Meditation is certainly becoming more mainstream among the male population; celebs like Russell Simmons and Hugh Jackman have publicly endorsed its benefits. And it can be especially beneficial for men in addiction recovery. For writer Quentin Vennie, who overcame addiction, depression and an anxiety disorder, it helped him to become more aware of the emotional and psychological obstacles standing in the way of his recovery. “It helped me to transition my pain into progress, and for the first time in my life I was able to accept myself for who I truly was — flaws and all,” he wrote on MindBodyGreen.com.

A big part of rehab is healing your mind, body and spirit – and meditation can help you do just that and more. How? For one, mediation gives you a chance to slow down, calm your thoughts and appreciate yourself. And it helps you to feel your feelings. This is especially important for men who may have been raised to protect their emotions or who were told that it was weak to show emotion or vulnerability. Meditation helps you to connect to your subconscious mind — the place where suppressed emotions reside – and to experience your feelings without judgement.

More Benefits of Meditation for Men

• Anger: Meditation is great way to manage anger, an emotion that many men experience during recovery. When left unchecked, anger can become hazardous to your health and sobriety and even trigger relapse.
• Sleep: Many men in recovery struggle with insomnia and a bedtime meditation routine may be the remedy. In fact, it’s been study proven to help people fall asleep and stay asleep longer.
• Depression: Unfortunately, many men struggling with a substance use disorder are also dealing with depression – and meditation can help train your brain to better manage stress and anxiety that can trigger depression.
• Loneliness: Loneliness is yet another emotion that men face during recovery. While meditation won’t “cure” loneliness, it will allow you develop a “nonthreatening relationship with loneliness, a relaxing and cooling loneliness that completely turns our usual fearful patterns upside down,” explains Pema Chodron in her essay “Six kinds of loneliness.”

Managing Emotions to Ease Recovery At Spearhead, we give our clients the tools to identify and cope with the many emotions of recovery, including anger, resentment and stress. To learn more about our gender-specific treatment, call today: 888-483-0528.