# A Mind For Life: From Depression to Living Well



## David Baxter PhD (Feb 26, 2013)

_A Mind for Life_ eBook Is Now Available
by John Folk-Williams
February 2013



 I?m happy to announce that _A Mind for Life_,  my ebook on recovery from depression, is now available. Unlike many  recent books about how to deal with the illness, this one focuses on the  inner work of change rather than medical treatments and experience with  antidepressants. It may not be for everyone, but it captures the  struggle I?ve had to face in overcoming internal resistance to change  and in mastering the skills of mind and living that have helped me get  my life back from depression.

 Writing this ebook became a major challenge for me because I kept  having to test the truth of all my ideas and beliefs about my own  recovery. Every day when I felt down made me ask myself if I really had  learned to live well again. There were lots of long pauses in the  writing as I kept checking to see if the approach I described was still  working. Some of this was a shadow of old shame or one of the other  depressive tendencies that used to consume me. But a lot of the  difficulty is inherent in the whole subject of a pervasive condition  like depression and the effort to get back to the basics of who you are  as a person.

 There is no finishing this project, no one moment of recognition, no  coming to a conclusion. The story is ongoing, and I hope I have captured  a sense of the many riches you can find along the way.

 Here is an excerpt from the introduction with an overview of the major sections of the book.


 *The Mindset for Recovery.* Change can only begin when  you recognize that you have an illness called depression. Even after  the initial breakthrough of recognizing the problem, there are many  inner obstacles to overcome before you can get into the work of  recovery. This section explores the inner barriers that gave me the most  trouble and the kind of mindset or basic attitude toward getting well  that helped sustain me through a difficult process. 
 *Mapping Your Depression.* It?s one thing to get the  idea that you have an illness called depression but another to become  intimately familiar with the specific ways it is changing your life.  Tracking its widespread influences in how you think, handle emotions,  respond to people, and carry on the basic functions of living is a good  way to go beyond what the doctors and books tell you about symptoms and  understand in depth how depression is taking away the things you most  value. 
 *Self-Help for the Healing Mind.* Depending on how  depression affects you, there are many skills you need to learn to help  you respond. In this section, I discuss five forms of self-work that  made a big difference in my ability to manage the illness: changing  habits of negative thinking; opening up to others through writing;  informal meditation; the cultivation of mindfulness; and developing a  felt sense of bodily awareness through the method of focusing. 
 *The Guidance of Psychotherapy.* The guided experience  of psychotherapy has been part of my response to depression for  decades, but it?s only in recent years that I have been able to  integrate its value into healing in a sustaining way. That?s because I  learned more clearly how and why it can work effectively and why it  often doesn?t. In this part I discuss the lessons that have helped me  the most. 
 *Finding your Life Again.* After years of responding  to depression as a set of symptoms characterizing an illness, I turned  my attention to the positive side of living. What did it mean to be  really well, and what kind of life could I build after losing so much to  depression? I needed to apply all that I had learned through therapy,  writing and mindfulness to living the life I really wanted. 
 *A Step Beyond Recovery.* In this section, I explore  ways in which it?s possible to experience even a relapse into depression  while staying in touch with the core of vitality. 
 *Learning More.* Continual learning about depression  and well-being is another important tool I use, and in this section I  pull together some of the best resources I know for further exploration. 

 I?ve set the price for _A Mind for Life_ at $2.99 USD through the end of March. After that, the regular price will be $4.99 USD.


*A Mind for Life: From Depression to Living Well*



*You Can Take Your Life Back from Depression*
 I lived with depression for many years and felt it gradually drain  away much of my life. Although it is an illness, I came to think of it  as a way of living in the world because its effects reached into every  part of my being. This book is the story of how I reconnected with who I  was in the midst of depression. It?s not a road map taking you from one  step to another in a well-defined process but rather a set of ideas and  methods for clearing a path of your own.

Buy Now

Introductory price: $2.99 USD ? through March 31st ($4.99 USD thereafter)


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## battleworn (Feb 27, 2013)

is this only available as an e-book?


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## David Baxter PhD (Feb 27, 2013)

battleworn said:


> is this only available as an e-book?



Yes, I believe so.


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