12 Steps to Motivating When You’re Depressed

photo by vinoth chandar (creative commons)

I’m just passing this on, in case someone might find it useful. There’s nothing more irritating to a depressed person than being told you should just do blah blah blah. If you’ve never been depressed, the simplicity of some of the suggestions might shock you. Such as “Wash Up” or “Get Dressed” or “Go Outside”.

In any case, some food for thought at PsychCentral.

The Godzilla Mayhem of Kids, Parents, and Family Screen Time. Tokyo Is Torched.

Mostly at my new blogs I post shorter stuff, but for some reason I posted a longer piece regarding the use of what increasingly seem like our overlords — our electronic devices. Very much for parents, but anyone struggling with judicious use of technology may find something of interest. Links to a number of recent articles and some books, too. There’s also a cute picture. You can find it here: https://laeastsiderdepressed.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/the-godzilla-mayhem-of-kids-parents-and-family-screen-time-tokyo-is-torched/

Some Recent Highlights from the Mindfulness Blog

• When Meditation Becomes Problematic. Interview with Leigh Brasington about what happens in meditation when emotional issues come to the foreground, and the problems that can pose.
• A brief profile of Mahasi Sayadaw (1904-1982) an influential Buddhist meditation teacher. Links to a number of his books and writings in pdf form, for the interested. Includes Practical Vipassana Exercises and a link to a Buddhist Geeks piece.
• Kenneth Folk coined the phrase “contemplative fitness.” Here he Takes A Stab at Defining Meditation. Short and sweet.
• Shamatha Retreat with B. Alan Wallace an accomplished author and interpreter to the Dalai Lama. Here are roughly 12-hours(!) of instruction on this concentration meditation. Each session is separated into bite-size files.
• Something Lacking in the Secular. A first-person musing on not being religious, but finding secular meditation somehow disappointing.
• A brief profile of and quote from Bhante Gunaratana, author of Mindfulness in Plain English. The post includes links to this and titles by the author, in free, downloadable pdf format. The aforementioned text is a great place to start.
• Positive review of Pema Chodron’s How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind. The subtitle is the key to the book. Recommended.

The Role of Sadness in “Inside Out”

Unsurprisingly very nice piece by Dachel Keltner and Paul Ekman in the New York Times on the portrayal of emotions in the recent Pixar movie “Inside Out.”

…studies find that sadness is associated with elevated physiological arousal, activating the body to respond to loss. And in the film, Sadness is frumpy and off-putting. More often in real life, one person’s sadness pulls other people in to comfort and help.

…the movie’s portrayal of sadness successfully dramatizes two central insights from the science of emotion.

First, emotions organize — rather than disrupt — rational thinking. Traditionally, in the history of Western thought, the prevailing view has been that emotions are enemies of rationality and disruptive of cooperative social relations.

Also posted at LA Eastsider Depressed