'Observe the mind without judgment'
Mindfulness training teaches people to heighten their "moment-to-moment awareness" of what is going on in the mind without judging it.
Thus, when a craving arises, mindfulness training teaches you how to just observe the sensations, thoughts, and feelings of that moment without evaluating or analyzing them.
"As such, this process is antithetical to the fixation upon and elaboration of desire states that characterize addictions," note the authors.
One theory is that by suspending judgment, mindfulness helps individuals to become more aware of their automatic responses to stimuli and that alternatives are possible, even if it is just to observe without reaction. This, in turn, leads to "uncoupling between drug-taking and automatic motivational tendencies."
For the study, the UCL team recruited 68 men and women who drank heavily but were otherwise healthy; their drinking had not reached the point where they had developed severe alcohol-related problems.
All participants were given a brief training session delivered using an 11-minute audio recording that described techniques on reducing alcohol use. They were also encouraged to practice the techniques over the following week.
The mindfulness recordings instructed the drinkers on how to pay attention to their bodily feelings and sensations, so that they concentrated on observing their cravings instead of suppressing them.
In contrast, the relaxation recordings were "designed to downregulate craving by reducing arousal."
During the week following the brief training session, the drinkers instructed in the mindfulness approach drank 9.3 fewer units of alcohol - the equivalent of around three pints of beer.