Instant cures for depression
By Jena Griffiths | October 11, 2010
1. The immediate way out of depression is through the body:
Posture, exercise, food suppliments, sleep management, breathe, staying present, tapping, play, laughter, gratitude…
2. The long term cure for depression is to find and dedicate your life to a project or cause that’s far bigger than yourself.
Here’s a powerful immediate cure from Paul Scheele:
a.Change your posture.
The mind follows the body. As you shift your body, your mind shifts.
Take a deep breath. Straighten your spine and shoulders and raise your head.
Feet shoulder width apart, move one foot slightly ahead and tilt your weight to the balls of your feet.
Breathe evenly and deeply into the tummy and chest. Remember a success.
(From Natural Brilliance by Paul Scheele, Learning Strategies Corporation, p40)
Other body-related ways to cure depression:
b.Exercise: Jogging or walking daily has a profound effect. Make a daily date with a running partner so that you have to go. Or dance, tai chi, a martial art..
c.Food: Lift depression chemically (through food) by taking fish oil suppliments/Omega 3, vitamin D, B12, cromium and by eating real, fresh food and getting enough vitamin D (shineshine) .
d.Manage your sleep.(Listen to my interview on this with Dr Colombo.)
e. Breathe (listen to my interview on this with Judith Kravitz)
f. Tap (EFT) Find a practitioner in your area or online. (two people I know who can help you online using EFT Michelle Hardwick from the UK and Jennifer Davidson from Zürich.)
g. Play: “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.” . Playfulness is how you open yourself to inner guidance, shortcuts and miracles.
h. laugh: Fake it til you make it.Join a laughing yoga group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEfjVnYkqM or force yourself to laugh a few times a day.
i. Gratitude: “If you just simply practice gratitude for the feeling, even though you don’t know why, after a while the black hole loses its power” Richard Moss.
j. Presence: “When very difficult feelings are present, do not think!” Stay present with the feeling. Says Richard Moss who distinguishes between feelings and emotions.
What’s the difference?
Moss says emotions come from thoughts and we can cure ourself of these by catching and naming the thought, rather than allowing it to drag us under.
Feelings, on the other hand “are healthy and essential (even dark ones.)
“We come alive at the level of feeling by not turning feeling into thinking.”
Moss calls this process radical aliveness.
He says, ask yourself: if you are not here, where are you?
You’ll find you’re either in the past or the future or focused too much on yourself or another.
All negative feelings (anger, depression, jealousy, aggression etc. can be dissolved through bringing yourself back into the present moment.
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Topics: Depression Cures | 2 Comments »
October 13th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Thank you for this post, Jena. This is excellent. I’ll definitely refer it to folks I know and love. I wish I read this summary six years ago, when I was really struggling with depression, and didn’t really understand the power of the present, of gratitude, of witnessing feelings ….
October 14th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Thanks Jane,
There’s a very good book by Dr Daniel Amen on 7 different types of depression based on brain images. He recommends fish oil, exercise, vit 12 and D can cure some of these types and help all.
I’m planning to cross reference his types to Richard Unger’s 5 types visible in hands.
Focusing on life purpose and life lesson/ sacred is the long term way out because it gives you a project bigger than yourself.