Healing Depression: Exercise, Medication and Meditation

Depression has many potential symptoms and causes. From grief to life changes to "good stress" depression can appear at any point in a person's life. In order to heal depression, a multi pronged approach is often needed. Such options as exercising more, medication, more socializing, and meditation are all good ways to work toward healing your depression, in addition to or in lieu of psychotherapy.

Exercise, such as yoga, tai chi, and swimming is a great option for healing depression. Exercise releases endorphins in your body, which are the "feel good" chemicals. Also more exercise will help work off stress, leading to a happier, more balanced life style. Yoga has a history of being used as a relaxation technique, as has tai chi for a lower impact work out. Swimming can be great for those of us that dislike other forms of exercise because of having to get sweaty and hot.

Medication is another option to explore if psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is not having the full desired effect. There are two main classifications of anti-depressants currently: SSRIs and SNRIs. A SSRI is an older type of med, defined as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. This type of medication only has effect on the serotonin in your brain. Newer SNRIs, or Selective Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor work in a similar way, but also affect Norepinephrine in your brain, which is another type of neurotransmitter. Medication often offers a quick route to stabilization of depression, however the anger underlying the depression must be dealt with in therapy in order to prevent the depression from recurring.

Finally, meditation is a route toward healing depression. Meditation has been used for centuries to calm the mind and soothe the spirit, which naturally leads to a happier state of being. In order to meditate, sit in a comfortable position on the floor or in a chair, and loosen any tight clothing. Soft music or silence is recommended to allow the soothing characteristics of meditation to fully work. The main technique for meditation is to breathe deeply and slowly while forcing thoughts out of your brain. If a thought comes across while you are meditating, just let it go. It may help to concentrate on speaking a mantra, such as the Om, to help clear your mind. Practice for short periods of time, such as five minutes, and build up to thirty minutes or longer per session.

If depression comes over you, try many different approaches simultaneously for the fastest healing. Exercise, medication and meditation are three very important paths toward healing depression, if they are used in addition to psychotherapy.