If you suffer from severe mental illness (i.e depression or bipolar disorder), how do you handle very depressed feelings during meditation? Sometimes I feel like I am being sucked into a vortex of depression, guilt and shame during meditation because I am alone with my thoughts and feelings during that time. It is so painful 😢

I understand, I too have depression and struggled with mediation pulling me down. What I learned from my experience was that meditating while I was in a down, self critical, or well … Depressed state, was that it was the wrong time to be doing mediation. Being alone, reflecting on the past or my problems only made things worse. It sent me down self hate spirals or just left me feeling hollow. So I made a change of when I allowed myself meditation. I added more physical activity, got more time outside and spent more time with my one friend(yes, only one friend I know). Then and only then I would allow myself meditation when my mood was better and chose to meditate on neutral or positive things. No mental walks down memory lane or unpacking of year of depression for a while. I chose to meditate on my breathing mostly, and reminded myself that if I start to think negative thoughts I could stop and do something else like read a book or color in a drawing book. Meditation is only one of the many tools you can use when coping with depression and sometimes it just isn’t the best tool to use. Hope you are in a better place mentally very soon!

One of the best meditation mind clearing techniques that works for me is that imagine putting a thought in a balloon and watching it float away. Focus on the balloon. Then it’s gone, released. Not to say you shouldn’t address whatever the issue is, just not during meditation.

The point of meditation is simply to observe your mind. You rest yourself and simply watch this TV, which is your thoughts at play. So let’s try that out: you’re sitting, and as you sit, your mind unveils a huge mountain of negativity. A giant collection of all the things you regret! So stupid! Why did you do that!! So now, what do you do? Answer: NOTHING. Turn your heart towards yourself. First tell yourself, I love you and it’s okay that you have negative thoughts. And then, allow yourself to not take ownership. Say, oh look, what a huge pile of thoughts! Thank goodness they are not reality but just a bunch of nonsense! Maybe you can even learn to laugh at your mind. Ohhhh silly mind! What are you up to now? Just like a naughty little dog, dumping the trash can in the kitchen! Over time you will learn to regard all your thoughts and feelings with compassion and let them go right away.

When I meditate I’m constantly shifting my attention to all the positives in my life that I can. Depression is a large hurdle for me and time alone can be hard because my mind can be my biggest enemy, so to focus on the positive changes that I am making in my life really helps during meditation and gives me a better mindset.

I would seriously consider doing cognitive behavioral therapy if you depression is that severe. It works extremely well when combined with the right medication for depression, anxiety and bipolar disorders. As for meditation, recognizing negative thoughts and feelings is a normal, important part of mindfulness. Mindfulness isn’t about not ever having negative thoughts or emotions, it’s about being able to recognize those negative thoughts and emotions without letting them take over the moment for you. The analogy I’ve heard many Mindfulness experts use is your mind is the blue sky and your thoughts/emotions are the clouds. Light fluffy clouds are happy thoughts, dark clouds are negative ones and sometimes there are so many dark clouds a storm forms so we can no longer see the blue sky, but it’s always there. It’s just waiting on us to be able to recognize those negative thoughts and emotions without ruminating on them. Mindfulness is a skill and it needs to be practiced in order for it to work. It’s normal to struggle with drifting off into thought at first, you just have to keep practicing until you begin to learn how to recognize thoughts and emotions without ruminating on them. It’s also important to note that "peace and quiet" isn’t the goal of meditation. It can be a nice byproduct of meditation, but the ultimate goal of meditation is to live in the present the rest of the day. If you are worried about the past or the future then you can’t be aware of the present and the present is all we have when you think about it. The more you are able to live in the present the easier it will be for you to experience moments of happiness when they come along and deal with problems when they inevitably arise because you aren’t held hostage by your emotions. When you are meditating and you find yourself drifting off into thought then focus on your breathing. Breathe in your nose and out of your mouth counting each breathe. Count one as you inhale deeply through your nose then count two as you exhale completely through your mouth. Do this up to a count of ten then start over. If you find yourself drifting away in thought again (positive or negative) then simply return to counting your breath again. However, if you are so clinically depressed that you can’t do this because your brain chemistry is making you ruminate on unhealthy thoughts then meditation isn’t going to be very helpful until you address your mental health with a professional. Again, I would highly recommend Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in conjunction with a combination of medications. Studies have shown that a combination of medications works better than a single medication for practically all mood disorders and cognitive behavioral therapy is the most studied form of treatment for a variety of mental health issues and it works if you are willing to to put in the time and effort.

I would highly recommend talking with a therapist about what strategies might work best for your particular needs. However, here are a few strategies that can be helpful for me: 1. Find a positive (but real) mantra to focus your meditation: Something like "I am strong" or "I am relentless" or "I am willing to find happiness". 2. Try guided meditations. There are lots of apps for that, but also consider guided meditations in a group setting like yoga class to practice your meditation skills and not feel so alone. 3. Try movement focused meditation, like walking mediation. 4. Don’t be too hard on yourself if meditation isn’t working for you at this point in your life.

I use the Insight Timer app, the free version. It has both a meditation timer and guided meditations specific to our goals and conditions.

These feelings are shared by all of us as humans at some point or another. You are not alone in feeling this way, in the same way that we can feel happiness, regret, disgust, anxiety, joy etc. What is best to do, which you are currently already doing, is to notice, and then name it. As best as you can, to perceive your thoughts as you would like a guard 💂 outside of city gates watching people coming in and out. Something like "I am feeling sadness", "my thoughts are racing" and after you have noticed, and named what is coming up for you, then focusing your attention back to your breath. Every time this happens, being kind to yourself, knowing it is a natural thing to feel, and coming back to the focus of the meditation. Also, in realising that the words "I am sad", "I am depressed" means that you associate your identity with the emotion. Here, you have very little control to change things. However, when you can make the mental shift to: "I am experiencing sadness", "this emotion is that I feel depressed", you can know that these are states that can change, as our emotions and thoughts change all the time. In understanding this, you can more easily make the shift to regulating and processing these emotions, to change mental states or deal better with the situation.

you should talk to a therapist about these feelings. I believe one of the powers of meditation is the ability to disarm your thoughts and learn to let them go, but meditation should be a supplement to, not a replacement for, conventional mental health treatment. with the help of professional guidance and maybe a guided meditation app to help you stay focussed, you might be able to start to benefit more positively from meditation. i believe in you.

Try to focus on your breathing. Inhale for 4, hold for 4, and exhale for 8. Do that a few times and then return to your regular breath. Try to focus on the sensation of the air going in and out of your nostrils. When you notice a thought start, notice it and then watch it float away. Try not to use judgement when you notice the thought. For instance, you start thinking about something and instead of feeling irritated that your mind has wandered, just notice it as if it’s just a thought. Like a cloud in the sky floating away. One thing that seems to always work when I want to quiet my mind is relaxing my facial muscles, particularly the ones around my eyes. Good luck and don’t give up!