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Potential Challenge: The Mindful Way Through Depression (starting 15th Of June 2015)

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ms spock

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Hello Everyone,

I have taken part in several challenges held on this forum and have found them quite helpful.

If anyone is interested I am thinking of organising a challenge.

This would be done by using The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (Book & CD) Paperback – June 2, 2007 by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Zindel Segal).. You can buy it from the usual places.

The "The Mindful Way Through Depression" audiobook is also on youtube (search for the mindful way through depression freeing yourself from chronic unhappiness). It is 5:14:55 long. To get an idea what the challenge involves it might be good to listen to the 5 hours and 14 minutes to see if it is for you before you buy the book/CD.

It has 8 practice tracks at the end. As we did the 8 week challenge we will do all the 8 practice tracks.

To participate in this challenge you would need to be able to listen to 15 minutes per day and then come on and comment on what you thought about the 15 minutes. You would need to practice which ever practice tracks that we are doing that week.

Anyone highly symptomatic with PTSD, depression or suicidal ideation wouldn't be in the best place to participate in the challenge. So best to wait until you are stable.

I put this up now, so people can think about it. It would start on the 15th of June 2015 for eight weeks, if people are interested.

If people want to start listening to it now and see what they are thinking and post here that would be good. I will open up a PM closer to the commencement date.

I have been also looking at this free online course as well. http://palousemindfulness.com/selfguidedMBSR.html

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
ms spock

Edited to Add
I would hope that we are supportive, respectful, caring whilst being candid and honest with each other. The Happiness Challenge and the Self Esteem Challenge both saw some people growing and changing so much. I was most impressed with people's commitment and dedication. I hope that we can develop those connections and camaraderie.

Being able to breath and to ground would be two handy skills to have under your belt before the challenge begins. At least a fair bit of practice on breathing and grounding would be good to carry you over. I have great problems with my breathing, grounding and being present in this now, so no one has to be perfect but having a working practice that is taking care of themselves is important to my mind.

I would suggest that people have familiarity with https://www.myptsd.com/threads/10-p...s-negative-thinking-styles.51948/#post-841137

Reading the David Burns book could be so helpful to stop being stuck in rumination. (A challenge using this book would be a possible next challenge for us all.) There is time to read that book before we begin the challenge.

I would suggest that people have mental health professional or mindfulness mentor or peer support to check in with. This needs to be in place or arranged before the commencement of our challenge.

Going on youtube and search for the authors talks (Jon Kabat-Zinn, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, Mark Williams) and listen to them. This will give people a good insight to the path that we are going on. It will be for some people and not some others.

The main thing is to have a curious, compassionate, inquisitive mind/attitude towards your thinking and to realise that minds wander and if your whole practice is watching your mind wander that is okay. If your mind wanders and you can't be curious and compassionate then having compassion for your lack of compassion for yourself would be a step to take that could be helpful. That is my biggest understanding at the moment. Everytime I listen to the audiobook I learn something new. It will be exciting to read other people's understanding.

I am not a professional so I want to make suggestions that enable people to choose to make themselves safe. It is each individual member's responsibility to do what they need to do before the challenge begins to make themselves safe.

Not judging yourself is important, being able to have compassion with your self when you are judging yourself is helpful for me. So it is not about being perfect but about doing it - making an effort and doing it every day.

Any other suggestions that assist people in keeping themselves safe are welcome.

ETA
[DLMURL]https://www.myptsd.com/c/albums/the-mindful-way-through-depression-audiobook-full-youtube.1493/[/DLMURL]
for anyone who wants to check it out.
 
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snoopy-happy-dance.webp Count me in and I will do both the CD as well as the free mindfulness site with you.
 
@WildMermaid I have some depression as well.

The audiobook suggests if you are having a major episode then to wait until you are a bit better. If you are seeing a mental health professional or you are managing your depression then I would suggest it would be okay but I don't really know. I am just a humble beginner who has been practicing for a year or so.

It depends on your own judgement.

I just didn't want to suggest it for someone with a major depressive episode as that is not setting someone up for success. I think it could be very helpful to be on top of the the top ten cognitive distortions so you don't get stuck in rumination. https://www.myptsd.com/threads/10-p...s-negative-thinking-styles.51948/#post-841137 Rumination is not much fun as most people on the forums know.

If someone is new to the forum - then perhaps waiting until their PTSD settles down and is manageable might be the way to go. And checking with their mental health professional or having someone monitor them would be important. I react badly to medication changes so I would suggest that not beginning it when you are beginning medication changeovers. I did mindfulness through my last medication decrease in December and it was hard but I had a year of Mindfulness practice before that under my belt.

The main thing is to have a curious, compassionate, inquisitive mind/attitude towards your thinking and to realise that minds wander and if your whole practice is watching your mind wander that is okay. If your mind wanders and you can't be curious and compassionate then having compassion for your lack of compassion for yourself would be a step to take that could be helpful.

You seem to have a sense of humour @WildMermaid and you are going okay though I note you have been feeling fragile lately - but you are still keeping on keeping on. So perhaps start listening to the audiobook and see what you feel.

You are most welcome to be part of the challenge - as long as you can take care of yourself and your depression. I would like people to be safe and cared for in the challenge, as best as we can do for each other.

I set a two month start date so we all have time to listen to the audiobook or read the book before it commences - just so people have an idea how it works. At the end of the audiobook there are tracks to listen to for the body scan right up to the breathing space. Once you have a listen of those tell us what you think.

Cheers,
ms spock
 
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