The first time someone suggested that I try mindfulness and meditation to help with depression, I didn’t take them seriously. I had suffered major depressive episodes that had felt worse than anything I could have imagined. How could deep breathing possibly make a difference? In fact, by sitting and ‘doing nothing’, I would surely be making it worse!
Problem was, I’d tried everything else by that point. Medication and therapy made a big difference, but it felt like a matter of time before I suffered another major depressive episode. And so, I gave the philosophy of mindfulness, which includes meditation, a try.
To my surprise, mindfulness changed my life. It did something that years of analyzing my psyche and challenging myself could not do, as much as they had helped. It was also far simpler.
We’ll take a moment to discuss why mindfulness and meditation help people with depression before we provide practical techniques you can try right now. But first, a disclaimer.
Mindfulness as a Mental Health Treatment
Mindfulness can be an excellent first line treatment for depression. For that reason you need to take it as seriously as you would any other type of therapy. While the practice of mindfulness is not complicated, internalizing the mindful approach to life, learning how to use appropriate techniques in times of crisis, and building a sustainable practice takes guidance.
Mindfulness and meditation changed my life not just because I decided to give it my all, but also because I did an extensive course of treatment led by experts. As such, although the techniques we speak about below are worthwhile and can help, they should not comprise your primary treatment for depression.
They definitely should not come at the expense of any other treatments you are using, unless recommended by your mental healthcare providers. Speak to a mental health professional about trying a comprehensive course of mindfulness treatment.
How Do Mindfulness and Meditation Help With Depression?
Albert Einstein famously said that ‘we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’ This applies in the realm of mental health as well. Anyone suffering with depression knows that there are patterns of thoughts and behaviors that are significant barriers to treatment.
Mindfulness takes an entirely different approach. Instead of spending all your time challenging those thoughts and behaviors, you do something completely different. You accept them.
If this sounds counterintuitive to you, good! The idea conflicts with those patterns of thoughts that help your depression persist.
It would take hours to go into all the details about how mindfulness works to treat depression, and we’ll link to some resources below. Here’s a very summarized version
The Mindfulness Connection
Mindfulness tells us that thoughts and feelings are neither good nor bad. We grow up believing that we shouldn’t feel or think certain things, but that is neither true nor helpful. Thoughts and feelings are natural human responses.
Those that are most difficult to cope with become far more painful when you judge them as bad. The judgment causes you to panic, trying to figure out the fastest way to get rid of them, or wondering if they will ever go away.
The reality is that, if you don’t try and fight them, they can fade away in fifteen seconds.
Of course, as simple as that sounds, it requires a total change of mindset. The good news is that you don’t change by trying to convince yourself to think differently. Rather, you do it with practices such as meditation, one-mindfulness, and more.
As such, the following techniques may help significantly, but require you to accept that they are not a miracle cure. When you have some quiet space and time, try one or more of the following.
1. Follow Your Breath
- Sit or lie down in a comfortable position
- Close your eyes
- Turn your thoughts to your breath, without trying to change the way you are breathing
- Follow each inhale and exhale
- Every time you get distracted by a thought, bring your mind back to the breath
Don’t become discouraged when you get distracted over and over again. Bringing your mind back to your breath is the process. Following your breath helps you to become less attached to your thoughts and feelings, allowing them to be without focusing on them.
This technique is not for everyone, and while it works for some neurodivergent people, it is frustrating for others. If you are neurodivergent, try following your breath, but don’t beat yourself up if you find yourself dreading it. You might find the next two techniques better suited.
2. Do Something You Enjoy, One-Mindfully
We’re going to use the example of eating a raisin, but you can try this with other foods and activities.
- Sit down, with the intention of eating a raisin while doing nothing else
- Place the raisin in the palm of your hand
- Look at it, noticing and describing the various details, including the colors, shapes, ridges
- Bring the raisin to your nose and focus on what you smell. Notice and describe the type of smell, the strength of the smell, and other details
- Hold the raisin by your ear, and notice what it sounds like when you rub your fingers against it
- Turn your focus to the feel of the raisin between your fingers. Notice the details when you rub your finger over it, squeeze it, turn it
- Put it in your mouth but don’t chew it yet. Notice how it tastes
- Chew it once, and notice how you experience the taste changing
- Chew it again, continuing to notice the changes
- Continue and, when ready, swallow, noticing how the process feels
There is no right or wrong way to do this practice. You may notice a few things or many. It may be a brief exercise or take a long while. This is an example of doing an activity one-mindfully. It is the process of focusing only on the one thing you are doing and, while it is impossible to spend your whole life doing things this way, it can bring you a sense of peace and presence.
3. Go For a Walk
This may seem similar to the previous exercise. However, it entails turning your attention to a number of things.
While taking a slow walk in a secure area, do the following:
- Look out for 5 different colors or shades
- Listen for 5 different sounds, near and far
- See if you can identify 5 different smells
- Touch 5 different items while you walk – things like leaves, grass, walls, trees
- Don’t taste anything unless you know it’s safe!
By the end of your walk, you may feel more connected with the natural world and your place in it. If you don’t, don’t feel discouraged. You can continue to try this exercise and others. There is always value in taking some time to be present in the world.
Remember that mindfulness does not consist of quick-fix techniques. The above practices help, but for mindfulness to serve as a first-line treatment, it should be part of an integrated course, guided by experts, experienced in the realm of mindfulness in mental health.
