Cure Depression & Anxiety in 4 Weeks

Depression and anxietyrnFor the full daily Practice go to http://innerstillness.com.au Depression and anxiety are of the same making, they come from the same place. Everyone has felt some level of anxiety and depression in their life, it's nearly unavoidable if you have the human condition of having a mind and it running you. Anxiety is the fear of something in the future that you have to face. Depression is felt as a very dark negative cloud hanging over you so much so that there is nothing but this negativity going through your head and body, the future offers no salvation, there is no escaping it and you can even feel suicidal. Anxiety can vary from a mild worry to symptoms were it might stop you leaving your house and engaging with the outside world. It usually starts small and generates over time to something major. Whether a small problem or a major one the cause is the same. Before the feeling of anxiety is felt - the fear of something - there is a thought that triggers an emotional response in the body. Just a simple little thought is sent out from the mind and the body reacts to it and you can feel the dread of something you have to face. Overtime this little thought triggers a greater response in the body, initially the thought had little impact, later it has become totally constraining. Overtime the mind builds a platform of fear of a situation, it continually send outs the simply little thought and gets greater feed back, the mind then gets totally fixated on the issue and builds an even bigger story; it is always there. The fear becomes part of your belief system. You might be a totally rational person and know there is a problem but your body is now reacting to a thought that you know it should not be. So you are now a victim of your thoughts - nothing unusual in that in this world. If you have a bad case of anxiety you can probably trace the beginnings of it. Have a look at the major trauma events in your life. Spend some time looking at it and feeling it and see how it has built up overtime. Analyse the thoughts that you are inputting into this anxiety syndrome and see if they are rational? See how the story has grown over time in your head. See how you now identify with the story and you have become the victim -the poor me' in the story; this is how the story is now serving you. This is called woundoloy. Just as it has taken time to develop the fear into a belief system it will probably take a little time to unpick the development of the fear. But it can be done and starts with looking at the trigger- the mind and your believe in what it is saying. Actually this is the real problem, "you believe the chatter in your head, you identify with it". The mind is always spitting out thoughts that you have not asked it to do, but the problems is that you are now identify with it and it keeps playing the same sound track and victimising you.rnSo If you don't believe me? If I was able to remove your mind and put it down next to you, where would your next problem or fear come from? There would be no more problems or fears or anxieties as there would be no thought or voice coming from your head. There would be nothing! Anxiety is the fear of something in the future, it is not here NOW. Ask yourself - "is there any problem here right now at this very moment, this very second"? Reflect on this for a few moments, look and see if there is any problem right now. I doubt it, there never is a problem in the NOW. In the present moment there are no problems, issues or fears. There is just you BEING, that's it! So the fears are a projection of the mind, a thought and you are reacting to it. The mind has chattered so much about the issue/fear that you now believe it and you even know it's not rational. The mind has taken you away to the future to face the fear. The answer is to become aware of the mind chatter, to learn the skills to observing the mind. You can learn these skills by doing the awareness exercises in The Practise section. You can also do the many Mindfulness mediation exercises that are on the web that teach inner awareness. By doing this you retrain how you use your mind; actually to be more accurate you are learning how to stop the mind using you, the mind is running you, it is in total control. When you observe the mind the chattering stops. Try this, just breath in and bring your awareness to your head and watch for the next thought to come from the mind, just observe it, watch for it. So what is there then? ......NOTHING, stillness, quiet. The training turns on the awareness - the observer of the mind - so that you become aware of the mind chatters and stops it running you and this builds the more you practise. The body has memory, an emotional memory, so the thought comes and the body reacts even when you know it shouldn't. Kinesiology I have found very useful to unpick this emotional body response, especially if you have done the mindfulness work as well. DepressionrnThe darkest of dark clouds of negative mood that totally engulfs you and is continuous for long periods of time, you feel the dread and total despair, there is not future! If you have ever sat with a person that is totally depressed you might have noticed that they are totally consumed by this negative mood, nothing else can get in. The mind is totally fixed on the negative story, the dark mood, there is nothing else. Look closely and you will see that the mind of the person is either fixated on the past hurt and/or the future offers no hope. They are not here NOW, the mind is totally focused on the story it is running (the past issue) and the doom of the future. Before depression is felt there is the message that is sent from the mind, a negative message, like "you are a total failure", (there are many type of messages). Over time the mind has gathered and compiled evidences why you are a total failure in the eyes of the world and keeps issuing this to you until you believe it and the dark mood cloud descends. The mind continually sits in judgement of you and compares yourself to others in the world and develops a story of how you fit into the world; this is generally a negative story for persons that suffer depression. Overtime you become this dark mood cloud until you cannot find the door out anymore. Occasional there might be a hint of positivity and hope but it does not last long and is overwhelmed by the negative thoughts again. Something 'bad' has happened to you in the past and the the future offers no hope. The mind fixates on there being no hope in the future and lives out the hurt of the past over and over again - the poor me syndrome. This thinking form the basis of the negativity input that leads to the dark mood and eventually depression. For the person that is depressed they are generally not even aware of the negative thoughts that are the input and the trigger to feeling the depressed mood. Yes they know they are depressed and can feel it and suffer it, but they cannot find the trigger to why this keeps happening. Even if they are aware of the mind continuously inputting negativity they cannot stop it. The mind is like a huge stone wheel that is gradually wound up by the negativity thoughts over time, it has momentum and does not slow down easily. So it will continue to spit out negativity until you remove the trigger - the mind chatter. You need a practice to slow this negative mind chatter down and to turn on the observer of the mind. Forced situational chance.rnSky dive, jet ski ride at speed, long strenuous walk in the bush up steep hills with a 30 kilogram pack on your back. Try being depressed when doing these, it's not possible, why because they force you back into the moment. You are now totally fixated on what you are doing right now and there is no mind chatter about the past or the future. You are now PRESENT. This is the key. Through strenuous exercise or overwhelming the sensors the mind has been force to focus on the present moment, focused on what it is doing and hence there is no mind projection of the past or the future. So you feel good the dark cloud has been removed. So now we just need to learn how to keep the mind in the present moment in everyday life. As there is no negative past or negative future in the present moment, the present moment has no past to future, there are no problems in the now, you are just BEING in the now.rnKeeping the mind in the present moment can be learned, it's just a skill you learn by doing awareness exercises and becoming more aware. Within 4 weeks you can change your depressed mood to one of contented calm and positivity. Your body chemistry will also change over time as the positive energy flows into it. Scientists have found that if you put Buddhist monk in a cat scan machine and measure their serotonin levels (happy chemicals) they are off the general scale. Monks that meditate are generally in the Now, the present moment, where there is contentment and inner joy, so they feel their inner happiness. So this is their general input into their body. Chemicals vs AwarenessrnMany people have turned to medicine and drugs for help. But are drugs the answer, for some yes, for others no. It is certainly better not to rely on drugs for your mood. People point to the chemical imbalance in there body and say that this is why they are depressed and why they need drugs. But how does this chemical imbalance come about? For sure if you input your body with millions of negative thoughts then there will be a consequence and a chemical change and maybe depression. For most of us the first input is not the chemical imbalance, it is the mind. I don't think you were born depressed? So your depression is probably your own responsibility and this can be hard to hear, specially when you are enveloped by the the dark cloud of depression. Have you really sat down and observed what you are inputting into the your body from the mind. Do an exercise and spend the next 4 hours observing your thoughts and count how many negative and positive thoughts there are. rnYou just need to start the awareness exercises in The Practise and you will see the change and see the door to escape the dark mood. We can talk and read about it, go to meetup groups to discuss it, but in the end you have take responsibility for it and do a practice to change it. The mind loves the intellectual analysis of it and this just plays to its strength, you need to go beyond the mind and learn to put it down and become the observer of the mind and you do this with an awareness practice. The Practice is on my web site:rnhttp://innerstillness.com.aurn