The Role of Mindfulness Meditation in Managing Alcohol Craving

You’re at the end of a long day, and the familiar urge to drink sneaks up on you. But instead of reaching for the bottle, you close your eyes, focus on the flow of your breath, and something surprising happens — the craving starts to fade. This isn’t magic. It’s mindfulness meditation — a simple, yet powerful practice that helps us transform the way we respond to certain situations such as alcohol cravings. 

So, instead of feeling at the mercy of our urges, mindfulness meditation provides an opportunity for us to harness the power of our mind to create calm and clarity. Let’s dive into the science behind mindfulness meditation to understand how it can be an important tool in our journey to quitting or cutting back on alcohol. 

What Is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness meditation is just what it sounds like: It’s a meditation practice that focuses on increasing mindfulness. Mindfulness is a cognitive skill that involves maintaining a present awareness of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and environment without judgment. Aside from meditation, other techniques we can use to increase our awareness include journaling, deep breathing, visualization, and body scans. 

Meditation is a technique that trains our attention and awareness by calming our mind. While any type of meditation can naturally increase mindfulness, mindfulness meditation is a specific type that increases focus and awareness. For example, mindfulness meditation usually focuses on one point of reference (mindfulness technique) such as our breath, our bodily sensations, or a mantra. This focus diminishes rumination and distractions, which brings our awareness to the present moment. 

Being present is instrumental in fostering a more positive mindset and improving our overall well-being, but how does it play a role in helping us manage alcohol cravings?

Using Mindfulness Meditation To Beat Alcohol Cravings

Alcohol cravings may feel like an overwhelming urge to drink, which plays a major role in causing physical and neurological dependence associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Before we explore how mindfulness meditation can be the key to beating alcohol cravings, let’s first understand why those cravings happen in the first place.

1. Our Brain Adjusts

Alcohol leads to neurological dependence by taking over our brain’s reward system. When we drink, alcohol slows down our thoughts, providing temporary distraction and relief from difficult emotions or negative thoughts. It also gives us a boost of dopamine and serotonin, two of our body’s “feel-good” hormones that give us a sense of happiness or pleasure. Our brain catches on quickly and starts to seek this pleasurable feeling associated with alcohol. 

This reward system in our brain keeps us coming back for more. It’s similar to the happiness we feel when we have a sweet treat that can make us crave dessert every night. Or the sense of escape we feel when we play video games that makes us not want to log off. To learn how to use this to our advantage, check out “Using Positive Reinforcement and Reward Systems to Encourage Healthier Drinking Habits.”

Mindfulness meditation, which increases our awareness of the present moment, help us identify and acknowledge when an alcohol craving arises. Why does this matter? Well, alcohol cravings can be an overwhelming feeling, and often feel like an urgent need that must be fulfilled. It can lead us to act impulsively to satisfy these cravings. The pause that mindfulness meditation promotes can be extremely significant. It helps us identify our triggers and allows us to explore other coping mechanisms, building more positive behaviors. 

2. Our Body Adjusts

Not only does our brain get used to being exposed to alcohol, but so does our body. Alcohol affects every part of our body acutely and for the long run. When we drink, alcohol slows down messaging from our brain to the rest of our body. This can impair our coordination, balance, and mobility. Alcohol is also toxic to our body, which disrupts our hormones and damages cells. 

Over time, cell damage can lead to organ damage and failure, and many other long-term health conditions. Although alcohol is harmful, our body adjusts to being exposed to a certain level of it, which is why we often build up a tolerance. Our body gets used to having a certain level of alcohol, and, when we remove it, our body craves it. We often see this in the form of alcohol withdrawal. These unpleasant symptoms are the result of our body adjusting to less than its accustomed level of alcohol.

Alcohol withdrawal can be challenging both physically and mentally. Mindfulness meditation can help us navigate this challenging experience by reducing stress and anxiety, and also by getting us in tune with how we’re feeling physically and emotionally. This practice can motivate us to quit or cut back as it encourages us to explore other methods to reduce negative symptoms.

3. We’re Creatures of Habit

Adding to the physical and neurological dependence that alcohol causes is habituality. Although AUD is more than a habit, our body and brain can get used to drinking as part of our routine, evoking alcohol cravings when we remove it.

Maybe we have a glass of wine every night for dinner, but in order to quit or cut back, we no longer do this. Even if we’re not mentally or physically craving wine, we might find ourself unconsciously reaching for that glass because it’s become a habit.

Mindfulness meditation can make unconscious thoughts that have become habits more of a conscious decision. It helps us reflect and pause. Do we really want that glass of wine? Is there something we can have instead? We may be creatures of habit, but mindfulness meditation helps us build more positive habits that align with our goals.

As we can see, alcohol cravings result from alcohol’s effect on our brain, body, and lifestyle. However, mindfulness meditation can help us overcome these challenges and regain control. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits.

Mindfulness Meditation Benefits

Mindfulness meditation has many benefits that support our recovery journey.

• It limits distractions. Meditation is like reducing the noise in our brain. By limiting distractions such as self-limiting beliefs, we can better acknowledge our present thoughts and feelings and increase our focus on our goals. 
• It reduces stress and anxiety. Both mindfulness and meditation reduce stress and anxiety. This improves our mental well-being and fortitude to work through challenges that arise in recovery.
• It increases our awareness. Since meditation reduces distraction and rumination, our focus and awareness can be even sharper than using mindfulness strategies alone.
• It helps us identify triggers. Identifying our triggers is a significant component of overcoming alcohol cravings. We can develop a plan to avoid them or utilize strategies to work through them. 
• It increases our motivation for recovery. Mindfulness meditation gives us more clarity on our present situation. This clarity helps us identify the consequences of our current actions, increasing our motivation to recover. 
• It fosters positive habits. Positive habits such as setting limits, finding alternatives, and practicing gratitude are easier to develop when we’re already implementing healthy habits such as mindfulness meditation.

This meditation practice, which integrates mindfulness techniques, can be a powerful tool in recovery. But that isn’t all: we can build our recovery toolkit by exploring and implementing other beneficial tools. 

Other Recovery Tools for Alcohol Addiction 

Have you ever had a friend rave so highly about something that you try it out, but find it doesn’t work so well for you? This can apply to recovery tools as well. Some may work better for us than others. Let’s explore some positive practices we can try to help us manage alcohol cravings more effectively: 

• Track your alcohol intake. This gives us a better overview of our drinking habits, providing accountability and guiding more effective goal-setting.
• Find positive distractions. Practicing self-care, chatting with a friend, or exploring hobbies can be positive distractions to help us not give in to alcohol cravings. 
• Explore behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy helps us identify unwanted behaviors and develop strategies to develop more positive behaviors such as using mindfulness meditation to reduce stress rather than turning to alcohol. 
• Get support. Research shows that support from others can be instrumental in facilitating positive change. Reach out to friends and family, or better yet, join a supportive community like Reframe to connect with others who may be going through a similar experience.
• Consider medications. While medication may not be a cure-all for alcohol dependence or AUD, it can be a supportive tool in reaching our goals to quit or cut back. Learn more about medications used to reduce alcohol cravings and consult with your physician if needed. 

These supportive tools can help us overcome alcohol cravings and stay on the journey to recovery. 

A New Kind of Clarity

Mindfulness meditation provides a powerful and accessible tool that helps us gain control over our thoughts and impulses. By cultivating a deeper awareness and creating a sense of calm, this practice empowers us to respond to cravings with clarity rather than impulse. Whether we’re looking to quit or cut back, incorporating mindfulness meditation can be a key ally in creating lasting, positive change in our relationship with alcohol. So, the next time a craving hits, take a deep breath and allow mindfulness to help you sip on serenity instead.