Heal Depression With Zen

Depression is a disease of the mind. Zen, which is about mental state, may offer a new perspective of the disease. You may even heal depression with Zen.

Depression is a devastating mental illness affecting millions of people all over the worlds. Depression is a mental condition due to distorted thinking. In distorted thinking, the mind does not see things as what they really are. That is to say, a depressed individual tends to "see" and "hear" things with the brain, instead of with the eyes and the ears. Given that a perception is a reality, the distorted thoughts create deceptive perceptions that become "real" to that depressed individual. Over time, these distorted perceptions continue to talk to that individual in the form of internal dialogues, causing more mental confusion. As a result, that individual begins to lose his or her own identity, not knowing what to do, drifting from one thing to another, feeling incapacitated in dealing with the problems of life. The feeling of inertness and the sense of loss are some of the common characteristics of depression.

One of the reasons why modern psychiatry may not be effective in dealing with depression is that it focuses on "analyzing" the mental and behavioral problems of the patient with the explicit purpose of helping the patient to "avoid" them in the future. But, according to Zen, that is exactly where the problem originates. In Zen, there is no such a sickness as "depression" because mental illness is no more than a condition of the mind with distorted thoughts of self and reality.

To illustrate, many depressed individuals have a distorted perception of self-worth: they wish they were someone else. Zen focuses on who you are, rather than what you want to become. Zen purges the mind of any low self-esteem. Wanting to be someone you would like to become is the source of pain — just as longing for things that are not obtainable, and expecting results that are not met. Once the pain is created, the patient or the psychiatrist begins to seek "analysis" and "explanation" of the pain, hoping to find a "solution" to the problem, thereby enabling the patient to "avoid" the pain in the future. Unfortunately, that becomes the cause of more pain and more mental confusion.

According to Zen, life is never a problem to be solved. If there is no problem, why do you need a solution? Life never has a problem, and if there is a problem, that is because you have created the problem for yourself. So, if there is no problem, then why do you need to "analyze" and "explain" the problem? The problem with modern psychiatry is that once you have created a problem, you need a solution to the problem. In attempting to solve the problem, you begin to analyze the problem and examine the options available to solve the problem. In the process, you generate stress, which only aggravates the problem. You become more confused and mentally depressed.

Live a life of Zen — living in the present moment, with no problems, and no expectations. You can heal depression with Zen.

Zen is about spontaneity — the naturalness of things. In Zen living, you do not strive to analyze or explain what happens in your life. You just learn to embrace whatever that may come your way. Life is to be experienced, not just to be enjoyed. Therefore, you do not try to avoid anything in life. Neither do you try to "accept" what is pleasant and "reject" what is unpleasant; the very act of "selecting" is a sickness of the mind. To heal depression with Zen, you must learn to let go — not just of the past (especially a traumatic past experience that might have triggered the depression) but also what you are afraid to let go. Once you mind becomes uncluttered by distorted thoughts, you begin to look at everything in your life in perspective. Once you see the priorities in your life, you may learn to let go of everything, including your past, and you are well on the way to healing depression. Yes, you can heal depression with Zen.

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Visit the author's website: Self-Healing Self-Help to find out more about healing the body, the mind, and the soul. Get all the resources to get natural and inexpensive ways to stay healthy and to be depression free. For more information on Zen healing, visit the author's blog: Zen Is The Way.

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