A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

by Kelly Brogan

Try botanicals noted to help with sleep.

even orally ingested lavender oil, which has shown comparable efficacy to benzodiazepines.

Scientists have been measuring industrial pollutants in our environment for decades, but only recently have they begun the process of tracking the so-called body burden, the levels of toxicants in tissues of the human body. This biomonitoring, for which blood, urine, umbilical cord blood, and breast milk are analyzed, is being conducted by several high-profile institutions and research organizations worldwide.

I care less about the monitoring and more about the actual policing of these chemicals. There is sufficient signal of harm to halt the production of certain chemicals such as Monsanto’s Roundup, for example. Regulation and transparent oversight that controls for imbedded conflicts of interest will be our only way out of this chemical soup.

There’s no single test you can take to determine your body burden and what that means for you in terms of risk for disease and depression. Testing for toxicants in the body isn’t as easy as you might think.

Our body burden begins in utero and can last a lifetime.

If you think you can move to a far-away land to find purity, think again. The by-products and chemicals from industrial centers have landed in our world’s (previously) most pristine areas through air and water currents.

Bottom line: it’s impossible to know how many synthetic chemicals exist in the world today and how harmful they really are, especially in combination.

I wasn’t always a clean living crusader. But pregnancy has a way of turning on that just-tell-me-what-to-do-to-get-this-right-NOW switch. Several years ago, that switch was activated for me when a friend gave me Green Babies, Sage Moms when I was expecting my first baby. As I read that book, I realized that doctors aren’t taught to help women optimize health and wellness. It was up to me to learn how to clean up my home and my body, one step at a time.

Avoid canned foods,

Don’t use nonstick pans or cookware.

Cast-iron, ceramic, or glass cookware are your best bet. Look online for used pans and pots made of these materials.

Ditch the microwave

Stop using plastic water bottles

Good old-fashioned glass is the most inert container to cook with and store hot foods in.

Cellular phones have become an indispensable tool for many of us in the modern world. But they can be evil in ways that go beyond just keeping us plugged in all the time and feeling like we need to respond to incoming messages and texts as soon as possible.

First our bodies use very delicate electrical impulses to exist. Our brains send messages to the muscles, glands, and so on not only using chemicals but also using electrical currents that, for example, are measured with an electroencephalogram. The workings inside each one of our cells are controlled by very small electrical impulses.

It helps to remember that our bodies use very delicate electrical impulses to exist. Our brains send messages to the muscles and glands not only using chemicals but electrical currents as well. And the workings inside each one of our cells are controlled by very small electrical impulses.

Children are more likely to be vulnerable to the type of radiation produced by tablets, mobile phones, and Wi-Fi. In several countries in Europe, Wi-Fi has been banned in schools.

Why has it taken us so long to know about potentially mind-altering properties of cell phone radiation? The electrical-based technologies developed over the last sixty years may be interfering with the inner workings of our bodies in ways we just can’t quantify yet. Many brain cancers, ...

Don’t panic: I won’t ask you to ditch your cell phone.

You can certainly reduce your exposure by not putting the phone up against your head (use an air tube headset), keeping it more than six feet from your body when possible. And remember that you can put your phone on airplane mode if you or your child is handling it without the need for cellular Wi-Fi.

Magnetic fields, an invisible form of pollution that’s totally understudied, should be minimized. For this reason I recommend that you budget in extra time at the airport to request a pat-down instead of going through the full body scanner and subjecting your DNA to ionizing radiation in advance of the inevitable radiation from the flight.

While I am most interested in root-cause resolution of what we are calling depression and anxiety resulting from food intolerances, sugar imbalance, thyroid autoimmunity, nutrient deficiency, and stress, I often present my patients with alternative options for more immediate symptom relief. I have been prescribing the Fisher Wallace Cranial Electrical Stimulator (CES), a device that generates a low-intensity alternating current that is transmitted across the skull, for many years now (I have no financial relationship with this company). I have come to think of it as meditation in a gadget. It was cleared by the FDA in 1979 and works from the premise that we are energetic beings and that accessing the body’s ability to recalibrate can come in many different forms. The recommendation is to use it for twenty minutes twice daily to promote alpha wave activity and to modulate neurotransmitters, endorphins, and cortisol.26 My patients who try it typically use it regularly for three weeks and then as needed.

Another nifty gadget I recommend to my patients, especially those who have trouble with sleep, is a light box.

Dr. Datis Kharrazian, a functional neurologist and author of Why Isn’t My Brain Working?, has synthesized vast bodies of research and contributed cutting-edge solutions to the realm of cognitive impairment and degenerative conditions. One of his recommendations to activate the vagus nerve and to stimulate gut-brain harmony and improve gut motility is simple and effective: fill a glass of water and gargle forcefully with each sip until your eyes tear. Do this several times a day.

To start, on the night before your thirty days, take nineteen minutes to try the following exercise. It’s a kriya (yogic series) that can powerfully take the garbage out from your cluttered mind and infuse your path with potential.* Read the instructions once through, then use a timer for each of the three parts. It goes like this: Part One: Sitting in easy pose (cross-legged on the floor or on a chair with your feet flat on the floor), stretch the spine up straight and close your eyes. Hands rest on your knees with the tip of your index finger touching your thumb on each hand (this is called Gyan Mudra). Drink the breath in in a single long sip through a rounded mouth. Then close the mouth and exhale through the nose slowly and completely. Continue for 7 minutes. Part Two: Inhale and hold the breath comfortably. As you hold the breath in, meditate on zero. Think to yourself: “All is zero; I am zero; each thought is zero; my pain is zero; that problem is zero; that illness is zero.” Meditate on all negative or emotional mental and physical conditions and situations, and as each comes to mind, bring it to zero—a single point of light, a small, insignificant nonexistence. Exhale and repeat for 7 minutes, breathing in a comfortable rhythm. Part Three: Think of the quality or condition you most desire for your complete happiness and growth. Summarize it in a single word such as “wealth,” “health,” “relationship,” “guidance,” “knowledge,” “luck.” Lock on to this single word and...

During week 1, “Dietary Detox,” you’ll start my menu plan and execute my nutritional recommendations, which you’ll continue throughout the thirty days. During week 2, “Home Detox,” I’ll encourage you to green your home and living environment and try some detox strategies like skin brushing and a coffee enema. In week 3, “Peace of Mind,” you’ll turn your attention to establishing a daily meditative practice to switch on your body’s natural relaxation response. This will become a daily habit for life. During week 4, “Movement and Sleep,” you’ll start a regular workout program if you haven’t done so already. I’ll give you ideas for moving more throughout the day. I’ll also be asking you to focus on your sleep habits and follow a few simple guidelines to ensure that you’re achieving the best sleep possible every single night, weekends included.

It’s fine to enjoy mustard, horseradish, tapenade, guacamole, and salsa if they are free of processed ingredients.

The only difference between this month and beyond is that you’re going to also eliminate all dairy, grains (except quinoa and buckwheat), white rice, white potatoes, corn, and beans.

During week 1, focus on mastering your new eating habits. Use my recipes, including my sample seven-day meal plan, or venture out on your own as long as you stick to the guidelines.

day. No alcohol, coffee, tea, soda, or fruit drinks of any kind. Some may need to wean off of caffeinated beverages such as coffee using increasing portions of organic decaf varieties for a week prior to initiating the program.

Then it’s just water, water, water because all other beverages including tea have diuretic effects and replace vital water intake.

After thirty days, you may bring alcohol, coff...

recommend that you begin your day with two glasses of water; add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar if you like for its acidifying effect...

The most important lesson to learn as you embark on this new way of eating (and living!) is to begin to listen to your body. It knows what it wants.

B complex (remember to look for a B complex that contains folate as 5-methyltetrahydrofolate and B12 as methylcobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, or adenosylcobalamin) A multimineral that contains magnesium, zinc, iodine, and selenium A fatty acid that contains EPA and DHA and one with GLA (from evening primrose oil) Adrenal glandular Digestive enzymes/pancreatic enzymes

In Singer’s second work, aptly called The Surrender Experiment, he chronicles the mind-expanding experiences that surfaced when he decided to let go; when he decided to just show up to life every day and to stop trying to make it happen the way he thought he wanted it to.

Singer writes: “Challenging situations create the force needed to bring about change. The problem is that we generally use all the stirred-up energy intended to bring about change to resist change. I was learning to sit quietly in the midst of the howling winds and wait to see what constructive action was being asked of me.”3

watch, observe, and wait for the peak emotion to pass before acting.

this means taking a look at distress, hopelessness, and upset and allowing the feelings to be so the wave of emotions can crest and fall. It means getting acquainted with neutral mind—that nonparticipatory bystander without preferences.

How? In this model, you choose to get out of your own way by allowing the constant chatter of the mind to atrophy—by ignoring that annoying voice that is constantly second-guessing, criticizing, panicking, plotting. You are not those thoughts. You are the one witnessing those thoughts. All you are here to do is remain open to what is put in your path and in your ...

Notice and acknowledge your discomfort. Relax and release it no matter how urgent it feels to act. Let the energy pass through you before you attempt to fix anything. Imagine sitting up high as you watch your thoughts, emotions, and behavior with a detached compassion. Then ground yourself. Connect to the present moment—feel the earth under your feet, smell the air, imagine roots growing into the earth from your spine.

Practice this strategy this week; it only takes a few minutes. I never expect my patients to diminish the stress in their life. I do, however, expect them to work to shift their perspectives on it—to see and accept their reality so that it can change organically when they stop fighting with it. To continuously let go of attachment to outcome. To work daily on getting the ego out of the way of spirit. I ask my patients to start with three minutes. Everyone has three minutes. These minutes add up and will make the goals of week 4 effortless.