How to relieve and heal the emotions of depression
During depression, the intensity of emotions can feel so strong that some people worry that the feelings will overwhelm them or even harm or kill them. The temptation is to panic and push it all down. However, it is not true. No matter how intense, raw, or extreme an emotion is, it cannot kill us. We may believe that we are not safe during an emotional release, but that illusion later fades. With practice, we begin to feel the spiritual security beneath our emotions. We learn that we are safe even during storms of intense emotions.
Instead of resisting the emotion, ask yourself how best to allow a safe expression of the emotion. Feel inward for the choice that is right for you, while feeling deep emotions. Do your best to allow the intense energy of emotions to be released in the most natural and safe way for you. Keep breathing. Feel into your inner self and ask yourself, “What is the best thing I can do for myself right now as this process continues? What is the best form of expression I can give my pain to help me heal?”
Expression comes in many forms. Do you need to listen to relaxing music, scream in the privacy of your car, record your emotions in your journal, mourn your painful story to a friend who will listen, sit in the warm sun, or take a walk in the cold night? Do you feel the need to shower or bathe? Draw it, sculpt it in clay or create visual images. Take the emotion or feeling into movement or sound. Or maybe you feel the need to cry? If so, go ahead and let it out. Cry, curl up in a fetal position in a corner, and be aware that you are having the experience.
You don’t need to know why or what the tears are about. Get out of your head and stay with yourself while you cry. Wait until the emotional wave passes. If a painful story comes up, continue to breathe and use some form of expression to get it out of you. Bringing things out into awareness provides a new perspective and healing. You don’t have to act on emotions, but they do require awareness through expression.
There is no standard “correct” answer for what you are supposed to do. Emotion cannot be fixed. It’s just you breathing, feeling inside the best way to express yourself, keeping yourself safe and allowing your process to complete. Things are complete when there is nothing more to express, when you run out of energy, or when you notice that you are expressing the same things repeatedly and there seems to be no internal reason to continue the expression. When you get to that point, take a few deep breaths and let the process complete.