Expansion v's depression.

The word “depression” or “depressed” is commonly heard in conversations today and is used to describe just about any emotion or feeling that is the opposite of happy.

What happened to being “sad” or just experiencing "melancholy"?  Its almost as if whenever we feel less than happy we are described as being depressed.  Everybody throws the word depressed around as a way of describing a feeling.  Its like we have forgotten the language of feeling.

The following are some definitions of depression as described from Websters dictionary:

1. A mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity.

2. A long-term economic state characterized by unemployment and low prices and low levels of trade and investment.

3. A sunken or depressed geological formation.

With this in mind I’d like to pose the following.  Depression is a dip in the road, an opportunity to take a rest, a time for reflection, a place to go within away from the chaos in the world, a time for a holiday, to go walkabout, to meditate, a curve ball, to contemplate, or create.

Is it possible that western society with the help of psychologists have taken a normal human emotion or feeling and labelled it in such away as to limit it?  Is depression no different to the common cold?  If we do not look after our immune systems then the cold becomes a flu and we experience more symptoms. We know that if this happens we need to look after ourselves better and we take vitamins etc….

Depression, is no different.

Dr Masuri Emoto of Japan, study on water molecules. Check this youtube clip from the documentary "What the bleep do we know"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWAuc9GIvFo

Is it not perfectly normal to go in to "self" from time to time to evaluate, to look at ourselves and contemplate this journey we are on?  To hold ourselves accountable, to take responsibility. I believe that this is the perfection of the human being, our own inner thermometer. OUR OWN JUDGE AND JURY.

In other cultures around the world such as in Asia, depression is not recognised quite the same way.  It is looked upon as being a more physical issue. Stephen Lau from “Depression and the Oriental Health” writes that: “from a Chinese medicine perspective, depression is largely related to the stagnation of liver"qi." ("Qi" is internal life energy coursing through the physical body, nourishing your body cells with life-giving oxygen. When there is blockage, instead of smooth flowing, of "qi", disease and disorder occur.)


Your liver is related to the emotions of anger and frustration. It is important you learn how to manage your anger and frustration, including expressing and repressing them. Stress management plays a critical role.”

Perhaps in viewing depression in this way we can start to become more empowered and realise that we have the opportunity to use this energy to our advantage instead of becoming a victim of it.  When we start to feel the overwhelm of our modern lifestyles taking over our thoughts and emotions this is like an alarm clock, alerting us to take time out, to take a step back and ask yourself, is this behaviour, activity or thought form serving me right now?

In feeling these feelings and asking ourselves these questions we start to move from a place of limitation and suppression to a place of expansion.  If we take the opportunity to take a break from the mundane, everyday and enter into our daydreams, we are transported and move into a place of creation and expansion. Let me give a personal example.

Recently I was feeling overwhelmed by increasing pressure to have a job, maintain a mortgage, be a single mum to 4 children and somehow keep my creative soul alive.  I could feel myself getting more weighed down and losing my enthusiasm for life again.  I was finding it hard to get out of bed and generally lacked energy.  My thoughts started to become self defeating and I was feeling trapped and oppressed by my situation.  In my frustration I went for walk on the beach, with a million negative and conflicting thoughts in my head, after a while I stopped took a breath, sat down and quietly I spoke to heart. “Tell me what I need to do?” I just waited. I emptied my mind of all thoughts and just sat and focused on my breathing and the ocean in front of me.

After about 10 mins of silence, I heard it, very quietly but I heard it.  The answer came and I knew it instantly was the right thought because it felt GOOD.  It felt expansive, it felt infinite, it felt full of possibility and most of all the energy I had been missing returned suddenly.  Every time I spoke about or thought about the answers I had received that day, I could feel the surge of excitement at the possibilities and infinite potential that surrounded me. No longer did I feel trapped and powerless.  I felt empowered.

The details are not important, as most people will tell you, depression is not caused by one thing.  It just is.  I believe that depression is here to show us ourselves, its asking us to look at how we are being and change it.  Its asking us to flip it! Its asking us to look deeper without fear of who we are and embrace it.  

The length of time we stay in depression is based on our resistance to feeling it.  I am somebody who through my life’s journey learnt to work with depression and use it for my creative pursuits.  It doesn’t mean I am never sad, or glum, or challenged or feel grief.  The key is to feel and to understand the feelings, get to know your feelings and do not fear them.  They are there to help you stay true to your heart and be a human being full of infinite potential and expansiveness. Limitation and suppression is created by our fear of ourselves.  Its all a matter of perception. Depression is a necessary tool for our understanding of “SELF”.

By Kate Brilli

Nutrition for the Soul

30/06/2012