One thing many of us in recovery struggle with is presence. It’s almost impossible to be present during active addiction, as intoxication separates you from your feelings, and addiction changes the brain to make you hyper-focused on the substance. But even in recovery, our instinct may be to try other ways to escape our emotions or thoughts. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for helping stay present, thus improving mental health and recovery. A study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment found that mindfulness-based relapse prevention significantly reduced cravings, stress, and substance use.[1] Meditation is perhaps the most well-known form of mindfulness, and it has tons of benefits, including changing parts of the brain involved in emotional regulation. But anything you do to bring you into your current feelings, thoughts, and sensations is mindfulness. This can look like doing breathing exercises (or just focusing on your breath), noticing what you see or smell, feeling your feet on the ground. I’ve noticed that when I’m engaging in mindfulness regularly, I’m more capable of noticing when I’m not present. Noticing is crucial, because you can’t change something you don’t notice. Many people believe that they would “fail” at mindfulness because they often get lost in thought (I used to think this). But those moments of recognizing that you’re not present are part of being mindful. The point of meditation and mindfulness is not to erase your thoughts or feelings; many of us tried to this with substances, with disastrous results. Meditation is for allowing whatever arises to be there, without judgement. When you do this often, you notice that even the most painful emotions pass, that everything ebbs and flows. As someone in long-term recovery, I can still be afraid of the feelings I tried to squash with substances; mindfulness helps me learn to sit with emotions so I can process them. While we can’t control what stressors happen in our lives, much of our emotional suffering is due to ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. There is a time and place for thinking about either the past or the future. But as Michael Fayne pointed on this episode of SHARE, if you’re in active crisis, you have to go take care of that; if you’re not, the present moment almost always brings peace. If you are struggling with a substance use or mental health disorder, there is help and hope. Amatus Recovery Centers offers high-quality treatment for addiction and mental health disorders in facilities across the country. Our staff—many of whom are in recovery themselves—will help you find joy in recovery. To learn more, call an admissions specialist at 410-593-0005. [1] https://www.verywellmind.com/social-skills-4157216