A very recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in August this year provides a quantitative measure of the serious problem facing us from addiction:

• 46% of Americans have a family member or close friend who is addicted to drugs or has been in the past;
• Opioids account for more than 60% of drug overdose deaths;
• Since 1999, drug overdose-related deaths have tripled in number.

We have dealt with addiction in a lot of detail on our website. Sahaja meditation works in multiple ways to help with addiction, primarily by:

• Reducing stress and stress-induced cravings;
• Making the practitioner more self-aware and mindful of thoughts and emotions, especially in the area of any addictions he or she might be dealing with;
• Releasing negative thoughts and feelings through self-forgiveness that might otherwise lead to rumination;
• Positively impacting neurotransmitters and neurohormones which regulate health and well-being;
  Increasing resilience and better coping skills by re-wiring the neural circuitry.

We differentiate ourselves from other forms of meditation on the market by being the powerful kind which, with a commensurate commitment from the practitioner, can help with deep-rooted problems. Or, if you have no problems, it can take you into the deepest realms of spirituality within yourself. We aren’t ones to promise magic with a few minutes of meditation. This is not something you can download and do yourself. Instead, we provide seasoned instructors, each of whom is an experienced practitioner with an average of 20 years of experience in Sahaja. These instructors closely guide and facilitate the holistic healing that Sahaja can provide. They teach you methods for tapping into the powerful energy within.

We like to work with a smaller audience that is more committed and can focus on something deeper and stay the course.

We’ve detailed below a practical approach for how Sahaja meditation can be incorporated into someone’s life for the purposes of dealing with any form of addiction.

Techniques and Methods for Dealing with Addiction

The first step is to achieve self-realization and activate subtle energy. This process kicks in the holistic healing of the underlying chakras and nadis (energy channels) which has several positive impacts on the physiological, mental, and emotional levels of the practitioner.

Given that we’re talking here of someone with an addiction, a few important things need to be kept in mind. Starting with the very first Sahaja session, the practitioner must focus on self-forgiveness and avoid feelings of guilt or rumination due to the fact that he or she has an addiction. Guilt can cause damage to the fifth energy center (Vishuddhi chakra) and inhibit the process of natural healing. The right attitude is to feel positive about having acknowledged the problem and the fact that he or she is on the long road to recovery.

Two 20-minute meditation sessions per day is recommended. As we’ve mentioned before, five and ten-minute meditations are not enough, especially for someone dealing with addiction. Some practitioners even report that meditating three times a day helps a lot when dealing with serious problems. Not only does it accelerate healing, but it firmly focuses attention on the recovery process.

Foot soaking is a must at least once a day and sometimes more than that. Foot soaking provides for a more rapid and deeper level of relaxation and it can also help cleanse the lower chakras (one through three). See our meditation instructional videos on foot soaking and other techniques here.

The Weakening of the Left Energy Channel

The Sahaja teachings and experiences of thousands of practitioners demonstrate that all forms of addiction are closely linked to the weakness of the left energy channel within the subtle energy system. Addiction draws our attention in and slants it towards the left energy channel which leads us to a state of imbalance by giving us excessive feelings of lethargy, dwelling in the past, and greater indulgence. That, in turn, makes the addiction worse and creates a vicious cycle that is hard to break.

We’ve also discussed how the different realms of consciousness work. When our attention is dragged more to the left side, we (our core subtle inner beings) get dragged into our individual subconscious at first and then into the collective subconscious. Most severe addictions make us frequent the collective subconscious when we indulge. Unfortunately, the collective subconscious is also the realm where a lot of negative forces exist that tend to use us as vehicles (something similar to viruses attaching themselves to us and causing diseases, but this is more serious in the parlance of the subtle energy system within us). As a result, we tend to lose control over ourselves and lose the will to resist the temptation to indulge or give into the addiction.

The longer the addiction, the more severe the problem gets until our subtle energy system and specifically the left channel gets significantly weakened. In fact, in many ways, the left energy channel represents a significant part of our physiological, emotional, and psychological immune system. When it is weakened, we can expect to face a range of different problems, many of which manifest as health disorders and diseases.

The Road to Recovery – Restoring Balance in the Energy Channels

Strong measures are needed to restore the power of the left energy channel. Most practitioners advise forcing oneself into intense activity in order to literally jump from an orientation towards the left to the right energy channel, which represents the power of our physical and mental activity. For instance, suddenly increasing the level of physical and mental activity, and in an area that interests the addicted person, is a good way to jump-start the healing of the left energy channel. We’ve known of people who joined a gym with personal training sessions, subjecting themselves to a burst and even an overload of physical activity which significantly helped them to overcome the weakness of the left channel.

One of the most powerful treatments for the left energy channel recommended in Sahaja meditation is the use of the fire element or a flame. Natural elements play a big role in healing: water is used in foot soaking, the earth element is used in cleansing the subtle energy system, and so on. In this case, the left energy channel is governed by the moon and naturally represents the cool, dark side within us. The antidote to a weak left energy channel is the fire element, which we can typically get from a lighted candle. The use of the flame and fire element is an advanced-stage technique in Sahaja (in fact, we’ve not shared this on our site yet), but it is extremely efficient in getting the left channel back in order. This technique generally involves moving the flame of the candle along the left energy channel several times. There are other important aspects associated with this technique which are taught in our one-on-one or advanced sessions. (You can get in touch with us if you want to attend these sessions for a specific problem you or someone you know is facing). But the use of the fire element works like magic, speeding up the recovery of the left energy channel.

Healing of chakras may also be needed

Especially in the case of specific types of addictions, some individual chakras may need focus. For instance, sex addictions require work on the Mooladhara chakra and this involves a heavy use of the earth element. Sitting on the ground daily and meditating to balance the subtle energy system helps clear out this center. More than that, the essence of the power of that chakra needs to be instilled and established through specific mantras. Once again, these are advanced techniques in Sahaja but are extremely effective in curing sex addictions.

Many times, the Agnya chakra can require a lot of clearing as well. What kind of clearing a person needs can be detected by the practitioner himself or herself or, in many cases, our instructors can help in this determination. The ability to measure the extent of improvement in the chakra or channel through tangible feedback is the best part of using Sahaja meditation. The healing happens through a continuous mechanism of diagnosis, detection, and correction of the subtle energy system.

In the second part of this topic, we’ll cover other meditation strategies for dealing with addiction – Cognitive and emotional appraisals, how to fight temptation, the role of Self-Awareness and Attentional control and motivational support you can receive through Sahaja meditation.

If you are interested in addiction-specific meditation sessions and courses that we offer, we are happy to help by organizing one-on-one guidance or sessions in small groups.  Within the Sahaja practitioner community, we’ve seen many who suffer from addiction take advantage of the Sahaja practice and turn their lives around. The best part is that Sahaja works independently of all other methods and can be used as a complementary therapy or technique with other addiction recovery programs or strategies. We do not offer medical advice and recommend at all times that patients follow medical advice they receive from their doctors.