Urge surfing

1. Rate the urge from 0 to 10 and pick how long to ride it.
2. Watch the wave. Follow the prompts: notice where you feel the urge in your body, and breathe. You don't have to fight it or act on it.
3. Every two minutes, rate it again. At the end you'll see how it changed.

Nothing you pick or rate is stored or sent anywhere.

Urge surfing comes from relapse-prevention work by psychologist Alan Marlatt: you picture an urge as a wave that builds, peaks and falls, and use your breath as a "surfboard" to ride it without acting on it (Marlatt & Chawla, 2007 (opens in a new tab)). In a trial with 286 adults who had finished treatment for drug or alcohol problems, a mindfulness course that includes urge surfing cut relapse more than usual aftercare, and at a year, people had fewer days of drug use and heavy drinking (Bowen et al., 2014 (opens in a new tab)).

Quit-smoking services describe a craving as a wave that rises, peaks and fades by itself; one says each craving usually lasts 10 to 20 minutes (Quit (opens in a new tab), iCanQuit (opens in a new tab)). That's about nicotine. For gaming and internet use, a 2024 review found mindfulness programmes promising but rated the evidence low quality (Fendel et al., 2024 (opens in a new tab)). The aim isn't to make the urge vanish; it's to notice it without having to act on it.

• The "one more game" pull after you've agreed to stop.
• Reaching for your phone to scroll when you meant to rest.
• Any craving you'd like to wait out instead of acting on straight away.
• If you'd rather distract yourself than watch it, try the craving delay.

For alcohol or drugs, this is a coping tool, not treatment. Talk to a doctor or a helpline about how to cut down or stop safely.