Meditation as Addiction Detoxification
The problem of meditation as addiction has reached epidemic proportions in our society. While most of us occasionally engage in activities that aren’t exactly healthy—think binge-watching that new series, finishing off that pint of ice cream, having an odd night out at the friendly neighborhood bar—for addicts, the substance or behavior they’ve become addicted to is the main focus of their lives.
Imagine if you could turn off your brain, like a computer or a smartphone? Even though it is technically impossible, it is still recommended to do, in terms of silencing the mind, as a way for re-setting the system to prevent overload. The mind is like a computer, in the sense that it is mechanical and electric. For humans, turning off the mind means death. That’s why people should not be discouraged from meditation just because they cannot stop thinking.
Although these people cannot stop thinking, what they can do is put the brain into a screen saver. This will preserve the mind while putting the brain on a “battery” saving mode. Before you do this, maybe even while doing it, picture your unwanted thoughts being dragged into the desktop recycling bin. That’s what has helped me. This is what will help clear the desktop of activity that stirs in the forefront of the mind.
Ultimately, meditation is supposed to quiet the mind. That is the point of actively pursuing meditation. As the saying goes, “Knowing is half the battle.” A lot of people know that mediation is good, yet doing it, while putting yourself in those situations to meditate, is the next step, which can sometimes even be the most challenging.
The Only Requirement
For fourteen years, I have been in and out of the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. Thankfully, that experience has been more commonly sober than not, but, even so, the relapses had always led to me going back. Last night, I happened to be in a meeting that revolved around the third tradition, which is, “The only desire for membership is a desire to stop drinking.” This can be said about mindfulness practice, too. You have to want it to achieve it.
The readings we had on the tradition talked about how AA has drawn people from all different walks of life. Mindfulness is the same way. The stereotype of meditation is a monk meditating in a cave in India. After having been one of those, who once associated meditation with India, I too once thought that I would need to go there to achieve mindfulness.
Contrary to my belief, I found mindfulness through apps and YouTube videos. Even still, I am amazed that sometimes I talk to people, about mindfulness, who I would never have imagined to swear by it so much. It is always so thrilling to come across people that defy the stereotypes. Truly, mindfulness is for everyone. The only requirement for mindfulness is a desire to adopt a mindful lifestyle or practice.
That’s like the first step of the twelve steps, though: Admitting you are powerless over your [mind], and your life is “unmanageable.” Sure, your practice may be tailor-made for a chronic match of wrestling over a mind that can lead you to admit that you are powerless over. But the point is while considering not just the third tradition and the first step, that mindfulness too requires many steps.
The G.I. Joe Fallacy
According to Laurie Santos from Yale University, Santos covers the topic of cognitive biases through two free online university courses, Khan Academy and Coursera. The point is that the mind can trick itself into believing that if you believe in something enough, if you know what your weaknesses are, then that should be enough to change it.
That is the point of “knowing is half the battle.” Years and years of cognitive research has shown that knowing things only makes up a small part of our behavior. Santos says that this is why shaping our behavior and habits is just as important.
The G.I. Joe fallacy is based on a cartoon from the 1980s. The reason for the idea is that each episode had a cheesy public service announcement at the end. They would teach people things about the situation, assuming that knowledge is, again, half the battle, with them falling into fault by not doing the second part, therefore being the fallacy. There are many cases where knowing something does not fix the problem. That is the bias. That is the fallacy. You need to do more than just knowing. That is where following the steps so many have traveled comes in, by adopting a mindfulness practice.
Detoxification
Changing behavior patterns can be just as hard as changing thought patterns. The behavior change can influence the thought patterns more than the thought patterns can influence the behavior patterns. That is what I have found. Same with what mindful people have found. That is what recovering alcoholics have also found.
When people go into the rooms of AA, they are usually discombobulated, they are tired of wrestling with alcohol, just like many mindfulness practices are tired of wrestling with their minds, with many of them practically drowning in their conscious and subconscious minds, the way alcoholics do the contents of a bottle.
Some alcoholics (and, luckily, I’ve never been one of them) need to go through detox to get alcohol out of their system. It’s like a quarantine for addiction. The aim: To not bring more trouble out into the world, while at the same time draining the source of that trouble out of the person, in an enclosed setting so they do not die in a withdrawal.
Some of them end up seeking further treatment, others remain the alcoholics left out. The point is that the state of an alcoholic is one that requires a place to drain the body of toxins, to the point of being locked up to do.
Although, and maybe not to the described extreme, mindfulness requires a detoxing of thoughts to be successful. This could mean ridding oneself of those cognitive biases, or simply be willing to sit through obsessions and pre-occupations until you move past them. Either of those is a journey that every meditator must take to sober up in thought from a toxic mind.
Thought detoxing can take place in a variety of ways. For most meditators, this would mean just setting aside time to meditate. For others, and for many of us who have been practicing for a long time, this can take place in retreats. These facilities give us a chance to push that reset button on our mind, but first closing out all the screens, while trying to get closure on certain thoughts, cut cords, set intentions, and focus on our surroundings or the breath.
Thought Cycle
Going back to dragging thoughts into a recycling bin on the computer screen, so too must we all actively work, in some way or another—not just in thought—to rid our minds of those unhealthy patterns. To uproot the issues means needing to first dig. That is the point of sitting in stillness. You must listen and watch to know where to uproot.
The point of meditation is to not just quiet the mind, but allow yourself to detox from the business of your day, or even the pain of certain emotions or stimuli. Like an alcoholic refraining from a drink, the aim is to refrain from obsessive, unhealthy thinking, which in turn develops healthier thought patterns.
Think of meditation as not just an opportunity to recycle your thoughts by creating more positive ones, but also to think of it like any other cycle. This can be season cycles or even the water cycle. The weather is supposed to change. Some days are colder than others, some days there is more rain. Some days you are dry in thought, but other days you may feel too drunk on thought to even perceive straight. The point is to just observe it, and try not to be attached to it.
The goal is to just stick with it, to keep checking “the daily weather report,” as a daily mindfulness report. Cold or hot, sunny vs. cloudy, every day is still a good day to meditate. Take it “one day at a time,” as the saying goes in Alcoholics Anonymous. You do not need to be a monk in a cave to live a mindful lifestyle.
I say, just carve out a quiet cave in your mind on those days it feels like rain. The purpose of meditation may be to achieve more happiness, but first, you have to withdraw from all that toxic thinking to be more sensible in thought.
Take Away
Just to be clear with this conclusion, the definition of detox is a “Processor period in time in which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances,” according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. Alcoholics do this for sobriety, but meditators do this by making a time and space to clear the mind of thought like alcoholics do alcohol.
The more you rid yourself of unhealthy aspects of your past, or even the activities and conversations of the day, the more likely you are to have a better tomorrow, recycling the old for a better new. You are sure to never go wrong in the mental detoxification process when you quarantine yourself for a short period every day, to rid yourself of unhealthy thoughts, behaviors, and dialogues that take away from the feeling of serenity associated with living a life that is more sober in thought. That soberness is mindful thought.
Meditation as addiction research confirms that meditation has been proven to counter addiction issues especially when combined with psychological methods, as in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Mindfulness-based practices can also be very effective in helping prevent relapse. Guided meditation is also recommended.
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