The Role Of Meditation In Addiction Recovery

I thought I'd share a video I made the other day about the role of meditation in addiction recovery.

Throughout my career as a drug and alcohol counselor I've always had a special affinity for helping treatment clients with the spiritual aspect of recovery. In particular I would do a lot in creating meditation experiences using music, drumming, and various forms of ritual.

WATCH VIDEO NOW: A Simple Approach To Meditation And 12-Step Recovery

VIRTUAL... MEDITATION?

So here's the deal.

I closed my office during the pandemic and have continued to do all my work virtually. While this works fine for most aspects of my business, the one thing I've missed is facilitating the kind of meditation experiences I've been so used to doing in person. 

So I decided to adapt and figure out how to deliver meditation resources virtually!

In addition to facilitating meditation through my various musical and spiritual interests, I also happen to love doing production work in my recording studio. Besides recording my own rock and roll music since I was in my 20's, I eventually moved into producing meditation and guided imagery pieces specifically to support my work in addiction treatment. 

Then came the pandemic. And with it came this significant shift to doing things virtually. In the first months of the pandemic I was involved with a big annual event in Dallas for supporting artists and musicians in recovery. Rather than cancel the event that year, I suggested we come up with a way to do the event online. And that began the next chapter of learning how to deliver recovery related events virtually—through Zoom, livestreams, and all sorts of creative use of audio and video production.  

The video above represents my next undertaking: Developing ways to re-create some of the unique experiential meditation activities I've been doing for years—only now in the virtual realm. And I've got all sorts of exciting ideas up my sleeve that I'll be sharing in the coming months. 

But for now, let's take a look at what this first video effort is all about. 

MEDITATION AND 12-STEP RECOVERY

I am a major advocate for the role meditation can play in overcoming addiction problems. The 12-Step recovery program actually identifies this in one of the steps:

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Yet one of the most common statements I hear around recovery circles is, "I don't know how to meditate."

My intention in this initial video is to demonstrate how we can keep this real simple. Just taking a few moments for some simple relaxation is a perfect first step towards meditation. Taking a few deep breaths, relaxing your muscles, and then—well, just turning off your thoughts. 

And that's where a lot of people hit a brick wall. "I can't stop my thoughts!" "I can't relax!"

So right there—the first point we need to acknowledge is:

Yes, it is indeed quite difficult to turn off all of your thoughts!

And that's OK!

Sure, there's a goal in some hardcore meditation practices to completely empty the mind and think about nothing. But a much easier approach is to simply focus on one thing, rather than try to think about nothing at all. And that can include anything from staring at a candle flame to listening to a drum beat or some type of guided imagery recording. Heck—to keep it really simple, just reading the daily reading out of a daily meditation book and taking a few minutes to think about it can qualify as meditation—and you might be surprised at how effective this simple little action can be! (see below for a list of recovery-oriented daily meditation books)

Just like riding a bike, it's important to realize that meditation is a skill you can work at and you'll get better at it over time.

INNER GUIDANCE: THE "STILL, SMALL VOICE WITHIN"

Not all the thoughts we have during a meditation should simply be discarded as meaningless distractions. A recurring theme in the AA "Big Book" is the idea of developing our capacity for intuitive thought: 

"We ask for an intuitive thought or inspiration."

"We will intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us."

For a lot of folks this idea of "developing our capacity for intuitive thought" might sound like some kind of deep, complex subject. But this is another area where we can keep it real simple and have powerful results before we know it.  

If we go back to the idea that it's hard to turn off our thoughts while trying to meditate, let's try another approach. Rather than feeling like you failed because you couldn't stop thinking, simply pay attention to the thoughts that do come to your mind. Many times what appears to be a totally random thought ends up having some coincidental meaning that turns out to be a powerful lesson and points you in a direction you never would have considered.

And that brings us a little closer to what meditation is really all about. Because when it comes down to it, we might ask ourselves, "where do these thoughts come from?" 

The power of meditation is rooted in the timeless concept of listening to the "still, small voice within." Some may view this as God talking to us. However, I'm always mindful of keeping discussions like this open-ended so as not to make it seem like you have to have any certain religious or spiritual beliefs to benefit from meditation (or 12-Step recovery in general). There are many ways to interpret this idea of the still, small voice: Our conscience, higher self, common sense, gut feeling, and so on. One way of looking at is by drawing a distinction between the idea of rational thought versus intuitive thought: 

Rational thought—Head (balancing checkbooks, analyzing data, logical, etc.)

Intuitive thought—Heart (creative, emotional, open-ended, inspired)

For many, the journey from the head to the heart is a tough one. But meditation—in even the simplest forms—is a great way to begin this journey. As I mentioned above, meditation is a skill that can be developed over time. But once you get a glimpse of how this "still, small voice" stuff works, you'll start seeing how this idea of going within for inner guidance can turn out to be a powerful tool for helping you navigate the uncharted waters of Life. 

Exercise: Accessing the "still, small voice"

Here's how simple this can be:

1. Look at the picture below for a few minutes and reflect on the symbolic meaning of the image—what it might suggest, how you could apply this to your life, and so on.

2. There's a really good chance you just experienced getting out of your head and into your heart. This is where we find intuitive thought. Did you get any type of message from the "still, small voice" about the meaning of the image?

INTENTION

An understandable question at this point would be: "How do I know that the random thought I'm having during my meditation—which appears to have nothing to do with anything—is actually some sort of Divine message intended to change my life?" We certainly don't receive certified emails from God saying "this is what I think you should do." In other words, there is no absolute proof that we are indeed receiving Divine guidance. Faith, trust, and simply keeping an open mind are all factors that will influence our success with meditation. 

One simple way to open the door to inner guidance is by setting an intention as part of your meditation. This will often tie into what you are focusing on to assist in the meditation. For example, daily meditation readings are a really simple way to set an intention: "How can I apply this daily reading to what's going on with me today?" This creates a mindset that opens a pathway out of the head and into the heart. We open ourselves to the experience. And then we start watching for those "coincidental" experiences: "Today's reading was just what I needed to hear today!" The thoughts we have about it take on some added meaning, and before we know it, we're starting to get a sense of what this "inner voice" is all about. 

Now to take this a step further, that's where guided imagery or some creative use of sound can come into play.

For example, the musical piece I created for the video I'm sharing with you here includes the sound of Native American Flute and rainsticks. You can use this piece to experiment with setting an intention: 

1. Get yourself in a nice, relaxed position, take a few deep breaths, and hit play.
2. As you hear the sound of the rainsticks, use this as a focus point for your meditation. Feel the rain coming over you, cleansing, bringing new life. Think about what it feels like to be immersed in soothing rainfall, about what meaning this might hold for you. Just allow yourself to go into the rain. This would be focusing on one thing. Sure, you're "thinking" about something, but this is where you merge "thinking" with creating intention. Your intention is to have some sort of healing experience or new awareness using the sound of the rainfall as your focus. 

INTO ACTION

It's said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. And as I've already mentioned, for some folks this journey from the head to the heart can be like one of those thousand mile journeys. My purpose in writing this post today is to hopefully provide a little spark for the many out there who struggle with this whole idea of meditation. 

Years ago I made a meditation CD I actually called "The Journey To The Heart." It included some discussion about how to use the CD and I eventually used it as part of my curriculum when I ran an adolescent treatment program. As I alluded to above, action for me on this topic is taking steps to rekindle my own spark for doing this kind of work in helping others grow in this area. My plan is to revisit the Journey To The Heart CD and develop that into a more comprehensive recovery-oriented meditation course. 

For today, in the spirit of taking first steps I invite you take a moment and do something that falls under the heading of "meditation." Some of you may have well established routines, while others may just be taking first steps. In that case just watching the video I'm sharing today could be a good first step.

In the video:

• Introduction to the role of meditation in 12-Step recovery
• Calming ourselves
• Inner guidance: The "still, small voice within" 
• Musical meditation piece (Native American Flute, rainsticks)

WATCH VIDEO NOW: A Simple Approach To Meditation And 12-Step Recovery

And as long as I'm sharing videos...

I probably shouldn't do this but what the heck. Since this is all about embarking into new territory of coming up with creative ways to facilitate virtual meditative experiences, just for yucks I'll go ahead and share another video with you. 

This is a "behind the scenes" glimpse into the type of stuff I'm planning on developing for more polished presentations in the future. This video is my first attempt at seeing what I can do by looping audio tracks together in real time and thus creating an entire meditation piece as a "live performance."

Again, this is really not polished; there are mistakes and technical problems. But despite the glitches, I've actually received a lot of feedback from viewers saying how much they enjoy this one (see below). It's not lost on me that I may be experiencing my own lesson in letting go of perfectionism. At least that's what I think the still, small voice is telling me!

So in the pioneering spirit of this blog post, here you go—another video you might be able to use to meditate with as well: 

TEST VIDEO: Many Rains (Live looping performance) 

JOURNEY TO THE HEART

As I begin to develop this new meditation material, this is an area where I could really use your feedback! 

If recovery-oriented meditation is something you're interested in, please let me know in the comment section at the bottom of this page:

• How would you use resources like this?
• What would you like to see more of?
• What type of formats work best for you (videos, mp3, podcast, music, guided imagery, breath/body relaxation etc)

As I mentioned above, I'm thinking about doing a major revision of my Journey To The Heart curriculum and making it available as an online course. If this is something you'd be interested in, please sign up for my mailing list below to make sure I can let you know when it's available.

COMING SOON!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: DAILY MEDITATION BOOKS

There are numerous "daily meditation" books available; you can find one for practically every demographic and recovery discipline. Here's a short list of some of commonly used ones.

Daily Reflections (Alcoholics Anonymous, "AA")

Just For Today (Narcotics Anonymous, "NA")

Courage To Change (Al-Anon)

Keep It Simple (Recovery in general)