“Meditation is really about paying attention.” Jon Kabat-Zinn
I skipped meditation for four or five days because of a sinus infection. All I wanted to do was sleep. I started meditation again last night before bed. It calmed my ever-restless mind. I woke this morning thinking, “I want to crawl back in bed.” I forced myself to do two minutes of deep breathing while tapping and 30 minutes of a guided meditation on the Balance app. I felt better and a bit less depressed.
I am sensing this is the time in my healing journey when I need to increase my meditation practice. I suffer from clinical depression, and I am in the process of having my medication adjusted. While I know that medication tremendously helps, meditation can also. Depression takes more than one tool to overcome. Bring on all the tools!
Mindfulness meditation reduces the symptoms of depression
I am not the only one suffering from depression. It is the most common mental disorder in the U.S., with 8.3 percent of all Americans suffering from depression. Research shows that mindfulness can help reduce depression:
A study on mindfulness and its effects on depression and anxiety found that mindfulness related to lower depression and anxiety levels in the participants.
Researchers had study participants practice mindfulness meditation. What they found is an improvement in depression symptoms after eight weeks. Madhav Goyal, M.D., M.P.H., leader of the study, said “Meditation appeared to provide as much relief from some anxiety and depression symptoms as what other studies have found from antidepressants.”
“Meditation trains the brain to achieve sustained focus and to return to that focus when negative thinking, emotions, and physical sensations intrude — which happens a lot when you feel stressed and anxious,” says Dr. John W. Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Jon Kabat-Zinn developed mindfulness-based stress reduction in 1979 and founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The eight-week course combines meditation, body awareness, and mindful movement. Studies show that MBSR can help reduce depression symptoms.
Full disclosure: I started an online MBSR course two years ago but stopped. I was not ready yet for the course. Now that I am on two antidepressants and in therapy, I am ready to take the course and learn more about mindfulness meditation while applying what I learn during my daily practice. Whatever I learn, I will pass on to you, dear readers.
If anyone is interested in doing an MBSR course, I included the link below in the resources section.
Resources
Free MBSR course by a fully certified MBSR instructor
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn
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I'm so happy to hear that you're you're meditating on a regular basis
Love you and so proud of you, dear Gina. <3