healthy mind 4 MINDFULNESS MEDITATIONS TO BREAK YOUR ADDICTION TO
t n e d n e p Code RELATIONSHIPS By Beverly Conyers IF YOU’VE FOUND YOURSELF IN A CYCLE OF CODEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS, REST ASSURED THAT THERE IS A WAY OUT. LEARNING HOW TO OVERCOME CODEPENDENCY WILL TAKE SOME DEEP INNER WORK, BUT WITH THE HELP OF MINDFULNESS MEDITATION, THIS PROCESS CAN BECOME MUCH EASIER. Mindfulness, and mindful meditation, can help you recover from anything and everything in life. Whether that’s combating self-sabotaging behaviors, healing shame, and reaching emotional sobriety, or battling addictive tendencies and releasing trauma, I offer mindfulness meditation techniques that can help. Many of these practices can be applied to codependency
recovery too. But first, what is mindfulness? The definition of mindfulness is: “The practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.” And, what is codependency anyway? Codependency is most often rooted in childhood; becoming a learned behavior that affects relationships. A codependent relationship typically forms with a romantic partner, although it can happen with a friend or family member. The definition of codependency is: “A psychological condition or a relationship in which a person is controlled or manipulated by another who is affected with a pathological condition (such as an addiction to alcohol or
Beverly Conyers is a mother of three grown children. She began writing about addiction when she discovered her youngest daughter had become addicted to heroin. Through her books, she hopes to reduce the stigma of addiction to help families and friends develop effective coping strategies, and to offer support, strength, and hope by sharing fact-based information and real-life stories of struggle and recovery.
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heroin) broadly: dependence on the needs of or control by another.” When it comes to romantic relationships, codependent partners tend to put their needs aside in order to support, help, or "fix" the person they’re in a relationship with. The codependent partner typically believes that they will only receive love from their partner if they sacrifice themselves in this way. Also, they often gain a sense of identity, self-confidence, and value from how they help their partner. In many cases, a codependent partner may stay with someone who is abusive or has a substance abuse problem or addiction. This way, they feel needed and can work to gain their partner’s love. A codependent person draws so much of their own self-worth from their partner that they develop a sort of relationship or love addiction that keeps them in a codependency
cycle. Have you been asking yourself, “Am I codependent?” Here are a few signs. A FEW SIGNS OF CODEPENDENCY INCLUDE: • Valuing others’ approval more than your own approval. • Having difficulty making decisions for yourself. • Fears of abandonment. • Poor self-esteem. • Having a severe dependence on relationships, often to your own detriment. • Having an inflated sense of responsibility for what other people do. • People-pleasing behaviors. • Care-taking behaviors.
Learning how to stop being codependent is crucial for finding the love and intimacy in a relationship that you truly deserve. With these meditation techniques, you can learn how to practice mindfulness in a way that can help you heal and overcome your codependent behavior. Here are a few meditations that can help.
1.
Feel the pause (Connect with your thoughts) Codependent people lose touch with their own wants and needs. One of meditation's benefits is that it forces you to quiet your mind and be alone with your thoughts.
Codepende n most often cy is roo in childhoo ted d; becoming a learned behavior th at af relationship fects s.
