Introduction
Are you feeling depressed? Are you looking for a way to help treat your symptoms associated with depression? Have you considered engaging in mindfulness skills? According to psychology today, “A little mindfulness a day helps keep depression away. A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can do just as well, if not better, than traditional forms of therapies to prevent depression.” With that said, this article will describe the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to help alleviate symptoms associated with depression, as well as ways to meditate to help decrease symptoms associated with depression.
Statistics On Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
According to psychology today, “The new study analyzed data across nine trials from 2010 to 2014. Researchers found that 62 percent of people with recurrent major depressive disorder remained free of depression 2 months later when they used mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, compared to 51 percent who used more traditional therapies, such as antidepressants. This suggests that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has equal, if not more, power to heal and stop the return of depression. The study also found that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy helped particularly people experiencing more symptoms of depression.” With that said, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a very useful tool to help manage symptoms associated with depression.
Tips To Meditate
In the previous section of this article, I mentioned statistics supporting the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to help treat symptoms associated with depression. In this section, I will describe tips to help meditate to alleviate symptoms associated with depression. According to psychology today, the following are mindfulness-based cognitive therapy tips to help alleviate symptoms associated with depression:
- Focus on your breath and breathe with full attention for as little as 1 to 2 minutes. You can do this on your commute or before bedtime.
- Listen to a simple guided meditations for 5 or 10 minutes a day.
- Put away your smartphone for 5 minutes and find 3 things in the room that provide you a sense of comfort or groundedness. Notice everything about those things.
- Take a 5-minute quiet, observational walk during a work lunch break.
- Try a relaxing hour-long restorative yoga class at the end of your week.
- Pick your favorite fruit. Sit down to examine it and eat it without any distractions (no TV or smartphone!)
Conclusion
If you are depressed, there is still hope. Do not give up. Consider using the tips listed above to help alleviate your symptoms associated with depression.
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