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

it tends automatically to ruminate about the past (guilt content) or
future (worrying content) – which is vulnerable to depression
relapse. Strategies to cultivate here-and-now awareness include:
a) Labeling – mentally naming and giving full attention to our
activities, e.g. ‘typing,’ ‘eating,’ ‘walking,’ ‘thinking,’ ‘talking,’
‘sweeping,’ ‘checking e-mails.’
b) Sensing – giving full attention to our sensory experience, e.g.
seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching.
c) Beginner’s mind – experiencing life with an attitude of a beginner,
as if seeing things through fresh lenses and thinking of it as once-ina-lifetime
experience, e.g. eating chocolate slowly, with full
attention and as though tasting it for the first time.
2. Mindful walking: It involves paying full attention to the process
of walking: 1. Labeling the movements of the legs,
“Left…right…left…right,’ and 2. Noting the sensations around the
feet and other parts of the body (e.g. wind brushing against the
skin). Besides benefiting physical fitness, this is very helpful for
overcoming bodily restlessness and to slowly calm the mind.
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