8 Mindfulness exercises for anxious/depressed minds
(Wake Up World | Aletheia Luna) Mindfulness re-enchants life – it makes everything better and more enjoyable.
Mindfulness for anxious or depressed minds
Like a sage with a playful twinkle in his eye, mindfulness is ancient. And yet, it still retains a childlike simplicity that makes it accessible to nearly everyone. On a scientific and spiritual level, mindfulness has been proven to calm the mind, ground the body, and increase overall well-being and good health. Yet, when it comes to practicing mindfulness, many of us quickly get bored, distracted, or frustrated. Aka. mindfulness sounds nice in theory.
But in practice, mindfulness exercises rapidly get shoved somewhere on our mental “to do” list – that, or it’s just ‘too difficult’!
How is it possible for 21st-century people who DON’T live in monasteries to incorporate mindfulness practices into their lives?
Is mindfulness even compatible with our busy and hectic lifestyles?
And how do we approach mindfulness if we’ve got the mind of a hyperactive monkey on steroids?
What is mindfulness?
In a simple down-to-earth nutshell, mindfulness is about paying attention to what’s happening right now.
As a species of human doings (not human beings), we’re almost always lost in the mindset of do, achieve, consume, and produce.
Our minds float to the past or the future. We’re frequently lost in maelstroms of thoughts, worries, plans, memories, or stories of what he-said-she-said.
Mindfulness is about helping us to chill out and focus on the present moment.
Mindfulness and spiritual awakening
As mainly a secular practice in the West, the mindfulness we usually hear about these days doesn’t involve a whisper of religion or spirituality.
Instead, mindfulness is promoted as a powerful way of increasing focus, work performance, lowering stress, and improving relationships.
Now, this is all fine and good.
Mindfulness doesn’t have to be spiritual.
But the good news is that it can be.
In fact, mindfulness is a practice that originally stemmed from Eastern spiritual meditation practices – some date this practice back to beginning around 2,500 years ago (1).
The reality is that mindfulness was initially intended for spiritual development and transformation. Words and practices originally connected with it were Sati, Vipassana, and Zazen (1).
As a spiritual seeker (i.e., someone going through an existential crisis and spiritual awakening), mindfulness can help you:
- find your inner Center,
- disidentify with thoughts,
- reconnect with a sense of Oneness,
- experience moments of self-realization
There are a hoard of spiritual practices and techniques out there, but few are as old and therefore reliable, as mindfulness.
If you’re to take on any path or spiritual discipline, mindfulness is therefore definitely one you’d do well to commit to.
Mindfulness + Meditation (aka. the match made in heaven!)
One of the simplest ways to commit to a daily mindfulness practice is by practicing mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness done alone can feel pretty open-ended and vague – let’s be honest!
Mindfulness meditation, however, takes mindfulness and turns it into a meditative experience.
It’s a match made in heaven!
Perhaps one of the most powerful parts of mindfulness meditation is that it helps you to hone the qualities of:
- non-attachment,
- present moment awareness,
- clarity,
- the experience of our True Nature (which is deeper than thoughts and emotions)
Why you are not your thoughts
You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.
– Pema Chodron
Of all the experiences I’ve ever had on my spiritual journey, understanding that I am not my thoughts was one of the most profound.
And it was thanks to mindfulness (specifically, mindfulness meditation) that I discovered this.
Why was this realization so paradigm shifting?
Understanding that we are not our thoughts is a central key to accessing inner peace and Soul alignment.
When we’re attached to and identify with our thoughts and emotions, we suffer horribly. Some people are so entrenched in their thoughts/emotions that they’re driven to suicide.
Mindfulness exercises and practices help us to go from “I AM angry,” to “I HAVE anger” or “I AM anxious” to “I HAVE anxiety.”
There’s a clear distinction here. On one hand we’re totally identified with our anger/anxiety. On the other, we realize it’s a part of us, but it doesn’t define us.
It’s all spontaneous, baby!
Mindfulness also helps us to realize the spontaneity of thoughts, feelings, and sensations – meaning we stop taking ownership of them!
Have you ever sat down to genuinely question where your thoughts and subsequent feelings come from, for instance?
If you have, you would’ve discovered that thoughts appear out of nothing in the mind, and just as quickly disappear into nothing.
Did you make that thought arise? Did you think, “I will now think about this, then this, then this …”?
Even if you do decide to think a certain way (like positive thoughts), did you control where that desire to think positively came from? Did you control the circumstances that led to this desire? No. Of course not!
To truly understand that our thoughts and feelings are impersonal (nothing to do with us) is a divinely shocking revelation. For me to discover this was liberating.
So … if thoughts and feelings are completely impersonal in nature (as in, we don’t own them), then how can they be “ours”?
Mindfulness reveals to us that the suffering we experience in life occurs when we claim these thoughts and feelings to be our own.
In other words, we feel anxiety, depression, guilt, and anger when we identify with thoughts as being “ours” – and not fluctuations of the mind.
“Where does this thought come from?”
Is this hard to understand? I know it may be difficult to fully grapple with the fact that our thoughts and emotions don’t define us. We don’t even control where or when they come!
So I’m not asking you to believe anything I say.
You can experience it for yourself.
All you have to do is sit down for a few minutes, allow yourself to tune into the never-ending stream of thoughts in your mind, and explore where they come from.
Ask yourself, “where does this thought come from?”
It’s so hard for us to extract ourselves from the tangle of our thoughts and feelings because we have been taught since birth to identify with them.
So what I write may sound confusing — but that’s because we’re conditioned to believe otherwise! Like a fish that doesn’t know it’s swimming in the ocean, our lifelong conditioning causes us to adopt a myopic perception of life and ourselves.
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To recognize that the fleeting nature of thoughts and feelings really have nothing to do with “us” opens a rare door. This door helps us to discover that which never changes within us: the field of calmness or silence that is the Soul.
This field of calmness, or silence, exists behind our thoughts, and it pre-dated our current sense of self.
We were born with this field of calmness before any concepts of “me” and “I” was ingrained into us, and we carry this calmness with us everywhere and in every moment.
8 simple mindfulness exercises
Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience.
– Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness practices will only be effective if they’re taken seriously.
To put it bluntly, you must practice like your ass is on fire!
There has to be passion, willfulness, and dedication directed towards mindfulness, otherwise, you’ll quickly lose interest.
Lukewarm half-assed practice only leads to disappointment.
That being said, it’s normal to feel lazy. It’s only human to want to give up. That’s why keeping a journal alongside your practice can help to motivate you. Learn more about how to journal.
Joining a community full of mindfulness exercises and enthusiasts can help too (such as the InsightTimer, Calm, or Headspace app).
Remember, mindfulness isn’t about achieving some special state or perfect utopia. (It doesn’t exist!) Instead, mindfulness is simply about becoming aware of whatever is happening right now, whether that be a physical sensation, a sound, a thought, a smell, an emotion, etc.
Mindfulness goes hand-in-hand with allowing things to be exactly what they are in the moment, whether that be a feeling of loneliness …
… a sensation of dread in your stomach …
… a leaky pipe dripping …
… a dog barking, the need to shout, the need to cry, the need to laugh, the craving for food, and so on!
I love mindfulness. Here are some key mindfulness exercises to explore – suitable for total beginners and long-term aficionados alike:
1. Do everything slowly
Consciously slow down. Walk slowly, drink slowly, sit slowly, breathe slowly, talk slowly, move your body slowly — practice slowing down your natural tendency to rush everything.
Try doing this mindfulness exercise for at least 1 hour.
The immediate reaction to this practice is usually, “I can’t do that! I have deadlines to meet, etc., etc.”
But when you learn to go slowly, you’ll recognize the sheer volume of how many things you cram into your days which you don’t actually need to do!
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As a result of this realization, you’ll learn to focus solely on what you need to do and become more efficient.
You can also choose one action to do slowly like walking, eating, or breathing.
Allow yourself to fully connect with whatever you’re doing slowly. Pay attention to each micromovement.
It’s normal to find it difficult (and frustrating) at first to adapt to such a slow pace – but stick with it!
Soon, with practice, movement itself will become a trigger to become more mindful and present.
2. Witness your breath
How many times have you tried to breathe slowly, only to find yourself getting lightheaded or panicky?
I know that when I’m feeling stressed, the worst thing for me to possibly do is to try and control my breathing. Instead of feeling relaxed, I feel more on-edge.
The better alternative to controlling your breath is to witness it rising and falling within you. How do you do this?
To witness your breath, you must consciously stop in the present moment and simply observe what your breathing is doing.
For example, if you’re breathing shallowly from your upper chest, simply witness and allow that breathing to happen.
Soon, the very act of witnessing and allowing your breath will calm you down, giving you the space to deepen your breathing if you wish.
