What are some of the positive techniques some of us use to control our thoughts?!
Question: This probably sounds like a no brainer for some but for others can be a struggle. Those that struggle with depression and the constant train of negative thoughts that invade our minds. What methods do "YOU" use to change those negative train of thoughts? Please list from personal experience or just readings what worked best for you to change your mood from a horrible negative feeling to a positve out come!
Answers: This probably sounds like a no brainer for some but for others can be a struggle. Those that struggle with depression and the constant train of negative thoughts that invade our minds. What methods do "YOU" use to change those negative train of thoughts? Please list from personal experience or just readings what worked best for you to change your mood from a horrible negative feeling to a positve out come!
Meditation is a powerful tool for neutralizing the anger and denial that feed depression levels. Centering our thinking is a great way to prevent problems from growing out of proportion in
our mind.
In order to deal with depression, we have to cultivate courage in our meditation, which means that we have to have the willingness to allow oneselves to be in that depressed state. If depression is the state that we find ourselves in, we should not become alarmed and regard that as a sign of something terrible. We have to have the courage not to recoil from that experience, but simply allow it to arise. 'Courage' is called mi 'jigs pa in Tibetan. It is unhelpful to indulging in negative internal dialogues like, 'How long is this depression going to last?' 'Is it going to get worse?' 'How is this going to affect me?' 'How am I going to be able to cope with myself?' 'What will people think of me?' Approaching everything that we experience courageously and fearlessly will result in those experiences having no effect on us. On the contrary, we will become empowered by them.
When we are courageous we are not afraid or anxious or fearful. When we are anxious and afraid all kinds of other conflicting emotions will arise, such as resentment, guilt, self-condemnation and frustration. This sort of courage is based on a fundamental conviction in ourselves as capable of dealing with whatever it is that has arisen, rather than thinking that somehow or other it is going to have an adverse effect on us. When we start to think that it is going to affect us adversely, then fear, anxiety and all of those things come up. But when we are able to say, 'Whatever arises is okay,' we do not have to be so self-protective. By allowing the depressive mood to be there, if that is what comes up, we are showing courage. If we have that kind of courage we are not harmed. More damage is done by hiding behind our illusions and delusions, because then the conflicting emotions become insidious. Most damage takes place due to lack of courage. This lack of courage is almost like a pathological need to protect ourselves, thinking, 'I won't be able to handle this, it will be too much. I will be crushed. I will be destroyed. I will collapse. I will go crazy.' We indulge in all kinds of negative monologues like that. This is the reason why our minds get disturbed, not because we have had such-and-such experiences. It is not our experiences but our reactions to them that cause the damage. We have to forget about our fear that we will somehow be harmed by our negative experiences. If we concentrate more on the courageous mental act of being able to accommodate and accept, we will provide room for the depressive state of mind to be there and we will no longer react to it with alarm.
Awareness and meditation
Having courage in meditation practice means that there will automatically also be awareness there. Awareness is the next important point in relating to depression. It is called shes bzhin in Tibetan: shes bzhin means 'aware-ing,' actually shes means 'aware' and bzhin means 'continuous,' the continuous act of awareness or aware-ing. Awareness means being able to see what is going on. If we do not show courage in our meditation there will be no awareness either, because we would be instinctively recoiling from our meditative experiences. As soon as something disturbing or unpleasant arises, such as a depressive mood, we would recoil. We have to practise awareness in relation to things that we think of as harmful as well as the things that we regard as harmless and innocuous. Through showing courage, we can be aware of what we have allowed ourselves to experience.
Awareness is a process; it is not a state, but an 'aware-ing.' Whatever mental states that arises in the mind, they are also processes in themselves. This is a very important thing to notice. Even if you are in a depressive mood, you will see that the mood changes, if you are aware. If you were not aware there would be no change, no transmutation, no movement. However, if you are aware, you will notice that the subtle permutations of change are continuously taking place. You will see that the experience of the depressive mood itself fluctuates. Even though we automatically assume that it is the same depression, due to our habitual tendencies, if we become more attuned to what we are experiencing we will notice that, in fact, it is never the same. It is always presenting itself differently.
This kind of attention is one of the things that Buddhism encourages us to exercise through the practice of meditation, because not noticing things is what leads us to solidify our experiences; whether that is depression or some other mood or feeling or mental state. When that solidification takes place, our minds become fixated on things and awareness is instantly dissipated, because we are no longer in touch with our own mental state. When we are directly in touch with our mental state, we can see the changing colours and hues of the depressive mood. Another sign of a depression is a person's posture. In meditation, we pay attention to our physical posture. We do not sit with our shoulders slouched, looking defeated and forlorn. It is said that the shoulders should be extended and the chest out, showing some kind of majesty and royal bearing. That has to be included in the practice of awareness.
The way to stay in touch with our mental state is not by retracing the past or anticipating the future. We simply need to pay attention to what we are experiencing at that particular moment. When Buddhists talk about 'being in the now,' they often think that the 'now' has no relevance to the past or the future. That is not true. The way to experience the present moment is not by ignoring the relationship between our present experience and where that experience has come from or where it might be going. The past and the present are embodied in the experiences that we have as human beings. Whatever experiences we have, we have them because of the past; we cannot have an experience that is totally disconnected from our past.
The reason why such-and-such an experience arose in the first place is because of our past. That is the reality of karma. Our present mental state is the product of previous mental states and previous life experiences. In other words, what we are experiencing now is the fruit of what we have experienced in the past. When we pay attention to what we are experiencing now, through awareness, we are able to determine our karmic history in the future by making it take a different course. If we do not pay attention, our karmic history will not be changed or altered.
That is another reason why paying attention to the present is so important. It is not that we somehow just disconnect ourselves from our past and future and simply be in this state called 'nowness.' Buddhist teachings actually say that there is no such thing as nowness; that is just a concept. As soon as you have said, 'I am in the now,' you are already in the past. This is not some kind of metaphysical discussion, phenomenologically speaking in terms of our experience of time; nowness is really only a concept that we use. We cannot be other than in the now. The point is not that we have to be in the now - we cannot help but be in the now. We have to pay attention to that and realise the discrepancies between our concepts and our experience, which is why the practice of awareness is so important.
Meditation and Depression:
http://www.purifymind.com/MeditationDepr...
How to Meditate:
http://www.how-to-meditate.org/
I have found "distraction" to be helpful.
When I am depressed with those negative thoughts, I choose to do an activity so I can focus my thoughts on what I am doing. You can try choosing to:
Read, Sudoku, TV, Yahoo Answers, Talk to a friend,
This has helped me.
This is a part of "Dialectical Behavioral Therapy"