, worsening our mental health and/or putting our hard-won sobriety at risk.

So, what to do? Practicing mindfulness is one approach to lessening the grip the past and the future have on our thinking—allowing us to be more fully present in the current moment.

Defining Our Terms: What Is Mindfulness?

The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley defines mindfulness this way:

Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.

Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

This focus on the present can help reduce feelings of anxiety and depression while also supporting your recovery journey by lessening the tendency to fall into a cycle of unhelpful worry and regret that can tempt you to turn to drugs or alcohol to find relief.

Step by Step: What Does Mindfulness Practice Involve?

You might have an image in your head of someone meditating. Perhaps the person is sitting on the floor in a flowy robe with their eyes closed for hours at a time. None of that may be terribly appealing to you. But mindfulness meditation can be practiced in many ways; even though mindfulness has its roots in Buddhist practice, you don’t have to be a monk to participate. 

You may be able to find a mindfulness program in your community so that you can participate with others (not unlike a yoga class or an exercise class). Or you can find many resources online, including a number of apps designed to teach you the basics and help you get into the habit of spending some time focusing your attention on the present.

Your mindfulness practice will likely involve spending a short period of time each day (the amount of time you spend is really up to you) sitting comfortably with your eyes closed while you focus on your breath. There are different techniques to try, but at its heart, mindfulness is about bringing your attention to the present moment and resting the mind there. Over time, you will be better able to focus your attention on the present moment in day-to-day life—and to recognize those times when your thoughts seem to scurry about on their own.

That won’t mean, of course, that your life will suddenly be free of challenges, but it may put you in a much better frame of mind to address those difficulties.

We Don’t Mind If You Are Skeptical

You may feel some skepticism around mindfulness. Perhaps you are concerned that it doesn’t jibe with your faith tradition (though the practice does not require you to change any of your beliefs). Maybe it feels a little too woo-woo to you. You might be concerned that you will just feel silly sitting down, closing your eyes, and focusing on the breath. Heck, you might even be concerned that you will just fall asleep since you haven’t been sleeping well at night. 

And it may turn out that mindfulness is not for you. But with such a low bar to entry—many apps are either entirely free or have some free content—it may well be worth a try. If it turns out that the practice alleviates some anxiety or helps you overcome cravings in recovery, you will have gained a useful tool for supporting your mental health and/or sobriety.

Is Getting Help On Your Mind?

If you are struggling—with a mental health disorder, a substance use disorder, or both—and ready to get some help, all of us at Peak View Behavioral Health stand ready to provide the compassionate, evidence-based care you need. We are committed to developing a treatment plan that is personalized specifically for you and your individual needs. We are mindful (see what we did there?) of the varied ways mental health and substance use disorders can impact a person’s life—and we are here to provide the treatment and resources that will best serve you.

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