What You need To Know About Using Mindfulness To Overcome Depression

This is the second of a 15 part series of mindfulness posts. One will be posted every day for 30 days, so keep checking back.

Over 30 years ago I paid a visit to my GP with a list of health problems. He told me, ‘invariably, when anyone comes with a list they are depressed’. He gave me a prescription for antidepressants and sent me on my way.

I have spent the thirty years since figuring out ways to improve my own mental health, and helping others to do the same. Mindfulness has by far been the most effective way I have improved my mindset. Below I will share some of the things that have helped me.

The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

The Mindful Way Through Depression is a book by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn. It helped me a lot in understanding depression and holding it at bay.

The book explores the reasons for depression, and offers useful tools for overcoming the tiresome ruminations that are so often a part of depression. It also comes with a CD of meditations you can use to practice. These can also be downloaded online. Searching on YouTube will bring up related information.

The authors also created The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress. This takes some commitment, but I would definitely recommend it if you are determined to overcome depression.

These two books are also useful if you are someone who helps clients with depression.

How Mindfulness May Change the Brain in Depressed Patients

There is an excellent post in The Harvard Gazette about how a mindfulness practice may change the brain. It details the work of Benjamin Shapero, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Depression Clinical and Research Program and Gaëlle Desbordes, an instructor in radiology at HMS and a neuroscientist at MGH’s Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.

“Individual cognitive behavioral therapy is helpful for many people; antidepressant medications help many people. But it’s also the case that many people don’t benefit from them as well. There’s a great need for alternative approaches.”

– Benjamin Shapero

Desbordes performs fMRI’s on patients before and after an eight-week course in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or MBCT, to determine the benefits.

Once we know which ingredients are successful, we can do more of that and less, maybe, of the parts that are less effective

– Gaëlle Desbordes

This is interesting work to keep an eye on.

Top 3 Beginner Meditations For Depression

There is another excellent article on mindfulness as a treatment for depression on flowneuroscience.com. This article includes 3 meditations that help with negative thoughts and feelings.

They also offer an app which could be worth a try. I haven’t used the app, but they do say it is 100% free. Let me know how you get on if you use it.

Recommended Mindfulness Practices To Overcome Depression

Below are the techniques I would recommend if you are starting out using mindfulness to overcome depression.

1. Meditation

If you are just starting off, try a three minute breathing space meditation. I have a free one you can download here. You could also use the meditations included with The Mindful Way Through Depression book if you have that. There are also many meditations on YouTube.

Don’t start off with long periods of meditation if you have never meditated before. And stop for a while if you start to feel worse. Trying a local meditation group can be really useful. I find doing a few minutes of following my breath a great help. Try this before opening your eyes each morning, and as you close your eyes to go to sleep each night.

2. Yoga

Yoga is a wonderful way to exercise both body and mind. Just practicing some asanas each day will be helpful, but the more you can incorporate the principles of yoga into your life the more beneficial it will be.

Try to find a local class. This is better than an online class, especially if you are a beginner. You can then practice what you learn at home. It would also be helpful to find a class where the teacher lives yoga as a way of life, rather than just doing a set of exercises.

Just 15 minutes daily practice can help to reduce depressive symptoms.

3. Breathing Exercises

I gave a brief introduction to breathing exercises in the first post in this mindfulness series, How Mindfulness Helps Reduce Anxiety. Your breath is a way you can instantly take your mind of whatever you are ruminating about and just return to the present moment. When you find your mind has wandered off, just gently bring yourself back to your breath.

The importance of using the breath in this way can’t be overstated.

You are where you need to be. Just take a deep breath.

― Lana Parrilla

4. Mindful Walk

Go out for a walk and try to really pay attention to everything you see, feel, smell, and touch. Oh, why not consider leaving your phone at home. or at least put it on silent mode.

Try to keep your head up. So often people walk with their gaze down to the ground, especially when feeling low. Just lifting your head can actually lift your mood.

Walk slowly, and look at everything you pass. Maybe you will notice something you have never noticed before, even if you’ve walked that way for years.

Feel the sun or the rain on your skin. Feel the wind in your hair. Listen to the birds.

Just enjoy what is.

Gill Washington does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information