Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Psychology to Overcome Depression

John McQuiad and Paula Carmona

ISBN 1-57224-366-X

Amazon link

From the introduction:

“The motivation to write this book certainly comes from the desire to help the many people we have seen suffering from depression. But this is not a book getting rid of your depression. Our more earnest hope is to give you tools to help transform your life. Transformation doesn’t happen by merely getting rid of a problem. Transformation occurs when you have the capacity to greet problems in your life with an open awareness and a keen interest. Learning how to be open with life and face painful problems is at the heart of our interest in exploring

how mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy can be tools of transformation. A life shaken by depression is also a life open to the possibility of deep transformation. We hope that this book provides a useful foundation and skillful means to help you move beyond a life where depression is your shadow.”

The chapter headings are:

1) From depression to hope

2) The combo plate

3) CBT and mindfulness meditation: first steps

4) Core belief framework

5) Understanding and changing depressed thinking

6) Activities and mood

7) People and your mood

People skills

9) Depression and exercise

10)Acceptance is not defeat

11)Stages of change

The stages of change from chapter 11 are:

Precontemplation—is what generally is called “denial”. In this stage we have trouble acknowledging a problem. The denial is actually used as a defense to not face reality.

Contemplation—occurs as we move into an emotional area of becoming willing to own a problem or situation.

Preparation—is the emotional space where we balance staying where we are or moving in a new direction.

Action—is the stage that we begin implementing changes in our lives. The changes adopted here should be small and slow so that we may learn how to recognize what helps bring on the problem.

Maintenance—is achieved according to one (James Prochaska) of the authors (James Prochaska, John Norcross, and Carlo DiClemente) of how we change as “a sustained long-term effort and a revised lifestyle”.

Termination—does not mean that depression leaves forever. Instead it means that each sufferer has learned his/her own relapse prevention and used the maintenance tools introduced here to continue life without deep depression. With practice, the sufferer becomes less and less willing to stay in denial.

By Pink Sherbet

Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart

Brian Luke Seaward

ISBN 0-471-67999-2

Amazon link

From the author—

“Current statistics suggest that 1/3 of the American population is one anti-depressants. Alcoholism, drug addiction, self-mutilation, and suicide are just some of the more popular ways that people cope with their stress today. Through these tactics, people merely avoid the problems at hand, rather than work to resolve them. For stress to be dealt with effectively, no matter how much pressure is bearning down on use, avoidance is rarely a viable option.”

“If you listen closely to people’s conversations, you might notice how they tend to be stuck: not processing every aspect of a given situation to make sense of it, but rehashing thoughts and feelings, which, in turn, only validates their stress.”

“In what is often called the Universal Law of Attraction, a critical mass of negativity forms, and like a magnet, our mental focus begins to attract more things to complain about. As a result, we get caught in a whirlpool of negativity, from which is is really hard to escape. In the words of Marcel Proust, “The real act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” Attitude, once again, is the paintbrush with which we color our world.”

From Chapter 5: The Human Equinox: Six Ways to Bring Balance into Your Life—

1) Work life balanced with personal life

2) Freedom balanced with discipline

3) Mental stimulation balanced with quietness

4) Right-brain thinking balanced with left-brain thinking

5) Technology balanced with nature

6) Ego balanced with soul

“Rest assured, behind every unresolved personal drama lies an overactive ego trying to control, manipulate, or dominate whatever it can.”

“At its most rudimentary level, the ego is the bodyguard for the soul, to serve in the role of protector. The problem comes when the bodyguard forgets its primary position, eclipsing the soul’s splendor, to dictate a policy of human behavior.”

From the introduction:

“In the spirit of one of my heroes, Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth), a man who certainly understood the relationship between stress and spirituality, this book is divided into sections that resemble the classic template of what Campbell called “the Hero’s Journey.”

Part I: Into the Unknown frames our departure from the familiar into a brave new stressful world and the problems often associated with that departure.

Part II: Crossing the Threshold highlights the ageless wisdom of the dance between stress and spirituality and features several stories of

everyday heroes who perform the dance masterfully.

Part III: Life in the Balance contains abundant how-to advice to help you build a solid foundation or an action plan, using effective coping skills to victoriously meet the challenge of life’s stress and thus celebrate your own heroic qualities.

Part IV: Back Home Again brings you home to a hero’s welcome, with a few inspirational stories that promise that you, too, can complete the journey and return home as “the master of two worlds.”

“To support the theme of balance, sprinkled throughout the book are exercises, action plans, photographs, meditations, and poems to engage the right brain, help the left brain to process and reintegrate the information, and remind us of what we already know. It is my hope that Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart can reawaken your slumbering spirit, help you build a foundation of balance in your life, and enable you to regain a sense of personal homeostasis, so that the winds of change become the winds of grace that will allow your spirit to soar!”

Excerpt from “The Health of the Human Spirit”:

Twenty-one Strategies for Letting Go of Stress:

· A bird’s eye view: keeping everything in perspective

· Flexing the funny bone: comic relief

· Physical exercise: flushing out the stress hormones

· Decompression: the art of calm

· Do not enter: establishing healthy boundaries

· Respond, don’t react: taming that ego

· Seeking a balance: complexity versus simplicity

· Good vibrations I: turning off the TV

· Anger management: learning to fine-tune expectations

· Meditation: take five or even ten

· Adopt an attitude of gratitude: counting your blessings

(and curses, too)

· Good nutrition: avoid putting gasoline on the fire

· Empowerment: remember, you’ve got the goods

· Friends in need: having a good support system

· Back to nature: getting and staying grounded

· Diversify your interests: place your eggs in more than one

Basket

· Amazing grace: the healing power of prayer

· Reserving judgment: the power of acceptance

· Seizing the day: the future is now

· Forgiveness: the last frontier

]]> http://healingforyouonline.com/2010/06/quiet-mind-fearless-heart-2/feed/ 0 http://healingforyouonline.com/2010/06/finding-serenity/ http://healingforyouonline.com/2010/06/finding-serenity/#comments Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:30:06 +0000 kberman http://healingforyou.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/finding-serenity/

By oddsock

When I began my spiritual journey, the first quality in others that I was attracted to was serenity. I didn’t know that I was attracted to the quality of serenity. Instead I was attracted to serene people. I was going to AA and one of the strengths that you are taught in 12 step meetings was to learn how to help others.

The jobs that a beginner can volunteer for to set up the meetings and help clean the rooms after the meeting. For the beginner these choirs can be a
humbling experiences designed to help learn the true lesson of anonymity which is to do something without taking credit or bragging about what was done.

The meetings that I volunteered for were overseen by this man that was so calm and peaceful that I knew I wanted whatever he had. Finally one night I asked how he had gotten whatever he had. It was hard for him to define “it”. But he recommended a little pamphlet about serenity. The booklet taught me two major lessons.

The first lesson was the story of the man in the desert with the whirling dervishes. Someone came up to the man and asked him what he did about the whirling dervishes and he said that he just let them whirl. What a concept! I was beginning to be introduced to detachment and letting it go and change what you can and let the rest go.

The second lesson I learned from the booklet was an illustration that contained an explanation of serenity as picturing a swan beautifully gliding on the surface of the water. But under the water, the swan was paddling furiously in order to go forward. With my thinking at the time, I thought that this seemed dishonest. Such was the power of my brain to distort everything I experienced.

By Hamed Saber

Serenity in Motion: Inner Peace: Anytime, Anywhere

Mary O’Hara

ISBN 0-446-69085-6

Amazon link

Mary O’Hara says that

“When we stop resisting and struggling against the parts of our life that we believe we can’t abide, and instead investigate our reactions, attachments, thoughts and feelings, we have a greater chance of achieving and living in serenity. Whenever you are confronted with something that bothers you, practice not shrinking from it. Engage the curiosity that brought you to pick up this book and others like it, to look inside yourself and see what’s there. Anytime you become aware that you are searching outside yourself for answers, turn your focus around and look within.”

“There are a few main themes or threads running through Serenity in Motion. They are:

1) Embrace whatever it is that pains you

2) Lessen the tight hold you have on people, places, and things; good and bad

3) Just breathe

4) Expect nothing

5) Keep a positive attitude

6) Cultivate a sense of gratitude

7) Pay attention and

Practice, practice practice

“In the end it is up to you to meet each moment as it arrives—

with honesty, integrity, and an open and willing heart. This is the key to serenity. This is about accepting that each new moment is just that—new. And that no one moment can be duplicated exactly. This will give you a fresh start, a new opportunity to reinvent yourself every moment and live fully and completely, aware and awake, present in the magnanimous now.”

Serenity in Motion is a primer for learning how to approach the world without reservation, fear, or self-imposed impediments. It is a tool to use while you train yourself to rely on yourself. Carry it with you, refer to it, and take the suggestions. Try new ways of looking at situations, of communicating with others, of seeing the world.”

The Meditation Year: A Seasonal Guide to Contemplation, Relaxation, and Visualization.

Jane Hope

ISBN 1-58017-427-2

Amazon link

Awakening—

Month 1—begins with body

Body and mind-sitting like a mountain-taking your seat-establishing the posture-flight from the shadow-meditation in the Buddhist tradition-

Meditation 1-equanimity

“ 2—joining body and mind by the breath

Coming home to yourself-the foundation of practice-breathing-meditation in the Hindu tradition-

Meditation 2-using the breath as focus

“ 3—coming back to the center

Becoming centered-the mandala-

Meditation 3-centering on the hara

Opening—

Month 4—walking meditations

Awareness in action-awareness through walking-meditation in motion-informal walking meditation-the labyrinth-

Meditation 4-formal walking meditation

“ 5—relaxation meditation

unwinding tension-chakras-kundalini-meditation in the Christian tradition-

Meditation 5-relaxation

“ 6—going beyond limitation

spaciousness-letting vastness into your meditation-milarepa and the demons-

Meditation 6-opening

Insight gradually develops into wisdom and compassion—

Month 7—contemplative meditation-developing kindness to yourself-extending loving kindness to others-nowness and helping others-

Meditation 7-loving kindness

“ 8—taking delight in the senses-using your senses-sense perceptions-making a shrine or altar-Taoist meditation

Meditation 8-sense perceptions

“ 9—mantra meditation-choosing a mantra-simplified mantra practice-well-known Hindu and Buddhist mantras-the heart’s wisdom-the use of mantra in contemplative traditions

Meditation 9-mantra practice

Transformation—

Month 10—concentrate through visualization-stabilizing your meditation-concentration meditation-visualization on light-balancing concentration and warmth

Meditation 10-concentration

“ 11—upon reflection-visualization-tara (the embodiment of compassion)-finding the way forward (looking for a teacher)

Meditation 11-tara visualization

“ 12—personal assessment-arousing energy-raising energy (short practice)-finding the way forward (organizations that offer meditation)-the year’s close

Meditation 12-raising energy

Mary O’Hara

ISBN 0-446-69085-6

Amazon link

Mary O’Hara says:

“When we stop resisting and struggling against the parts of our life that we believe we can’t abide, and instead investigate our reactions, attachments, thoughts and feelings, we have a greater chance of achieving and living in serenity. Whenever you are confronted with something that bothers you, practice not shrinking from it. Engage the curiosity that brought you to pick up this book and others like it, to look inside yourself and see what’s there. Anytime you become aware that you are searching outside yourself for answers, turn your focus around and look within.”

“There are a few main themes or threads running through Serenity in Motion. They are:

1) Embrace whatever it is that pains you

2) Lessen the tight hold you have on people, places, and things; good and bad

3) Just breathe

4) Expect nothing

5) Keep a positive attitude

6) Cultivate a sense of gratitude

7) Pay attention and

Practice, practice practice

“In the end it is up to you to meet each moment as it arrives—

with honesty, integrity, and an open and willing heart. This is the key to serenity. This is about accepting that each new moment is just that—new. And that no one moment can be duplicated exactly. This will give you a fresh start, a new opportunity to reinvent yourself every moment and live fully and completely, aware and awake, present in the magnanimous now.”

Serenity in Motion is a primer for learning how to approach the world without reservation, fear, or self-imposed impediments. It is a tool to use while you train yourself to rely on yourself. Carry it with you, refer to it, and take the suggestions. Try new ways of looking at situations, of communicating with others, of seeing the world.”

The main difference the survey revealed is that pleasure-based happiness is very short-lived. Instead he determined that long-lasting happiness is based on what gives our lives meaning and helps our lives have a greater meaning.

He created 16 basic desires that he called “value-based” give us happiness. He also realized that the more value-based desire that we satisfy, the more value-based happiness we experience. The fulfilling of these desires is what gives our lives direction and purpose.

Abraham Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs proposed in 1943 that as we progressively satisfy our basic needs, we will progress to “higher” needs. Wikipedia lists Maslow’s needs as deficiency needs (physiological, safety, love/belonging, and status (esteem) and being needs (self-actualization and self-transcendence).

When I started my main blog, kathyberman.com, I felt driven to write 10-12 hours a day for most of time. I clearly recognized that I was satisfying the need I had to share all I had learned in this 30-year spiritual journey called recovery. The good feelings I get from the writing are a byproduct of my releasing all I know so that I can acquire new knowledge.

The 16 keys to happiness in Dr. Reiss’s book, Who Am I: The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Happiness and Define Our Personalities are: curiosity, acceptance, order, physical activity, honor, power, independence, social contact, family, status, idealism, vengeance, romance, eating, saving, tranquility, and illustrations.

The book is for sale here or ISBN number is 0-425-18340-8.