Depression As Part of Growth and Healing
By accepting where we are, we honor ourselves, and in honoring ourselves we heal and grow.
Healing wounds and changing beliefs that don't work for us is what we're all doing here.
A good lot of us are Alchemists. We're taking a whole lot of fear based beliefs and thinking and ways of being in the world and transforming them into something better.
This is bound to be a painful process.
For the first time in a long time, we have the space and the safety to do so. We're fed and nourished and housed, and we thus have enough energy to look around and say, hey, this isn't working. I'm feeling something in myself that isn't working.
This is called Discover. And in Discover stage, you can go alllllll the way down to the bottom of the emotional scale into depression. All that exists is suffering. You forget all else but suffering. And honestly...... you want to die. Gasp! I know. It's terrifying to read and look at. But it's true. And I'm proposing that it's part of a process.
But when we go all the way in to our depression, friends, we come to a place where there's only one other way to go, and that's up. Up the emotional scale from here we'll come to anger, which if you'll recall is extremely refreshing and feels so good from where you were. Up from there we have crying. Ah! Release! Now you're just about home free!
Soon you're taking all this energy that was bound up, and now you're using it. Ah yes, that dream that I had, that goal that I've had. I want it. I'm going for it. I'm making changes in my life. This is the time that is accepted. In our culture, this is what you "should" always be doing. Always producing, always working, always moving forward. But life isn't like that, folks. Not if you're honoring yourself. And if you're not honoring yourself, and you're doing what's expected of you and you're constantly producing, you'll get sick. And then you'll have no choice but to do the above process.
After this comes a time of integration. Ah. We've brought all that new energy into our lives, and now it's time to rest. To integrate it. Are you guilting yourself for your netflix binges? Don't. Friend, you're a human being. Allow space to be. You don't always have to produce and prove your value to the other humans. Caring for yourself and honoring your cycles and phases is where it's at. This is growth. This is healing. I propose that in this time we live in, the two go hand in hand.
The bottom of the emotional scale: depression, when energy is not moving, is a very touchy place to be. When it's time to come out of it we are extremely fragile. We have to oh so carefully move ourselves upward, and we must watch every single thought and action with tenderness. We very slowly inch upward.
Coming out of depression is getting energy moving and changing our relationship with energy.
Here are a couple of Kundalini yoga exercises to help you:
Frogs get your energy moving.
Sat Kriya moves it and changes your relationship with it.
Growth can mean suffering, but don't stay there. Rest when it's time to rest. Heal when it's time to heal. Cry when it's time to cry. Keep it moving. And when it's time to integrate, integrate. When depression is there and it's not moving, learn from it. Heal it. Use it.
Deck. You can come here every day for guidance and inspiration about your life.
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Thank you for this wonderful post. I love how you write about the emotional scale, which is something I'm always trying to help people make peace with too.
This is my favorite line: "We're taking a whole lot of fear based beliefs and thinking and ways of being in the world and transforming them into something better."
Yes! That's the work.
Beautifully explained. Thank you.
Recently experienced very tense one, but at the end it was such a relief, full of joy. Every cycle of these experiences are like a powerful shake in my whole system, refreshing my being and growing me into better.
I can really, really relate to that. I get into more detail of moving up the emotional scale / healing in this piece. I think you'll enjoy it.
We are bound to move up and down the emotional scale all day long , the problem starts when we get stuck in the lows without even understanding what is happening.
A great practice I learned is to travel up and down the emotional scale intentionally as an exercise. It taught me how to notice I'm spiraling down , to soak there for a couple of minutes and then move up.
Thank you for sharing this important message.
It's been an intention to delve into more of his work, but his books have never come to me. :)
This is what's doing it for me in the letting go department now: No Boundary by Ken Wilber
Thank you , i was just looking for something new to read
@eugenekul could you please explain more on intentional traveling up and down the emotional scale? How exactly you do it? Would like to learn more about it.
Thank you.
Every emotion we experience has a certian trigger and a physical state - the first stage in moving intentionally on the emotional scale requires understanding what is the emotion you are currently experiencing.
You do that by using a little visualization.
For example - if you want to experience depression , you close your eyes and try to recall a situation where you were depressed.
When you get such a moment you, notice all the feeling and sensations you are experiencing, how does the image you brought up looks sounds and feels like.
Once you get a clear understandig you write down everything you experienced and mark as depression.
You continue doing the same visualization to all the emotions.
And the you just practice changing the different qualities of the image.
The most important emotion to understand is love, and then when you are down you visualize the image you have for love and poof, the bad feeling is gone. When you practice it often the movements get easier every time. I hope this was helpful , good luck
It was very helpful. Thanks.
So the main point is to be aware of these emotions and use this awareness to anchor specific ones. No need to practice them in any specific order up and down the scale?
At first it is better to practice them up and down the scale - because it is quite challenging to move from bottom to top at first
That's a great idea. I'm going to try that. Thanks for sharing the suggestion.
There is alot of wisdom in your words.
Depression whilst wretched can be viewed as a blessing ~ my wise Doctor once told me that it flagged dysfunction and was often an indicator that change, physical/emotional, was necessary.
In my case he was right ~ I got divorced and felt a whole lot better!
:)
xox
Yes!
Thanks! 😘