Obviously, one of the issues to consider about depression is difficult emotions. Feeling unpleasant about oneself. And when you do consider it, you can see that we all operate from a box or paradigm about our own emotions. A very simple box or paradigm.
We all have emotions that we enjoy having or feeling. A normal list includes Love
pleasure
contentment
Enthusiasm
Excitement
hope
cheerfulness
These feelings we all call "good emotions." We like feeling them and want to do so all the time. However, what are some feelings we don't want to feel? Consider if a lot of these emotions fit in that category for you;
Sadness
Sadness
Fear
hate
Hate
Anxiety
Emptiness
Emptiness
These we call "bad emotions" and we do all that we can not to feel them. If we must feel them, we try to get rid of them as fast as we can.
So what is this simple box we operate from around emotions? The box is that there are good emotions and bad emotions. Pretty obvious, right? We all seem to just know that when it comes to emotions there are good ones and bad ones, and the game in life is to feel good and not feel bad. This is so obvious that it goes unexamined. Of course this is the way you deal with emotions!
Therefore, all the feelings that go with the condition of depression we classify as "bad" emotions, to be gotten rid of as quickly as we possibly can. Thus the box we're stuck in around depression is that depression is "bad." And we believe we should avoid or resist all the emotions that go with depression.
But there is an underlying problem to this approach of trying to avoid or get rid of all the feelings that go with depression. It is founded in an "emotional mistake" we make every day. This mistake is about not trying to feel bad emotions.
So try on the concept that you have an emotional "body," and that it has a job to do. The job of your emotional body is to feel all feelings. Good ones like inspiration and enthusiasm, and bad ones like sadness and anxiety. It's job is to feel ALL feelings, whether you like some or not. You can't stop your emotional body from feeling your feelings, that's what it does.
Notice that your emotional body is a lot like the organ of your skin. You can't stop your skin from feeling soft or rough sensations, cool or warm. Our skin feels whatever it comes in contact with. In exactly that way our emotional body feels all emotions. You can't just feel only the good feelings. When you try to suppress bad ones, you only cause your feelings to get stuck. Then these bad feelings tend to stick around much longer, because they are "stuck." So trying not to feel the difficult emotions that go with depression is actually a way to keep the depression around, keep it from passing through!
So for help with depression, you need to get outside the box of resisting and avoiding all difficult emotions. One approach to doing this is to learn some basic emotional intelligence so that you can process difficult feelings more efficiently and quickly so that they don't get "stuck." No room here for all the details, but just 5 minutes a day of exploring a difficult emotion rather than resisting it can provide surprising depression help. - 16004
We all have emotions that we enjoy having or feeling. A normal list includes Love
pleasure
contentment
Enthusiasm
Excitement
hope
cheerfulness
These feelings we all call "good emotions." We like feeling them and want to do so all the time. However, what are some feelings we don't want to feel? Consider if a lot of these emotions fit in that category for you;
Sadness
Sadness
Fear
hate
Hate
Anxiety
Emptiness
Emptiness
These we call "bad emotions" and we do all that we can not to feel them. If we must feel them, we try to get rid of them as fast as we can.
So what is this simple box we operate from around emotions? The box is that there are good emotions and bad emotions. Pretty obvious, right? We all seem to just know that when it comes to emotions there are good ones and bad ones, and the game in life is to feel good and not feel bad. This is so obvious that it goes unexamined. Of course this is the way you deal with emotions!
Therefore, all the feelings that go with the condition of depression we classify as "bad" emotions, to be gotten rid of as quickly as we possibly can. Thus the box we're stuck in around depression is that depression is "bad." And we believe we should avoid or resist all the emotions that go with depression.
But there is an underlying problem to this approach of trying to avoid or get rid of all the feelings that go with depression. It is founded in an "emotional mistake" we make every day. This mistake is about not trying to feel bad emotions.
So try on the concept that you have an emotional "body," and that it has a job to do. The job of your emotional body is to feel all feelings. Good ones like inspiration and enthusiasm, and bad ones like sadness and anxiety. It's job is to feel ALL feelings, whether you like some or not. You can't stop your emotional body from feeling your feelings, that's what it does.
Notice that your emotional body is a lot like the organ of your skin. You can't stop your skin from feeling soft or rough sensations, cool or warm. Our skin feels whatever it comes in contact with. In exactly that way our emotional body feels all emotions. You can't just feel only the good feelings. When you try to suppress bad ones, you only cause your feelings to get stuck. Then these bad feelings tend to stick around much longer, because they are "stuck." So trying not to feel the difficult emotions that go with depression is actually a way to keep the depression around, keep it from passing through!
So for help with depression, you need to get outside the box of resisting and avoiding all difficult emotions. One approach to doing this is to learn some basic emotional intelligence so that you can process difficult feelings more efficiently and quickly so that they don't get "stuck." No room here for all the details, but just 5 minutes a day of exploring a difficult emotion rather than resisting it can provide surprising depression help. - 16004
About the Author:
For more emotional intelligence to help with depression, you can get a book about Dealing With Depression here. John Stephan Laney teaches courses on emotional and relationship intelligence and you can learn more about Depression Treatment here. Many forms of depression can be remedied without drugs or psychoanalysis.
