Meditation To Break Habits and Break Cyclical Living

Habits are our brains on autopilot living out a pattern. The interesting thing about habits is that we typically have the urge to repeat them because they feel good, but living out a cyclical pattern doesn’t sound very fulfilling does it?

Without self-reflection, we continue to live in a cycle of feeling triggered, performing our habit, and receiving the high of it.

We may replace the original habit with another one without actually getting to the root of what is really going on. Meditation is a key to free ourselves from this cyclical limbo.

How Can Meditation Help

Meditation is a process of introspection and creating self-awareness. This practice will begin to peel back the layers of Maya, a yogic term meaning to believing in illusion.

When we are able to see clearly what is motivating us, what habits we are using to numb ourselves, and in what ways we are blocking ourselves from bliss it becomes much easier to quit these habits.

Another way meditation can help to end the cycle of habitual seeking is by creating nonjudgment. Now, this may not seem to be as much of a gamechanger as it actually is.

See part of an addiction or bad habit is the process of deciding you shouldn’t want something, guilting yourself afterward, and falling into a negative self-view.

Have you ever experienced wanting something that you couldn’t have and once you were allowed to have it, you found that you didn’t want it as much?

With meditation, you are able to build control over your thoughts and begin forming thought inquiry rather than blindly following them.

This gives you the upper hand and places you in a position of power. As you can imagine with this information meditation is extremely beneficial in the process of quitting smoking.

“The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term, is the indispensable prerequisite for success”
Tony Robbins

This mind shift can be more easily integrated when we are taking the time to meditate and allow our brains to process and discard what has accumulated throughout our day.

Simple Meditation Techniques

There are many different meditation techniques that can help you break habits and become free of addiction. Simply cultivating mindfulness in your daily life will make it harder for addictive behaviors to take root.

Visualization

Using visualization you can begin to rewire the mind as well as the physiology in your body to match a you that is free from addictions. Chances are you are much more likely to be successful in something you can actually see yourself doing.

Mindfulness

Habits are our automatic way of living by bringing mindfulness into the equation we are re-sensitizing ourselves by being fully engaged with life. This in effect will cause us to be aware of when we shift into autopilot and cyclical behaviors

Mantras

By working with chanting mantras you can begin to strengthen your muscle of mental focus. When you are focusing on chanting the same mantra for fifteen minutes you will notice many distractions come up such as sensations in your body and thoughts during your practice.

When you allow yourself to acknowledge that you had a thought or sensation come up during your practice you have taken the first step back from identifying with the thought. This can be applied to repetitive urges or cravings.

Learning how to witness and how to watch thoughts and feelings come up brings you out of being controlled by them. You then have the power to act on ones that will truly benefit you.