The Visualization Technique That Defeated My Addiction

When it came to staying sober, "playing the tape" was a simple but powerful tool.

Photo by Loewe Technology on Unsplash

There’s a visualization technique so powerful that it has helped me quit not one, but two addictions: drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. It’s simple enough to learn in five or ten minutes, and yet it is one of the single most important tools that I know for staying sober.

The technique is called “playing the tape through,” and by the time you’re done with this essay, I hope to have explained it so clearly and thoroughly that you can immediately put it to use.