Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety

> Ask them difficult questions.

How is a beginner qualified to ask difficult questions, or to assess the answers?

Meditation and other religious practices are always means to an end. Even if the end is actually unknown or shrouded in religious mystery. Thus, it is very important to be clear on what one actually wants to achieve with a particular practice. If you want to achieve something, but use the wrong means, at some point you'll realize that you're wasting time and effort. But if you don't know what you're after, you just walk farther and farther into the woods.

Meditation is ridiculously oversold as a magical solution to all of life's problems. The whole question of the relationship between meditation and the ego just strikes me as irrelevant if not made up entirely in the way that religions make up stories about the spiritual benefits that their practitioners can enjoy.

The most use I've gotten out of meditation is as a simple cure for habitual thoughts and behaviors. And I think the logic is incredibly straight forward: if you find yourself suspecting that what you're doing is not helpful and/or not deliberate, what better thing to do than to sit down and take an honest look at your thoughts and impulses? It's not rocket science and I don't think it's fundamentally a religious practice either (as some here have suggested).

Coming to the practice with an overinflated sense of what's possible will certainly lead to disappointment and maybe even depression.

I started meditating weekly with a Zen Buddhist group about 4 months before I started taking medication for depression a couple years ago.

Mindfulness is emphasized in CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy). The idea behind this is that depression manifests as distorted thoughts (e.g. "Everyone hates me, I should die."), and the goal is to notice these thoughts and learn to substitute them (eventually automatically) with thoughts that are more productive/positive.

From what I've seen, most meditation practices are very helpful for the "notice the thoughts" part, but, especially in non-religious settings, tend to neglect the "substitute the thoughts" part. Usually what I hear is something like "notice the thought and let it go."

So if the thought "Everyone hates me, I should die" comes up during meditation, you just notice it and let it go. That often provides some relief in the short term (you're no longer actively thinking about dying), but you've done nothing to prevent it from arising again later, and you haven't learned any coping techniques for when similar thoughts won't go away (which can be a symptom during severe episodes). If you have depression or anxiety and want to get into meditation, I would strongly suggest at the very very least researching the principals of CBT in case you find yourself in this situation. I would recommend an app called Woebot. Even better would be to try some actual CBT if you are able.

All that said, I think that for me joining a meditation group was beneficial for me because of the social aspect more so than the actual meditation. This group emphasizes community (sangha) and service pretty heavily. A lot of people get social benefits from other religious communities, but as someone who didn't grow up in a religious household, I find Buddhists super easy to get along with. They tend to be very accepting, especially to newcomers, since they are taught not to make judgements of others. It's comforting to know if I'm going through a rough patch that at least I don't have to worry about people judging me for missing meditation that week.

Mindfulness is not quite Meditation towards enlightenment.

The idea is simple, and that is to remove one from the chaos of the world, to not be defined by it, and especially to 'be in the moment'.

'Quieting the mind and being present' in a tiny aspect of the more religious aspects.

The 'big problem' is possibly that they are 'doing it wrong'.

If you want to 'get people in the moment'?

Play sports.

Meditation is supposed to be about 'less thoughts' but usually it leads to more and more self contemplation - which is the opposite of what we want.

Want to 'shut off' the contemplative mind -> Use another part of the brain!

Does anyone know people who 'like sports' that generally get depressed? No, I would say the opposite: generally more gregarious, positive, and care free.

You don't have 'thoughts' while you are chasing a ball, or managing around that rock you're about to hit.

And we all need more exercise.

I find running more meditative than any kind of meditation.