It's been exactly 10 years since I meditated. Today, I would like to post about whether meditation can improve depression. There are quite a few people around me who took their own lives struggling with depression. From close family to friends and ex-workers. There is something I always thought of when I saw people like that.

'Better a Live Coward Than a Dead Hero, why did they make that choice?'

In the meantime, depression came to me about 10 years ago.

In a thesis titled <A Meditation Therapeutic Approach to Depression> by Professor Cho Jung-ho of Korea National Sport University, he defined depression as a 'cold of the mind' that anyone can get at least once in their lifetime. Just as you catch a cold easily when your body function is weakened, it is said that depression can come when stressful situations in life become more severe.

When depressive symptoms get worse, appetite and motivation decrease, wanting to lie down or restless mind reduces thinking ability, suffering from a sense of worthlessness or guilt that one is useless, impulsively commits suicide or harms others.

This condition also happened to me. I also experienced 'insomnia' for the first time in my life. Looking at the contents of the thesis discussed above, the higher the degree of appeal to depression, the lower the 'sleep efficiency' and the higher the 'arousal during sleep'. Depression is the cause of lowering the quality of sleep. Fortunately, the time when I was depressed was the time when I was working hard on Facebook. Many people who read the 'depressed feelings' buried in my writing helped me get out of depression.

According to the results of biopsychiatric research, the cause of depression is related to the frontal lobe, the frontal part next to the frontal part of the human brain. The frontal lobe suppresses or regulates the activity of the limbic system (located inside the temporal lobe), which generates aggressive emotions and behaviors in the brain. If the function of this prefrontal cortex does not work properly, the calm state of mind is destroyed, and in severe cases, even human characteristics are lost.

Come to think of it, when I was depressed, I couldn't control my emotions well. In particular, I think I was very annoyed with my mother, the person I was most comfortable with. Both my mom and I were under a lot of stress, and we were having a bad influence on each other to increase our stress. The feeling of helplessness and the thought that I am the most useless being in the world did not leave my head every day.

And in the end, I came to the thought, 'Wouldn't it be better to die?' I was really fortunate to receive help from people around me when I was still alive with the desire to live and escape from depression before this thought deepened. I hope that the 3 tips I received will be of help to those of you reading this who are trying to get out of depression.

The first way is to look at me objectively. I was able to see myself objectively through a technique called 'Avatar' and found the deep root of the emotion of depression. The thesis titled <Meditative Therapy Approach to Depression> by Professor Cho Jung-ho of Korea National Sport University also mentions that 'making an effort to get out of depression' is a prerequisite for getting better from depression. In order to create the will to escape from depression, it is said that it is necessary to objectively recognize one's current state and develop a mindset that values ​​one's self.

However, this part can be very difficult to do on your own. Especially if you already have severe depression. Seeking professional help, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist, may be helpful.

The second was to go outside. My teacher, change management thinker Bonhyeong Koo, gave me homework before I fell deeply into depression. He said, 'Call me every day'. When I called, the teacher always asked, 'What did you do today or yesterday?' Every day I went out of the house to tell my teacher what I had been doing. And I tried to do anything.

One of my favorite Instagram influencers, 'Kickney', also appeared on a famous Korean TV show and talked about the time he suffered from depression. It is said that when he was depressed, he asked his friends to take a walk with him every day. And my friends said they were willing to walk with me. There were many times when he walked for an hour without saying anything, but he said that walking like that gave him strength.

The more depressed you are, the more likely you are to avoid meeting people and want to stay at home. The more you do, the more you recommend going outside for a walk and moving your body while doing chores at home.

The third method was meditation. I met my current partner and started meditating in earnest. After 10 years of meditation, my emotional ups and downs are almost gone. In other words, if I was stressed by a factor of 10 in a certain situation in the past, now, even though it is the same situation, the effect of stress on me has become very small, such as 1 or 0.

I mentioned earlier that the cause of depression is related to brain function. We are talking about changes in brain waves as to why meditation helps with depression. Compared to normal people, in which the left frontal lobe becomes overactive in the right frontal lobe, it is said that people with depression have relatively underactive left frontal lobe and relatively overactive right frontal lobe. It is said that the group with the activation of the left frontal lobe showed greater happiness, hopeful positive emotions and self-resilience than the group with the activation of the right.

If you connect this with brain waves, there are five brain waves (delta waves, theta waves, alpha waves, beta waves, and gamma waves), so beta waves are generated when you are depressed or anxious. It raises cognitive function and helps the physical ability to perform well. In particular, mindfulness meditation significantly improves the quality of sleep, and meditation accompanied by yoga has the greatest effect compared to other meditation programs in reducing depression, interpersonal relationships, reducing attention span, and increasing self-happiness.

In fact, I am doing meditation yoga. My mother, who was under a lot of stress similar to me, is also doing meditation yoga. I feel that I am finding a lot of psychological stability through meditation yoga.

If you have been looking for an eagle to get out of depression, please try at least one of three things: looking at yourself objectively with help from an expert, moving your body a lot, and meditating or meditation yoga.