School didn't teach us how to work with our feelings. We didn't get any classes on working through feelings of lack, emptiness, worthlessness and sadness. We weren't instructed about how to let our emotions thrive. And because we weren't taught any of these things, many of us suffer from forms of depression that can weigh us down for weeks and months.
If you notice depression symptoms, you will naturally react by trying to get rid of or avoid them. We don't want to feel bad about ourselves, or empty, or heavy and meaninglessness. So we do what comes naturally, we try to suppress and resist these types of feelings.
For the reason that we have never developed and learned basic emotional intelligence, the manner in which we try to avoid or resist negative feelings does not work. There are really only three basic means we all use to try to resist our bad feelings:
Anesthetize - alcohol, drugs, overeating Project/Act Out - kick the dog, be irritable with others, demean, attack Change the Channel " hike, garden, clean the house, watch tv
If you are feeling bad about yourself and you eat enough donuts and cake, you go into a sugar coma where you basically dont feel anything. Anesthetizing works, but only for a short time and it obviously can damage our health.
Acting Out or Projecting does not work for long, either. Kicking the dog or screaming at the people around us may make us feel better for a moment, sure. But it doesn't actually do anything about the motivating bad emotion. And it can cause harm to our relationships and the people around us.
Changing the Channel on our difficult feelings is a fairly healthy way to deal with them. We all have to discover how to manage our moods. If we don't, we can end up seriously stressed and in major trouble. So when we feel down or upset it is good to know we can switch moods by watching a comedy on television or going out to visit a friend. This way we avoid being dragged down by the feeling and we lift our spirits. Changing the Channel is a great skill to continue to develop in our adult lives.
However, changing the channel doesnt resolve the issue. If we feel sad and go visit a friend, when we return home the sadness might return also. The problem with all three ways of dealing with difficult emotions is that oftentimes the emotion we are trying to deal with comes back. Sure, you can deal with feelings of despondency by going to the bar and drinking, but the next morning with a hangover the feeling might come back with a vengeance.
There are some other approaches to working with difficult feelings that can provide more long lasting relief - and some help for depression as well. One method is to explore how a difficult emotion feels in your body for five minutes before you change the channel. It's simple to do once you learn how, and five minutes a day of exploring rather than resisting bad feelings can help us begin to feel better overall. - 14915
If you notice depression symptoms, you will naturally react by trying to get rid of or avoid them. We don't want to feel bad about ourselves, or empty, or heavy and meaninglessness. So we do what comes naturally, we try to suppress and resist these types of feelings.
For the reason that we have never developed and learned basic emotional intelligence, the manner in which we try to avoid or resist negative feelings does not work. There are really only three basic means we all use to try to resist our bad feelings:
Anesthetize - alcohol, drugs, overeating Project/Act Out - kick the dog, be irritable with others, demean, attack Change the Channel " hike, garden, clean the house, watch tv
If you are feeling bad about yourself and you eat enough donuts and cake, you go into a sugar coma where you basically dont feel anything. Anesthetizing works, but only for a short time and it obviously can damage our health.
Acting Out or Projecting does not work for long, either. Kicking the dog or screaming at the people around us may make us feel better for a moment, sure. But it doesn't actually do anything about the motivating bad emotion. And it can cause harm to our relationships and the people around us.
Changing the Channel on our difficult feelings is a fairly healthy way to deal with them. We all have to discover how to manage our moods. If we don't, we can end up seriously stressed and in major trouble. So when we feel down or upset it is good to know we can switch moods by watching a comedy on television or going out to visit a friend. This way we avoid being dragged down by the feeling and we lift our spirits. Changing the Channel is a great skill to continue to develop in our adult lives.
However, changing the channel doesnt resolve the issue. If we feel sad and go visit a friend, when we return home the sadness might return also. The problem with all three ways of dealing with difficult emotions is that oftentimes the emotion we are trying to deal with comes back. Sure, you can deal with feelings of despondency by going to the bar and drinking, but the next morning with a hangover the feeling might come back with a vengeance.
There are some other approaches to working with difficult feelings that can provide more long lasting relief - and some help for depression as well. One method is to explore how a difficult emotion feels in your body for five minutes before you change the channel. It's simple to do once you learn how, and five minutes a day of exploring rather than resisting bad feelings can help us begin to feel better overall. - 14915
About the Author:
You can discover more ways to get help with depression in the book about Natural Depression Help and Healing In Minutes A Day. John Stephan Laney teaches emotional and relationship intelligence courses and you can learn more at Depression Treatment That's All Natural. Many types of depression can be healed without drugs or pyschotherapy.
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