Although this is natural, and by and large healthy, please consult you GP before embarking on any drastic change in your diet or exercise plan.
Depression is a complex and difficult disease to treat; not solely because it still carries such stigma, but also because it takes time to realise you're depressed - especially if you have never encountered it before - and, also because most of the sufferers find it difficult to seek out help and then it takes months to get the right medicines or therapies. Exasperating to the healthy let alone to someone who is in deep throes of an episode.
Incandescent rage:
Part 2: in the holistic approach is the easiest, requires no supplies, no spending of money, not even leaving your house for it to work; actually, requires so little effort that you will doubt its efficacy - but it is that simple. This, even though it is the least effort, is the best remedy in my humble opinion. However, one thing it does need to truly work is consistency.
MEDITATION is by far the best and easiest way to still your mind in the most difficult of times.
Now mediation is nothing new, it has been around since 1500 BCE; however, it is as relevant today, and if not more so, especially, when you consider how unnatural our lives are in the society filled with envy and greed; constant struggle to get more, have more, achieve more, work harder and longer satin a box staring at the box ...
Mediation is not a cure all; would be folly to suggest that mediation would cure famine, cancer or HIV but it helps deal with many psychological issues that help prevent, or put into perspective the issues we are grappling with.
Basic mindfulness meditation is something I have been doing for a few months and it has transformed my mental state. The effect doesn't last forever so when you need to try and stay consistent. Try and do it once a day, few minutes (I try and do 10mins a day - though, I do not always follow my own advice but I do return to mediation at least few times a week.) Mediating for 10 minutes takes me from a stress-ball to a calm and gentle creature I once was.
Mindfulness meditation lowers your stress (and the stress hormone cortisol); mindfulness can effectively reduce symptoms in people with chronic pain, recurrent depression and anxiety disorders, substance abuse, binge eating; it can help increases focus, help with verbal reasoning; makes us more compassionate; and it can help you sleep better
“People who reported higher levels of mindfulness described better control over their emotions and behaviours during the day. In addition, higher mindfulness was associated with lower activation at bedtime, which could have benefits for sleep quality and future ability to manage stress," study researcher Holly Rau said in a statement.
According to a Perspectives on Psychological Science study: body awareness, self-awareness, regulation of emotion and regulation of attention are further four benefits of meditation, and it even helps us even when we are not meditating a study in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, which shows that the amygdala brain region's response to emotional stimuli is changed by meditation, and this effect occurs even when a person isn't actively meditating.
So how to do it:
UCLA have released free meditation podcasts that you can download or play from this website:
http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22
or
http://www.freemindfulness.org/
There is a very good book and CD program from that I have used before by Jon Kabat-Zin.
Or you can sit or lay down and make your own mindfulness exercise:
The basics are to focus on the sensations in your body - scan your body.
Start from your feet and be aware of any sensations that you might feel in your feet, your toes, your heels and so on. Do not try and change or judge the sensation but accept it as is and move on to the next part of your body.
Don't worry if your mind wonders because even experienced mediators struggle; as the research by Daniel Stern has found that our experiences of an “uninterrupted now” are moments that typically last 1-10 seconds, with some rare exceptions for very experienced meditators.
Short mediation that is very helpful consists of focusing on the sensation of air/wind on your skin, or focusing your breath, not forcing it or analysing it just observing and breathing naturally.
There is also mindful eating; try mindful eating for the first few bites of any meal or snack - just pay attention to the sensory experiences - the texture, taste, smell and appearance of the food, and the sounds when you bite into your food. Focus on the sensations!
Mindful eating is a perfect transition into the nutritional side of treating depression. see you in Part 3.
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