As we travel along our own spiritual path and dredge up what no longer serves us there is bound to be times when we feel like we are getting sucked into a depression spiral. Where things seem bleak and happiness is nowhere to be found. If you haven’t been there – hooray – but also why are you reading this? I know I have been there. Often. Of course, use your own intuition to decide if it’s best to go see a licensed doctor to help you deal with your depression. This advice is only complementary to what you’re already doing.
Before sharing 5 ways to snap out of it, I wanted to remind you to take care of some basics first:
- Be sure you’re hydrated and have water on hand.
- Be sure you’re fed (with nourishing food) for example, my body doesn’t handle sugar or white flour well, so I know if I’ve slipped up and consumed this that it will contribute to my depression and water and sleep are my best bet to let it out of my system.
- Be sure you’re rested. Exhaustion will feed depression. If on the other hand, you’ve had plenty of sleep but still feel blah – read on.
- Be sure you’re grounded and have gotten sunlight. Yes it can be as simple as a few minutes of sunshine and the earth beneath your feet.
Take these suggestions and roll them in your own intuition or try each of them to see what does the trick for you. These all require a deep drive to want to feel better, even if you don’t feel like you deserve it or have any reason to improve hold on to that sliver that you want to feel better.
STRATEGY ONE – ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND DISTRACTION –
Set a timer for 5 -15 minutes and let yourself feel it. Self-pity, sadness, frustration. Cry it out. Complain about it. Journal how shitty you feel. When the timer goes off have a glass of water and a shower. Decide to start new. Decide to look for just 1 thing to be grateful for. Decide to look for another. Get out of the house, go for a walk or drive to nature. Continue choosing to look for things to be grateful for.
STRATEGY TWO – MINDFULNESS AND COMPASSION –
Again a reminder to handle the basic needs first and also be sure your teeth are brushed. Mindful breathing is much more enjoyable this way. Start by sitting in a comfortable position where your back is straight. Breathe in through your nose and count to 5 slowly. Breathe out through your nose and count to 5 slowly. Keep this process up for at least 5 – 10 minutes. As you breathe visualize yourself surrounded by pink compassion light. Just continue to breathe and bring your attention back to your breath everytime it wanders.
STRATEGY THREE – JOURNAL IT OUT –
Sometimes the simple act of picking up a pen and paper can help. Air it all out. Just keep writing and writing and asking yourself why you’re feeling this way, what it reminds you of. Let this go on as long as you feel. Use this strategy in conjunction with any of the other strategies. This one is most useful for confusion driven depression.
STRATEGY FOUR – ACKNOWLEDGE AND PASS –
For this you will already need to be a little familiar with EFT tapping. You can either start tapping and repeat I’m feeling depressed. I wonder why that is? Breathing in between. Continue this acknowledgment and asking why. If when you ask ‘I wonder why’ an answer such as ‘because I’m useless” comes up – then mark it down and integrate it in. I’m feeling useless because I’m feeling depressed because. You can keep going and tapping this way until you find some relief or clarity. If you’re getting an answer something like ‘I’m depressed because I’m imbalanced’ then tap on that. Whatever comes up for you is your limiting beliefs that are squeezing the life out of you. Respect them but tap on them to allow them to pass. You can also tap along with this video.
STRATEGY FIVE – FORGIVE YOURSELF –
Many of us feel depressed because of how we feel towards ourselves. Source, Creator or God, however, you want to spell it sees us as perfect. As a whole and complete. When our personality/mind sees us in a totally different way well that is when depression starts. So back to basics for this one. Yes it may feel like a stretch but be willing to give it a try. You’ll be using your breathing with this one again. As you breathe in to yourself say ‘I forgive you’, as your breath out say ‘I accept you’ as you breathe in and say ‘I love you’. Continue to repeat these 3 things as you breathe. Visualize as you say these things the light inside of you getting bigger and brighter. At the same time the little gremlins of fears, doubts and self-defeating thoughts will start to be edged out until there is no longer space for them. Send them up to Source light and visualize your attachment to them being cut. Repeat your mantra along with your breathe and speak it so every single cell in your body is hearing it.
I would love to hear in the Facebook group what your strategies are for dealing with a depression funk.
