Meditation When Youre Depressed And Feeling Sad

In this podcast episode I discuss using meditation for depression and sadness, with a focus on Anapanasati, Metta, Gratitude, Analytical meditation, and neuoscience. Listeners will gain valuable tools that help with depression.

Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome back to the daily meditation with me meditation teacher Paul Harrison.

Today I'm going to be discussing how to use meditation when you're feeling depressed,

When you're down,

When you're sad,

When you're feeling blue.

And can I be honest with you,

The reason that I'm doing this today is because I'm feeling sad actually to be honest with you.

Yeah feeling sad.

I had a lot of stuff go on in my life recently,

Change of job,

A lot of personal stuff.

And so I've been feeling sad and depressed.

But you know what,

That's fine.

It is fine to feel sad and depressed.

Feeling sad,

Feeling depressed is a completely normal part of life.

It's a a natural and healthy human emotion to feel depressed,

To feel sad,

To feel down.

And I just really want to put on the table,

You know,

That we need to just accept that we have moments when we feel sad.

We have moments when we feel down.

It doesn't mean that we're weak.

It doesn't mean that anything particularly is wrong.

Usually it's just because we have a warped perspective on something temporarily.

But I do want to just say feeling sad is not wrong.

However,

You still might want to stop it.

Because obviously feeling sad is not a very positive emotion.

It makes you feel bad.

And so you probably might like to use meditation to stop yourself from feeling sad.

And that brings us to the topic for today,

Which is how do you use meditation when you're feeling down,

When you're feeling sad and things like that.

So by the end of this episode,

I'm going to arm you with some really valuable information and some great techniques that you can use the next time that you're feeling sad,

Next time you're feeling depressed.

So by the end of this episode,

You will have armed yourself with a good tool for the next time you're down.

So let's get into it.

How do you use meditation to stop yourself from feeling sad?

Well,

First of all,

The first way in which you can use meditation to stop yourself from feeling sad is simply to reduce the effect that that emotion is having on you.

So oftentimes in life,

We experience negative emotions.

It could be sadness,

Could be anger,

Could be any of those wonderful negative emotions that we all experience.

When you experience a negative emotion such as sadness,

Sometimes your mind gets kind of sunk into it.

Sometimes you get lost in that sad emotion.

Maybe you ruminate on it and you really make things worse for yourself because,

Okay,

You're experiencing the emotion,

But not only are you experiencing it,

You're really sinking into it.

I think you probably know what I mean.

I think that that's something that we've all done when we're feeling blue and instead of just saying,

Yeah,

Okay,

I'm feeling a bit down today,

We proper sink into it and get completely lost in it.

So the first way in which we can use meditation to stop us from feeling sad is kind of to pull the mind out of the emotion.

Now to do that,

We use two forms of meditation,

Which are the Buddhist methods,

Anapanasati and Vipassana.

So Anapanasati is your basic traditional sitting and focusing on breathing.

That's a really good way to begin to stop feeling so down.

I'm going to go through a lot of powerful techniques in this that are going to be more effective for sadness,

But mindful breathing is always going to help because it will relax your mind and it will just give you a bit more awareness and a bit more space so that instead of being completely lost in all that emotion,

You're able to just step away from it and just say,

Okay,

Fine,

I feel like crap,

But I'm just going to let myself sit here.

I'm just going to let myself chill and just relax and just be okay.

And when you do mindful breathing,

That's what it gives you.

It kind of gives you this sense of space,

The sense of freedom,

And it reduces the effect that emotion has on you.

Scientifically speaking,

We can say that it stimulates parasympathetic nervous system and balances a bunch of neurochemicals such as serotonin and noradrenaline.

But science aside,

Mindful breathing is simply going to help us to relax and to get a little bit of space when we're feeling blue.

And so that's the first meditation that I would like to mention here and definitely a good place to start with mindful breathing.

However,

While mindful breathing is good for general relaxation and for reducing the effect the emotion has on you,

It won't actually change your emotion.

So after,

Let's say,

You're feeling sad,

You meditate for 20 minutes,

You feel good for a few hours,

But eventually,

If things don't change in your life or in your mind,

Eventually you are going to start to feel sad again.

So what do you do about that?

How do you not just get temporary relief from sadness when you meditate?

How do you use meditation to change your mind about whatever it is that you're thinking of that's making you upset?

So thankfully,

There are many ways to do that.

One of the best ways to use meditation for reducing sadness is to do what is called a bit of analytical meditation.

So analytical meditation is kind of like a cognitive behavior therapy.

I also do have an episode on here that is entirely about analytical meditation,

So you might like to look at that.

So essentially,

Analytical meditation means to sit and to observe the mind and to kind of just take a note of what we're thinking.

So I'm going to sit and I'm going to sit and I'm going to observe the thought that's going through my mind that's saying,

I'm getting old.

So I'm going to sit and I'm going to sit and I'm going to observe the thought that's going through my mind that's saying,

I'm getting old.

So I'm going to sit and I'm going to sit and I'm going to observe the thought that's going through my mind that's saying,

I'm getting old.

So I'm going to sit and I'm going to sit and I'm going to observe the thought that's going through my mind that's saying,

I'm getting old.

So I'm going to sit and say,

Okay,

So I have this thought that's routinely going through my mind that's saying,

I'm getting older and I haven't accomplished my ambitions and that's making me sad.

So now that you know the thought that you're experiencing that's making you sad,

You're going to say,

Well,

Okay,

How do I flip that thought so that it's less negative?

So for instance,

I can say,

Yes,

There are dreams and ambitions that I have not accomplished in my life that I wanted to accomplish,

But I don't have to think about that in a negative way.

I can simply flip that thought and say to myself,

Well,

I still have the opportunity to achieve the dreams that I set out for myself when I was young.

Do you notice how that's so much more positive instead of thinking,

Well,

I'm getting old and I haven't achieved what I wanted to achieve.

So I'm going to be really sad and act like a,

You know,

I'm just really miserable.

Instead of thinking that you just,

You know,

We can think,

Well,

I still have an opportunity in my life to achieve the ambitions that I sent for myself when I was younger.

Just changing that thought.

It still says actually the same things.

It still says there's stuff I haven't achieved,

Right?

And I'm getting older,

But instead of putting it in a negative,

I'm putting it in a positive.

And so that's what you do with analytical meditation.

You simply observe what's happening in your mind,

What thoughts you're experiencing,

And then turn them on their head.

You don't ignore the thought,

Which is something that self-help books tell you to do all the time.

It is the dumbest thing of like ever.

Don't ignore your thoughts because they're important and they tell you important information.

So acknowledge the thought.

Say,

Yes,

I'm having whatever kind of negative thought it is.

I'm having that thought,

But I'm going to spin it and put it into a positive light.

So,

So far we've gone over two meditations that will help with sadness.

The first is just your general anapanasati mindful breathing,

Which is going to help you to relax and to get just a bit of space when you're feeling sunk in all that emotional gunk,

You know?

And then the second one is analytical meditation,

Where you sit and observe the thoughts that are going through your mind and then use a little bit of CBT,

Cognitive behavioral therapy,

To twist the thought and to turn it into something a bit more positive.

So those are two options,

But there's a lot more.

And I really think that you should know the other options because honestly,

Let's face it,

We're going to feel sad again.

You're going to feel sad again.

And by knowing these meditations,

It's really going to help you the next time you feel sad to say,

Okay,

Fine.

I know what to do about this.

So another way in which we get sad,

There's probably too many ways in which we get sad,

But another way in which we get sad is when we're kind of like,

Oh,

Life just sucks.

You know,

I hate my life.

My life is shit.

What's going to swear?

My life is crap,

Rubbish.

I'm not happy.

Yeah.

And you just feel that everything sucks.

When you experience a thought like that,

When you think,

You know,

Life sucks and I'm pretty much done with this because the whole world is garbage,

You need to go to gratitude.

You really do.

Because inevitably,

Um,

Inevitably when you think that everything in the world and everything in your life is wrong,

Well,

That's just bonkers,

Isn't it really?

And it means that you're not being,

You're not aware of all the things that you have to be grateful for.

Now I'll be honest,

I'm human.

There's times when I sit there and I think,

Wow,

My life sucks.

Right.

We all,

I think if we're honest with each other,

We all face those times and that's fine.

Um,

When it occurs,

What we need to do is say,

You know what?

I recognize that me thinking that the entirety of my life is crap is just absolute rubbish.

It's a rubbish thought.

And I'm going to change it by just sitting with my eyes closed and thinking about all the things in my life that I have to be grateful for.

And when you do that,

It pretty quickly change.

It pretty quickly gets you out of that funk where you're thinking that everything sucks.

And you very easily start to realize actually,

You know,

There's quite a few things in my life that I do enjoy.

Um,

And if you can't think of anything,

Then just think of cats.

You know,

I've got three of them here.

Um,

Be grateful for cats or dogs or animals or nature.

If you really can't think of anything else in your life is good.

Just be grateful for,

For the trees and the blue skies and for birds song and rainbows and nature,

You know,

Nature is,

I mean,

If you can't be grateful for nature,

Then I don't know what you can be grateful for.

Speaking of which,

Uh,

I wasn't going to mention that in this,

In this episode,

But I do want to say if you are feeling sad,

Down,

Blue,

Um,

Crappy,

Uh,

In a funk,

Et cetera,

Then nature really can be your friend.

Um,

In Japan and increasingly popular,

Um,

In the West is nature therapy.

Um,

Shimmering Yoku,

Which is forest exposure,

Um,

Which basically means sitting in a forest,

Which so being in the nature of natural environment,

Being in a forest is incredibly beneficial.

It's ridiculously good for your mental health.

And one of the best ways to,

Um,

To get out of a funk is simply to sit in nature.

But here's a really,

Really,

Really fascinating fact.

That's going to blow your mind.

Um,

You don't actually have to go into a forest or into nature to experience nature therapy or forest therapy.

Uh,

Research actually shows that you get the vast majority of the benefits by simply,

Um,

Going into a virtual natural environment.

So for instance,

If you play birdsong or play like the ocean sounds,

Um,

On your phone,

Uh,

If you just,

If you just sit somewhere quietly and visualize nature,

Uh,

Even if you watch nature on the TV,

Uh,

Simply being exposed to nature in those ways,

If you can't get out into nature,

Do you being exposed to it via TV,

Via music,

Et cetera,

Et cetera,

Is still going to be really beneficial.

So if you're sitting there thinking,

Well,

You know what,

The weather's really crap outside,

So that sounds good,

Paul,

But actually I,

You know,

I can't really go out into nature right now.

Fine.

Absolutely fine.

Just put on some birdsong or some,

Some ocean sounds and close your eyes and visualize beautiful,

Relaxing,

Environmental nature scene,

And it will do you wonders anyway.

So that's four so far,

Four ways that you can use meditation.

Um,

Two,

Stop feeling so sad and blue.

There's one more that I think there's probably just one more that I would like to mention,

Which is Metta or loving kindness meditation.

Loving kindness meditation really is brilliant for,

Um,

For sadness,

For feeling down,

Especially,

Um,

You know,

That kind of malaise and sadness that you get when you just feel disconnected with the world and you don't feel the love of other people in your life and you just feel alone and sad.

Wow,

That sounds terrible,

Doesn't it?

And it is terrible,

But if you're going through that terrible sadness of loneliness,

Metta,

Loving kindness meditation is really going to do you wonders.

All you have to do is,

Um,

Is to sit,

Uh,

Use lotus mudra if you would like to,

Um,

Optional and simply visualize the people in your life smiling and then say the loving kindness,

Um,

What some people call a prayer,

Uh,

It's really a mantra,

Which is may whatever person it is have happiness and strength.

May they have freedom and inner peace and may they have the strength to overcome any obstacle in their life and then visualize the person smiling at you and returning that,

Uh,

Saying that back to you.

So I feel like I rambled a little bit in this episode,

So I apologize for that.

But I also feel like I have perhaps,

Um,

Imparted a few wisdoms and a few tools that you can use for the next time you feel sad and blue.

Again,

You can use anapanasati or mindful breathing to give yourself a sense of kind of just freedom and space and just a bit of relaxation when you need it.

Use analytical meditation to simply sit and observe your mind and then to note the types of thoughts that you're having.

Once you've noted the types of thoughts,

Use a bit of cognitive behavioral therapy to kind of twist it into a,

You know,

Something a bit more positive.

Uh,

Nature therapy and loving kindness and gratitude.

If you use those five meditations when you're feeling down,

I guarantee you that you will not be feeling down for very long.

My name is Paul Harrison.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of The Daily Meditation.

If you would like to join me in a private meditation lesson,

You may do so on thedailymeditation.

Com.

Remember to subscribe and until next time,

Have a wonderful,

Blessed day.

Reviews

Wow this was an amazing audio . Really helped me.

I’m only giving the stars because of the lovely British accent. It was difficult for me to listen to this, especially because the word “simply” was often used. I’ve “been there, done that and worn the T shirt” when it comes to attempting to use meditations to relieve sadness and depression. There’s nothing “simple” about it. Also “think about cats” wasn’t really a great idea because I’m deadly allergic. Perhaps a suggestion: some people suffer from mental health issues so “simply” doesn’t come to them all that easily. You also mentioned that you were 41 and felt like your life was going well. I happen to be 53 and I’m having those feelings so is this supposed to help? Please consider your audience before recording…ta.