What do you do when you’re feeling depressed?

When you’re feeling so sad and low and like the weight of….well, just about everything in your life is pulling you down? You know that feeling, don’t you?

I know you do – I certainly do! – yet….isn’t it so funny that, still, we have a hard time acknowledging that we are actually depressed.

And even/if when we acknowledge it, isn’t the next step always to figure our way out of it?

We feel we have to do something to fix it or make it go away. Like go for a walk or a run. Distract ourselves with Netflix or ice cream. Take a warm bath. Do some yoga. Take some meds.

There is nothing wrong with any of these tools (yes, I consider ice cream an official tool, Lol).

What is wrong though, is thinking that there is something wrong with us for feeling depressed.

And that we have to immediately fix it and pull ourselves up and out of our low state.

Take it from someone who’s been on a 25+ year mental health journey that included a professional diagnosis, a genetic predisposition, countless medications and many different therapists.

There is nothing wrong with you for feeling depressed.

Just like there’s nothing wrong with you for feeling happy. But notice how we don’t think that when we are feeling the perceived “good” states like joyful and uplifted?

What if we could move with the same ease through our low states as we do through our elevated ones?

I believe it is possible. 25+ years of leaning into the darker emotions tells me it’s possible.

I created this meditation for depression as an offering of that possibility.

To help you gently lean in to your feelings of sadness, so that you can stop trying so hard to get out.

So that you can BE with depression, or despair or any of the perceived “bad” emotions.

So that you can USE all of your emotions – All of them – from sadness to elation and everything in between.

Our emotions are extremely powerful. They give us valuable information about ourselves. But if we don’t feel our emotions then we can’t possibly use them, now can we?

https://youtu.be/I8CESDqwUqg

Much Love,

Carolyn