On September 18, 2025, our founder, Mathew O’Connor, MA, LCMHC, LCAS, CCS, had the honor of presenting to the Greensboro community at Fellowship Hall on one of the most powerful tools in modern recovery: Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP). The core message was simple yet profound: recovery isn’t just about stopping substance use; it’s about fundamentally changing your relationship with your own thoughts and emotions. For those on the journey of recovery, learning to manage the moments of intense craving or emotional distress is the key to lasting change.
Addiction is a chronic condition that rewires the brain’s circuits of reward, motivation, and self-control. This makes individuals vulnerable to relapse, especially when faced with stress or familiar triggers. But just as the brain can be changed by addiction, it can be changed by healing. This is where mindfulness comes in. It is not just a relaxation technique; it is an evidence-based clinical tool that can give you the power to navigate your recovery with awareness and resilience. This guide, based on the insights from that presentation, will explore what mindfulness is and how you can use it to build a strong foundation for a sober life.
A Look Inside the Greensboro Presentation
The presentation at the CEU Lecture Hall on the Fellowship Hall campus was an engaging and interactive session. The room was filled with community members and individuals on their own recovery journeys, all eager to learn. Matt O’Connor fostered a warm, collaborative environment, moving beyond a simple lecture to include open discussions and guided exercises where attendees could experience the techniques firsthand. This sense of shared experience and community support is a cornerstone of the Abhaya Wellness philosophy, as we believe that healing happens best when we connect with one another.
About the Presenter: Mathew O’Connor, MA, LCMHC, LCAS, CCS
Mathew O’Connor is the Founder and CEO of Abhaya Wellness and a dedicated clinician with over a decade of experience in mental health and addiction treatment. He holds a Master’s degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University, a unique background that grounds his work in the power of mindfulness. As a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC), a Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist (LCAS), and a Certified Clinical Supervisor (CCS), Matt is a leader in the field.
His dedication to providing the highest standard of care led him to start Abhaya Wellness, a clinically owned and operated practice in Durham, NC. He and his team have created the area’s only gender-responsive, small-group, systems-oriented Intensive Outpatient Program, where the principles of mindfulness discussed in this presentation are put into practice every day.
What is Mindfulness and Why Does It Matter in Recovery?
At its core, mindfulness is the simple, yet radical, act of paying attention. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer in bringing mindfulness into Western medicine, defines it as “paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgment.” This practice is built on a few key principles:
- Awareness: Simply observing your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations as they come and go.
- Intention: Making a conscious choice to focus your attention, rather than letting your mind wander on autopilot.
- Acceptance: Allowing your experiences to be exactly as they are, without trying to fight, change, or judge them.
For someone in recovery, this is a game-changer. The addictive cycle is often driven by automatic, reactive behaviors. A trigger appears, a craving hits, and the response is to use. Mindfulness creates a crucial pause between the trigger and the response. In that pause, you gain the freedom to make a different choice.
The Science of Relapse: How Addiction Hijacks the Brain
To understand why mindfulness is so effective, it helps to understand what happens in the brain during addiction. A substance use disorder is a brain-based disease that fundamentally alters key systems. The brain’s mesolimbic dopamine system, responsible for pleasure and reward, gets hijacked, making the substance the primary source of motivation. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex, which governs self-control and decision-making, becomes underactive, making it incredibly difficult to resist urges.
This creates a state of affect dysregulation, where the brain’s stress circuits become sensitized. The result? When faced with a trigger—a stressful day, a difficult emotion, or a familiar place—the brain’s hyperreactive alarm bells go off, and the craving for the substance feels like the only solution. Mindfulness directly targets this process by helping to calm the nervous system and strengthen the prefrontal cortex, restoring your ability to regulate your emotions and make conscious choices.
Our programs are built on the same expert principles our founder, Mathew O’Connor, shared in his presentation. Reach out to Abhaya Wellness today to see how our mindfulness-based approach can support your lasting recovery.
Practical Mindfulness Techniques for Relapse Prevention
Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) provides a toolkit of practical exercises you can use to navigate the challenging moments of recovery. Here are three core techniques discussed in the presentation that you can start practicing today.
1. The Body Scan: Reconnecting with Yourself
The purpose of a body scan is to cultivate awareness of your physical sensations and reconnect your mind and body, a connection that is often severed during active addiction.
- How to do it: Find a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down. Close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath. Slowly, begin to scan your awareness through your body, starting at your toes and moving all the way up to the top of your head. Notice any sensations—warmth, tingling, tension, or numbness—without judgment. If you find an area of discomfort, try breathing into it, allowing it to soften with each exhale.
2. Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of Cravings
Urge Surfing is a powerful technique for dealing with cravings. Instead of fighting a craving (which often makes it stronger) or giving in to it, you learn to observe it like a wave in the ocean.
- How to do it: When a craving arises, find a comfortable place to sit. Close your eyes and notice where you feel the craving in your body. Is it a tightness in your stomach? A tension in your shoulders? Simply observe these physical sensations as they grow in intensity, peak, and then naturally begin to subside, just like a wave cresting and then washing back to shore. You learn that you don’t have to be swept away by the wave; you can simply watch it pass.
3. Loving-Kindness Meditation: Cultivating Self-Compassion
Shame and self-criticism are major drivers of relapse. Loving-Kindness Meditation helps to actively cultivate feelings of compassion and empathy for yourself and others, which is essential for healing.
- How to do it: In a comfortable, seated position, silently repeat phrases of kindness to yourself. Traditional phrases include: “May I be safe. May I be healthy. May I be happy. May I live with ease.” After a few minutes, extend these wishes to someone you love, then to a neutral person, and finally, even to someone with whom you are in conflict. This practice helps to reduce anger and resentment and builds a foundation of self-compassion.
Building Your Personal Mindfulness Plan
Integrating these practices into your life is the key to their success. Your personal mindfulness plan should be simple and achievable. Start by setting aside just 5 to 10 minutes each day for a formal practice, like a body scan or mindful breathing. You can use apps like Insight Timer or Headspace to guide you.
Beyond formal practice, you can bring mindfulness into everyday activities. Pay full attention while drinking your morning coffee, notice the sensations of the water while you shower, or take a mindful walk. The goal is to build your “mindfulness muscle” so that when a trigger or a craving inevitably appears, you are prepared to respond with awareness and skill.
Your Path Forward with Abhaya Wellness
At Abhaya Wellness, our entire clinical philosophy is built on the power of mindfulness. As our founder, Matt O’Connor, firmly believes, high-quality client care must be guided by clinically trained individuals using proven methods. Our gender-responsive, systems-oriented Intensive Outpatient Program in Durham, North Carolina, integrates these mindfulness techniques with evidence-based therapies like CBT and DBT to provide a comprehensive, holistic path to recovery. We understand that healing from addiction is a journey, not a destination, and we are committed to providing compassionate, continuous, and collaborative care every step of the way.
Learning about these techniques is the first step; putting them into practice with expert guidance is the next. Contact Abhaya Wellness today to learn how we integrate these mindfulness skills into our recovery programs.