Hello,
Welcome to Embrace.
This meditation was created to help prevent relapse.
Relapse is a complex subject and has multiple stages.
There are two stages before physical relapse,
Emotional and mental relapse.
The first stage is emotional relapse.
Here you don't think about drugs yet,
But you start bottling up emotions,
You isolate yourself from others,
And in short,
You relinquish your good sober habits.
The next stage is mental.
During mental relapse,
You start craving drugs or alcohol,
You think about people,
Places and things that are associated with past use,
You start minimizing the consequences of use and glamorizing those times,
You start looking for relapse opportunities,
Rationalizing why to be okay this time,
And finally,
You start planning your physical relapse.
Noticing these early warning signs will help us be more self-aware and should signal us it is time to work on ourselves to prevent a physical relapse.
I find that compassion,
Especially towards myself,
Will help prioritize things that are important to me in life,
Help float the reasons that make me want to be clean and sober to the surface.
Compassion is a way to cultivate compassion towards myself,
Towards ourselves,
And others.
I feel metameditation is the most powerful tool in my toolbox,
It helped me in my rehab journey.
If any of these stages feel familiar,
You are in the right place,
So let's begin.
Begin by finding a comfortable seat of your choice,
You can be seated,
You can be lying down,
You can even stand,
As long as you are comfortable,
That's okay.
We start with focusing on what we feel right now,
Whatever it is,
That's okay.
You don't have to name the feeling,
You just have to notice it.
When you focus on the feeling,
Don't try to make it go away,
Don't think about will it go away or when it will go away,
Just be with it.
If you are here,
I assume it's some feeling of urge,
Restlessness,
That's okay,
Now we can focus on the breath,
We can focus on the rising and falling,
If you like you can put your hands on your tummy,
Notice how the healing breath fills your body,
Don't try to control your breath,
Just like you don't try to control your feelings,
Just observe it,
Some breaths are longer,
Some breaths are shorter,
Nobody knows what to do in order to keep itself alive,
Gently close your eyes,
Fill your breath in and out,
Focus on how the breath fills your lungs,
Try to notice how when your lungs are empty,
Body automatically knows to take another breath,
Now we'll start the mental part of this meditation,
Mental meditation is a loving kindness meditation,
Your goal is to cultivate a loving kindness towards yourself,
Towards others,
Start by bringing up a feeling of loving kindness,
You can do that by thinking about someone that you love,
It can be a pet,
A baby,
Some people think of Jesus or Buddha,
God,
The relationship must be uncomplicated,
Pure loving kindness,
When you feel this,
Put your hands on your heart,
This is the feeling of loving kindness,
This is metta,
Now think what do you wish for yourself,
What do you want for yourself and wish it for yourself,
This is not a mantra,
This is a wish,
I like to use the following,
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be easily content,
May I be free of suffering,
And I repeat it with intention,
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be easily content,
May I be free of suffering,
I try to imagine times when I had what I wish to myself,
When I wish myself may I be happy,
I try to think of times I was happy,
It doesn't have to be extreme ecstasy,
It can be something small,
At the time I spotted a mushroom in the forest,
It was beautiful,
When I wish myself may I be healthy,
I think of times I felt healthy,
At the time I made the right food choice,
At the time I went on a walk it felt really good,
When I wish myself to be easily content,
I think of times I was easily content,
It can be now in this moment,
It just feels good,
It can be the serenity I felt when I made my own dinner,
When I made dinner for my family,
When I wish myself be free of suffering,
I think of times I was free of suffering,
Many times when I'm happy,
Healthy,
But it can also be that time I was driving and someone cut me off,
But I didn't get mad,
I can explain this feeling of metta to all the people in the house,
Try to imagine every single person in the neighborhood happy,
And free of suffering,
I can explain this feeling to the county,
State,
The whole country,
How does it look like when every single person in the country is happy,
And every single person in the country is healthy,
And every single person in the country is easily content,
You can now release these thoughts,
Enjoy the feeling of metta,
Spreading throughout your whole body,
You can open your eyes,
Whenever you need,
Tap into this feeling of metta,
Or come back to this meditation,
Thank you.
