The 5 "R's"​ Mental Health Matters (2024)

Compassionate self-inquiry, or mindfulness, is a key practice in dismantling the corrosive cycle of addictive behavior. The addict can learn to befriend the troubling underlining thought or unresolved emotion through a variety of mindful means. Like the monster (or hungry ghost) under the bed, once seen in the light of awareness, that painful ogre loses its power. Beginning to form a relationship with their insecurities, the addict challenges their perception. The conditioned negative response may now begin to morph into a wholesome self-aware point of view. A five-part plan to becoming more consciously aware of one’s monkey-mind: relabel, reattribute, refocus, revalue, re-create. By reframing the internal conversation, the unmet needs of the wounded child within, begin to heal; the conditioned self, then, meets the authentic self, and real healing can begin. This spiritual practice should be an adjunctive therapeutic modality to the 12-step support group method of prevention, and to be undertaken after the addict is willing to delve deeper into their past.

In my recovery toolbox is a mindfulness practice, Mindful Movements Meditation, developed by the Zen Buddhist Master, Thich Nhat Hahn. The practice of these ten simple stretching exercises has positively impacted my own reconciliation process with traumatic events from my childhood and adolescence. The Mindful Movements of Thich Nhat Hahn add an element of participatory beauty and symbolic meaning that can feed the soul. This work can retrain the scope, depth, and durability of your attention, and cultivate a kinesthetic and sensory awareness of hidden hurts. The practice of Mindful Movements deepens a connection and harmony with the conflicting worlds of ideas and emotions. Participation in these Mindful Movements transforms suffering.They restore the soul, the part of us that yearns for meaning amidst an often-fragmented disorienting world. They put us directly in touch with a deep universal source or silence, without any intervening religious or new age interpretation. We learn to bring kindness to our own suffering. After learning yesterday of the suicide of Stephen "tWitch" Boss, a dancer with whom I deeply resonated, I once again was visited by my own prospective untimely death. And once again, the miracle of mindfulness showed up in my awareness, banishing the darkness of a shadowy death for another day.

Mindful Movements are meditation in motion. They are the medicine we need now. And don’t we all want to live with Grace here on Earth?