Urge Surfing Mindfulness Practice To Break Bad Habits

Closing your eyes and sitting comfortably relaxing your body,

Bringing your attention to your breath coming to a place of neutral observation and now noticing your urge connecting with it allowing it to increase to its full strength naming your urge,

Saying to yourself,

I'm having the urge too naming your behaviour scanning your body slowly from head to toe identifying where this urge resides in your body it could be in one place or in many places and giving it a rating out of 10 for how it is right now 10 being that you must give in to your urge right away and 1 being not even feeling the urge at all just notice how strong your urge is right now not trying to change it or push it away just allowing it to be knowing that it has no power over you and that ultimately you make the choice whether or not you let this urge control your actions coming to a place of neutral observation and now noticing your urge naming your urge naming your behaviour naming your behaviour naming your behaviour naming your behaviour naming your behaviour and now we're going to take some slow deep breaths and ride or surf the urge until it diminishes so on your next out breath pushing all of the air out of your lungs and then on the in breath counting slowly to four 3,

2,

3,

4,

Out,

2,

3,

4 continuing breathing in this way counting to four,

Slowing your breath right down noticing if you get hooked into any thoughts and just bringing your focus back to your breath in,

2,

3,

4,

Out,

2,

3,

4 breathing in breathing out breathing in breathing out scanning your body once again reassessing the level of your urge and giving it a rating and then coming back to slow deep breaths surfing the urge in,

2,

3,

4,

Out,

2,

3,

4 breathing in breathing out breathing in breathing out breathing in not needing to eliminate the urge just allowing it to exist while you ride it out breathing in breathing out you may notice that your urge disappears completely or that it flows like a wave gaining strength and then subsiding again breathing gently allowing yourself to observe your urge as it flows and changes breathing back breathing in breathing out breathing in Deep,

Slow breathing.

Deep,

Slow breathing.

And once again checking in to see where your urge is at,

Giving it a rating.

And continuing this slow breathing while you consider the following questions.

Does this action lead to long term happiness and health?

Or is it simply something that gives you short term pleasure along with unwanted consequences?

If you were able to reduce how often you give in to this urge,

How would your life be different?

What would you be able to do?

What sort of person would you become?

What would be the impact on your relationships?

Health,

Work,

Happiness and overall satisfaction in life.

Allowing the answers to flow from within.

Now asking yourself,

If you were free from this urge,

What would you do now instead?

Recognizing now that you have the power to choose an action that aligns with the life you want to create.

Even though you experience this urge.

And every time this urge shows up for you,

You can simply breathe into it,

Surf it,

Observe it and allow it.

And once it reduces and loses its power,

You can decide what you want to do next.

Ask yourself,

What sort of person do I want to be?

How can I be more like that person right now?

What steps can I take towards a more meaningful life today?

What would you be able to do?

What would you be able to do?

What would you be able to do?

Bringing yourself back now,

Breathing lightly,

Opening your eyes,

Noticing the space around you,

Noticing what you can hear.

Coming back to this exercise,

Next time you're struggling with this urge,

And for now,

Making a choice that aligns with your truth.