Are you addicted to alcohol? Just 11 minutes of mindfulness strategies, which includes a combination of meditation, body awareness and yoga may help you start reducing alcohol consumption, researchers led by one of Indian-origin has showed.
Read also:Alcohol addiction in adolescence may affect memory.
According to experts:
- We found that a very brief, simple exercise in mindfulness can help drinkers cut back, and the benefits can be seen quite quickly.
- Mindfulness teaches a heightened awareness of one’s feelings and bodily sensations.
- So that they pay attention to cravings instead of suppressing them.
- By these strategies the participants were able to tolerate the cravings to drink as temporary events without needing to act on them.
- Practising mindfulness can make a person more aware of their tendency to respond reflexively to urges.
- By being more aware of their cravings, we think, the study participants were able to bring intention back into the equation.
- Furthermore,instead of automatically reaching for the drink when they feel a craving.
Read also:Read how alcohol keeps diabetes away!
Just 11 minutes training:
- In the study, after an 11-minute training session and encouragement to continue practising mindfulness.
- In addition,which involves focusing on what’s happening in the present moment.
- Heavy drinkers drank less over the next week than people who were taught relaxation techniques.
- The mindfulness group drank 9.3 fewer units of alcohol in the following week compared to the week preceding the study.
- While there was no significant reduction in alcohol consumption among those who had learned relaxation techniques.
- Severe alcohol problems are often preceded by patterns of heavy drinking.
- So the researchers are hopeful that mindfulness could help to reduce drinking before more severe problems develop, the researchers said.
Read also:Use Alcohol to boost memory!