Sober Synthesis

Trauma: Conscious and unconscious states of high arousal and hypervigilance; Disconnection from our senses and executive functioning; Disconnection from the experience of safety with others.

Research: 46% of individuals with PTSD also meet criteria for SUD.
Self-Medicating: Alcohol/drugs used to alleviate hyperarousal, anxiety and other distressing symptoms
Neurobiological changes in PTSD may enhance rewarding effects of substances, increasing vulnerability for SUD.
SUD in itself may be traumatic.
Stress Tolerance is low in early recovery (PAWS). Also a time of many changes and challenges.

Interventions:
Mindfulness/meditation 
Breathing exercises
Supportive/safe interaction with people (connection)
Activities that involve movement (e.g. yoga, dance)
Music, drumming, art, tapping
Massage
Trauma therapies (EMDR, Neurofeedback are often lesser known)

Mindfulness Daily with Tara/Jack – Mindful Basics https://courses.tarabrach.com/courses/mindfulness-daily

Pausing to Become Present:

Mindfulness practice addresses a longing we all share, a desire to be centered, to feel at home with ourselves and others, to be comfortable in our own skin.
The way to change begins with arriving in the present moment with awareness.

Arriving in presence
By pausing for a moment of mindful awareness and relaxing your body, you find that your mind follows suit.

In fight-flight freeze, nervous system becomes overloaded and locks into a continuous state of fight-flight-freeze.
Muscles become chronically tensed.
It can be exhausting to be in a continual state of stress, and it undermines the quality of daily life.

Conscious Relaxing
We spend much of our life waiting to arrive somewhere else.
Learn how to pause, relax the body, and begin to come home to our natural presence.
First step in relaxing is to notice our tension, our habitual suit of armor.

Opening to our Senses:
Fine tuning our body, our instrument so that we can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear more clearly. Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary by paying attention. Glimmers.
Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNvZkepAiMo&list=PLbiVpU59JkValOIEIo2Y65mBopHCjKvBo&index=6

Attitude of Friendliness:
Those who experience greatest benefit from mindfulness practice are relating to whatever’s happening inside them with an attitude of friendliness, as one would regard a good friend – with interest, acceptance, compassion, warmth.

“What is your typical attitude towards yourself?”

Miindfulness of Breathing
Most universal of mindfulness practices – awareness of breath.
The focus of breathing practice is on developing awareness.
Becoming mindful of our breathing can calm and steady our attention.
Improve our ability to focus on whatever we’re doing
We can then use this focused awareness to become mindful of our thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and of our interactions with others.
This opens us to a freedom of choice.

As you begin this practice, remember to be patient with yourself. Like learning to play piano or basketball, giving a presentation, or learning any art or skill, it takes repeated practice. 

Calming and Steadying the Breath
With mindfulness training the mind becomes less scattered and distracted.
Memory, reasoning, planning, problem solving – are all positively affected by mindfulness.

Calm & Ease Tool
Very supportive in gathering and focusing attention.
Silently say the word “calm” with the inflow and “ease” with the outflow.
The breath becomes an anchor, the foundation of steadiness and presence.

Pause Pause for a moment of mindful breathing before beginning a task, entering a room, starting a conversation.

Counting the Breath
Neuroscience research: mindful breathing balances the two branches of the autonomic nervous system.
When we bring conscious attention to the unconscious and automatic cycle of breathing, we are creating a deep sense of coherence in the brain itself.

Count from one to five and then start over. Or one to ten. 
Count backwards instead.
It’s like working out at the gym. You’re building muscles of steadiness and focus.
Stay patient and kind with yourself. 

Discussion Questions:
What draws you to cultivating mindfulness in your life? 
What draws you to embark on recovery or stay in recovery?
What have you discovered when paying attention to the breath?
What, if anything, surprised you?
What, if anything, do you find challenging in this practice?

Other FREE resources: https://palousemindfulness.com