On Mindfulness and Depression

Analogies are often necessary to describe how depression can escalate; how a mild pain mutates into something more excruciating. This downward spiral process is a lot like adding heavier and heavier weights to your shoulders. The first weight may be unexpected. Perhaps a stressful situation triggers the onset of depressive symptoms, such as fatigue, hopelessness,…

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Not Identifying With a Mental Health Issue Can Lessen Its Grip on Your Life

The spiritual teacher Ram Dass often confronts the topic of suffering in his talks and in his writings. In this BBC interview from 1981, he addresses anyone who might be suffering from depression and offers a different way of approaching the condition. The default or commonly adopted response to depression – and towards mental states in…

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What is Secular Buddhism?

Can you be an atheist and a Buddhist? At first glance, it seems like it would be inconsistent to be both, to be someone who does not believe in God but belongs to a religion. But there is now a growing form of Buddhism, in the Western world at least, which is based on humanism…

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