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.
For example, our natural reaction to feelings of depression symptoms is to try to repress and suppress them. None of us wishes to feel wrong or not good enough. So we do our best to avoid or resist these emotions.
Because we havent developed some basic emotional intelligence, the way we go about avoiding or repressing these feelings doesnt work. There are three basic ways we all tend to deal with our difficult emotions:
The first way is to anesthetize, which is to use drugs or eat too much. The second way is to Project. This means to kick the dog, attack others, blast our bad feelings to all around us. The third way is to Channel Change, which is to go for a walk, watch television, call a friend, etc.
Feel bad? Eat enough chocolate ice cream and chocolate candies and you will successfully go into a sugar coma. You won't feel much of anything, not good feelings or bad ones. Anesthetizing will get the job done. But only for the short term, and it has side effects that can harm our physical well being.
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.
Nonetheless, changing the channel often won't resolve the underlying negative emotion. If we were feeling sad about a situation and go for a run, we will get a lift. However, when the run is done, often the sad feeling will begin to return. This is the basic issue with all 3 ways of dealing with difficult emotions. They are often only temporary fixes. We feel better for a while, but it doesn't last.
There are other ways to deal with difficult feelings that can provide depression help. Exploring a challenging emotion for five minutes is one approach. You can do this through body work or through journaling. But 5 minutes a day of exploring our negative emotions can begin to create a change in our emotional health.
For example, our natural reaction to feelings of depression symptoms is to try to repress and suppress them. None of us wishes to feel wrong or not good enough. So we do our best to avoid or resist these emotions.
Because we havent developed some basic emotional intelligence, the way we go about avoiding or repressing these feelings doesnt work. There are three basic ways we all tend to deal with our difficult emotions:
The first way is to anesthetize, which is to use drugs or eat too much. The second way is to Project. This means to kick the dog, attack others, blast our bad feelings to all around us. The third way is to Channel Change, which is to go for a walk, watch television, call a friend, etc.
Feel bad? Eat enough chocolate ice cream and chocolate candies and you will successfully go into a sugar coma. You won't feel much of anything, not good feelings or bad ones. Anesthetizing will get the job done. But only for the short term, and it has side effects that can harm our physical well being.
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.
Nonetheless, changing the channel often won't resolve the underlying negative emotion. If we were feeling sad about a situation and go for a run, we will get a lift. However, when the run is done, often the sad feeling will begin to return. This is the basic issue with all 3 ways of dealing with difficult emotions. They are often only temporary fixes. We feel better for a while, but it doesn't last.
There are other ways to deal with difficult feelings that can provide depression help. Exploring a challenging emotion for five minutes is one approach. You can do this through body work or through journaling. But 5 minutes a day of exploring our negative emotions can begin to create a change in our emotional health.
About the Author:
You can learn more ways to get help with depression in the book about Treating Depression Naturally In Minutes A Day. John Stephan Laney teaches emotional skillsand 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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