By Mary Jaksch
Do you sometimes suffer from depression? From my own experience I know that meditation is powerful healing agent for depression – but only if you get it right. Do the wrong thing – and meditation sends you even deeper into depression. In the following post, I’ll clue you up on what to avoid. And I’ll describe exactly how to use meditation to help free yourself from depression.
In order to understand what aspects of meditation are helpful, and which you should avoid, let’s take a look at what depression feels like.
- You want to retreat from the world.
If you’ve ever suffered from depression, you’ll know what this is like. Every meeting or party can seem just too difficult to handle.
- You fend others off.
Even though people mean well with their concern, we often don’t want to know about their help and brush them off. Every contact and every conversation can feel too difficult to manage. - You stay ‘locked in’ to your negative thoughts.
When you suffer from depression, you can sometimes stay locked-in to your negative thoughts and images. It’s as if nobody can reach you in the dark or dull place you inhabit. - You stay away from challenges.
Another facet of depression is that we tend to keep away from challenges. It’s as if we have lost the necessary resilience you need for challenges.
- You choose loneliness instead of social interaction.
Friends and family members tend to say to those who are depressed, “Come on, you need to get out amongst people!” So what happens is that they drag you to parties and other social functions in the hope that you’ll ‘come out of your shell’. I think in general, social occasions with a lot of strangers tend to drive depressed people further into their shell. - You want to rest instead of move.
Depression goes hand-in-hand with inertia and exhaustion. - Your mind is full of negative self-talk.
The self-talk can revolve around blame. For example, if something goes wrong in your life, you are more like to blame yourself if you are depressed. Another common aspect of the negative mind-set of depression is to think that ‘things will never get better’. Added to these common thought patterns is a general feeling of worthlessness.
Ok, so the points above describe the subjective experiences of someone suffering from depression. Now let’s take a look at how to use meditation in order to alleviate – and even heal – depression. It’s important to know that meditation can also make depression worse – if you get it wrong.
How to use meditation skilfully
The problem why meditation can make depression worse, is because meditation usually focuses on quieting the mind and directing attention inward, instead of outward. Of course that can reinforce the unwholesome behavior patterns listed above.
The trick is to use meditation in such a way that it helps you to open up to the world, instead of making you retreat from it.
Here are answers to some questions I get about using meditation when you are depressed:
Is seated meditation good for me or not?
If you are suffering from a medium to severe depression, sitting still for your meditation may not be the best option because it can reinforce inertia. Choose walking meditation instead. Further down you can read some tips on how to use walking meditation when you are depressed. However, if you suffer from a light to medium depression, seated meditation can be helpful.
Should I meditate with eyes open or closed?
When you feel depressed, it’s very important to keep your eyes open during meditation. Otherwise it can reinforce your tendency to stay ‘locked in’ and keep the world at a distance.
Is posture important?
Slumped posture can intensify negative thought patterns. It’s important to sit upright and keep you head high.
What should I focus on?
The focus should be on what you experience through your senses, i.e., on what you hear, see, feel, smell, or taste. This opens you up to the world. It may be helpful to place something like a flower or a candle in front of you for your gaze to rest upon.
How often should I meditate?
It’s good to build a daily habit of meditation –even if it’s only a short duration.
The secrets of the inbreath and outbreath
Inbreath and outbreath have very different impact on us. We don’t usually notice that because we are rarely mindful about breathing.
The outbreath
Most forms of breath meditation focus on the outbreath because breathing out has a calming effect on our central nervous system. When we breathe out slowly, our thoughts tend to die down and our body relaxes.
The inbreath
The inbreath has a totally different effect. Breathing in deeply raises our energy and wakes us up.
How to use meditation to heal depression
If you look at what happens when we breathe in and breath out, it will be immediately apparent that focusing on the outbreath can create problems when you feel depressed. The reason for that is very simple: focusing on the outbreath can drive you deeper into isolation and inertia, and reinforce depression’s tendency to make you retreat from the world.
In contrast, focusing on the inbreath allows you to open to the world, and gives you energy
Breathe in the whole world to heal depression
Here is how to use meditation to help heal depression. It works for both seated and walking meditation.
- Check your posture
Your back should be upright and your head held high. - Check in with your senses: notice what you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.
- Become aware of your breath: pay soft attention to your breath flowing in and out.
- Start to ‘breathe in the whole world’: take each sense impression in turn and ‘breathe it in’. The way to work with this is to imagine that your inbreath is taking each sense experience right into and through your blody.If you are seated, breathe in the sound of traffic, or the light of a candle, or the shape of a flower. Breathe in the heaviness in your body, the sound of traffic. Breathe in any smells you notice.If you are walking, breathe in the color of the sky, and the feel of wind on your face, and the cold or heat of the air. Breathe in the ground under your feet, and the green of leaves or the color of the earth.Each time, breathe in the world deeply. It might be difficult at first because depression makes us breathe shallowly. But persevere and keep up those deep inbreaths.
When your mind wanders, bring it back to what you hear or what you see – and breathe it in deeply. Don’t worry about becoming distracted. Just bring yourself back to your present experience without a backward glance.
I developed this method of meditation when I was in the grip of depression. My ‘normal’ Zen meditation seemed to lower my spirits even more. ‘Breathing in the world’ worked wonders for me! Once I discovered it, I started to recover quite quickly. I practiced ‘breathing in the world’ not only at set times for meditation, but in odd moments during the day.
I can’t promise that it will work for you too. But it’s definitely worth a try!
Let me know how you go in the comment section.
Read these related articles:
Strung out? A Simple Way to Calm Your Mind
Do You Know the First 7 Signs of Emotional Meltdown?
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice one Mary! Although I do not suffer from full blown depression I do go through the phases from time to time, especially during the winter time when there is very little sunshine in Sweden. I have found that focusing on what I am grateful for works extremely well, as does walking meditation and even washing the dishes meditation
.-= Henri´s last blog ..Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Job, Yet =-.
Thanks for sharing the great advice! It’s sad to say, but there’s a whole lot of people who can benefit from taking this advice, and unfortunately many will be too depressed to be motivated to meditate; however, those that do won’t regret it.
Thanks again for the great advice, I’ll have to share it with my readers and followers!
@Henri: Surprisingly, it’s cloudy, rainy days that make me feel the happiest.
.-= Jonathan Beebe´s last blog ..Turn Off the T.V. =-.
Great Advice Mary! I am always recommending Meditation to people to help calm them. However, not until recently did I realize that it can have a negative outcome on people who are very depressed or anxious. I am going to share this link on my blog also so that hopefully it can help some of my readers also who may have a hard time with Meditation. Thanks!
Thanks Mary for an excellent reminder of how best to meditate whilst not in a great space.
Looking at the symptoms you described, I would say that I was probably depressed in the past without even being aware of being so. Thankfully I no longer relate to those symptoms and I guess meditation has helped me to get through.
I really like the concept of “breathing in the world” and I can see why it would work as you are taking the focus away from you and instead focussing on the world beyond you.
When I did some yoga trainiing earlier this year, we were taught to meditate by focussing on the question of whether we had enough love for the whole world. I found that a really powerful method too.
Very interesting Mary, this is a wonderful idea.
Meditation is a great path to find out who and where you belong, it’s also a great start to understand that you do not lack anything. You have everything in this world to live fully and happy.
I think part of the power of meditation comes from that realization, that one is part of the world and thus is never alone. it’s really hard to explain but I think you really shine some light on this topic.
.-= Alejandro Reyes´s last blog ..Peace at work… =-.
Hi Mary – I love the idea of breathing in the world. Thanks for introducing this type of meditation to me. As I read your description of it, it feels expansive. A full sensory experience. I can fully imagine its power to heal.
.-= Patty @ Why Not Start Now?´s last blog ..Before the New Year =-.
Hi Mary, love oyur blog and I will try this out as I recognise myself in several of the statements you mentioned in the beginning of this blogentry.
As I am new to meditation and want to learn it, I wonder how long time do you recommend for meditation?
Mary, thanks for this. I have been struggling with depression on and off for years, and have never gotten myself to meditate regularly. The last time I tried, it definitely made things worse – and I was doing everything you said not to do. I’ll try to practice this method instead. I have a feeling it will help!
I have been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thanks , I will try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your site?