Decreased Rumination
Rumination is the extent to which one dwells on the emotional consequences of and event and has been implicated as a contributing factor in both depression and anxiety (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991; Kocovski & Rector, 2007). Jain et al. (2007) compared distressed students who had undergone a mindfulness meditation program with those who had undergone relaxation training program on a number of variables. Results revealed that both programs reduced distress and increased positive mood compared to a control condition. However, only the meditation group demonstrated significantly reduced rumination compared to the control condition. Additionally, it was found that decreases in rumination mediated the relationship between condition (mindfulness meditation or control) and reduced distress, such that the mindfulness meditation group reported less distress at the end of treatment, partially due to a reduction in levels of rumination.
From the Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness, Fabrizion Didonna (ed.), 2009.
This resonates, Norbu. Personally I also find it useful to remember that whenever I have been down in the past I have always climbed back out of it. Thus simply sitting and being patient and accepting also helps me.
This resonates, Norbu. Personally I also find it useful to remember that whenever I have been down in the past I have always climbed back out of it. Thus simply sitting and being patient and accepting also helps me.
That's a useful rational insight that you can use as a strategy to stop yourself from going into a downward spiral.
I think it's also really helpful to develop compassion. Compassion can naturally arise out of being more connected to the present and not being caught up in your thoughts but I'm pretty sure that it really helps to follow a practice that actually cultivates compassion.
Norbu
For years I have recommended that my clients for therapy take up the [ractice of meditation, and that meditators I come into contact with engage in therapy: they work so well together.
Yet it seems that in many people's minds there is some stigma still attached to becoming "a person who meditates" - equated with grass-smoking and poor personal hygeine almost; as well as a stigma to becoming a "person who needs therapy" as if this converts you into a raving lunatic, rather than it tending to work the other way about!
So trying to get someone to do both...... fortunately I've always been slightly insane with poor personal hygiene so had no such hang-ups.
Never bothered with grass, though!
Yet it seems that in many people's minds there is some stigma still attached to becoming "a person who meditates"
Only a few years ago, mainstream health care would not consider meditation had any valid function in well-being but things are changing quite fast now. Papers on "mindfulness" are being published at an exponentially increasing rate. There are more and more studies underway that are beginning to build a model of how the mind functions, how this correlates with brain function and how this effects physiology. Medical science is beginning to accept that the mind can be trained and we are beginning to discover that there are permanent changes to the brain that result.
Norbu