Introduction to Mindfulness - Dean Amory

person as it helps them to bear what they regard as unbearable.
Marlatt (2002) quotes one client who said: “If things are always
changing, my negative moods will also change over time. Meditation
helps me to let go and to allow these natural changes to occur,
without worrying how I will control them through my drug use. The
same goes for feeling high. I cannot stay high all the time, so I get
caught in planning where and when I can get high again. The truth is,
I’ll never achieve permanent satisfaction. Just knowing that things are
always changing is a big load off my mind.” (p.48)
3) The practice of mindfulness enhances the client’s ability to deal
with urges and cravings: Marlatt (1985; 1994) teaches his clients to
visualise the urge as an ocean wave that begins as a small wavelet and
gradually builds up to a large cresting wave. As the urge wave grows
in strength, the client’s goal is to surf the urge by allowing it to pass
without being “wiped out” by giving into it. He tells clients that urges
are simply learned or “conditioned” behaviours triggered by specific
cues and high-risk situations. Like a wave, the urge response grows in
intensity until it reaches a peak level of craving. Giving in to the urge
when it peaks only serves to strengthen or “reinforce” the addictive
behaviour. Not acting on the urge, on the other hand, weakens the
grip of the addiction and strengthens the experience of freedom and
self-confidence. Like any skill, learning how to “urge surf” takes
practice and improves over time as the client achieves greater balance
on the mindfulness surfboard.
4) Mindfulness training fosters the development of an attitude of
compassion towards one’s experience of pain and distress. In
addiction treatment, it encourages in both clients and therapist a
radical acceptance of ...“where they are at”. Goal setting as a result
tends to be more realistic and pragmatic, better attuned to the client’s
current stage of change, rather than dominated by some black and
white set of criteria as to what constitutes recovery.
Mindfulness training has been gaining support as an effective
intervention that helps alleviate the grip of addiction. Langer (1998)
has defined mindfulness as a cognitive skill that can be taught to
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