I’ll share a mindfulness exercise that can help alleviate depression.

So if at any time
you experience any uncomfortable thoughts,
that it is normal.
Just redirect yourself back to your breath
Or the specific exercise instructions.

If overwhelming thoughts persist,
be sure to share them with your healthcare provider.

While uncommon, if you experience a psychiatric emergency,
please call your doctor, or dial 911 to get some support.

With that in mind,
Let’s begin by exploring how we can bring mindfulness
To depression.
As with all difficult emotions,
mindfulness will help you reconnect with your bodily sensations,
Where the trauma lives,
And connect it with the love that you already have inside you,
To help defuse blocked energy,
and integrate what’s happened to you
both cognitively and emotionally.

Once your self-soothing skills are in place,
This is easier to do.

More and more
People find that directing their attention
To their bodies
And the sensations within
helps them to relax,
feel stronger,
and improve their sense of well-being.

It not only reduces depression,
but alleviates pain,
lowers anxiety,
and boosts the immune system,
to name just a few.

It begins by helping you
to relax,
and clear the mind.

Then,
it calls upon your senses
and awareness
to engage your embodied presence.

Finally,
it encourages you to experience
a new way of being,
one with a strong sense of love, care, courage,
and self-compassion

One that feels fuller,
And engaged with each passing moment
Without getting caught in whatever has happened
in the past.

Should you notice
your mind wandering away from anything i ask you to do,
you can gently guide it back to what’s happening,
here and now
With gentle ease.

So to begin this mindfulness exercise for depression,
see if you can position yourself
as comfortably as you can,
shifting your weight
so you’re allowing your body
to be fully supported
by you chair,
or your bed,
or whatever is supporting you.

Taking a couple of deep,
full,
cleansing breathes,
inhale fully
And comfortably,
deep into the chest
And belly

In and out.

Now,
see if you can send the warm energy of your breath
to any part of your body
that’s tight
or heavy
and release the discomfort
with the exhale.

You can feel your breath
going to all the
tense or heavy places,
loosening and softening them.

See if you can feel the healing action
of the breath
with friendly
but detached awareness.

Any unwelcome thoughts
that come to mind,
those too can be sent out
with the breath,
released with the exhale
so that for just a moment
the mind is empty.

Allow any feelings
to just come up
and move through you,
seeing it
as a kind of necessary rinsing
that’s taking place.

Any emotions
that you sense
might be embedded in there,
those too are noted
and acknowledged
and sent out with the breath
so that you’re emotional self
can be still and quiet.

And now, picture someone who loves you
More than anyone else loves you.
They could be alive, or passed away...
It could be a parent, a child, a pet, a spiritual figure...
Someone who loves you unconditionally,
With strong feelings warmth
And care...

Reflect on their love for you,
And how they look at you...

See if you can feel their charge
Of powerful, loving energy
in your heart...

Warm pulsing waves
of nourishing,
soothing energy,
moving right through barriers
of dull, deadened space.

Melting away
any thick heavy fog in the body,
And the mind,
going straight to the core
of your energy,
releasing and awakening it
and feeling it begin to expand
all through your body,
charging and renewing
each and every cell.