Depression is a state of suppressed emotions and life force. Our life energy and sense of self is squashed, pushed down, depressed.
Emotions and energy are interrelated. When we push down our anger and fear and grief and other emotional pain, we also push down our life energy and reduce our awareness. We end up tired and depressed, and out of touch with our feelings and our body,
Emotions are life and we need them to survive. When we try to avoid them, we can end up depressed, with some of the following symptoms:
- anxiety
- tiredness
- feeling drained
- boredom
- listless
- loss of interest in life
Depression can have a specific cause or not. Sometimes people become depressed after a major emotional loss. Some people become depressed at retirement, when they suddenly don't have a job, a reason to function.
Other times there is no clear cause. A person may have a lifetime of depression, that could go all the way back to their childhood or even have a biochemical/genetic cause.
If the depression doesn't go away, then in may be time to look for help.
It can be useful to get therapeutic and medical advice. For clinical depression, medication can be helpful, along with counseling.
While there are several approaches to working with depression, like medication and talk therapy, many people can get relief by attending our retreats and working through old suppressed emotions. For many, it doesn't necessarily have to take years to feel better--people can gain a huge part of their life back, their joy back, at their first retreat.
If you would like to explore whether these retreats might be helpful to you go to our contact us page to send Jon a message and set up a phone interview.