I have spoken openly about the depression and anxiety that I have experienced on and off throughout my adult life.
There is no single thing that has helped me but I have found that
practising mindfulness meditation regularly has helped me regulate my emotions much better.
The simple act of
paying attention to my breath,
listening to sounds around me or
feeling my feet on the floor helps to ground me in the present moment.
I think, also, that it has allowed me to be a
better listener to patients, students, friends and family, as I have learned to be more
present and attentive to the people I am with.
Mindfulness meditation is not for everyone and is not a panacea, but if you have not had a go, I would encourage you to try.
Meditation is like working out physically. You need to
start with not too much (5 or 10 minutes a day perhaps) and work your way up to longer stretches.
It also
needs practice and a willingness
not to judge yourself harshly when you don't seem to be "doing it right".
When I started learning about mindfulness meditation, I used to listen to the back catalogue of podcasts from the
UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Centre.
I now regularly listen in on
Thursday evenings at 8:30-9:00 pm to the
live meditations.
You can find the back catalogue and other resources from UCLA MARC here:
https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/default.cfm?id=1
Oxford University's Mindfulness Centre (OMC) has also started running drop-in sessions online on
Wednesday evenings from 7:00-7:30 aimed at newbies and experienced meditators.
https://www.oxfordmindfulness.org/news/weekdaypractice-session/
