Meditation to Cure Alcohol Dependence
Alcoholism is a hard disease to fight, because it begins as a mental disposition and turns into a physiological and psychological dependence. An alcoholic wakes up and the temptation to dull awareness beckons. Going through life naturally becomes painful; sobriety becomes incarceration. Fighting the mental battle, meditation offers a solution with no side-effects.
The strangest part about alcoholism is how entirely illogical and truly unwanted it is. The taste of alcohol (actual alcohol, not beverages that mask its flavor) is unappealing and often causes the drinker’s face to cringe. The effects of drinking too much alcohol—getting blackout drunk—can cause harm to both the user and bystanders alike. The feeling of a bad hangover can be likened to the flu. So what exactly attracts us to this liquid drug? Release.
In moderate doses, alcohol’s ability to dull the senses allows us a short break to the anxieties of a fast-paced, profit-driven, and American lifestyle. If alcoholics were aware of the alternatives for decreasing stress, they may be more likely to stop drinking. Most alcoholics don’t want to get blackout drunk at their core. It’s a problem of not having their awareness dulled enough, to push away all the worries of the day, so they over-indulge. Meditation, however, increases awareness of the joys of living, thus decreasing stress levels, by mindfulness. Here’s how it works:
- Be cognizant of the air circulating around you, the water flowing in your veins, the gravity of the Earth, the entire universe bearing down on you, the warmth of your ever-changing body, and that your mind isn’t your spirit.
- The four forces of nature combine in you to create your body. Our matter is truly energy looped.
- Pay attention, as you observe moments progress each instant. See the smear of events, realizing that your ego is the paint brush.
- Find tranquility by realizing that amid every occurrence is an infinite expanse of in-between. You’re dead in the interim. There is unlimited peace where there is no space or time.
- Locate the center of yourself. It’s empty, yet fully infinite.
- Nothingness, like the vacuum, craves existence. This is where the ego comes from. Learn to live with both states: formless stability and unstable form.
- Breathe in love; breathe out angst.
- See yourself as part of the tree of life, as a cell of the divine.
Meditation can cure alcohol dependence by allowing us not to dull awareness, but understand life in a meaningful, spiritual way.