Mindfulness has become greatly popular these days. Its benefits were proven both by people who practice it and by science itself. But is mindfulness capable of curing mental illness, like depression?
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the basic ability of the human mind to be fully aware of the present, of where we are and what we are doing. As defined by the American Psychological Association (2012), it is “a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgement. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait.” It a pretty straightforward word, but its meaning can do so much. It has its way of snapping us back to reality and to what we are feeling.
Mindfulness helps divert your attention and purposely focus on what is happening at the present moment – accepting it without judgement. It is achieved when a person reaches a certain state where they become more aware of the present moment while acknowledging and accepting whatever it is that they are feeling, thinking, and the bodily sensations that is overflowing in their body. It heightens your sensations and lets you focus on it to more.
Benefits of Mindfulness
Helps you sleep
If you are having a difficulty sleeping at night, mindfulness is there to help you sleep without worries. The state of mindfulness needs you to clear or empty your mind and remove those wary thoughts that you’ve been keeping. Mindfulness brings you a relaxed state and helps you create a mental space where you are able to welcome sleep.
Reduce Stress
Everyone experiences stress at some point of the day, whether it be at work, home or school. Mindfulness was proven to reduce the stress levels a person has by alleviating some of their worries. Practicing mindfulness gives you better control of yourself and makes you focus on the things that matter while preventing you from being distracted.
Improves self
At one point in your life, you may have felt lost and did not understand yourself at all. Mindfulness helps improves your perception about yourself and makes you aware of the current state of your emotions. Of course, other self-care habits should be done also to further improve yourself.
Depression
Depression is just one of the most common mental illness in the world and has killed thousands of people in a year. Depression is a silent-killer and usually people who suffers on it does not show their suffering. Depression not only affects adults, but children too.
Depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by a persistent feeling of sadness, loss of interest and disinterest in performing daily activities. People who suffer from depression may feel down from time to time or all day long. They are unable to cope and adjust to the struggles and setbacks that they have in life and succumb to their problem. By understanding depression and recognizing its symptoms, you may help yourself or another person to overcome their problem and feel better:
- Feelings of helplessness and hopeless as if nothing you do can improve your current situation.
- Loss of interest in performing daily activities. From taking a bath to going to work, you are no longer energized to do such tasks and prefers to be alone all day long.
- Loss of appetite leading to a significant decrease in weight.
- Lack of sleep or oversleeping. Some can’t sleep because of their problems while some sleep too much to not have time to think about their endeavors.
- Change in behavior like becoming easily angered or irritability.
- Loss of energy. Easily fatigued by performing simple tasks. The body feels heavy when doing even small chores.
- Strong feelings of worthlessness and guilt by repeated criticizing self for the faults and mistakes done.
- Unable to concentrate at school or at work and tends to have significant decline in performance.
If you have any of the symptoms above, please consult your doctor or a psychiatrist near you.
Can Mindfulness Cure Depression?
With depression taking a lot of people lives each year, one would be curious if there are other ways to cure depression. Mindfulness has been greatly studied by scientists and researchers to see if it has an impact in treating depression. Researchers were able to formulate a therapeutic program for patients who have chronic depression and anxiety called Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
MBCT is an 8-week mindfulness-based program that was based from cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy teaches patients on how to redirect their negative thinking and is the gold standard for treatment of depression. The combination of mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy is ideal as the former brings you to a state of awareness, specially your feelings, while the later teaches you to redirect these negative thoughts and countering them with actual positive event in your life.
MBCT is performed only by experts and should not be attempted by anyone. MBCT in combination with proper intake of anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications will further improve a patient’s condition and lead to faster recovery a patient.