The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress

by John D. Teasdale

MbCT stands for mindfulness- based cognitive therapy.

two critical processes that lie at the root of depression and many other emotional problems: 1. the tendency to overthink, ruminate, or worry too much about some things, coupled with 2. a tendency to avoid, suppress, or push away other things.

Redoubling your efforts to switch off your troubled mind may give temporary relief, but it can also make things worse. Your attention is still hijacked by whatever

Mindfulness means being able to bring direct, open- hearted awareness to what you are doing while you are doing it: being able to tune in to what’s going on in your mind and body, and in the outside world, moment by moment.

if things are really bad right now, and your depression makes it just too difficult to concentrate on some of the practices, then it can be disheartening to struggle with new learning. it might be most skillful to allow yourself to wait a while if you can, or, if you do start, to be very gentle with yourself— remembering that the difficulties you experience are a direct effect of depression and will, sooner or later, ease.

Put a ü next to any of these that you recognize:

What do you usually do when experiencing this?

Unhappiness is part of the normal human condition. It is a natural response to certain situations. Left to itself, it will pass in its own good time, often surprisingly quickly.

For Jani, her frustration with not getting to sleep and her fears about not being able to cope with her job evoked memories that made her feel even worse: DEPRESSED MOOD What’s going to happen to me if I keep feeling this way? I remember the last time: feeling so dreadful, I had to give up my job. I wish I could just SLEEP! My life is falling apart. I’m a failure. I really need people around, but I don't have the energy to call anyone. I’ve lost something I’ll never find again. I’m not good enough. FRUSTRATION Why does this always happen to me?

learn to recognize these thought patterns for what they really are—just thought patterns—and then gracefully disengage from them by refocusing their attention.

How do you refocus your attention when you are ruminating?

Far from freeing us from the downward spiral, our attempts to get rid of unhappiness by thinking our way out of it are the very things that can deepen and prolong our sad moods.