| [Tags**|life, mindfulness, weight loss] [Current Mood** |
a tentative sense of hope]Hello. Been a while.I survived my bout of winter depression and we're now past the equinox, so I've put away my light-box and trying to face the year. But I'm baffled and confused. Especially confused; lost in a hamster-wheel of my own ineffectual thoughts, going on and on and on, each thought distracted and diffused by the next. Everything is unreal, everything is vague compared to this whirl of splintering inward-spiralling distraction.Even Mischa doesn't seem very real to me at the moment.Into this confusion, step Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World. It might just be what I'm looking for. I've tried meditation, but I got annoyed with myself when my mind wasn't instantly clear, and that's not how to do meditation. I've tried looking for authorities on meditation, but I found the Buddhism hopelessly distracting (I think you're absolutely wonderful, oh Dalai Lama, but I can't swallow your metaphysics). But Mindfulness absolutely ticks the boxes for me: written by Western physicians, founded on evidence-based medicine (I like it!), and congruent with what little I already know of psychology, neuropsychology and endocrine physiology.The book states that mindfulness-based therapy is as effective as antidepressants for major depression. I'm willing to believe it. And antidepressants saved my bacon; so I'm ready to give this a real, solid try. jakebe, if you read this? So many hugs. And thanks to  kaberett for bringing the book to my attention. I will tell you how it goes.Meanwhile, **( overweight and weight loss, with a graph an' all, but also a bit graphic. Liable to piss off people who're annoyed with being fat themselves.Collapse )**I tried losing weight before, but it didn't stick. That's partly because I was motivated by vanity, which is not a positive motivation, and partly because nothing sticks when you're lost in a hamster-wheel of your own ineffectual thoughts. But maybe I now have what I need to stop the hamster-wheel, and find myself with the space and time for the things that actually matter.Health and peace. For the first time in a long time, I feel that I have not only hope, but well-founded and imminent hope, of a qualitative improvement in my life.—¹ Yes, the BMI is not a good yardstick for individuals. But it's good enough for this. |