Why Meditation Can Cure Everything (but Still be Helpful in Recovery)
Meditation is having a heyday at the moment. It seems everything is turning to meditation as a means of supporting people spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and in other ways to find peace and rest in a crazy world. Many westerners, in particular, come looking for psychological healing from meditation as it has become mainstream. Meditation is not meant as a healing modality. Psychotherapy is a way to support healing for people in great need of this but, in tandem, the two can often be quite powerful in supporting a person’s healing in recovery from mental, emotional, or addictive trauma and symptoms.
Not ‘Doing it All’
Meditation is a pathway to awakening. The idea meditation cannot resolve suffering was discounted for a time but, with growing research, it is gaining greater acceptance. When old trauma, pain, and patterns get stuck on repeat, it makes spiritual practice overwhelming. A person needs to turn towards therapy to dig deeper and rely on meditation as a supplement, rather than the primary healing modality, for what ails them. When working with people, it helps to look at how they experience transformation of their emotional patterning and behaviors. People may learn things early on but cannot shake the old pattern. In therapy, people discover lingering issues and find ways of resolving them that stick. Meditation can help find peace and support throughout the process, even if it is not the primary means of healing.
Meditation as Support
The way meditation can support a person is in tandem with therapy. As painful thoughts and feelings emerge, a meditator can be more likely than a non-meditator to understand thoughts and feelings as an internal process. This is critical in ending problematic behavior and growing in consciousness. This skill, in combination with internalization of the therapist’s caring presence, can deeply change the way a person responds to thoughts and relationships. Understanding how meditators in therapy experience thoughts and grow trust for themselves or others helps grow awareness of their mind to support it through recovery. Psychotherapy can help heal old wounds that let defenses down so the armor is not in the way of responding to felt needs of others and the self in the world. Meditation can be a much more clear and beneficial experience in this way.
When people are ready to move forward in the healing process, they are more open to other things like meditation that can help them see themselves in the world so differently than before they got psychological help. In recovery from addiction, it helps to seek out therapy, alternative therapies, and other pathways of healing that are available to see what works. What helps one may not help another. There are many types of therapeutic techniques which can be tried to see what sticks for one person in recovery. The key is to keep trying, not give up, and be open-minded about the process as well as the outcome. Recovery is a journey of healing built on many small steps that start with admitting the need for help.
The Palmetto Center is based on a Therapeutic Community model. We help people learn how to live free of addiction. Our community support provides structure while trained counselors offer life skills training and therapeutic techniques to help you move past addiction. Our program provides special focus for professionals including chiropractors, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and more who need help with addiction recovery. Call us to find out more: 866-848-3001.
