Mind Matters: Happiness can be as simple as tapping inner fountain of joy

Homeopathy, acupuncture and a myriad of other "New Age" cures are resurfacing.

They are gaining credibility and followers.

Many people obtain relief from these old, new treatments.

I believe that people now want to feel more like partners in their health care and have greater awareness of options.

People are more educated and realize they need to actively participate in medical treatment.

Along these lines I would like to share a new way that individuals can find relief from depression.

Three years ago a Wisconsin neuroscientist, using people trained in meditation, studied the effects of meditation on the brain and, subsequently, on one's mood. He found that specific parts of the brain changed in activity depending on the meditator's focus.

When the meditator focused on compassion, brain changes led to a happier mood. Other studies have demonstrated that simply having positive thoughts improves mood. The implications of this research are many.

In the field of mental health, we tend to forget about joy. We see clients in pain and anguish, suffering the effects of past trauma and abusive childhoods.

We commiserate, console, try to heal.

We are caught up in sympathy and trying to understand and help. Too often our efforts are met with resistance, hopelessness or anger. We send our clients to someone who can prescribe a pill for happiness.

I do not wish to give the message that pills are bad. In many situations they are necessary, at least for a time. Anyone with major mental illness may face a lifetime of medication. However, it also may be appropriate to help people rediscover the natural joy that resides within all of us.

In offering only empathy, we possibly miss the point. Perhaps helping is more a matter of emphasizing the positive rather than sympathizing with negativity.

I once had a client who seemed to sense this. She cured her own depression, which was quite severe and the reason she came to see me. She refused medications, determined to find her own path to emotional well- being. She noted on a piece of paper each time she recognized something to be thankful for. At the end of a week she had filled a bowl on her dining room table with these notes. She read them one by one, and it dawned on her that she had no reason to be depressed. This woman immediately felt better and came to tell me of her method. I never saw her again.

In retrospect I see that she was able to increase the activity in certain parts of her brain. Although she did not use formal meditation, the power of gratitude, through activating sluggish brain cells, resolved the depression.

Within each and every one of us resides a fountain of joy awaiting recognition. Some seem to be born with a wonderful awareness of this natural source of happiness, but most of us must work at it.

Daily meditation offers a powerful means of accessing this inner happiness. It also produces calm, peacefulness and insight. If we all have a built-in antidepressant, shouldn't we try to develop it? You decide.

Elinor Stanton is a psychiatric nurse practitioner on Marco Island. She has 24 years of experience as a therapist in private practice and with a large health maintenance organization in Boston. She is certified as a clinical specialist by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. She also is trained in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and is certified as an imago relationship therapist. Send comments and questions to etseven@aol.com or call 394-2861. Visit Stanton's Web site at etseven.net.