The Mindful Way Through Depression

Shoshin

If the link in this post has been posted before, all I can say is "The more times 'hopefully' the merrier"

Depression so they say, is the fastest growing disease in the West...

Many moons ago I grappled with the black dog to the extent I would rattle when I walked (due to the amount of pills I was having to pop in an attempt to feel 'normal')...I'm happy to say the rattling has stopped and the black dog has not been yapping at my door for many years now...

It was trial and error ( wholehearted acceptance of the circumstances that surrounded my 'being' and meditation meditation meditation) that eventually tamed the black dog..... (Who said you can't teach old dogs new tricks ??? )

I know for some people, meditation is not the be all and end all to all their woes, but I've found that there is a magical mystical buzz about it, when one learns to just "let go" and go with the flow....

No doubt there are some members who are suffering or have suffered from depression...I hope that the following video book will be of some help...It's based on the Buddhist approach to mindfulness with a scientific twist to give it more oomph for the Western sceptical mind.....

May you be well & happy ...(It's your true nature )

"The Mindful Way Through Depression" (It's a step by step guide and goes for around 5 hours)

Buddhadragon

@Shoshin said:
I know for some people, meditation is not the be all and end all to all their woes, but I've found that there is a magical mystical buzz about it, when one learns to just "let go" and go with the flow....

I think mindfulness meditation could be the be all and end all to many -if perhaps not- all woes.
It helps us question the veracity of the negative thoughts that automatically pop up in our minds and undermine a more positive outlook on reality.
Or a more realistic outlook on reality, since oftentimes the problem is our difficulty to accept life as it is: wishing it to be otherwise.
The Buddha made of meditation an integral part of his psychological solution to cessation of suffering, so I think we should probably meditate more than we actually do in order to see a real difference in our lives.

I provide a link and a relevant part in an interview with Dr John Teasdale, co-author of several books on mindfulness:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/01/19/how-does-mindfulness-reduce-depression-an-interview-with-john-teasdale-ph-d/

"Depression is often kept going, from one moment to the next, by streams of negative thoughts going through the mind (such as “My life is a mess,” “What’s wrong with me?” “I don’t think I can go on”). Redirecting attention away from these ruminative thought streams by becoming really aware of what we’re doing while we’re doing it can “starve” the thought streams of the attention they need to keep going. That way, we “pull the plug” on what is keeping us depressed, and our mood can begin to improve.

Being mindful of what we’re doing can be a powerful way to weaken the grip of these thought streams, particularly if we bring awareness to the sensations and feelings in our bodies. By doing this over and over again, we end up living more in the actuality of the present moment and less “in our heads,” going over and over things that happened in the past, or worrying about the future.

Being aware of what we’re doing while we’re doing it offers us a way to “shift mental gears.” Our minds can work in a number of different modes, or “mental gears.” We often operate as if we were on automatic pilot. In this mode, it’s very easy to slide unawares into the ruminative negative thinking that can transform a passing sadness into a deeper depression. When we’re deliberately mindfully aware of what we’re doing, it’s as if we shift mental gears into a different mode of mind. In this mode, we are less likely to get stuck in ruminative thinking – and life is richer and more rewarding."

Blondel

The precipitous rise of depression in modern culture owes in part to a lack of a proper and vitalizing dialogue between the I and the me. One cannot help but see just the opposite in the Buddha's teachings. His words point to my inwardness, that is, the inner dialog between the I and the me (the self and the lord of the self) trying to correct me. All the training, too, such as meditation, goes on in the world of the I and the me. For example, in zazen, I am taming the me with its nervous habits; I am taming the chattering me; I am taming the sleepy me, etc.

The self is the lord of self; who else could be the lord?
With self well subdued a man finds a lord who is difficult to obtain (Dp. 160)

Wise his he who finds within them the lord (nâtho also a frequent epithet for the Buddha).