I agreed to give a talk on meditation since I think it is a valuable, easy, quick tool for increased mental, emotional and physical health. I read Kornfield, Kabat-Zinn, and Daniel Siegel’s “The Mindful Brain.” They were very helpful. But when I found “The Mindful Way through Depression” by three British psychologists and Kabat-Zinn, I perked up. Here was a book about a particular application to a problem. I have not been bothered by depression myself but I know it is the most common of the four main mental illnesses (depression, obsessive-compulsive, bipolar and schizophrenia). I figured if meditation can actually assist in lessening or eliminating depression, that would be a very good thing, indeed.
The book comes with an audio disc and is also available in audio book form. In that format, it is abridged. With a non-fiction work, I find abridged is good. It is often the meat with less chatter. I listened to the audio book very carefully. After explaining what meditation is (see the first link above), they started talking about their research and practice.
They explained that they had evidence that people that are bothered by depression get trained into particular “cascades of thoughts”. Some negative event sets their mind off and a habitual chain of thoughts and emotions quickly slides into the mind, very smoothly and without being noticed as such. The picture of such a cascade stuck in my mind and it was clear that the idea was a mainstay of their approach.
The notion of a series of thoughts coming into the mind as a whole without being noticed is interesting and I have continued to think about it. I find that many subjects or topics have cascades associated with them in my mind. When I do yoga postures, the same routine repeatedly, the same ideas come to mind. When I think of a historical figure I have been interested in, Churchill for instance, I have the same memories of things read and reactions to those readings each time I think of Winston. (You don’t mind me calling him “Winston”, do you?) The same thing happens when I look at a book on my shelf. The same series of thoughts and reactions spring up repeatedly.
Being aware that mental skids are in place that tend to slide a series of thoughts into my mind without awareness or approval can assist me in taking a turn off the usual path to something new. I can get to new places, new impressions, new angles.
