On reality versus reaction

[M]ost often our minds do not consider a range of options; our first impressions, reactive as they are, are usually taken as an accurate readout on reality — the way it really is.

From page 163 of The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness.

Depression skews your perspective so that everything seems hopeless and doomed to be that way forever. It is hard to reframe these thoughts in your head as a symptom of the disease. That is particularly true if you don’t know that it is indeed a symptom.

Mindfulness both as a Buddhist and a non-Buddhist practice can help break that reaction pattern — but breaking the pattern shouldn’t become a goal. Once it does, you set yourself up for dissatisfaction when there is distance between what you want (for example, to feel happier) and what is.