I am sure some experienced addicts will help you with this.

For me, I have used breathing as a way to destress off and on for years.  A therapist got me restarted on it.

First of all, have you ever seen the skin "dots" that were like moon rings? You'd put one on your hand, and to make it change color one would do this....breath out, thing about pushing the blood away from your heart and thing warm hands.

Go ahead and laugh, but it works for me and I do it right before I have my blood pressure taken!

I combine that with yoga based breathing. You can do a 4 second intake, followed by a 8 second outtake, or 5 and ten. Some yoga says only concentrate on the breathing out. When I do it, I try to do 10 to 20 complete cycles, counting slowly. All you have to do is concentrate on the emptying of your lungs, a nice deep exhaul.


For me I am on my 6th step, and feel I'll learn meditation when I reach that step (11th?). For now, I just try to slow myself down as much as possible when I pray every morning....

I came home today pretty greatful I got some extra work today handed to me.

I've also had a situation at my regular job that really has me worked up pretty bad and last Firday I just about went off pretty bad on the gal who books our jobs each week instead I walked away from it and dealt with it with management, wrote a letter to my boss explaining the situation and made some calls .

So when I got home today I took a few minutes on my knees, what I do is just open my mind to my higher power to speak to me and give me the important issues at hand.

Today I got told to concentrate on my health, my loved ones and just simply staying at peace. This is how I am to show my love to my higher power through my behavior, actions and attitudes towards others and situations as they arise, that is what I got from my time meditating today.

This may sound silly or corney but sometimes I just need a hug from my higher power, he is my Father , my real father never hugged me my higher power hugs me and holds me and reassures me I am doing fine and that's important in my relationship with him because inside is still a small child needing a fathers love , I am not ashamed of this because this brings me peace and courage to go on when times get difficult and I feel like falling apart, this keeps me rooted in what i am trying to do.

Jana, our literature talks about (in the 11th step) how there is now WRONG way to meditate. I too, struggled with thinking I was doing it wrong because I could not "blank" my mind. This is how I meditate today:
I try to relax first. Breathing exercises and muscle relaxation techniques can help. Then I try to just let go of all conscious thought. Thoughts come, thoughts go. If I find myself starting to FOLLOW a train of thought, I consciously come back to center and ask my HP to help me focus. One tool that helps is to focus on an image in my mind. It can be anything- a pair of praying hands, a key unlocking a lock, an arrow piercing a heart, I've even just used the NA symbol. Whenever my mind starts to wander, I come back to the image. It always seems like the time passes very quickly when I do this.

Another way I meditated in early recovery was to meditate on a passage from the literature. I would pick a passage that I lacked a clear understanding of and commit it to memory, then I would repeat it over and over in my mind while asking my HP for a better understanding. Eventually, I would notice that my understanding had improved. This also helped me to become much more familiar with the literature.

It also talks about how important it is that we not give up. Keep trying, it's about progress, not perfection!!

Great thread, Jana. Thanks for posting.

"OUR PRELIMINARY PREMISE IS AIMED AT STILLING THE MIND AND LETTING THE THOUGHTS THAT ARISE DIE A NATURAL DEATH" 11th Step, Basic Text. 

I found my life has improved incredibly, drastically after I bagan the 20 minute a day Silence. There is no preperation, only a wilingness for the experience itself. So, I just sat and watched my own thoughts without interfering. Then what happens is the next phase comes along. The thoughts come and go and I am Silent. That Silence becomes the "blank". And a state of being blissfully free of activity,of being "clean-minded" came pon my existance. 

The energy that follows afterwards is the payoff. 

I can re-count the following phases= 
1.Began with sittiing still,quiet, and eyes closed. and "looked" into the "darkness".
2.When thoughts arose that I wanted to correct or applaud or react to in any other way, I followed suggestions of my sponsor of that time (who has about  38  years clean now) and kept Silent. 
3 Thereafter, as that (Meditation) became an everyday reality, i experienced many moments of Blissful Quietness. 
I did that for years. Then i discontinued it for sometime ,but thankfull,I Meditatate each day,no matter what.
It seems like Ive learntthat Meditation is not just that time spent in Silence,,indeed it seems more an attitude to life itself. 

I beleive theres a link between the 3rd and 11th Steps. The 3rd is the fisr time the God word is given and the 11th is the last where God is mentioned. There must be some spiritual meaning to it.

Just as the 3rd states that
1. we have a right to find (or continue) with a God of our understanding 
2.  this right is total and without any catches so also in the 11th Step .
the 11th encourages us to find Meditation based on our beliefs.
 
However there is caution to be exercised. There is Light on the nature of what may be considered wise choices. The 3rd says that though the right to a God of our understanding is total and without any catches,the important thing is that it works. Then it adds that many of us understand God as Force that keeps us clean. And the 11th Step cautions us not to be trapped by our wants !!! 

The 11th Step itself states that both Prayer and Meditation are practiced in order to have "power to carry that out". 
I an addict am powrless over addiction .I cannot change that fact ever,,my own histrory abd the stories of others prove the point and newcomers again prove it.
The only thing I can change is the unmanageablity of my life,, and for that I need power !!!






-- Edited by Raman at 17:05, 2009-01-13

Thanks Tahir. I too, notice that if I become lax in my daily devotions, I experience more anxiety, fear, and frustration. Text says that "Emotional balance is one of the first results of meditation, and our experience bears this out." Glad to hear I'm not the only one who sometimes struggles with consistentcy in meditation.