Now, start reducing alcohol consumption by just 11 minutes of mindfulness strategies, which includes a combination of meditation, body awareness and yoga.
Researchers have 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.
One of the researchers said that practicing mindfulness can make a person more aware of their tendency to respond reflexively to urges.
The 11-minute training session and encouragement to continue practicing mindfulness involved 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. However, there was no significant reduction in alcohol consumption among those who had learned relaxation techniques.
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