HealthBee

Meditation has been shown to help alleviate depression. In a 1985 article in the Journal of Counseling and Development, patients suffering from post-traumatic stress problems who learned the Transcendental Meditation program showed significant reduction in depression after four months, in contrast to others who were randomly assigned to receive psychotherapy.

While it is important to find out what caused your depression, meditation is a good complement to medical care given by a physician or psychotherapist. While depression has many causes, most of which are due to biochemical imbalances in the body, some people may be depressed simply because they won’t allow themselves to deal with their grief. As children, many of us were told to ’stop crying’ before we were ready, and as adults, we continue to bottle up our emotions instead of dealing with them.

Meditation teaches you to accept the feelings you have and ‘be’ with them. Sadness is not something to be ashamed of, it is a normal human emotion. You may notice when you meditate that you feel your muscles tighten, or a heaviness in your heart. You may notice that you keep reliving a sad event in your mind, such as the loss of a loved one or a childhood moment when you were bullied. See everything in your mind, and be with it. You may shed a few tears or bawl profusely; meditation allows you to feel those emotions and help lighten them. If necessary, meditation allows you to forgive yourself.

Meditation also allows you to identify negative thoughts and recurring self-defeating beliefs and judgements you may have about yourself. Self-defeating thoughts include: “I’m not good enough” or “I’m too shy” or “I don’t have what it takes to succeed.” By identifying you have these self-defeating thoughts, you can recognize them, see them for what they are and open yourself up to more positive options.

Many people think you have to bend yourself into a pretzel in order to meditate. A lot of times, beginners find themselves wondering if they are ‘doing it right’ and become concerned, when, after a few sessions, they haven’t had a brilliant insight. The fact is, it is difficult *not* to do meditation correctly.

Start by sitting in a way that is comfortable for you, either on a cushion on the floor or in a chair. Keep your back straight, but not stiff, and don’t allow your face to have any particular expression. Just concentrate on relaxing.

You can meditate with your eyes open or closed. If open, don’t focus on any particular one thing, just let them rest in front of you. Now, start by listening to the sounds in the room. Just by noticing them, you become more aware: you’re not trying to change the sounds, they just are.

Now, notice your breathing. Just as you listened to the sounds, you aren’t trying to change how you breath, you are just noticing and experiencing it. Try to concentrate on your breath, how it feels, and what it sounds like.

If your mind wanders away from your breath to events in the past or future, that’s ok. Just notice your thoughts and gently go back to concentrating on your breath. Your mind may wander a lot. Just as you noticed the sounds in the room, notice your thoughts. Don’t try to change them, or controlling them: just be with them. Let your thoughts come and go and then bring your attention back to your breath.

Notice how your body feels. You may feel tingling with each breath as you breath in and out. Just rest your attention there.

The most important thing about meditation is not how long you do it, but how frequently you do it. Five minutes of meditation every day is better than an hour once a week. And, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.