The opioid crisis represents how out of control we have become in our desire to numb ourselves from feelings that are uncomfortable. This crisis of mass addiction has escalated over the last two decades and now claims more than 100,000 lives in the US each year. The risk of death becomes a price that opioid addicts are willing to pay so that they can have temporary relief from pain and emotional anguish.
But instead, we can learn how to use an entirely natural and effective alternative to opioids — our own bodies’ natural abilities to work through pain and suffering. Our brains are able to manufacture chemicals that produce the type of endorphins that make us feel as good or as high as drugs or alcohol can. What’s more, we all have the ability to tap into them through means such as Mindfulness and meditation. Both can be used to trigger the neurotransmitters in our brains that make us feel high.
Those of us who are awakening to this capability, including veterans with PTSD, are able to reduce stress and anxiety and connect with feelings of harmony and happiness.
Tap Into Mindfulness
Each of us can learn to tap into Mindfulness — or present moment awareness — and reveal the moments of our lives as rich with meaning. Mindfulness not only helps to ameliorate our suffering, but also to experience joy, gratitude, and a higher state of consciousness. Mindfulness is there for us when we want a boost of energy and excitement to lift us up from the doldrums of everyday life challenges.
Our spirits not only deserve to be nurtured and loved, but also to feel elevated. When we experience this type of joy, we fire up our neurotransmitters. When we’re good to ourselves and able to value who we are, we’re in essence nurturing and healing our spirit.
Each of us in our own way yearns to join the universe in its oneness. When we practice Mindfulness, we’re able to achieve a shift in consciousness that, essentially, helps raise the consciousness on the planet. With Mindfulness we stay in present moment awareness, commit to self-surrender and lift the veils of falsehood. In doing this, we feel the shift in our consciousness as it connects to the collective whole.
In essence, what we do individually to self-heal through Mindfulness and connect to a higher awareness affects the universal consciousness of the planet. If we attempt to find that connection through drugs, alcohol, or other mind-numbing influences, we rob ourselves, and therefore a part of our humanity, from finding union with the divine spirit within and around us.
How To Self-Heal Through Mindfulness
To begin to tap into your body’s capacity for self-healing through Mindfulness, use this silent contemplation as a guide:
- Find a quiet place to sit.
- Let your mind rest in non-doing.
- Open your mind to receive by telling yourself that you’re open to knowing.
- If your mind is active, engage it in a question — for example: “Who am I?” or “What is this life?”
- Spend time allowing yourself to be with what you ask.
- Say that you are ready to know.
- Dwell in whatever you’re hearing or feeling.
- Allow yourself to go deeper into reflective thinking and follow your introspection where it takes you.
- Call forward God, source, eternal spirit, or whatever the divine means to you.
- Let yourself freefall into your connection with the divine.
Give yourself the gift of self-healing through Mindfulness each day. Find time to be still and present and to tap into your body’s natural abilities to calm yourself, reduce stress, and connect with feelings of harmony and happiness.
Author Bio
Ora Nadrich is a pioneering Mindfulness expert, international keynote speaker and coach, and the founder and president of the Institute for Transformational Thinking.
A sought-after expert in the fields of Mindfulness, transformational thinking and self-discovery, she is the author of Says Who? How One Simple Question Can Change the Way You Think Forever, and Live True: A Mindfulness Guide to Authenticity, named “one of the 100 Best Mindfulness Books of All Time” by BookAuthority, Mindfulness and Mysticism: Connecting Present Moment Awareness with Higher States of Consciousness, and Time to Awaken: Changing the World with Conscious Awareness. Learn more at oranadrich.com.