Rethink Depression Myth
Depression Myth
Rethink Your Thinking
by
Stephen Lau
It is a depression myth that major depression is a medical illness caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and that you are powerless against it.
The causes of major depression are many; however, the symptoms are always associated with chemical imbalance, but there is no absolute scientific evidence that low levels of serotonin actually cause depression. At any rate, chemical imbalance may be the result, not necessarily, the cause of major depression.
Research studies at the UCLA School of Medicine have shown that cognitive-behavioral therapy alone actually causes chemical changes in the brain. In other words, it is a depression myth that chemical imbalance cannot be changed by thinking and/or behavior, other than by medications.
Rethink your thinking of depression. Rethink any depression myth. You are what you think, and depression can be a choice - your choice, if you choose not to rethink your thinking of depression.
You are responsible for your thoughts. Create your own realty holographically. This is a reality, not a depression myth. I Create Reality shows you how to apply the principles of reality and visualization to create your own reality to change your life dramatically. This book provides all the specifics you need to change your thinking mind.
Malfunction of your functioning mind
Your brain is the hardware of your whole being. It is a depression myth that you are powerless against a malfunctioning mind.
If you want to be what you really want to be, you must make your brain work for you, not against you. Your brain plays a pivotal role in your personality, feelings, and behavior because it is the seat of your perception and experience.
It is a depression myth that your depression controls your thinking, making your mind lethargic and unproductive. No, YOU control your own thinking; your brain creates your own world - how you live your life, and how happy you are. It is all in your mind. You are responsible for how you feel - even the stresses in life; to say otherwise is either finger-pointing or passing your responsibility to others, either of which only perpetuates the mental disorder.
Deep limbic system (near the center of your brain)
It is a depression myth that your behavior is primarily the result of environmental stress or conditioning. The fact is that people and events do not necessarily cause your moodiness, irritability, negative thinking, decreased motivation, loss of appetite, and insomnia (all common symptoms of major depression).
Your deep limbic system may be the culprit. How? Your deficiency of neurotransmitters may increase metabolism or inflammation in your deep limbic system, leading to its malfunctioning.
Overactive deep limbic system
An overactive deep limbic system may make you do the following
· You look back at the past, and you feel regret.
· You look at the future, and you feel anxiety.
· You look at the present, and you feel dissatisfaction.
These negative thoughts are known as automatic negative thoughts (ANT).
Healing your deep limbic system
It is a depression myth that only antidepressants can improve your deep limbic system functioning by enhancing your neurotransmitters. Even if that were true, all depression medications come with a price - their adverse side effects that may offset the benefits.
The only way to heal your deep limbic system is: change your moment-to-moment thought patterns.
Learn to rethink your thinking. Change your thought patterns. Yes, you can do it! Everybody can!
Rethink your thinking of your thinking mind.
Steps in rethinking your negative thoughts:
Step 1
Understand that your thoughts are real. They are not imaginary, but as real as life to you.
· You have a thought.
· Your thought sends electrical signals to your brain.
· Your brain releases chemicals.
· You become aware of your own thinking.
No matter what you think, your thoughts are real to you, and must be treated as real. The goal is to change your perception of these thoughts.
Step 2
Be aware of your body’s reactions to the chemicals released by your brain as these thoughts occur.
For example, if you are angry, notice how your muscles tense up and how your heart beats faster; if you are happy, notice how your body responds with a smile or a feeling of euphoria.
Train yourself to notice the differences in your deep limbic system when your thoughts are happy and when they are sad, and notice the different reactions of your body to these different thoughts.
Step 3
Think of negative thoughts as bad. Talk back to your negative thoughts whenever they occur.
Remember, your automatic negative thoughts (ANT) come to your brain involuntarily and spontaneously. But they are NOT correct, and they do not reflect the WHOLE truth.
Change your thoughts, and do not believe them. Learn how to train your mind to change your thoughts, and accordingly change your feelings. Reinforce your changed feelings by talking back to those negative thoughts.
Step 4
Given that your automatic negative thoughts (ANT) are incorrect, challenge them, and talk back to them repeatedly until they are gone.
This is how:
Write down your automatic negative thoughts (ANT). Do not use sweeping words (always, never, no one, nobody, everyone, every time, every thing), such as I am always a failure or Nobody likes me. Look at what you have written down, and talk back to them repeatedly.
· Do NOT focus on negative thoughts.
· Do NOT predict the future. Man is not supposed to know his fate, and he will never know.
· Do NOT read into someone else’s mind. Do not try to figure out what someone else is thinking about you or anything related to you. You have enough trouble reading your own mind.
· Do NOT think with your feelings. Remember, your feelings are often based on powerful memories from the past, but they may “lie” to you. Do not say: “I feel hopeless” or “I feel inadequate.”
· Do NOT cherish the feeling of guilt, which is often a bad and negative emotion. Remove these from your vocabulary: could have, should have and ought to have.
· Do NOT label or generalize anyone or anything with words, such as arrogant, dishonest, a liar. In other words, do not judge. Labeling prevents you from getting a clear picture of someone or a situation.
· Do NOT explain someone else’s action or intention. Do not attribute any reason to why things happen. Avoid using he or she must be…
· Do NOT play the blame game. Stop blaming anyone or anything. YOU are responsible for your feelings, and no one else!
The above are all common patterns of thoughts that come to you naturally simply because you permit them. They all upset your deep limbic system. Learn to talk back to them whenever they surface in your mind. That you cannot do anything about your thoughts is a depression myth. That you must use medications to suppress your negative thoughts is another depression myth.
Other ways to banish negative thoughts
Exercise can also help you banish negative thoughts:
· It increases your energy output.
· It accelerates your body metabolism.
· It normalizes your melatonin production to induce restful sleep.
· It improves your mood by providing your brain with more of the natural amino acid tryptophan.
Nutrition can help your deep limbic system function optimally. Essentially, your deep limbic system needs fat, specifically, omega 3 fatty acids. According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, men who had the highest suicide rates had the lowest cholesterol levels. So some fats may not be bad after all.
Your body needs proteins, which are building blocks of brain neurotransmitters.
Balanced meals with complex carbohydrates, milk, meat, and eggs boost up the levels of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, which are implicated in major depression.
Social skills can help you deal with everyday issues and situations. Always assume the best about the other person, and notice only the good in a person. Also, surround yourself with people who are positive.
Rethink the depression myth that you are poweless in dealing with automatic negative thoughts.
Zen practice
Zen practice not only benefits depression but also addresses the issue of distorted thinking, which is common in major depression.
Zen is NOT a religious belief. Despite having its origin from Buddha, Zen is not the foundation of Buddhism. Zen practice is only an enlightened mental state focusing on the present moment.
According to Zen, there is no such a disease as depression. Zen does not label an individual as sick or mentally ill. According to Zen, sickness is just a human condition, and any labeling only compounds the problem of sickness. Forbid yourself ever using the word “depression” in your life. It is not a disease, only a mental condition. Depression can be corrected by correct thinking and behavior, and it is only a depression myth that it cannot.
Many individuals suffering from depression have a distorted perception of self-worth. Instead of accepting who they are, they want to be what they wish they would like to become. Their hunger for the verisimilitude of realty often fosters delusions and a host of other mental problems, such as confusion and fantasy.
Zen focuses on who you are, rather than your "desire" to be somebody else you are not. In this way, Zen purges the mind of any low self-esteem.
Rethink your thinking of wanting to be someone else, and not being content with who you are.
Write down all the things you do not like about yourself, and dismiss them one by one by repeating to yourself that you are what you are and that there is nothing wrong with that.
Longing for something you cannot have creates pain. In life, pain occurs when your expectations are not met or fulfilled. In Zen, every moment remains with only that very moment. For this reason, everything is changing, and impermanent. To desire or crave permanence from something impermanent is a disease of the mind. If this is the real cause of major depression, then it would be a depression myth to think that only medications can change your thinking.
Also, your mind, which changes continuously, can be changed only by yourself. Change the way you think about yourself. Positive affirmations can have a positive therapeutic effect on your mental conditions.
Rethink your thinking of desiring impermanent things.
It is human instinct to avoid pain. By avoiding pain, you subconsciously create more problems requiring more solutions. Unlike modern psychiatry, the way of Zen is not to question, analyze, or dwell upon pain. If you do, you are in fact creating the setting for more suffering. However, Zen is not passive submission to fate; it is positive acceptance of the realities of life. You do the best you possibly can, and accept whatever the outcome. According to Zen, you must accept the good as well as the bad in life; in other words, pain is natural. Just learn how to receive your pain.
Pain is not avoidable in life, but suffering is. If you dwell upon pain, you perpetuate the suffering indefinitely.
Once the pain is created, an individual (or the psychiatrist) begins to seek analysis and explanation of the pain, hoping to find a solution to the problem. It is a depression myth that a psychiatrist can unravel your problems and hand over a solution to all your problems
According to Zen, life is never a problem to be solved. Life never has a problem, and if there is a problem, that is because you have created it for yourself. Once you have created a problem, you need a solution to the problem. Some simply choose to avoid the problem, thus creating more unresolved problems; others attempt to solve the problem by analyzing the problem and examining the options available to solve the problem, thus generating stress, which only intensifies the problem. Compounding problems triggers major depression in an individual. This is the reality, not a depression myth.
Live in a World of No Problems shows you how to live in a world of no problems without being a Buddha. Yes, philosophers, sages, and wise men have been telling you for years that there are NO problems, but you still worry about your problems, because nobody tells you HOW. Live in a World of No Problems tells you exactly HOW to live in a world of no problems.
Rethink your thinking of pain in your life - don't just take the joy without the pain.
Zen practice is about having time for yourself in a special way. When you take time off to go for a walk or a drive, this is certainly having time for yourself, and is important. But Zen practice goes beyond that: it enables you to do some soul-searching to fathom some beautiful things hidden deep within you.
Where and when to practice Zen
Practice sitting meditation everyday. It is best to do it in a set place, at a set time. All other aspects of Zen grow out of this daily routine.
What is Zen meditation?
Zen meditation is the search for inner consciousness or wakefulness without the constant influx of thoughts and feelings until you find your bliss in your consciousness.
According to Buddha, the human mind is basically calm, but it is troubled by everyday anxieties, thoughts, memories, and worries. The arts, music, exercise and sports and laughter are all medicines that help the perturbed mind. But the most potent one is meditation, because it goes inwards into the deepest recesses of your soul, where you come in close contact with the innate silence and peace of your soul.
When you meditate regularly, you are performing duties with your mind, giving it the calm and peace it rightfully deserves. Meditation is toning your mind, just as exercise is toning your body. Do not neglect your mind.
Through the profound experience of meditation, you learn the following:
· how to relax (not becoming lethargic).
· how to manage your stress (not avoiding it).
· how to enjoy life (not being afraid of death or other life's problems).
· how to become conscious of the world you are living in (not withdrawing into your own world of fantasy and unreality).
How to practice Zen meditation
· Sit down comfortably, with your back straight and your spine erect. If you cannot sit in the lotus posture, then on a chair.
· Close your eyes (shutting out external distractions).
· Observe and notice your thoughts as they come and go. Do not attach any feelings to them; that is, they become neutral, making you neither happy nor sad.
· Initially, you may find some thoughts good or bad. Just let them come and go. Do not deliberately dismiss them.
· Meanwhile, breathe in and out, and notice the rhythms of your breathing.
· Let your mind drift further into a state of consciousness, but without forcing it to happen.
· Your mind may still generate thoughts. Let them come and go. Meanwhile, continue to notice your breathing and its rhythms.
· If negative thoughts still come up, gently dismiss and dispel them with positive images.
Do not worry if you fall asleep (your mind may have become calm and relaxed). Zen meditation will happen by itself if your mind continues to be relaxed and purged of thoughts. Just be patient and persistent. Spend ten to twenty minutes each day on meditation. Do not expect immediate results, but it will happen one day.
Benefits of Zen meditation
· You become aware of the close relationship between your mind and body; that is, how your mind can affect your body, and how you can control your body through controlling your mind.
· Your mind becomes completely relaxed, purged of negative thoughts and feelings.
· You feel more caring and loving as your basic human virtues begin to surface in the wake of emptying unwanted negative feelings in your mind.
Deepak Chopra:
The path of meditation leads inwards.
In prayer, you are talking to God;
In meditation, God is talking to you.
Rethink your thinking of meditation - it works!
Even the corporate world is now beginning to turn to meditation as a strategy for:
· stress management
· better productivity
· improved interpersonal relations
Indeed, research has shown that during meditation, your heart slows down, your blood pressure drops, your levels of anxiety and tension declines. In fact, the EEG (a test that measures and records the electrical activity of your brain) even shows correlation between the brain nerves in the right and left of the brain, which is conducive to better mood stability. Why use medications to bring down your blood pressure or to give you deep sleep?
To sum up, Zen meditation is beneficial to your mental and physical health. In the deep recesses of your mind, ignorance gives way to awakening, and stress dissipates to make way for peace and harmony.
For more information on different types of therapeutic meditation, go to my web site Meditation Techniques.
Buddhist philosophy
According to Buddha, depression is an illness not just of the body and mind, but also of the heart. The heart, the spirit, is where the key to healing lies, contrary to the depression myth that only medications and talk therapy hold the key to recovery.
If your life does not have a purpose, the worldliness of life becomes like quicksand sucking you into a spiritual vacuum, which can only be filled by depressive negative thoughts. When that happens, you are not living, merely staying alive.
Buddhist philosophy generally approaches depression from a different viewpoint than modern Western psychology does. The Buddhist perspective is that an underlying selfishness or egotism is often the basic cause of major depression. However, that does not mean that you are to be blamed for being depressed.
Buddhist philosophy focuses on compassion and loving kindness to remedy your dysfunctional mental conditions. But the prerequisite for compassion and loving kindness is first emptying the self of any attachment to material things (what is known as non-attachment), including self-obsessive thoughts of your own problems. When you become selfless (what is known as no-self), you begin to know intuitively what your true self really is. Emptying the self makes room for compassion and loving kindness to develop and cherish.
To empty you mind, first of all, you need to remove all clutters from your physical life. Declutter Fast shows you the way to declutter your life to give you peace of mind and soul. Decluttering releases the bonds that have been holding you back. Decluttering ignites the fires of energy within you. Unlike other books, this Declutter Fast actually helps you get rid of your physical clutters instead of re-arranging your clutters. Decluttering your life prepares you to empty your mind.
According to Buddha, desire is the root of human miseries. Only when you have emptied your mind of any desire, then you will experience contentment, which gives peace to your soul; accordingly, negative thoughts, a slow poison of the mind, will then dissipate. With an enlightened mind, you will experience a deep yearning for compassion and loving kindness, which is innate in any human being. But you need emptying the self to bring it out.
What is compassion and loving-kindness?
Compassion and loving-kindness implies wanting others to be free from suffering, just as you wish it on yourself. It is the highest level of motivation in living. You live to free others of suffering, and hence your own.
To generate genuine compassion, you need to realize that you are suffering, too, just like everybody else. You want to free others of suffering in order to free yourself of your own suffering. Your life will never be the same - there will be no spiritual vacuum in your life to be filled by depressive negative thoughts, and each day of your life will become purposeful and meaningful. This is the power of compassion and loving kindness of Buddha, which is not much different from the Christian principle of loving your neighbor as yourself.
Essentially, compassion and loving kindness embodies a warm heart, helping and serving others, respecting others for who they are, and being less selfish or self-centered.
True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Because of this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude towards others does not change even if the response is negative. That is, your compassion has no ulterior motive: you do not express your compassion to make yourself feel good; you feel good because you are compassionate - even if you do not like the recipient. Genuine compassion is based not on your own projections and expectations of the outcome of an act of love, but rather on the needs of others, irrespective of who and what they are. In that context, not many are genuinely compassionate. Be the few who are genuinely compassionate.
Rethink compassion and love as the nectar of life - not just others' but yours as well
According to Buddha, everything you are is a result of your thoughts. The only way to change your thoughts is through deep meditation, in which you empty your negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.
Instant Meditation Secrets shows you an alternative way of instant meditation - using state-of-the-art sound waves technology. The innovative techniques are mind-blowing.
Rethink your thinking
Major depression is deep internal pain initiated by disturbed and distorted thinking.
Meditation is a way to change your thoughts or to rethink your thinking. It is only in the deep calm of your mind that your can re-discover who you really are, and what you want out of your life. No one can help you on that score. After all, it is your life, and your mental health is in your hands, or rather in your mind. You are what you think you are. It is a depression myth that only medications can help your mind.
Your thoughts influence your behaviors, which directly affect people around you, who may react positively or negatively to your behaviors, precipitating in emotions responsible for your mental wellbeing.
Rethink meditation - use it to regain your zest for life, which is healing itself.
Jesus says: Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.
Yes, the cure is all within you - within your mind! It is a depression myth that your mind is powerless against negative thoughts
In Managing Your Mind, Dr. Gillian Butler and Dr. Tony Hope have pointed out out one possible advantage of having depression:
. . . it could get you out of facing some of the things you are frightened about. Being depressed can save you from facing responsibilities which frighten you; it can save you from carrying out duties which you find stressful; it can block your need to make important changes - for examle, in a relationship or at work. Your depression becomes the reason for not doing things that, for one reason or another, you do not want to do.
Do not use depression as a crutch in your life. In the end, it causes more problems than it solves. It is a depression myth that you can use only medications to control your brain chemicals: the fact is that you can control your own mind to control your depression.
Rethink your thinking - get out of your cocoon!
It is a depression myth that you are a victim of depression: the fact is that depression may be a choice - you choose to let your mind control you, instead of you controlling your mind. Do not let depression be your own choice. Do something about it - through your thinking mind! Take appropriate action!
Action, which originates from the mind, produces either good or bad results. Through your mind, you have created your own conditions. What is in your mind is only a mental act, which has to be transformed into a verbal act in your speech, and then into a bodily act in your action.
Activity is a constant and incessant act, both in nature and in man, who is part of nature.
To be alive, you have to be active all the time - even when you are asleep, your mind remains active. So activity is the source of life. However, in depression, lethargy and lack of activity predominate in your thinking mind, resulting in little or no activity.
But action or lack of action has its consequences. Jesus says: As you sow, so shall you reap.
Thomas Sowell said: Our fate is matched by the total freedom we have to react to our fate. It is as if we were dealt a hand of cards. Once we have them, we are free to play them as we choose.
You have the freedom to choose or create where you are at this moment of your life. It is all in your mind! You need self-effort, which is essentially your mental, verbal, and physical action. The results of your endeavors will be commensurate with the intensity of your self-effort.
You can choose to rethink your thinking to produce the physical action, or let your mind continue to wallow in the following distorted thoughts:
· Depression myth: Depression is caused by chemical imbalance.
· Depression myth: Only medications can change your brain chemicals.
· Depression myth: Medications are the most effective cure for depression.
· Depression myth: Diet has little to do with your depression because it is your mind, not your body, which is sick.
· Depression myth: Your thinking cannot change your behavioral problems, which are part of the illness.
· Depression myth: Problematic behaviors are a result of your depression.
· Depression myth: Your depression is not your choice: you are not responsible for your mental conditions.
· Depression myth: You can overcome depression by willpower.
· Depression myth: You cannot change your thinking because your mind is controlled by depression.
· Depression myth: Your lifestyle changes cannot prevent depression relapse.
· Depression myth: If you get depression, you are stuck with it for life.
· Depression myth: Depression is no different than "getting the blues"; it is just a normal part of life.
· Depression myth: Depression will go away by itself.
· Depression myth: Depression is a normal part of growing old.
But your mind can embrace the right attitudes to your depression or disorder.
Rethink your thinking, and you will see the reality in any depression myth. Any available treatment, such as medications, diet, lifestyle changes, acupuncture, and talk therapy, may play a role in your recovery. But all of these still require self-effort, which is determined by the mind - your mind.
Only your mind can make you forget the past, make you dispel your fear of the future, and make you live the present to the fullest. Dead to the past and alive to the future, you become aware of the present moment such that you are truly alive and truly living in the present moment, the most precious moment of your life.
Since major depression is all in the mind. Let your mind work for you, not against you. Just rethink your thinking in all matters related to any depression myth.
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
Return from Rethink Your Thinking to Home Page.
Rethink Your Thinking
by
Stephen Lau
It is a depression myth that major depression is a medical illness caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and that you are powerless against it.
The causes of major depression are many; however, the symptoms are always associated with chemical imbalance, but there is no absolute scientific evidence that low levels of serotonin actually cause depression. At any rate, chemical imbalance may be the result, not necessarily, the cause of major depression.
Research studies at the UCLA School of Medicine have shown that cognitive-behavioral therapy alone actually causes chemical changes in the brain. In other words, it is a depression myth that chemical imbalance cannot be changed by thinking and/or behavior, other than by medications.
Rethink your thinking of depression. Rethink any depression myth. You are what you think, and depression can be a choice - your choice, if you choose not to rethink your thinking of depression.
You are responsible for your thoughts. Create your own realty holographically. This is a reality, not a depression myth. I Create Reality shows you how to apply the principles of reality and visualization to create your own reality to change your life dramatically. This book provides all the specifics you need to change your thinking mind.
Malfunction of your functioning mind
Your brain is the hardware of your whole being. It is a depression myth that you are powerless against a malfunctioning mind.
If you want to be what you really want to be, you must make your brain work for you, not against you. Your brain plays a pivotal role in your personality, feelings, and behavior because it is the seat of your perception and experience.
It is a depression myth that your depression controls your thinking, making your mind lethargic and unproductive. No, YOU control your own thinking; your brain creates your own world - how you live your life, and how happy you are. It is all in your mind. You are responsible for how you feel - even the stresses in life; to say otherwise is either finger-pointing or passing your responsibility to others, either of which only perpetuates the mental disorder.
Deep limbic system (near the center of your brain)
It is a depression myth that your behavior is primarily the result of environmental stress or conditioning. The fact is that people and events do not necessarily cause your moodiness, irritability, negative thinking, decreased motivation, loss of appetite, and insomnia (all common symptoms of major depression).
Your deep limbic system may be the culprit. How? Your deficiency of neurotransmitters may increase metabolism or inflammation in your deep limbic system, leading to its malfunctioning.
Overactive deep limbic system
An overactive deep limbic system may make you do the following
· You look back at the past, and you feel regret.
· You look at the future, and you feel anxiety.
· You look at the present, and you feel dissatisfaction.
These negative thoughts are known as automatic negative thoughts (ANT).
Healing your deep limbic system
It is a depression myth that only antidepressants can improve your deep limbic system functioning by enhancing your neurotransmitters. Even if that were true, all depression medications come with a price - their adverse side effects that may offset the benefits.
The only way to heal your deep limbic system is: change your moment-to-moment thought patterns.
Learn to rethink your thinking. Change your thought patterns. Yes, you can do it! Everybody can!
Rethink your thinking of your thinking mind.
Steps in rethinking your negative thoughts:
Step 1
Understand that your thoughts are real. They are not imaginary, but as real as life to you.
· You have a thought.
· Your thought sends electrical signals to your brain.
· Your brain releases chemicals.
· You become aware of your own thinking.
No matter what you think, your thoughts are real to you, and must be treated as real. The goal is to change your perception of these thoughts.
Step 2
Be aware of your body’s reactions to the chemicals released by your brain as these thoughts occur.
For example, if you are angry, notice how your muscles tense up and how your heart beats faster; if you are happy, notice how your body responds with a smile or a feeling of euphoria.
Train yourself to notice the differences in your deep limbic system when your thoughts are happy and when they are sad, and notice the different reactions of your body to these different thoughts.
Step 3
Think of negative thoughts as bad. Talk back to your negative thoughts whenever they occur.
Remember, your automatic negative thoughts (ANT) come to your brain involuntarily and spontaneously. But they are NOT correct, and they do not reflect the WHOLE truth.
Change your thoughts, and do not believe them. Learn how to train your mind to change your thoughts, and accordingly change your feelings. Reinforce your changed feelings by talking back to those negative thoughts.
Step 4
Given that your automatic negative thoughts (ANT) are incorrect, challenge them, and talk back to them repeatedly until they are gone.
This is how:
Write down your automatic negative thoughts (ANT). Do not use sweeping words (always, never, no one, nobody, everyone, every time, every thing), such as I am always a failure or Nobody likes me. Look at what you have written down, and talk back to them repeatedly.
· Do NOT focus on negative thoughts.
· Do NOT predict the future. Man is not supposed to know his fate, and he will never know.
· Do NOT read into someone else’s mind. Do not try to figure out what someone else is thinking about you or anything related to you. You have enough trouble reading your own mind.
· Do NOT think with your feelings. Remember, your feelings are often based on powerful memories from the past, but they may “lie” to you. Do not say: “I feel hopeless” or “I feel inadequate.”
· Do NOT cherish the feeling of guilt, which is often a bad and negative emotion. Remove these from your vocabulary: could have, should have and ought to have.
· Do NOT label or generalize anyone or anything with words, such as arrogant, dishonest, a liar. In other words, do not judge. Labeling prevents you from getting a clear picture of someone or a situation.
· Do NOT explain someone else’s action or intention. Do not attribute any reason to why things happen. Avoid using he or she must be…
· Do NOT play the blame game. Stop blaming anyone or anything. YOU are responsible for your feelings, and no one else!
The above are all common patterns of thoughts that come to you naturally simply because you permit them. They all upset your deep limbic system. Learn to talk back to them whenever they surface in your mind. That you cannot do anything about your thoughts is a depression myth. That you must use medications to suppress your negative thoughts is another depression myth.
Other ways to banish negative thoughts
Exercise can also help you banish negative thoughts:
· It increases your energy output.
· It accelerates your body metabolism.
· It normalizes your melatonin production to induce restful sleep.
· It improves your mood by providing your brain with more of the natural amino acid tryptophan.
Nutrition can help your deep limbic system function optimally. Essentially, your deep limbic system needs fat, specifically, omega 3 fatty acids. According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, men who had the highest suicide rates had the lowest cholesterol levels. So some fats may not be bad after all.
Your body needs proteins, which are building blocks of brain neurotransmitters.
Balanced meals with complex carbohydrates, milk, meat, and eggs boost up the levels of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, which are implicated in major depression.
Social skills can help you deal with everyday issues and situations. Always assume the best about the other person, and notice only the good in a person. Also, surround yourself with people who are positive.
Rethink the depression myth that you are poweless in dealing with automatic negative thoughts.
Zen practice
Zen practice not only benefits depression but also addresses the issue of distorted thinking, which is common in major depression.
Zen is NOT a religious belief. Despite having its origin from Buddha, Zen is not the foundation of Buddhism. Zen practice is only an enlightened mental state focusing on the present moment.
According to Zen, there is no such a disease as depression. Zen does not label an individual as sick or mentally ill. According to Zen, sickness is just a human condition, and any labeling only compounds the problem of sickness. Forbid yourself ever using the word “depression” in your life. It is not a disease, only a mental condition. Depression can be corrected by correct thinking and behavior, and it is only a depression myth that it cannot.
Many individuals suffering from depression have a distorted perception of self-worth. Instead of accepting who they are, they want to be what they wish they would like to become. Their hunger for the verisimilitude of realty often fosters delusions and a host of other mental problems, such as confusion and fantasy.
Zen focuses on who you are, rather than your "desire" to be somebody else you are not. In this way, Zen purges the mind of any low self-esteem.
Rethink your thinking of wanting to be someone else, and not being content with who you are.
Write down all the things you do not like about yourself, and dismiss them one by one by repeating to yourself that you are what you are and that there is nothing wrong with that.
Longing for something you cannot have creates pain. In life, pain occurs when your expectations are not met or fulfilled. In Zen, every moment remains with only that very moment. For this reason, everything is changing, and impermanent. To desire or crave permanence from something impermanent is a disease of the mind. If this is the real cause of major depression, then it would be a depression myth to think that only medications can change your thinking.
Also, your mind, which changes continuously, can be changed only by yourself. Change the way you think about yourself. Positive affirmations can have a positive therapeutic effect on your mental conditions.
Rethink your thinking of desiring impermanent things.
It is human instinct to avoid pain. By avoiding pain, you subconsciously create more problems requiring more solutions. Unlike modern psychiatry, the way of Zen is not to question, analyze, or dwell upon pain. If you do, you are in fact creating the setting for more suffering. However, Zen is not passive submission to fate; it is positive acceptance of the realities of life. You do the best you possibly can, and accept whatever the outcome. According to Zen, you must accept the good as well as the bad in life; in other words, pain is natural. Just learn how to receive your pain.
Pain is not avoidable in life, but suffering is. If you dwell upon pain, you perpetuate the suffering indefinitely.
Once the pain is created, an individual (or the psychiatrist) begins to seek analysis and explanation of the pain, hoping to find a solution to the problem. It is a depression myth that a psychiatrist can unravel your problems and hand over a solution to all your problems
According to Zen, life is never a problem to be solved. Life never has a problem, and if there is a problem, that is because you have created it for yourself. Once you have created a problem, you need a solution to the problem. Some simply choose to avoid the problem, thus creating more unresolved problems; others attempt to solve the problem by analyzing the problem and examining the options available to solve the problem, thus generating stress, which only intensifies the problem. Compounding problems triggers major depression in an individual. This is the reality, not a depression myth.
Live in a World of No Problems shows you how to live in a world of no problems without being a Buddha. Yes, philosophers, sages, and wise men have been telling you for years that there are NO problems, but you still worry about your problems, because nobody tells you HOW. Live in a World of No Problems tells you exactly HOW to live in a world of no problems.
Rethink your thinking of pain in your life - don't just take the joy without the pain.
Zen practice is about having time for yourself in a special way. When you take time off to go for a walk or a drive, this is certainly having time for yourself, and is important. But Zen practice goes beyond that: it enables you to do some soul-searching to fathom some beautiful things hidden deep within you.
Where and when to practice Zen
Practice sitting meditation everyday. It is best to do it in a set place, at a set time. All other aspects of Zen grow out of this daily routine.
What is Zen meditation?
Zen meditation is the search for inner consciousness or wakefulness without the constant influx of thoughts and feelings until you find your bliss in your consciousness.
According to Buddha, the human mind is basically calm, but it is troubled by everyday anxieties, thoughts, memories, and worries. The arts, music, exercise and sports and laughter are all medicines that help the perturbed mind. But the most potent one is meditation, because it goes inwards into the deepest recesses of your soul, where you come in close contact with the innate silence and peace of your soul.
When you meditate regularly, you are performing duties with your mind, giving it the calm and peace it rightfully deserves. Meditation is toning your mind, just as exercise is toning your body. Do not neglect your mind.
Through the profound experience of meditation, you learn the following:
· how to relax (not becoming lethargic).
· how to manage your stress (not avoiding it).
· how to enjoy life (not being afraid of death or other life's problems).
· how to become conscious of the world you are living in (not withdrawing into your own world of fantasy and unreality).
How to practice Zen meditation
· Sit down comfortably, with your back straight and your spine erect. If you cannot sit in the lotus posture, then on a chair.
· Close your eyes (shutting out external distractions).
· Observe and notice your thoughts as they come and go. Do not attach any feelings to them; that is, they become neutral, making you neither happy nor sad.
· Initially, you may find some thoughts good or bad. Just let them come and go. Do not deliberately dismiss them.
· Meanwhile, breathe in and out, and notice the rhythms of your breathing.
· Let your mind drift further into a state of consciousness, but without forcing it to happen.
· Your mind may still generate thoughts. Let them come and go. Meanwhile, continue to notice your breathing and its rhythms.
· If negative thoughts still come up, gently dismiss and dispel them with positive images.
Do not worry if you fall asleep (your mind may have become calm and relaxed). Zen meditation will happen by itself if your mind continues to be relaxed and purged of thoughts. Just be patient and persistent. Spend ten to twenty minutes each day on meditation. Do not expect immediate results, but it will happen one day.
Benefits of Zen meditation
· You become aware of the close relationship between your mind and body; that is, how your mind can affect your body, and how you can control your body through controlling your mind.
· Your mind becomes completely relaxed, purged of negative thoughts and feelings.
· You feel more caring and loving as your basic human virtues begin to surface in the wake of emptying unwanted negative feelings in your mind.
Deepak Chopra:
The path of meditation leads inwards.
In prayer, you are talking to God;
In meditation, God is talking to you.
Rethink your thinking of meditation - it works!
Even the corporate world is now beginning to turn to meditation as a strategy for:
· stress management
· better productivity
· improved interpersonal relations
Indeed, research has shown that during meditation, your heart slows down, your blood pressure drops, your levels of anxiety and tension declines. In fact, the EEG (a test that measures and records the electrical activity of your brain) even shows correlation between the brain nerves in the right and left of the brain, which is conducive to better mood stability. Why use medications to bring down your blood pressure or to give you deep sleep?
To sum up, Zen meditation is beneficial to your mental and physical health. In the deep recesses of your mind, ignorance gives way to awakening, and stress dissipates to make way for peace and harmony.
For more information on different types of therapeutic meditation, go to my web site Meditation Techniques.
Buddhist philosophy
According to Buddha, depression is an illness not just of the body and mind, but also of the heart. The heart, the spirit, is where the key to healing lies, contrary to the depression myth that only medications and talk therapy hold the key to recovery.
If your life does not have a purpose, the worldliness of life becomes like quicksand sucking you into a spiritual vacuum, which can only be filled by depressive negative thoughts. When that happens, you are not living, merely staying alive.
Buddhist philosophy generally approaches depression from a different viewpoint than modern Western psychology does. The Buddhist perspective is that an underlying selfishness or egotism is often the basic cause of major depression. However, that does not mean that you are to be blamed for being depressed.
Buddhist philosophy focuses on compassion and loving kindness to remedy your dysfunctional mental conditions. But the prerequisite for compassion and loving kindness is first emptying the self of any attachment to material things (what is known as non-attachment), including self-obsessive thoughts of your own problems. When you become selfless (what is known as no-self), you begin to know intuitively what your true self really is. Emptying the self makes room for compassion and loving kindness to develop and cherish.
To empty you mind, first of all, you need to remove all clutters from your physical life. Declutter Fast shows you the way to declutter your life to give you peace of mind and soul. Decluttering releases the bonds that have been holding you back. Decluttering ignites the fires of energy within you. Unlike other books, this Declutter Fast actually helps you get rid of your physical clutters instead of re-arranging your clutters. Decluttering your life prepares you to empty your mind.
According to Buddha, desire is the root of human miseries. Only when you have emptied your mind of any desire, then you will experience contentment, which gives peace to your soul; accordingly, negative thoughts, a slow poison of the mind, will then dissipate. With an enlightened mind, you will experience a deep yearning for compassion and loving kindness, which is innate in any human being. But you need emptying the self to bring it out.
What is compassion and loving-kindness?
Compassion and loving-kindness implies wanting others to be free from suffering, just as you wish it on yourself. It is the highest level of motivation in living. You live to free others of suffering, and hence your own.
To generate genuine compassion, you need to realize that you are suffering, too, just like everybody else. You want to free others of suffering in order to free yourself of your own suffering. Your life will never be the same - there will be no spiritual vacuum in your life to be filled by depressive negative thoughts, and each day of your life will become purposeful and meaningful. This is the power of compassion and loving kindness of Buddha, which is not much different from the Christian principle of loving your neighbor as yourself.
Essentially, compassion and loving kindness embodies a warm heart, helping and serving others, respecting others for who they are, and being less selfish or self-centered.
True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Because of this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude towards others does not change even if the response is negative. That is, your compassion has no ulterior motive: you do not express your compassion to make yourself feel good; you feel good because you are compassionate - even if you do not like the recipient. Genuine compassion is based not on your own projections and expectations of the outcome of an act of love, but rather on the needs of others, irrespective of who and what they are. In that context, not many are genuinely compassionate. Be the few who are genuinely compassionate.
Rethink compassion and love as the nectar of life - not just others' but yours as well
According to Buddha, everything you are is a result of your thoughts. The only way to change your thoughts is through deep meditation, in which you empty your negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.
Instant Meditation Secrets shows you an alternative way of instant meditation - using state-of-the-art sound waves technology. The innovative techniques are mind-blowing.
Rethink your thinking
Major depression is deep internal pain initiated by disturbed and distorted thinking.
Meditation is a way to change your thoughts or to rethink your thinking. It is only in the deep calm of your mind that your can re-discover who you really are, and what you want out of your life. No one can help you on that score. After all, it is your life, and your mental health is in your hands, or rather in your mind. You are what you think you are. It is a depression myth that only medications can help your mind.
Your thoughts influence your behaviors, which directly affect people around you, who may react positively or negatively to your behaviors, precipitating in emotions responsible for your mental wellbeing.
Rethink meditation - use it to regain your zest for life, which is healing itself.
Jesus says: Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.
Yes, the cure is all within you - within your mind! It is a depression myth that your mind is powerless against negative thoughts
In Managing Your Mind, Dr. Gillian Butler and Dr. Tony Hope have pointed out out one possible advantage of having depression:
. . . it could get you out of facing some of the things you are frightened about. Being depressed can save you from facing responsibilities which frighten you; it can save you from carrying out duties which you find stressful; it can block your need to make important changes - for examle, in a relationship or at work. Your depression becomes the reason for not doing things that, for one reason or another, you do not want to do.
Do not use depression as a crutch in your life. In the end, it causes more problems than it solves. It is a depression myth that you can use only medications to control your brain chemicals: the fact is that you can control your own mind to control your depression.
Rethink your thinking - get out of your cocoon!
It is a depression myth that you are a victim of depression: the fact is that depression may be a choice - you choose to let your mind control you, instead of you controlling your mind. Do not let depression be your own choice. Do something about it - through your thinking mind! Take appropriate action!
Action, which originates from the mind, produces either good or bad results. Through your mind, you have created your own conditions. What is in your mind is only a mental act, which has to be transformed into a verbal act in your speech, and then into a bodily act in your action.
Activity is a constant and incessant act, both in nature and in man, who is part of nature.
To be alive, you have to be active all the time - even when you are asleep, your mind remains active. So activity is the source of life. However, in depression, lethargy and lack of activity predominate in your thinking mind, resulting in little or no activity.
But action or lack of action has its consequences. Jesus says: As you sow, so shall you reap.
Thomas Sowell said: Our fate is matched by the total freedom we have to react to our fate. It is as if we were dealt a hand of cards. Once we have them, we are free to play them as we choose.
You have the freedom to choose or create where you are at this moment of your life. It is all in your mind! You need self-effort, which is essentially your mental, verbal, and physical action. The results of your endeavors will be commensurate with the intensity of your self-effort.
You can choose to rethink your thinking to produce the physical action, or let your mind continue to wallow in the following distorted thoughts:
· Depression myth: Depression is caused by chemical imbalance.
· Depression myth: Only medications can change your brain chemicals.
· Depression myth: Medications are the most effective cure for depression.
· Depression myth: Diet has little to do with your depression because it is your mind, not your body, which is sick.
· Depression myth: Your thinking cannot change your behavioral problems, which are part of the illness.
· Depression myth: Problematic behaviors are a result of your depression.
· Depression myth: Your depression is not your choice: you are not responsible for your mental conditions.
· Depression myth: You can overcome depression by willpower.
· Depression myth: You cannot change your thinking because your mind is controlled by depression.
· Depression myth: Your lifestyle changes cannot prevent depression relapse.
· Depression myth: If you get depression, you are stuck with it for life.
· Depression myth: Depression is no different than "getting the blues"; it is just a normal part of life.
· Depression myth: Depression will go away by itself.
· Depression myth: Depression is a normal part of growing old.
But your mind can embrace the right attitudes to your depression or disorder.
Rethink your thinking, and you will see the reality in any depression myth. Any available treatment, such as medications, diet, lifestyle changes, acupuncture, and talk therapy, may play a role in your recovery. But all of these still require self-effort, which is determined by the mind - your mind.
Only your mind can make you forget the past, make you dispel your fear of the future, and make you live the present to the fullest. Dead to the past and alive to the future, you become aware of the present moment such that you are truly alive and truly living in the present moment, the most precious moment of your life.
Since major depression is all in the mind. Let your mind work for you, not against you. Just rethink your thinking in all matters related to any depression myth.
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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