Today is World Mental Health Day, and to mark that, I’m giving over the floor to Hayley from The Mindful Mummy Mission Blog to talk about her experience of depression, and how she found that mindfulness helps with depression.

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In 2009 I was diagnosed with clinical depression.  It was a relief.  I could finally get some help.  At the time the Psychiatrist said, that like many people he’d seen, I’d probably experienced multiple depressive episodes since my teenage years but had not sought support until things had gotten really bad.  So then, just into my 30s, I finally found ways of dealing with my persistent low mood when it hit.

And so I started my road to recovery – a mixture of medication, cognitive behavioural therapy and also a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy course.

At the moment I am medication free.  Anti-depressants are a lifeline when someone is at their lowest ebb but the side-effects can be debilitating.  Instead it is the Mindfulness and CBT which I draw on day-to-day to help my mental wellbeing. If you want to stay medication free, you could also look into CDB edibles UK – experts believe that CBD’s potential benefits for depression are related to its positive effect on serotonin receptors in the brain.

Here’s how mindfulness helps with depression in my particular set of circumstances:

Mindfulness helps me ruminate less

I am more aware of what is ticking over in my mind and can make wise choices when I realise that I am over-thinking something.

Mindfulness lessens the power catastrophic thoughts have over me

It is much easier to notice when my ‘story-telling’ mind is taking over.  Often, just by acknowledging the tricks the mind is playing, the hold these type of thoughts have can be weakened.  I can remind myself that thoughts are just that, thoughts.  They are not facts.

Mindfulness helps me to find joy in the everyday

It is easier to feel more content when appreciating the little things in life and not striving for better all the time.  I notice the small victories day-to-day much more.  The simple pleasures too.  Developing moment-to-moment awareness by practising mindful meditation has had a major impact on my mood.

Mindfulness helps me to be more aware of my mood

This means I am generally able to take the relevant self-care steps needed to halt the deterioration into a depressive episode.

Mindfulness helps me to embrace the full range of emotions we all feel

I am no longer constantly checking if what I am feeling is depression or not.  Instead I see things as less clear cut and simply label the emotion that is consuming me at that moment, knowing that it may well pass as quickly as it came.  I am more aware of the complexity of the human make –up and know that just because I am feeling sad, it doesn’t necessarily follow that I am heading in a downward spiral.  This is very reassuring to me.

It seems that my experience with mindfulness isn’t out of the ordinary.  Ruby Wax speaks humorously and frankly about similar experiences.  Tracey Crouch, Junior government minister says similar.  Mindfulness is recommended by the National Institute of Cliical Excellence (NICE) as a way to prevent depression in people who have had 3 or more bouts of depression in the past.  The NHS website reports, though tentatively,  that ‘mindfulness is as good as drugs for preventing a depression relapse.’

As I say to people when I’m delivering my courses mindfulness is NOT like waving a magic wand.  It takes practice, commitment and perseverance and even then it may not always have the desired effect.  However, for me, and for many other people like me, mindfulness HAS had a marked positive impact on our lives.