When people are in down mood and lying in bed, although practicing it in different ways, one of the really hard things to do is that you can be just bombarded with negative thoughts. It makes you feel worse and worse, and get yourself into a terrible, bad, miserable pit of despair. One possible strategy to deal with it is mindful meditation, or some form of meditation relaxation. Whenever you have bad emotions, you can take this coming week as an experiment and just see how it works for you. It may be useful for you.

Assuming you’re staying in bed in a quiet place and feeling comfortable, meditating with  a lower aggressive attitude (here we call it passive attitude). There are different ways to do this. Some will use a mantra, a word that they will repeat over and over again, sometimes along with their breath. Some even just use the number one. In a word， take a breath, say the mantra.

If you like counting, you can count. But the problem is  people can’t even get to 10 in most cases because you get distracted（that’s where the passive attitude comes in）.Even  you just count number one, you’ll still find your mind wander. Just like people will count sheep to deal with insomnia, usually it doesn’t work because your brain is still working when you are counting.It’s usually about “what’s wrong with me?” “I’m abnormal. I should be normal.” “I can’t even imagine getting a normal life back.” Then you start to go down that road.

Passive attitude means that you know what’s going to happen, and you sort of see it happening and notice it. Then you just bring yourself back to the number one. Or if you’re counting, you can count one with a breath and two with another breath，just like you restart with new breath. Passive attitude means that it’s okay to get distracted. There’s no reason to say, “what’s wrong with me? I can’t even count to five without getting distracted.” You can just say, “ah, I’ve noticed myself being distracted and coming back to the number one.” And then you may decide just to say the number one, and just to breathe for as long as you can. But you’ll get distracted again and you can come back to it. The point is just to let yourself come back to a neutral word in your mind that you use.

If you just lay there，thinking the number over and over , you can use other mental devices too. You can use an image of someone you care or love, and put it in your mind. ,Then think of her/his image along with each breath. You can also pick someone who is spiritual or kind-hearted, such as a prayer who can say that over and over again. Of course, the mind will still wander, and that’s what mind does. Just bring it back to the image of someone gently, or to the number one or counting as soon as you notice it wandering。

Another thing I want you to try is to write down your mood on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 means you feel most upset, 10 means you feel very good and you are in the excellent mood) along with what you’re thinking about on your notebook,, whether you’re thinking about yourself or something else. It’ll just be a mood rating plus what you are thinking about at the moment that may be related to the rate.

Last but not least, keep practicing meditation and check on your scale. Keep your expectations low, because you’ve been feeling down for a while. We won’t be able to snap our fingers and make it go away immediately. But if we work on these things, we may see and learn something over the following days.

简易冥想：一种抚慰不良情绪的方法

当人们感到情绪低落、躺在床上时，尽管也会尝试很多种方法来缓解，但很难不被消极想法占据头脑。结果就是感觉越来越糟，并且让自己陷入到可怕、糟糕、悲惨的绝望深渊。要应对这种情况，一个可能的应对策略是进行冥想，或者进行某种形式的冥想放松练习。无论何时，当你有不良情绪时，你都可以利用接下来的一周做个试验，看看它能起到什么效果。这可能会帮到你。

假设你身处一个安静的环境，舒适地躺在床上，进行着带有低攻击性态度（我们在此称之为被动态度）的冥想。进行冥想的方式有很多，有的人会念诵咒文，一遍又一遍地重复，有时会伴随着呼吸调整。有人甚至只念数字1。简而言之就是深呼吸，念“咒文”。

如果你喜欢计数那可以数数，但问题是，很多时候人们甚至无法数到10，因为你会走神（这时就需要有被动态度了）。即使你只是数1，你也会发现自己会走神。就像有人失眠的时候会数羊一样，结果发现并不是解决失眠的有效方法，因为当你计数时，你的大脑还在保持运作。走神时通常会想：“我怎么了？”“我不正常，我应该是正常的。”“我甚至无法想象自己能回到正常的生活。”然后你就开始沿着这条路越想越远。

被动态度意味着你知道它会发生，你看到它发生了，并且留意到它了，然后再把自己带回到数字1就好了。或者当你计数时，你可以每呼吸一次就计数一次，就好像每次呼吸都是一个新的开始。被动态度意味着走神是没关系的，没必要谴责自己“我怎么了？我甚至无法全神贯注地数到5。”你可以对自己说：“啊，我注意到自己走神了，那我再数回到1。”你也可以决定只数1，尽可能长时间地深呼吸。但你可能会再次走神，那就再把自己带回来。重点是让自己回到你脑海中的那个中性词。

如果你只是躺在那里一遍又一遍地想着那个数字，你也可以尝试其他的方式。你可以想象一个你关心之人或者所爱之人的形象，并把它放在脑海里，每一次呼吸都伴随着她/他的形象。你也可以想象一个有灵性之人或善良之人，比如一遍又一遍念诵的祈祷者。当然，你的思绪会游移，这很正常，一旦你注意到它飘走了，就轻轻把它带回到所思之人的形象、数字1或者计数上。

我还想让你尝试的一件事是拿一个小本子，给你的情绪从0到10打分（0代表最难过，10代表感觉非常好），并写下此刻的所思所想，不论你是在思考自己或者其他事情。这只是一个情绪评分，以及此刻跟情绪相关的想法的记录，仅此而已。

最后，重要的是，持续坚持练习冥想并对情绪进行记录。无须对自己要求太高，因为你已经持续低落一段时间了。我们做不到立刻让情绪好转，但如果我们持之以恒，在接下来的日子里我们会逐渐看到并学习到一些东西。