Can you meditate your way out of depression?

[How to be wise]

@Dogsbestfriend that’s inquiry, not meditation. Meditation is quieting the mind. Inquiry is investigating the thoughts. If you’re talking about inquiry, then yes you can cure your depression. But not through trying to ‘get rid’ of your thoughts or ‘emptying’ your mind.

[Dogsbestfriend]

@How to be wise Sorry but I've seen self-inquiry fall under meditation, by various people. Meditation is not restricted only to quieting the mind.

[tsuki]

16 minutes ago, How to be wise said:

But not through trying to ‘get rid’ of your thoughts or ‘emptying’ your mind.

Emptying your mind can lead to reconnection with the world through physical body, like @Quanty  suggests.
Going through transition of perspective can be pretty traumatic though, so I'm not sure how that would interact with the depressed mind.

[zoey101]

3 hours ago, Outer said:

I think you can weightlift yourself out of it. With some proper diet.

Yeah  

@lmfao Working out can help give you more energy. Running, yoga, anything physical. When I get depressed, my body feels like it just kind of shuts down on me. I don't have the  energy to even lift my head sometimes. But what I do when I am able to be aware of this happening is, I yell at myself in my head, 'get up! you need to move right now!'

I personally like to clean as a release. I get up and start small, just picking up things here and there as I slowly gain more energy and motivation to finish. I think the idea is to get your body moving to create more energy, but to do something that you can set goals with, in a way. For me, my goals are one room at a time, and the further I get, the better I feel about myself and everything because I am moving and getting some much needed things done. 

You have to trick your mind into feeling the way you want to feel. Start small, "Rome wasn't built in a day, but it burned in one". You have to give yourself realistic goals that you can achieve along the way and as you get stronger and more capable of understanding your emotions and accepting them as a part of you, you can make your goals bigger and more challenging. 

You know what your limits are, so push them at your own pace and enjoy the journey.  

Edited June 27, 2018 by zoey101

[How to be wise]

@tsuki it won’t happen. The do-nothing technique (or anything of that sort) will never lead to enlightenment, ever. That is my assertion.

[tsuki]

@How to be wise It's okay.

Do you mind explaining why do you assert that?

Edited June 27, 2018 by tsuki

[Faceless]

Do Nothing is not a technique. To do nothing in order to get “enlightened” is a contradiction. If there is a “doing nothing” that implies there is no doing (no motive) “no movment of time”... 

 

If there is any movement of volition then that implies a doing. Any such movement of thought-the thinker means there is no “do nothing meditation” taking place at all. Do nothing “when actually doing nothing” implies the complete negation of any movement of thought as the thinker. 

 

This is very tricky to one that cannot identify when there is a doing taking place or not. Until that is understood there can be no “Do nothing meditation”

 

Do nothing meditation is not a movement of concentration, focus, or is it a movement that falls within the narrow lines of psychological becoming. Do nothing meditation implies choiceless passivity, (No positive nor negative movement of the chooser who chooses, THOUGHT) 

 

No technique will end depression, as technique is one and the same movement where depression stems from, which is thought. To use a movement of thought “technique” to end what thought has put together, is to perpetuate disorderly thought, depression. 

 

No movement of time (thought) will end what thought has created. All such movement must end. 

 

 

The best way to go about this is to understand depression. What causes it, how it arises, its substance and structure. Start with that and then investigate how that inter-relates with fear and the rest of the movement of thought as the thinker. 

 

It’s about understanding the problem, not to escape the problem.

 

[robdl]

20 minutes ago, Faceless said:

 

It’s about understanding the problem, not to escape the problem.

 

Indeed.  Because the action of escaping the problem is the problem itself in action.  Thought-self invoking a problem (i.e. thought) then thought-self attempting to escape it.  Thought-self perpetuating thought-self perpetuating thought-self. Cause is effect is cause.

[Faceless]

2 minutes ago, robdl said:

Indeed.  Because the action of escaping the problem is the problem itself in action.  Thought-self invoking a problem (i.e. thought) then thought-self attempting to escape it.  Thought-self perpetuating thought-self perpetuating thought-self. Cause is effect is cause.

??

[Faceless]

Any action of thought sustains, preserves, nourishes the movement of fear. And when there is fear, that fear further perpetuates psychological disorder, such as depression. 

Edited June 27, 2018 by Faceless

[Joseph Maynor]

Meditation is a great tool in the toolbelt. Use it to help you gain mindfulness and also as a way to help you accept yourself.  Meditate as much as possible. But when you meditate, you need to let your monkey mind do what it wants to do, don’t try to stop it.  After a while, your monkey mind will become friendlier and friendlier to you.  The reason why your monkey mind is angry is because you’re not living an integrated life.  You’re not living an authentic life.  That’s why you get those backfiring mechanisms in the system.  So, the more integrated you become, the more constructive your monkey mind becomes for you.  And you will get to the point where you appreciate the monkey mind.  When you’re really advanced in this work, your monkey mind becomes your friend.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Hotaka]

Look I have done it, but meditation doesn't help really, life helps, when it fills you with itself, meditation only provides the space necessary for Presence to arise and for pain to be dissipated and filled with love forgiveness and life-force (energy or spirit). So in an active and dynamic world one must also Follow the Presence in order to feel a greater meaning in their own internal life-force intrinsic interconnected expression of life itself. Language is key to dissolution of ego, when you speak language of chemicals, serotonin is balanced, when you speak language of forms and illusions pasted on emptiness like a picture you are just following dust stains and as they stagnate with the water of sadness they will destroy your desire for life. So meditate yes, but also do what makes you passionate and willing and able to get up every morning, without guilt, but with wisdom and patience. Chemicals, by this I mean more subtle sensations and abstract internal sense of direction, so like that feeling that makes you remember where the sun is even when not looking at it, that is chemical intelligence, it is already smart, so it needs no cultured human mind to invest itself into a kind of illusion.

https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/other-revelations/following-presence-god

[Faceless]

First...

Can we find out as to what causes this depression? 

 

Where does depression come from? How does it arises, and what nourishes this movement of thinking?

 

Edited June 28, 2018 by Faceless

[zoey101]

2 minutes ago, Faceless said:

First...

Can we find out as to what causes this depression? 

 

Where does depression come from? How does it arises, and what nourishes this movement of thinking?

 

Insecurities, worldview and hardships in life, I would imagine. At least in my case. Worldview would probably be the biggest drive of it all. You can have everything in the world, but if your view isn't even a little positive, it feels like you have nothing. 

And as for nourishing it? That is all on the self. No one can make you feel or react to anything unless YOU choose to. The thought pops in our head and WE have the option to believe it and make it true, or ignore it and live on. 

[Faceless]

So interpretation (of thought) 

6 minutes ago, zoey101 said:

And as for nourishing it? That is all on the self. No one can make you feel or react to anything unless YOU choose to.

Is the self different from thought? 

And isnt thought a reactionary process?

can you choose what you think? 

Is what you think “your thought”??

hello by the zoey

Edited June 28, 2018 by Faceless

[zoey101]

1 minute ago, Faceless said:

Is the self different from thought? 

I don't think so  lol

1 minute ago, Faceless said:

And isnt thought a reactionary process?

Yes, the thoughts we have are formed around our experiences and environment. 

3 minutes ago, Faceless said:

can you choose what you think? 

I think we can. When presented with any situation, WE choose how to react/think about it. Now your thoughts and reactions may have been formed around a life of depression and pain, but that doesn't mean it's the ONLY choice you have. When life keeps bringing you down, you can choose to fall deeper into your hole, or fight to rise above it, even if it seems hopeless. 

7 minutes ago, Faceless said:

Is what you think “your thought”??

I guess that depends on what you believe lol I personally have not reached a point of seeing my "thoughts" as separate from me, so I can't say for sure what I believe on that subject. 

[Faceless]

8 minutes ago, zoey101 said:

I don't think so  lol

Would you say thought is experience, knowledge, memory? 

What you think is a response to all that memory content, right? 

Edited June 28, 2018 by Faceless

[zoey101]

17 minutes ago, Faceless said:

Would you say thought is experience, knowledge, memory? 

What you think is a response to all that memory content, right? 

Yes.

[MM1988]

Im trying my luck with cognitive behaviour therpy and stoicism right now. I meditate daily but I just know it wont cure my depression but it has a good synergy with all the psychological-level stuff im doing.