Step 1- Meditation For Addiction Recovery

This the first step in a series of 12 for addiction recovery. Find a place where you're comfortable. Close your eyes and stay with smooth, rhythmic breathing. Whenever the mind begins to wander always come back to the sound of your own breath. Namaste!

Transcript

Step one meditation.

I admit I am powerless over my addiction,

That my life has become unmanageable.

Everyone has a blind spot,

Something too close to see.

The meditation for step one is designed to help you uncover your own blind spot so you'll know more about yourself and how you might be getting in your own way.

There is a natural tendency at the beginning to avoid looking carefully,

To jump ahead and to try to fix things.

But that very tendency is often part of the problem.

As with the 12 steps,

Each of the 12 meditations in this series will build upon the prior ones.

So don't short change yourself by glossing over this meditation.

Take your time,

Work with it carefully,

And make the most of it.

Set aside time where you'll have privacy and comfort and can focus only on this guided meditation.

Have pen and paper nearby so that after the meditation you can write about what you have discovered.

Work with this meditation at least several times over several days to ensure you've learned what you can at this point in time.

Later on after you've completed this series and your life has progressed,

Come back to revisit it and learn more.

Guided Meditation.

Make yourself comfortable and close your eyes.

Take a slow,

Deep breath and let go of any tension in your body as you feel yourself sinking into the surface you're resting on,

Becoming still,

More comfortable and relaxed.

Take another slow,

Deep breath and feel a sense of calm and peace begin to fill you as you relax further.

And take another slow,

Deep breath and let your thinking begin to wind down and smooth out as you become still,

Comfortable and relaxed.

Imagine you've been sleeping a deep,

Sound sleep for many hours and you're just beginning to stir awake.

And the first thing you notice is that you're waking up on a soft bed of pine needles on the ground surrounded by ancient fir trees.

It's just before dawn and the air is quite cool,

The light is dim and there's a foggy mist in the air.

You can smell the scent of pine and the damp coolness of the earth.

It's quiet and any sound is blanketed by the mist.

Everything is a palette of soft greens,

Browns and greys.

Standing up,

You begin to walk along a path through the trees and you can feel the spongy ground beneath your feet.

Perhaps you still feel a bit foggy from your sleep but soon you come to a little spring,

Cup your hands to get a drink and splash some of the cool,

Clear water on your face.

Now you're beginning to wake up and see the trees and plants that surround you more clearly.

Walking along further you come to an outcropping of rocks in the shape of a small natural amphitheater surrounded by trees.

It seems as if nature had prepared this place just for you to rest and contemplate.

Find a place to sit and make yourself comfortable.

As you look out at the small stage formed by the rocks in front of you,

Settle in and feel the peace and tranquility that seems to embrace you here.

As the show before you opens,

A holographic image begins to appear on the stage in the form of a banner displaying your name and just below it the word clarity.

The banner fades and a moderator walks up on the stage and begins to speak saying,

You're about to see a documentary about you and your life presented to show you things you may not have been aware of or things you might have glimpsed but then quickly blocked out.

The producers wish to point out that this documentary contains only information with no judgement or moral conclusion.

Any decisions you might make as a result are entirely up to you.

We simply present the information.

How you see and respond to it is your own choice.

The moderator leaves the stage and a hologram appears this time in the form of a movie.

The movie begins with scenes from your last 48 hours and highlights something about you that had a negative impact on you or the people around you.

This might have been something you said or didn't say,

Something you did or didn't do,

Or it may have stemmed from a mood or your state of mind.

See,

Hear,

And feel the scene unfold clearly and watch carefully for the impact it has on you and any other people involved.

Watch that scene again and see,

Hear,

And feel it with as much clarity as possible as everything comes into sharper focus.

Make sure to notice if it included the use of any substance,

Habitual behavior,

Or mental emotional pattern you held that contributed to the negative outcome.

Watch that scene one more time and this time notice how automatically you slipped into your part.

Be aware of how you might have been either unconscious of what you were doing or might have known what you were doing but were unable to alter your course as if the matter were out of your own hands.

As that scene fades another appears,

This time from the past two weeks.

It again highlights something about you or what you did that had a negative impact on you or the people around you.

Watch this scene unfold clearly on the screen and look and listen carefully for the impact it had on you and others.

Watch that scene again as it comes into clearer focus and notice the use of any substance,

Habitual behavior,

Or mental emotional pattern.

Watch that scene once more and notice how you automatically slipped into your part.

Perhaps it seems if you already knew what you were going to do before it happened and you were simply following a script.

The movie changes again and goes back further in your history.

Look for a scene from as far back as you can recall when you exhibited a similar pattern of behavior to the first two scenes.

Notice how it seems you were somehow programmed to respond the way you did as if the matter was almost out of your hands.

Watch that scene once more and this time see it from the angle of the people around you.

Notice how they felt about you and how they reacted.

The last scene fades away and the moderator appears.

This movie has been an attempt to help you recognize a pattern that might otherwise be hard for you to see and even harder for you to admit.

Although you may have been caught in this pattern for quite a long time and despite all the negative consequences that may have occurred as a result,

You've never been able to change it,

Even up until the last 48 hours.

This is what is meant by the sentence,

I am powerless over my addiction that my life has become unmanageable.

The moderator leaves the stage and the holographic banner reappears to close the performance.

Hidden there is the sentence,

I admit that I am powerless over my addiction that my life has become unmanageable.

The words of the first of the 12 steps remain until they are finally replaced once again by your own name and the word clarity.

It's almost time to bring this inner journey to a close,

So gather together anything you have learned that you'd like to bring with you.

Gradually bring your awareness back into your body and your physical surroundings.

Take a deep,

Slow breath.

Gently begin to wiggle your fingers and become aware of the movement in your hands.

Take your time and when you're ready,

Open your eyes and feel awake,

Alert and refreshed.

Pick up your pen and paper and write about your experience now while it's still fresh in your mind.

Let's look at the last 11 steps now.

Reviews

I feel relaxed, calm, and at peace after this meditation

Spot on. Thank you

Thankyou

Very helpful. I am committing to beginning the 12 steps this week, thank you for this.

Excellent

Wow, very powerful. I will do this again. Thank you!

The visualization exercise of playing scenes from my life as a movie really helped me sort my though this step. I appreciate that you’ve made this available on the Insight Timer platform. Thank you 🙏🏻

I found this to be a little painful and thus worthwhile.

fantastic, i needed this insight into my addiction

Thank you so much. First day of recovery

Thank you, things really became clear.

Beautiful guided meditation that helped me look at my first step more deeply and begin to understand my patterns that lead to my addiction. Thank you.

Perfect timing...as usual

Thank you. I was struggling with a gambling for many years. But today with the help of GA I am celebrating one year today off of gambling. I am yet to start the 12step programme. Thank you for this mediation 🦋