I'm Still Human: Understanding Depression With Kindness (Expanded Edition - 2021)

When depression is recurrent –
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy
Depression can be recurrent (happening repeatedly). Each
episode of depression increases a person’s chances of another
episode by about 15%. Therefore, the more episodes of depression
you have, the more likely you’ll get another relapse. Mental health
professionals are working hard to find
ways
to deal with recurrent depression.
One of the promising ways is through Mindfulness-based Cognitive
Therapy (MBCT), which was developed by Professor Dr. Mark
Williams and his team at the Oxford University. MBCT is based on
ancient wisdom of mindfulness (originated from contemplative
traditions especially Buddhism) and state-of-the-art research in
cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). MBCT has been shown to reduce
the risk of relapse by half in those who have had 3 or more episodes
of depression. This is an outline of some principles and exercises
used in MBCT.
1. Paying attention to the here-and-now: It means trying to give
full attention to whatever that we are doing. This is important as
when the mind is not anchored in the present-moment experience,
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