One of the very first points to understand about depression is that it obviously deals with bad feelings. Negative emotions. And when you look at it, it's fairly easy to see what we all come from a particular paradigm or box around our emotions. An obvious, easy to understand box.
We all have emotions that we enjoy having or feeling. A normal list includes Love
pleasure
Happiness
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm
hope
amusement
These we call good emotions. We all like having them and want them as often as possible. What are some emotions we dont like and dont want to have? See if most of these fit for you:
Sadness
Fear
sadness
hate
anxiety
loneliness
Emptiness
humiliation
These are what we call bad emotions and we try to avoid them as much as possible. If we cant avoid them, and cant help but feel them, we try to get rid of them as quickly 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!
And, of course, all the feelings that go with depression we classify as bad emotions, to be avoided or gotten rid of as quickly as possible and at all costs. The box were stuck in about depression is that it is bad. And we definitely want to get away from having all of the kinds of feelings that go with it.
But there is a big problem to this approach of trying to get rid of all the feelings associated with depression, and it begins with a common emotional mistake we make all of the time. This emotional mistake has to do with trying not to feel bad feelings.
Consider the idea that we all, each of us, have an emotional body, just like we have a physical body and a mental body. And your emotional body has a purpose and function, which is to simply feel feelings. All of them. Good emotions like joy and happiness, and "bad" ones like fear and anger. Its job is to feel feelings. You can't actually keep your emotional body from feeling feelings.
You cant keep your skin from feeling hot or cold, soft or hard. Your skin will feel whatever surrounds it. Just so, your emotional body will feel all of your emotions. You cant just feel good feelings. When you try to suppress bad feelings, you only cause them to get stuck. They then tend to stick around much longer. Trying not to feel the difficult emotions that go with depression can be a way to keep depression around!
So to get out of the box of depression, one method is to learn emotional intelligence so that you can move difficult emotions through your emotional body quickly. There is a lot to this for which there is no room in this article, but 5 minutes a day of exploring a difficult emotion can begin to free up your emotional body. - 14915
We all have emotions that we enjoy having or feeling. A normal list includes Love
pleasure
Happiness
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm
hope
amusement
These we call good emotions. We all like having them and want them as often as possible. What are some emotions we dont like and dont want to have? See if most of these fit for you:
Sadness
Fear
sadness
hate
anxiety
loneliness
Emptiness
humiliation
These are what we call bad emotions and we try to avoid them as much as possible. If we cant avoid them, and cant help but feel them, we try to get rid of them as quickly 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!
And, of course, all the feelings that go with depression we classify as bad emotions, to be avoided or gotten rid of as quickly as possible and at all costs. The box were stuck in about depression is that it is bad. And we definitely want to get away from having all of the kinds of feelings that go with it.
But there is a big problem to this approach of trying to get rid of all the feelings associated with depression, and it begins with a common emotional mistake we make all of the time. This emotional mistake has to do with trying not to feel bad feelings.
Consider the idea that we all, each of us, have an emotional body, just like we have a physical body and a mental body. And your emotional body has a purpose and function, which is to simply feel feelings. All of them. Good emotions like joy and happiness, and "bad" ones like fear and anger. Its job is to feel feelings. You can't actually keep your emotional body from feeling feelings.
You cant keep your skin from feeling hot or cold, soft or hard. Your skin will feel whatever surrounds it. Just so, your emotional body will feel all of your emotions. You cant just feel good feelings. When you try to suppress bad feelings, you only cause them to get stuck. They then tend to stick around much longer. Trying not to feel the difficult emotions that go with depression can be a way to keep depression around!
So to get out of the box of depression, one method is to learn emotional intelligence so that you can move difficult emotions through your emotional body quickly. There is a lot to this for which there is no room in this article, but 5 minutes a day of exploring a difficult emotion can begin to free up your emotional body. - 14915
About the Author:
For more emotional intelligence to help with depression, you can get a book about Depression Self Help 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.
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