The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

by J. Mark G. Williams

Whenever something unpleasant arises, the systems in the brain that warn us about potential threats are activated: it is as if a loud alarm is sounded, and the mind gives high priority to attending to whatever caused the unpleasantness. We may do many things to try to distract ourselves—such as turning on the TV—but the alarm is insistent and doesn’t shut off. Worries keep intruding on our consciousness. Sooner or later, with the TV on or off, the disturbing thoughts and feelings come flooding back. Here is that critical moment. If, paradoxically, we can turn and face whatever it is that we are finding scary, difficult, or depressing rather than perpetually distracting ourselves to no avail, we are actually still doing what the brain wants us to do: giving high-priority attention to the matter at hand. It’s just that we are no longer giving it attention in the old “doing” way. We are approaching the moment—whatever it is, however it is—not by reacting but rather by responding, by bringing an open, spacious, and affectionate attention to the feeling in the moment as it expresses itself in the body. Now we are in relationship to the alarm in a new way, one that provides us with a viable alternative to endlessly thinking about it.