Tag Archives: Depression

Depression and the Mind

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Depression is one of the most devastating mental illnesses. Unlike other physical ailments, depression deprives you of the capability to live well.

If you are suffering from mental depression, you are not alone. There are millions of people all over the world who have this disorder. You can go on for years without getting anything done, or, worse, having any idea what you want to do with your life. You just get lost, and so you drift from one thing to another, not knowing what you want from life. If you mental conditions further deteriorate, you may even lose the ability to be present to almost anything. No matter what you do, you do it only half-heartedly. As a result, you have no sense of achievement, and you are not getting anything done in your life. You will be spiraling down into a bottomless pit of despair.

In depression, you tend to see things with your brain, instead of with your eyes; similarly, you hear with your brain and not with your ears. Perception is all in the mind. But, unfortunately, these deceptive perceptions become so “real” to you that you begin to “believe” in them, especially when they continually talk to you as internal dialogues.

People with mental depression usually have muddled thinking: there are too many thoughts filtering through their minds. As a result, they have a tendency to analyze or to explain their perceptions so as to make some sense of or to draw some conclusions from what is going through their mind. Unfortunately, analyzing or thinking through what is in the mind will only create more mental blockages that only perpetuate the inertness and sense of loss, which are characteristic of a depressive mind.

Instead of explaining or striving to explain any given situation or event, you just learn to let go. The ability to let go of what you are holding on to holds the key to recovery. Many individuals suffering from mental depression turn to the use of medications as a miracle cure. Medications may lift their moods through the enhancement of neurotransmitters, but they do not get to the root of the problem — which is the mind. It is always mind over matter.

To sum up, do not analyze or explain whatever that happens in your life. Just learn to let go. Yes, letting go is the answer to the confusion of a depressive mind. Those suffering from mental depression must have undergone some traumatic experiences that triggered their mental depression. Depression does not just happen to any individual without a reason. It is the inability to let go of the past that perpetuates the recurrence of depressive thoughts. Medications can suppress these symptoms, but they do not remove them for good.

Now, the burning question: how to let go?

Letting go is easier said than done. Your conscious mind might have relinquished all depressive thoughts of past experiences, but your subconscious mind may still be clinging on to them like leech. The only way to access your subconscious mind is through meditation, which can give not only clarity of mind, but also the perception of priorities in life. Once your mind is clear, and you see the top priorities in your life, you will begin to look at everything in perspective. Knowing what is the most important and the least important may help you let go. Through meditation, you can conduct internal dialogues, which are affirmations, with your subconscious mind, thereby instrumental in changing your conscious mind. Your subconscious mind can influence your conscious mind to let go.

Once the mind becomes uncluttered, depressive thoughts may dissipate. If you wish to heal your depression, you need to heal your mind first. It is always mind over matter.

Copyright (c) 2010 Stephen Lau

Nature’s Cure For Depression – Live, Love Life – A Great Commitment

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Depression becomes chemical but it starts in the mind and heart. So, the cure for depression is not chemical. The cure for depression comes from the source of it.

Another word for depression is disappointment. It doesn’t take a major disappointment to trigger the chemicals that create a long term cumulative depression. One disappointment can start a huge chain of physiological events that compound and eventually require medical treatment. But medicines will not affect the cause.

Therapy and psychology make things worse. They rarely unravel the mindset that triggers the depression. Instead they substitute alternative views. Nature includes disappointment in it’s arsenal of emotion. Instead of fighting it, we simply have to be careful not to react. Avoiding disappointment for the rest of your life is rubbish. That does require medication, but then, disappointment still exists, you are just locked up in a mental prison so you can’t feel it.

Nature wants disappointment. It’s the most spiritual experience you can have. Disappointment is freedom to reconsider your state of mind. To re-evaluate your connections to your family and your work. Here’s the healer. Disappointment, don’t fight it.

Of course, if your habit is to wallow for weeks in disappointment then you need to develop a better process. You can learn how to deal with any emotional disappointment in hours, instead of wallowing in self pity for months. Even the death of someone you love can be processed so you can grieve with love rather than depression.

If you lose your career, that’s disappointment too. And you probably had a plan for your life that isn’t going to manifest right now. That’s disappointment. Nature can teach you how to adapt.

There are three essential keys to living without depression

Learn to accept disappointment.

The human ego desires continual reinforcement. So, depression is nature’s antidote to egoism. Ego needs acceptance, approval, victory, success. Ego gets bigger and bigger, and with it, comes an ever increasing demand for bigger and bigger victory. Of course, you soon run out of those and disappointment sets in. What then?

Learn to be content with nothing

Say these words over and over until you get mad.

I want nothing

I need nothing

and therefore I have everything.

This mantra will get you back into healing from depression and for those who don’t have depression, helps you prevent it.

Don’t be bored

Boredom kills people and on the way to their death, they are secretly depressed. Avoid boredom. I don’t care how, but please don’t fill in time with computers, TV and other mind numbing stuff. Go take a photo, go to the art gallery, smell flowers. The idea is to satisfy your five body senses. So they all feel nurtured. That’s the importance of living connected to nature. Because your senses are stimulated without any material success. It’s like tricking your ego.

So, We’ve looked at three simple ways – using nature, to deal with depression. I’ve acknowledged that depression starts mental and finishes chemical, so, in depression management there’s a need to deal with the cause (mental) and effect(chemical) which, from time to time, requires medication. At the least, depression should trigger a cleansing – detox program to rid your body of the crappy chemicals that support the physiology of depression.