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.
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