5 Ways to Sneak Meditation Into Your Day

It’s hard to find a habit with more benefits than meditation. The practice creates a profound sense of self-awareness that can not only make you more mentally healthy and stable, but can also help you follow a lifestyle that improves the world around you.

For many people, the word “meditation” conjures an image of sitting still for hours at a time until they achieve a state of inner peace. This idea can turn some away from the practice because they believe it requires dedicating hours of time and effort every day.

The truth is, meditation is something you can do almost anywhere and anytime without having to rearrange your schedule or isolate yourself from the world. Here are five easy ways to sneak meditation into your daily life.

1. Greet the Day

One of the most straightforward ways to meditate is when you first wake up. Set your alarm five to 10 minutes earlier than usual. When your alarm goes off, sit up and take 10 deep, slow breaths. While you’re doing so, think of things, people or situations you’re grateful for, and linger on each item for a moment. This practice will help you start each day in a positive state of mind.

2. Mealtime Meditation

Before sitting down to a meal, take the opportunity to meditate. This practice is excellent for helping you feel thankful for what you have and improving your relationship with food. Either aloud or in your mind, say, “I’m thankful for this meal and for the nourishment it will provide my body.”

Then, take a moment to notice how your food looks and smells before you take your first bite. This practice is beneficial for helping you think about food in a new light, instead of mindlessly cramming meals into your mouth without noticing them.

3. Walking Meditation

Anytime you are walking for more than a few minutes, take the opportunity to do a walking meditation. This practice is an excellent way to live in the moment and contemplate the sensory experience you are having while you move.

Start by bringing your focus back to your breath. Then, shift your attention to how it feels to move your body through space. Finally, transfer your awareness to your surroundings. How does the sunlight feel on your face? Is there a breeze blowing through your hair? Can you hear birds chirping? What colors can you see? Notice all these small details.

4. Waiting Meditation

Use this meditation next time you’re waiting for something or someone. Instead of reflexively checking your phone or looking around for some other distraction, stop and take a few deep breaths. Again, check in with your body and see how you’re feeling. If you are holding tension anywhere, consciously release it.

Are there people around you? If so, how do they make you feel? You can learn a lot about yourself by observing how your surroundings affect your emotions.

5. Bedtime Meditation

Bedtime is one of the best times of day to sneak in a brief meditation session. As a bonus, this practice can help you fall asleep faster.

Start your nighttime meditation by writing down anything that’s on your mind, whether it’s a to-do list or a nagging worry that’s been following you around all day. Once you’ve gotten it all on paper, close your eyes and picture yourself placing these burdens under lock and key.

Mindfully take 10 deep breaths here, and tell yourself your worries are safe and they don’t have to follow you into sleep. This practice will help you enjoy a more restful night.

Achieve Balance at Complete Harmony

Complete Harmony provides a well-rounded alternative to traditional drug and alcohol rehabilitation. At our beautiful healing center in California, you can discover a new way of life without the burdens of addiction weighing you down. Learn more about our innovative treatment program, and reach out to our recovery advisors to start your recovery journey on the right foot.

5 Apps That Help You Develop Meditation Habits

It’s no secret meditation has an incredible array of benefits, from lowering stress to curing insomnia to helping you find a sense of inner peace. But if you’ve tried to build a meditation practice, you already know it can be a challenge. Clearing your mind sounds so easy when you read about it, but as soon as you sit down, those intrusive thoughts creep in – and before you know it, you’re thinking about what you’re going to make for dinner instead of focusing on your breath.

If you’ve ever gotten frustrated by your lack of success in building a daily meditation practice, the good news is that there are apps to help you. If you are ready to bring a better balance and perspective to your life through meditation, here are five of the best apps to help you achieve that goal.

1. Calm

You may have learned about Calm from seeing their instantly soothing “Do Nothing for 30 Seconds” TV commercial, or perhaps you became familiar with this app after hearing that Apple named Calm its 2017 App of the Year. Calm is effective because it comes with a range of meditation lengths, as well as seven- and 21-day programs for people who need help developing a healthy habit. For users with insomnia, Calm offers “adult bedtime stories” that will relax you off to dreamland in no time.

2. Headspace

Headspace likens itself to having “a gym membership for your brain.” Its easy-to-follow guided meditations are categorized by theme, but there are also one-off meditations you can do whenever you need a quick break. Going through an especially rough patch in your day? The “SOS” meditation option is ideal for anyone who needs to prevent a mental meltdown. Headspace also offers meditation geared toward kids.

3. Buddhify

If you struggle with anxiety, you might want to install the Buddhify app on your iOS or Android device. Buzzfeed rated this beautifully designed app as their top meditation app to ease anxious thoughts. Buddhify differs from other apps in that its meditations are structured to fit into a busy lifestyle. With Buddhify, you can meditate on the go, no matter where you are. Even if you only have four minutes to squeeze in a meditation session, Buddhify is there for you. Choose your meditation based on what you are doing or feeling at a specific moment. Buddhify also allows you to share the good vibes by sending a meditation to brighten a friend’s day.

4. Stop, Breathe & Think

Available for both iOS and Android devices, Stop, Breathe & Think teaches users to check in with what they are doing and encourages them to take short breaks. After you tell the app where you are mentally, it will provide you with a recommended list of tailored meditations you can try. The app can also provide motivation that keeps you on track with developing your meditation habits by allowing you to view your progress.

5. 10% Happier

If you’ve been curious about meditation, but have found yourself skeptical about its benefits, 10% Happier is the app for you. An offshoot of journalist Dan Harris’ bestselling book of the same name, the app presents the facts about meditation so you can learn how to apply it in your life. This app offers guided audio meditations for coping with stress and anxiety, as well as for specific daily activities like walking and falling asleep.

Your Path to Inner Peace

At Complete Harmony, we have integrated holistic healing treatments like meditation into our hybrid addiction treatment model. Our California drug and alcohol rehab facility offers an integrated approach for clients who wish to undergo healing in a therapeutic setting that treats them as a whole person and allows them to address the roots of their addiction from a mind-body-spirit perspective. Contact us to learn more about beginning your recovery journey.

Mantras for Addiction Recovery

Mantras, or repetitive slogans, can be a powerful part of your recovery toolbox. By adopting a few key words or phrases, you can change your behaviors, thought patterns, and emotions. 

Perhaps the best part about mantras is that there are no rules and no special equipment; you can chant them anytime and anywhere to make yourself feel at peace.

And they don’t have to be complicated either. For example, you can chant something as simple as “calm, calm” to help ease anxiety or say to yourself, “I will not give into cravings,” if you’re feeling tempted to use again. 

Here are a few mantras to try today – or get creative and come up with your own slogans that will help you stay focused on your sobriety. 

“I’m a deserving and worthwhile person.” It’s normal to battle with feelings of self-depreciation or low self-esteem during recovery. By uttering this phrase, you can remind yourself that you are worthy of a healthy, rich, and sober life.

“I’m in control now.” Now that you’re in recovery, addiction is no longer in the driver’s seat. It’s up to you to steer your thoughts, actions, and destiny – and this mantra can help keep you going in the right direction.

“I’m not alone.” By now, you’ve likely cultivated a community of friends, family members, and addiction professionals to walk beside you as you embark on your recovery. Even so, feelings of isolation can creep up and threaten your sobriety. Use this phrase to remind yourself of your support system.

Staying Centered at Complete Harmony
Taking a few moments to meditate at work, in the car, or before stressful situations can lead to healthy, mindful decisions and the strength to remain sober. We teach our clients how to add this simple, yet powerful tool to their addiction recovery arsenal. To learn more, call 866-930-4673.

4 Complementary Addiction Therapies to Try

More and more treatment facilities are turning to alternative addiction therapies for a holistic approach to recovery. While these techniques can’t do the job alone, when used in conjunction with traditional treatment, they have been proven very effective in addressing the physical and psychological impact of addiction. 

Here we take a look at some study-proven methods and why they work to help patients during active recovery and years after to maintain lasting sobriety. 

Yoga: Through physical postures, breath work, and meditation, yoga helps those in recovery align the mind, body, and spirit and find inner piece and comfort. 

• Reintroduces physical sensation
• Relieves anxiety, stress and depression
• Regulates stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline
• Releases tension and alleviates mental fatigue
• Redirects thoughts and wards off harmful cravings

Massage therapy: Research into the benefits of massage therapy as an addiction treatment is ongoing, but studies have shown that this therapy is gaining traction for people recovering from substance abuse disorder.

• Raises “feel good” endorphins
• Improves circulation and rids body of toxins
• Relieves the stress and anxiety that’s a natural part of the withdrawal and recovery process
• Balances natural neurochemistry after extended periods of substance abuse

Acupuncture: Some practitioners use auricular (ear) acupuncture in addition to whole-body acupuncture to treat points on the ear associated with the nerves and organs that become weak and unhealthy with prolonged substance abuse, including the liver, kidney, lung, and nervous systems.

• Balances and restores function to the body
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Alleviates withdrawal symptoms, pain, and cravings
• Combats insomnia

Meditation: An integral part of Buddhist tradition, mindfulness meditation has been shown to help substance abusers prevent relapse by teaching them to become aware of their feelings (good or bad) without reacting to them. 

• Improves decision-making and impulse control
• Relieves stress and anxiety
• Heightens awareness of cravings and triggers for better management 
• Pushes away thoughts of self-criticism and blame

Finding Holistic Treatment for You
At Complete Harmony, we encourage the use of many different cutting-edge techniques to help patients recover, including acupuncture, yoga, mediation, massage therapy, and others. To learn more about our treatment center and our approach to addiction recovery, call today: 866-930-4673.