Coping With Cravings

Hi, and welcome to day one of part one of the craving pack. Now craving comes in many different forms and many different intensities. You might be experiencing something that doesn't massively interfere with your life, but every now and again it causes you some issues and you don't necessarily know what to do with those impulses and urges that arise in the body and the mind. But it could also be something which is really severely impacting your life. And of course, this pack is designed as a support, a way for better understanding, perhaps changing your perception of craving. But if it is something that's causing you a lot of harm, perhaps has the potential to cause other people harm around you as well, then just make sure, obviously, that you've spoken to your doctor, that you've got the necessary support around you, and hopefully this course can serve as a place to come back to actually each day. So that you feel like you have some stability, a way of stepping back from the thinking in the mind and actually creating some space where you can not only change your perception but also set the foundation or create the room to potentially change the behavior as well. And we're going to use a technique called noting and noting is especially good for this kind of thing. So it allows us to see when we're getting caught up in thinking, when we're chasing thoughts or when we're resisting thoughts. And to be able to, almost sort of in noting, in labeling the thought, being able to step back and in doing that, almost separating ourselves from the thought so that we don't become the thought. As always, I'll talk you through the technique as we go. And do know this is a 30 day course. So, we're going to begin very slowly, just getting comfortable with the technique, with the ideas around this and creating a really strong foundation to build on. All you need to do right now though is just take a moment to get comfortable. So whether you're sitting on a chair, sitting on the floor, maybe even lying down, just starting off with the eyes gently open, a soft focus. And then when you're ready, taking some big, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath, if you haven't done already, just gently closing the eyes. And just feeling the weight of the body press down. Feeling the contact of the feet on the floor, the hands, the arms and the legs. And just settling in to the space and the sounds around you. And then just gently bringing the attention back to the body again. So just noticing how the body feels right now. Even if it's not experiencing any craving right now, really important part of this pack is being more aware of physical sensations. So notice if there's a sense of...