Mindfulness, stress and anxiety

[Lovisa Karlsson]

Mindfulness to Overcome Anxiety and Depression.Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present. how we can reduces stress, anxiety and depression.Thanks all.

[JonW]

Hi Lovisa.
Welcome to the forum.
I wouldn't say that mindfulness is a mental state, more a way of being.
How is your practice coming along?
All best,
Jon

[Gareth]

Mindfulness help to learn how to ignore anxiety signals, stress and minor pains and aches.
Additionally, it keeps us in a positive and happy mood.

This doesn't seem to me to reflect mindfulness at all.

Please can you tell us something about your own practice?

[FeeHutch]

Mindfulness help to learn how to ignore anxiety signals, stress and minor pains and aches.
Additionally, it keeps us in a positive and happy mood.

I'd have to respectfully disagree completely with this. I think it's a very common misconception about mindfulness but to me mindfulness is about being present in the moment and accepting what is and if what is right now is anxiety then so be it. I live with constant chronic pain. Mindfulness doesn't help me ignore it, it helps me accept it is there. I tried to ignore it for a long time and just made myself very ill.

[Karen]

Hi.
I'm new to the site. I had depression in Dec 2014 and began taking anti depressants in Jan 2015. I have been on and off meds, more on than off, since 2009 when my Mum was very sick. I did a mindfulness weekend and an 8 week course during but to be honest I didn't buy into the 8 week course as my meds were working well. I didn't really commit to the practice although I read a lot. I came off the meds in March this year and tripped back into anxiety about 5 weeks ago. I began meditating straight away but its an on going struggle. I pick up for a few days again and then a new fear floors me.
I haven't gone back on medication as I now realise that it comes back within 6 months of me being off of them, so maybe I need to find a different way of dealing with it. I have read about watching my thoughts and being curious about them. I cant figure out how to watch them.
Can anyone help me with this please?

[DJLSFC]

Hi Karen, I empathise with your struggle. In recent years I suffered a lot of anxiety due to work, and then unfortunately a horrible depression and I know just how hard it is to practice mindfulness consistently when you are feeling that way. Fortunately, I finally found an anti depressant that worked and I was able to knuckle down with my daily practices.

Watching thoughts is also a tricky one for me but it does get easier the more you practice. I would suggest that maybe you start off with some sound / listening practice as you can deal with your thoughts in a similar way, just by watching them come and go in the same way sounds do.

Try and develop a method of watching thoughts, I know it sounds funny but I like to think of my mind being the empty space (easily done !!) of everything there is and thoughts as little universes popping in and out of existence but you can use clouds drifting, where your mind is the sky etc.

Also, maybe you could start off with some thought labeling instead, where you concentrate on breathing, and then label any thoughts as you notice them as "planning", "worrying" etc and then go back to breathing.

Good luck, Dave.

[Karen]

Thanks Dave. I'll give it a go. Overall I'm managing quite well. I just wish I could get some decent sleep.
My heart goes out to you. Anxiety is so difficult to a manage.
I'll let you know how it goes.

[DJLSFC]

Thank you Karen, I have managed to overcome anxiety now and am in complete remission of depression. I guess I have always carried some anxiety around with me until recently so please believe that there is a way to completely change the whole way your mind deals with anxious thoughts no matter how ingrained you think they become.

Do you think you would ever go back onto medication?

I know its not what anyone wants, but I still take mine (even though on mine cheese could kill me !!! ), and it has given me the energy and relief to spend this time as best I can with regards to preparing myself for life to come.

As for sleep, one of the first benefits of mindfulness was helping me with insomnia, even when I was only practicing intermittently.

Dave.

[Karen]

Hi Dave.
I was shattered last night and yet I woke up and hour after falling asleep. So I started taking antidepressants again. Fortunately they're still in date.
I'm a bit concerned about what this means for me long term. I figured if I ever needed to go back on them again I would just have to live on them. I don't like the idea of that. But maybe that's negative. I'm still grieving for my parents, and perhaps I shouldn't have come off when I did. My Dad had been gone for less than a year and I was still dealing with his affairs. Maybe I need to focus on the now and not think about what this means for the future.
I'm going to give mindfullness a really good go. Trouble is I do so well on antidepressants that I forget all the stuff I'm supposed to do.

[DJLSFC]

Hi Karen, there is definitely a place for anti depressants, and if they make you feel better then take them.

What I found extremely useful when I had felt better was to put together a monthly planner, with a daily routine each day. I had let myself go somewhat with regards to diet, exercise, socialising and meditation and I felt that all these were very important for my prolonged recovery so putting together a planner was a really useful way to track my progress.

I called it my small steps planner as trying to achieve things too big and too quickly is a recipe for failure. So for example, each day I would set aside time for 10-15 minutes exercise, nothing strenuous, ie a walk or on my bike machine, and I would increase this by 1 or 2 minutes each week, and sometimes I would feel like doing an hour which I put down as a bonus, rather than my new time to achieve each day. For diet, I tracked my calories and what I ate etc and slowly started to knock calories and certain foods off one by one. I did the same for meditation by starting off with the Mark Williams book.

If I ever missed a day, I would just start up again the next day rather than scrap the whole thing. This has helped me achieve a great deal - I was horrified back in Jan that I was obese on the BMI scale !! I am now a few pounds off ideal weight range. I used to be out of breath walking up the stairs, I now do hill sprints every other day, I have gone from 1 small meditation to 1 to 2 hours every day, and I now have some great nights out with the lads !!

I still do the planner now and its a great way to address areas in your life you want to change or improve.

One thing I found useful for meditation was to chop and change my routine for certain times of the day or certain mindsets. If I was extremely tired, anxious or agitated, mindful yoga or a mindful walk helped more than a sitting practice. A 10 minute body scan or 10 minutes of breathing before bed was also useful for sleep (if doing a lying down breathing practice, putting both hands on my belly is a great way of really nailing down breath quickly before bed).

For sleep, I found a sleep diary extremely useful in improving my sleep. I don't use it now that often but when I do have periods of struggling to sleep, I start it up again and it quickly gets me back in a routine. Things I track are how long to fall asleep, how many awakenings, total sleep time, time and duration of naps during the day, caffeine etc. There are plenty of templates on the internet to use.

Going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time each day (within a half hour range), and having a 20-30 minute nap at 1pm'ish if I get the chance really helps.

Dave.