Research has shown that how we think has a large influence on how we feel and all people that feel depressed have negative thoughts. More importantly it is not the thoughts themselves that control our emotions but our beliefs and interpretations of these events.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) has been proven to help people stop the spiralling into depression when troublesome thoughts and emotions take a grip on us.
By acting with mindfulness we are more focused in on the present moment and so our levels of awareness are raised and so are the choices available to us. This can help us to be pro-active instead of reactive when dealing with stressful situations.
Also this present moment awareness is focused directly on what you are experiencing now. This is very helpful as its gets you out of your mind and into your life! By contrast when we ruminate, we are pre-occupied with our thought and emotions which are far removed from what we are actually experiencing in the present moment.
Ruminative thinking is either pre-occupied with the past or is projecting negative outcomes on to the future
This present moment awareness is a ‘being’ mode. We are able to see our thoughts as just that: thoughts and not necessarily the truth. We observe them rather than fuse with them, we allow them to pass on by like leaves in a stream, freeing us from unhelpful habitual patterns of behaviour and thinking.
Meditation forms a large part of Mindfulness practise as it builds awareness to our unhelpful thought patterns so we can increase our choices when challenging situations present themselves.