What is Urge Surfing? Urge surfing means noticing your urges and simply watching them rise and fall like waves, while not having to respond. Fighting a craving is like trying to fight waves in the ocean, it’s smarter to surf over them! Most of us have urges, but they pass. Urges usually peak between 20 – 30 minutes. If we can ride out the wave, it will pass. Of course they come back again, so practice is important.
Every time you surf the urge without acting on it, you get better and better. Urges show up less and they’ll be weaker.
How to do Urge Surfing:
• Focus on your breathing, noticing the in and out of your breath.
• Notice your thoughts. Don’t judge, feed or fight them, just notice them.
• Gently bring your attention back to the breath.
• Notice the urge as an experience in your body.
• Focus on one body area where you feel the urge. Notice things like: It is hot or cold? Is it tight or relaxed? Does it have a movement?
• How intense is the sensation? Give it a score out of 10.
• Each time you feel an Urge arise, be curious about what happens and notice changes over time.
Things to Remember:
• Urges pass all by themselves. All urges, no matter how strong, will eventually pass.
• Urges arise like ocean waves, and they peak and fall away. They are often strongest just before they “break”.
• Practice Urge Surfing regularly to be well prepared to ride the waves without giving in.
• Urges are natural and are not “failures”.
• Urges that are not fed grow weaker over time.
