Mindfulness versus meditation

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On this site, you will see that I use mindfulness and meditation interchangeably.

Some therapists either like to distance themselves from the term meditation or don’t understand what it involves, when they attempt to distinguish their practice of mindfulness from meditation. Mindfulness is the purpose of meditation, whether this action is sitting mediation, walking meditation, meditating on (or being mindful of) what is being eaten, et cetera.

The purpose, ultimately, is to be in the here and now.

I treat the distinction between mindfulness and meditation as artificial.

Be who you are – Dr. Seuss

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Dr. Seuss has much wisdom to share with us. I am reminded of this whenever I read his works to my son. If we worry too much about what others think of us, we will live our lives for them and not for ourselves and in the end, the ones we are trying to please will likely not be either impressed or grateful for our efforts.

Rather, if we follow the goodness and truth within ourselves, we will find that others with similar values will be drawn to us and we will have the friends we seek and deserve.

Listen to Dr. Seuss!

The Mood Gym (Christensen and Griffiths, 2011)

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Christensen, H., & Griffiths, K. (2011). The mood gym; overcoming depression with CBT and other effective therapies. London: Vermillion.

Back Cover:

When depression takes control it is hard to see how to get your life back and feel normal again. Now you can get back on track without the need for prescription drugs, thanks to The Mood Gym. Drawing on the latest research and the most successful therapies, the authors provide simple plans to help you manage your mood for good.

  • Understand your mood with interactive quizzes
  • Change negative patterns of thoughts and behaviour
  • Manage your emotions with proven strategies
  • Prevent mental health problems in the future

Powerful, practical and recommended by health professionals worldwide, The Mood Gym will help you beat depression and enjoy your life once more.

Dr Helen Christensen and Dr Kathleen Griffiths are Director and Deputy Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research at The Australian National University. Their award-winning interactive mental health website www.moodgym.anu.edu.au has helped thousands of people around the world.

[Note that my listing of this resource is not necessarily an endorsement. ]

Depression

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What is depression?

There are a number of definitions for depression, but those of us who have experienced this state need no definition. For the rest, the term depression is used most generally to describe a mental state – a “mood disorder” – in which a cluster of emotions, thoughts and behaviors converge. Not all depressed people exhibit the same symptoms and this is part of what makes diagnosis difficult in individual cases.

Symptoms can include:

  • intense sadness
  • low self-esteem
  • loss of interest or pleasure in normally pleasurable activities
  • significant changes to eating and sleeping habits
  • ruminating about thoughts and feelings of worthlessness, guilt, regret, helplessness, hopelessness and/or self-hatred
  • poor concentration and memory
  • withdrawal from social situations and activities
  • reduced sex drive
  • thoughts of death or suicide

Alternative labels:

Major depressive disorder (MDD)
Recurrent depressive disorder
Clinical depression
Major depression
Unipolar depression
Unipolar disorder

Medical definitions of depression can require a certain number of symptoms over a specific length of time, before a diagnosis of clinical depression is made.

Depression, Anxiety and Mindfulness

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What are the possible relationships between these three mental states? This is something that I hope to explore on this site.

Depression

My legacy is one of depression. My mother, her parents and possibly back for many more generations experienced depression and this legacy continued from one generation to the next. This is not a legacy that I want to leave for my son. My strategies for coping with (and overcoming) depression include meditation and the application of therapeutic principles, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

Anxiety

While anxiety was never as strong in my family, it became my own burden after family difficulties a few years ago. I have had to learn to live not only with the darkness of depression, but also with the fear and foreboding that anxiety brings.

Mindfulness

I began meditating while my wife was pregnant with our son. It has truly been the greatest gift I have ever given myself. Meditation gives us distance from our thoughts. We learn to sit with our thoughts and to see them for what they are – just passing thoughts which are not who we are.

I will discuss these topics and more, blended with my experience in counseling (both as a therapist and a client), on this site.