There’s no denying it - mindfulness had its moment in the media. And that’s died down now. But the fact is it genuinely can help with depression, with some scientific studies suggesting it can be as effective as antidepressant medication.
And yet there still seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about how it works, with many people believing it’s just a form of relaxation with all the deep breathing. But actually there’s a lot more to it, and when you understand how it works, my bet is that you’ll be that much more likely to take it seriously. And the benefits aren’t just relevant for people experiencing symptoms of depression.
But to understand how it works, first we have to understand the two cognitive pillars of depression: ‘rumination’ and ‘cognitive fusion’.
The chances are that you’ve heard the term rumination before, and I guarantee you’ve done it at some point. It’s the natural human phenomenon whereby you tend to go over something again and again in your mind. This is often in response to something distressing - a memory of something distressing in the past, like an argument or something that went wrong, or a worry or concern about something potentially distressing in the future, like a deadline, public situation, or event. And the thoughts we have when we go over these things in our minds are typically thoughts that have a negative emotional aspect. Things like regret, shame, anger, worry and fear. And despite this, we keep going over and over the thing in our mind. Why? Well, it’s actually your brain trying to ‘improve’ the situation, by thinking about what you could have said or done differently, or preparing you to deal with the awful (in your imagination) upcoming situation.
The thing is that this instinct, which is trying to be helpful, is actually not helping at all. In fact it’s making things worse. Brains are very good at getting better at what they do a lot of. And so, if you’re spending a lot of time thinking negative thoughts, guess what, you’re going to get ‘better’ at thinking negative thoughts. What does better mean in this scenario? It means you’re effectively creating a habit so that in a situation where something could be interpreted positively or negatively you’re more likely to jump straight to the negative interpretation. You are becoming more of a glass-half-empty kind of person.
And there’s a physical consequence to this too. When you think these negative thoughts, you’re amygdala, which is a part of your brain which reacts automatically to situations and is deeply involved in the fear/fight/flight response, senses a potential threat to you and responds by triggering the release of cortisol - the stress hormone - into your bloodstream. Cortisol is a good hormone to have in your blood temporarily if you’re running away from a predator in the jungle, but it’s very bad for you when you have elevated cortisol levels for a significant period of time or even the majority of your time.
So you can see that ruminating a lot isn’t a great idea. Now, I’m not saying that rumination is a direct and guaranteed cause of depression. But it’s true to say that people who ruminate a lot are more likely to be or become depressed, and also that people who are depressed typically ruminate a lot. So there’s extremely likely to be some sort of connection between the two.
What about cognitive fusion then? This one is a bit more of a subtle concept, but still applies to more or less every human being on the planet at some point or other. It’s the propensity we have to believe the contents of our thoughts, simply because we thought them. So what, you might say. Well, if you’re ruminating on an argument you had with someone important to you, you might be thinking “I’m such a ****” (insert your choice of derogatory word). And if you’re cognitively fused, you believe that to be self-evidently and unshakably true. Which doesn’t do wonders for your mental health. When we’re cognitively de-fused, we’re able to have some perspective on our thoughts and recognise that they’re not necessarily true simply because we’re thinking them. That, often, our thoughts are influenced by all sorts of things ranging from who we’ve recently spoken to, what we’ve been doing, how we’ve slept and even what we’ve eaten. And by definition, therefore, they’re not necessarily true, but rather they’re just what we happen to be thinking at the moment. (Incidentally, our own language doesn’t help us here. In English we say “I am sad”, whereas in other languages they express the same idea with phrases like “I have sadness”. The difference here is subtle, but important. To say “I have sadness” intuitively implies I haven’t always had it, I happen to have it right now, but I won’t necessarily always have it. It makes the sadness implicitly a temporary or transient state. Whereas when you say “I am sad”, the language is making the emotion a part of your essential being.)
Ok, so what’s this all got to do with mindfulness? Well, mindfulness is the skill of being aware of - you might say recognising - what’s going on in the present moment, both externally and also in your inner world. So rather than being swept away by the emotional charge of the thing you’re ruminating on and believing it to be absolutely true, when you’re able to be mindful, you take a step back from the rumination, and see it for what it is. Which gives you the ability to exercise your free will and redirect your attention back to whatever it is you’re actually doing in that moment, and also to appreciate that you’re ruminating again and the contents of that rumination aren’t necessarily true. So in that singular moment of mindfulness and recognition, you’ve interrupted the rumination cycle, and averted the psychological self-harm that accompanies cognitive fusion.
Now, granted, it’s easy to say and harder to do when you’re in the throes of an entrenched spell of rumination. But that’s why meditation is a good thing to do regularly. Meditation is an exercise which strengthens the muscles of mindfulness. And yes, it can be helpful to meditate when you’re feeling stressed or low. But the real power and benefit of meditation comes from having done it regularly and built up the strength of your mindful muscles so they’re there for you when you need them. Either way, it's never too late to start!
