Thankfulness + Mindfulness = Help for Depression: Part One
As a kid I can remember spending a lot of time waiting for my dad to come home from work. I loved my dad and his homecoming was often the highlight of my day. If it was raining while I watched for him through our front window it was a special treat. I would watch the water drops fall down the window pane. Sometimes I would pick two water drops and imagine they were racing and watch expectantly to see which one would finish first! I was really MINDFUL of those raindrops. That is something that keeps children happy, mindfulness. Let me explain.
Last week I gave you my own ’99 Reasons to be Thankful’.
The week before I talked about the ‘The Healing Power of Thanksgiving’.
Now I would like to add a discussion about ‘mindfulness’ to this theme.
What is mindfulness? Read the rest of this entry »
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Thankfulness + Mindfulness = Help for Depression: Part Two
Look closely at this bee! Now look a little more closely......and even closer!
We are talking about MINDFULNESS this week and how to relate it to THANKFULNESS. For review purposes, think of mindfulness as a way of living in the present, making observations about something immediately in front of you, without judgement.
And, why bother doing that? Because there are benefits for everyone, benefits that we who are challenged by depression could use.
Here are some of the benefits of mindfulness: “Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV.”
Wow, gotta get me some of that! Read the rest of this entry »
Thankfulness + Mindfulness = Help for Depression: Part Three
We have been talking about mindfulness this week. The two weeks before this we ha talking about thankfulness. I even took time to list 99 things that I am thankful for.
But I want to take thankfulness to the next level by combining it with mindfulness which we have been talking about a little bit this week.
One of the things I put on my ‘thankfulness list’ was chickadees. But if I want to take my thankfulness for chickadees to the next level it might be like this: Read the rest of this entry »
