Hi. I’m Sharon White, the founder of Global Healing Exchange and Holistic Living Magazine. I am so excited to be bringing Holistic Living to you 4 times a year.

I have been in the health and wellness industry as a therapist for nearly 20 years. And over the last 5 years, at Global Healing Exchange, I have worked personally, with many therapists finding the best holistic experts I could find.

I have invited these experts to come and write for you via our magazine.

We believe that to really look after your health and well being you need the correct knowledge, so I have bought together a team of experts who, combined, have many years of study under their belt.

Between them they cover many of the health aspects you will need to know in order for you to look after your body and have optimal health.

These experts will give you information that you can use both in your life and your family’s life.

In each edition a handful of our experts will write about a certain topic that will be influenced by our readers, via conversations on our Facebook page.

I have picked the first topic of depression as I know there are many of you who have suffered, are suffering or know someone who is depressed right now. Maybe overcoming depression is something you are looking into right now.

I myself have suffered from depression in the past, had been on anti-depressants and have now learned how to live without them. I have also worked with many others to do the same.

With any ailment, there are many areas you can look at to help alleviate the symptoms and cause. Many of us still try to fix the symptoms without addressing the cause.

This magazine will help to guide you to find your cause. It will give you some steps for overcoming depression naturally.

If you are looking for signs of depression, want to know how to manage depression or find natural remedies for depression, this magazine will help you.

We have experts that will teach you about your mind, body and energy and from that you will learn that we need to get all aspects in balance to obtain true health and well being.

You will probably have heard an analogy like this before but I will use it again as it is easy to understand.

You wouldn’t go putting diesel into a petrol car and expect it to run like a dream. You wouldn’t forget about the service every 6 months and expect it to run forever with no issues.

You wouldn’t expect to drive your car with a door hanging off, dragging on the road and expect the door to close perfectly.

So why do many treat their body this way and expect it to carry on holding them up for the rest of their life?

We need to put petrol (not diesel) into a petrol car to make it run perfectly. We need to get a service every 6 months, so the car runs better, and we need to look after the bodywork in order for the car to move functionally.

Our team of experts will teach you what you need to know in order for you to treat your body, like you would a prized car.

I really hope you enjoy your subscription to Holistic Living and the overcoming depression articles. Our promise is to bring you top quality information and overcoming depression tips, that you can implement into your life easily. You will know how to cope with depression.

Enjoy.

This is an article written by our editor at large for Holistic Living Magazine – Edition 1, written about her journey with overcoming depression and we take a look at some very alarming statistics.

Full disclosure; I was going through a very torrid time at the end of 2008 and early 2009 and was persuaded to seek professional psychiatric help. Truth be told I knew exactly what was wrong with me.

I honestly didn’t need to be told that I wasn’t in exactly tip top mental health and that my life was somewhat of a mess.

As Ani Neradilkova covers in greater detail in her article ‘Depression, Expression and Suppression’ later in the magazine, I was most definitely suppressing my true self; I was in a relationship that just did not, and could not let that truth be spoken about.

Also my work environment was stifling, a constant tread mill of 60 hour weeks, immense pressure to solve every problem and meet every deadline was taking its toll.

Prue Proctor in her article healing depression through Reiki, talks through how this type of environment can invoke depression through a belief that you know what the future will bring; more of the same, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

With both triggers I really felt as though there was no way forward, I really couldn’t see how I could change my work environment, nor how to stop hiding myself.

That all started to change when I finally did see someone, and that someone was Dr. Fintan Harte, who I can arguably say, saved my life.

His first diagnosis was clinical depression, with my thoughts not far away from what Elaine C. Torrance-Gingrich says in her article, depression and the law of attraction, and his second, gender dysphoria, well that wasn’t exactly new either.

What he did next though was to delve into what was happening and why, what he didn’t do was recommend a course of antidepressants.

The fact that he didn’t reach for the prescription pad immediately, I am eternally grateful for, and the fact that the succession of people I have seen since, haven’t either, is also a source of solace for me.

Now this approach to handling depression isn’t necessarily for everyone, in many instances the tunnel is so dark and long, that the only way to take a step forward is via such a crutch.

Prue talks about Helen who was very grateful for the light being brought back by antidepressants, and from such a position how she got her life back on track.

Thing is, in many ways, when you dig into the overall numbers of people being diagnosed with clinical depression and the rate of prescription of antidepressants then something curious pops up.

It seems that for many Western nations the prescription rate for the population for anti-depressants is twice that the clinical depression diagnosis rate!

An article in the Washington Post details some of the levels of depression in all nations of the world [1] with Australia around the 4% mark and America on or around 4.5%.

Yet, in Australia the prescription rate for anti-depressants is about 9% of the population [2] and in America the rate is about 11% [3] which when you compare the two is about approximately twice the medical condition, which does seem to indicate something odd is going on.

Now when this is correlated with the level of mental health supervision for the prescription of antidepressants, only between a third and half, of all patients [4], then you may start to question some of the underlying principles.

Only when you add in the rates of anxiety diagnosis [5], which typically accompanies depression, do you have a fuller picture of how and why anti-depressants are being diagnosed.

Even then there seems to be a level of prescription that doesn’t quite gel with what should be a treatment that is reserved only for the most serious cases of depression and anxiety.

What underpins all this is the fact that until the 1950s such types of drugs didn’t even exist.

In 1951 early trials of an anti-tuberculosis drug had the side effect of renewed vigor [6], which was closely followed by further trials in Cincinnati and Paris, as well as the development in Switzerland of tricyclic forms of drugs for use as antidepressants.

By the 1960s, while there were still more drugs available to treat depression, it was still felt “that no more than 50 to 100 individuals per million suffered from the kind of depression that these new drugs would treat” [7].

Now let that number sink in. that is a 0.01% treatment rate, which is several orders of magnitude away from the position today.

So by the end of the 1960s we have a situation where anti-depressants were thought potentially useful for maybe 20 to 30 thousand people in the USA, and yet by 1990, after the development of a novel new forms of anti-depressant, such as the Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) class of drugs, of which Prozac is the best well known, the prescription rate in the USA was running at over 650,000 per month [8].

Of course within all this context there are some basic figures; 350 million people worldwide have depression, yet only 50% or so get any form of treatment.

In fact in some nations the treatment rate is less than 10% [9]. Furthermore only with the development of such treatments has there been a massive improvement in the overall treatment rate for many forms of mental health.

But it does seem that there is not only a level of over prescription that cannot be good, but also in many cases a level of under prescription too. As Sophie McBain [10] writing in the New Statesmen calls out:

If one in seven of us is taking pills to control or ward off anxiety, are we just medicalising an ordinary human emotion? Did the purveyors of the early anti-anxiety medicines such as Miltown – discovered in the 1940s, and the first in a line of blockbuster drugs including Prozac and Xanax – manage to create a new problem along with the solution they offered?

Fundamentally this is the real question, how do you feel? Are you experiencing natural human emotions, such as grief, sadness, or are you in a far more perilous state that an antidepressant is precisely the help you need?

If the former then you will find the rest of the articles in this edition of Holistic Living Magazine perfect for you. And if the latter then I suggest you seek appropriate medical attention, and perhaps still take into account some of the approaches detailed in these pages.

You can read this article in our quarterly eZine, ‘Holistic Living Magazine,’ look for Edition 1 on this archive page. There’s many more articles about depressions waiting for you too!

If you want to know how to treat depression enjoy this magazine. I hope you find the answers you are looking for and overcome depression.

Cassandra Jones – Editor at large for Holistic Living Magazine

References

Carter, L, (2013), OECD snapshot ranks Australia second in world in anti-depressant prescriptions, accessed 10th May 2015 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-22/australia-second-in-world-in-anti-depressant-prescriptions/5110084

Dewey, C, (2013), A stunning map of depression rates around the world’, accessed 10th May 2015 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/11/07/a-stunning-map-of-depression-rates-around-the-world/

Fitzpatrick, L., (2010), A brief history of antidepressants, accessed 10th May 2015 from http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1952143,00.html

McBain, S., (2014), Anxiety Nation: why are so many of us ill at ease?, accessed 10th May 2015 from http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/04/anxiety-nation-why-are-so-many-us-so-ill-ease

Pratt, L.A., Brody, D.J., Gu, Q., (2011), Antidepressant Use in Persons Aged 12 and Over: United States, 2005–2008, accessed 10th May 2015 from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db76.htm

Sciencewatch, (2014), 25 years after Prozac, accessed 10th May 2015 from http://sciencewatch.com/sites/sw/files/sw-article/media/sw-depression-infographic.pdf

Wikipedia, Antidepressant, accessed 10th May 2015 from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidepressant#History

[1] Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post, November 7, 2013

[2] Lucy Carter, ABC, November 22, 2013

[3] Laura Brody, Center for Disease Control, October 2011

[4] Ibid.

[5] Between 10% and 18% of the USA population depending on who is publishing the figures. The high end number comes from a World Health Organisation study in 2002.

[6] Wikipedia, Antidepressant

[7] Ibid.

[8] Laura Fitzpatrick, Time, 2010

[9] Sciencewatch, 2014

[10] Sophie McBain, New Statesman, 2014

On first meeting Helen* you could assume she was just having a bad day. You know the ones, where no matter what anyone else said or did it just wasn’t going to change your outlook on life.

At least for the most of us we can go for a walk, talk to a friend or take an earlier night, feeling much better as a result. For Helen her perception of life begun to feel like that every day.

Many people are unclear about the difference between anxiety and depression, which is understandable as we often hear the two commonly phased together.

Although both are mental health disorders they stem from two separate primary problems, with one often a resulting symptom of the other.

Let this article be a reflection of what I have personally experienced treating clients with depression alongside scientific studies that have found Reiki to be an effective therapy for treating symptoms of mental health.

What’s The Difference?

Anxiety Disorders are characterised by a sense of self-doubt and vulnerability about what the future brings (living in fear of the future).

I often have found my clients to hold high expectations of themselves most of which contribute to their fear of not being able to live up to unrealistic goals and standards which they, (or they feel others) have set for them.

Depression unlike anxiety doesn’t focus on the uncertainty of what the future holds, rather people with depression feel they already know what the future will bring, and there is nothing to look forward to.

Depression affects how people feel about themselves, there are in fact many and multiple causes of major depression.

Factors such as genetic vulnerability, severe life stressors, substance consumed (some medications, drugs and alcohol) and medical conditions which can lead to faulty mood regulation in the brain.

Although symptoms of anxiety and depression are similar, the major difference for me is the lack of enjoyment and vitality that someone with depression displays.

Activities they once found exciting no longer have the same emotional response, this coupled with feelings of anger, self- loathing and helplessness can be a dangerous place without professional support.

Energy Flows

The most intriguing aspect of treating people with depression and anxiety for me is the difference in energy. Anxiety energetically moves in peaks (yang) and troughs (yin) with very little, if any balance between.

Take my client Tom* for example; his energy was a constant contradiction to himself.

Tom’s outward energy would project that he was easy going, motivated, jovial and social however underneath it all he actually felt restless, noncommittal (need to run away/avoid), self-conscious and in need of control.

Tom’s actions (yang energy) were overcompensating for his feelings (yin energy) leaving him exhausted and often in need of time alone. It’s what I call the “energetic hangover” causing his anxiety to elevate.

Helen on the other hand displayed a completely different flow of energy to Tom. Instead of having an exterior of ‘everything is great’, she projected and believed that ‘everything was bad’ or better yet nothing was good.

Helen lacked motivation for life, had no desire to socialise and found daily tasks a drain.

When I first treated Helen her energy was flowing excessively inward/downward resulting in a heaviness of mind, body and heart.

The ability to lift herself up and out of her moods was becoming increasingly difficult, until she eventually was offered help.

Healing Depression Through Reiki. Reiki As A Complimentary Therapy

The Centre for Reiki Research (CRR) has intensely examined the efficacy of Reiki when applied to a variety of illnesses and conditions, including depression.

Through the CRR’s ‘Touchstone Process’ which is a rigorous peer review method for analysing a group of scientific studies, research found that Reiki primarily helps in the reduction of stress, anxiety and depression as well as relief from chronic pain.

In one study (Shore, 2004) a group of patients that were treated for mild depression and stress found that after six weeks of Reiki treatment and for up to a year afterward, those who had received Reiki showed both immediate and long-term improvements in depression, stress and feelings of hopelessness.

Depression can be a result from chronic pain, having a substantial effect on the individual’s psychological well-being.

Dressing and Sing (1998) found that among cancer patients, Reiki brought about significant levels of pain relief, reduced anxiety and depression, also finding improvements in sleep quality, relaxation and general well-being.

Reiki is increasingly accepted in health and community care facilities including hospitals, hospices and cancer support units. It is seen as an effective and cost-reducing method to improve health outcomes and quality of care.

Through associations such as the CRR, scientific validation has helped to bring Reiki into to the mainstream health systems, where patients including those with depression can benefit. Healing depression through Reiki has worked for many people.

Helen’s Journey

Helen’s* depression developed from a culmination of events in her life that eventually became too much to cope. For years, the majority of her energy went into hiding her sense of self-loathing, having no capacity to recognise her own value or abilities.

Helen over this time slowly lost contact with her friends and avoided her family where possible. She began putting all her focus into work, finding it a safe excuse to ignore the pink elephant in the room …. Herself.

In Helen’s head she didn’t want to admit weakness, she’d come so far creating distance between herself and the world, she didn’t know how to come back.

Eventually with performance at work declining, her boss instigated a review and then a meeting with a psychologist. This meeting was to save her life.

Finding A Path Of Treatment

Helen was placed on anti-depressants by her doctor, reluctant at first she soon saw the benefits when the light started to filter back into her life.

For the first time in what seemed an eternity, Helen was ready to address her condition, knowing that a diagnosis and pill wasn’t the only answer.

Working with a psychologist Helen was able to process her thoughts and feelings on the events prior to her depression. Her sister who had read about the benefits of Reiki felt that it would complement the groundwork she was doing in therapy, buying her a course of treatments.

Over a 12 week period I applied Reiki both as a face to face and distance treatment. Before and after treatment Helen would report her overall health and well-being on a questionnaire which we later used to measure the effects of her receiving Reiki.

Throughout our treatments I applied Reiki on specific areas of the body for as long as the energy required. Initially the treatments went for 90 minutes, however over time this was reduced to 30 minute sessions as balance was being restored.

The overall result showed improvements to Helen’s sleep pattern, digestive system, energy levels and general outlook on life. She reported a deep sense of peace and relaxation during and after treatments loving the fact she was ‘feeling’ her body again.

After the 12 week program I taught Helen Reiki 1 as a form of self-treatment. Reiki I know has been invaluable to her and she continues to use it along her path of self-healing.

Towards The Light

Helen’s diagnosis was a turning point in the road, if she knew what she knows now back then, she would have found help sooner; you see that is the beauty of hindsight. We don’t know what the future holds, however we must trust that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

I believe that depression is a very misunderstood mental condition and challenges us to continue to look at the way we express ourselves, our values, our beliefs and strive to be who we are in suppressive and competitive personal and professional environments.

Does this picture sound or look familiar to you or someone you know?

I can’t sleep well, I wake up tired but I should feel rested….. I’m not interested in many things. I can’t remember the last time I laughed. It’s as though I am dragging my body around just to get to work or do the shopping.

I don’t see friends anymore. I have nothing to give. It’s as though it’s always raining inside and that cloud follows me around, never giving me a break of sunshine.

I’m sad and sometimes weepy for no reason and all I think is about what I should be doing instead but cannot bring myself to it….. Sometimes I just can’t focus and get snappy at people I love for no reason!

Sometimes I feel like I am a waste of space… just existing… When people ask me what’s wrong I don’t even know what to say.

What Is Depression?

Depression has symptoms such as prolonged sadness, low mood or energy, crying or mood imbalances. A depressive disorder interferes with managing day-to-day living and can be categorized into various types of depression.

For example the above scenario could be describing someone with clinical or major depression, or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

This article focuses on how one can help themselves with Kinesiology and a holistic approach.

Our Ability To Express Who We Are

Depression can have an organic and biochemical cause, other causes can be an incident, trigger or an ongoing set of circumstances that limit who we are.

In some ways depression is a disconnection from our ability to express ourselves, it is the suppression of who we are, so we have to ask the question: where did we feel limited or unable to express ourselves?

If we did not suppress, then modalities like kinesiology would not exist and nor would the many mental disorders.

Rules of expression can come from all sorts of external factors be it our parents, environment, a professional group, a professional environment, a religious group or spiritual group, or whatever conditions we agreed to accept into life as a way of living, yet it suppressed our very nature and core values.

Understanding depression through the eyes of Kinesiology really means looking at understanding the pathways a person has of expressing themselves.

If our ability to express who we are is suppressed and that continues over a long time, then it is no surprise that conditions like depression become very prevalent or that we see aggressive behaviour stemming from long term frustration.

What Can Be Done?

At Sydney Kinesiology we do not diagnose or treat illness, so as practitioners no matter what symptoms present, we always look at the energetic nature, or what a client presents as well as the emotions, thoughts and behaviours associated.

Kinesiology actually addresses and looks into the very many layers we create as human beings and the very many layers we create as human beings really depends on our ability to express ourselves or where we give ourselves permission to. So much of this is affected by self-worth, identity and self-esteem.

In my clinical experience, it has been combining holistic and medical approaches and staying very open-minded to what both experiences offer. Taking things day-by-day and assessing support needed depends on the length and the conditions of the depression.

The Unconscious Becomes Conscious

The fact is, that although we can take a pill to alleviate or help the symptoms of depression, unless we work with the underlying cause of a pattern or behaviour, bring unconscious patterns to conscious recognition, rewire our chemistry, we cannot easily heal and our biology and neurochemistry will continue to function as it does.

What Does It Take?

At Sydney Kinesiology, we focus on shifting mindset and evolving the self-image, interrupting habitual patterns, work closely with breath and educate about raising your vibration.

I am a big believer in: shift your state, shift your fate and this is what we educate. We love to work with clients to educate them while they experience change which ultimately results in deep wisdom of life and who they are.

Evolve Your Self Image

No matter what pain or behaviour, we are working with, all pain is an unconscious aspect being brought up, to become conscious. As we get up under the wings of change and step into it rather than hide or run, unconscious patterns can evolve and self-realization or actualization occurs.

Pain in the body also can reflect trauma and through how we work at Sydney Kinesiology, we have to work with the patterns of the body to help identify and bring to consciousness those aspects. Trauma is always stored inside the body and chemistry.

When you create a clear vision about WHO YOU CHOSE TO BE, all aspects not in alignment with that will come forward. Then we start to break up those habits and patterns.

Evolving your self-image can simply be as simple as “I choose to be open, courageous and find opportunity in every new behaviour that I take”… Or “Even though I don’t understand why I’m experiencing this challenge it is ok for me to heal, feel good about who I am and connect to myself and others”.

Shift Your State, Shift Your Fate

It’s not the big ticket items that make the transformation, it’s in the little day to day ones. This is all about doing small things that raise your vibration.

We are energetic and physical beings influenced by vibration everywhere we go and shifting our state, hence our vibration to choosing new thoughts, ideas and actions these will shift our biochemistry and retrain the brain!

We actually retrain the neurology with brain integration tools. We start to break the addictions to very familiar circuits.

How? There are a few tips below you may find useful.

Vibrational/Energetic Support:

We often use essences and sound. The sound is called music nutrition which is harmonically driven sound system that supports people through change.

For example when people are going through specific issues regarding emotions or difficulties they can use a sound that will help move them through that change with ease and grace.

Like a supplement to sessions music nutrition works on the brainwaves and biology as well as emotions. Each CD comes with a workbook. www.music-nutrition.com

Physical:

Breathing – primarily balance an even count of in and out breaths. Depression usually sees a slow outbreath longer than the in breath. Anxiety tends to see a very short in breath in the chest. Ideal is a 7 in and 7 out count and increase it with practice.

Mindset:

I AM, I FEEL. I AM HAVING THE THOUGHT…

Avoid using I am statements for how you feel. I encourage clients to say I feel angry, tired, sore, upset instead of I am all those words. I am are two very powerful words reserved for conscious use.

For thoughts like “they don’t like me etc.”, see them like a cloud in the sky. We have thousands of them and let it float by with, “I’m having a thought that……” this is a powerful way to detach from stressful thoughts.

Be willing to have a miracle mindset, creative mindset and staying curious “Just maybe, there is a pathway unique to me and my process that will show me something I had never imagined before”.

You wake up in the morning feeling your body heavy and tired before you even get out of bed. The mind is playing havoc with all the things you have to do before you step outside the front door.

You find yourself irritable and short tempered, your breathing is short, every now and then you catch yourself having to take a short quick inhale to regulate your breathing.

Later that day “out of the blue” you suddenly find yourself in a panic, your body feels numb, your heart is thumbing in your chest, your hands start to sweat and your throat feels as if you can’t swallow.

You start to have tunnel vision you’re looking for the quickest exit but you can’t seem to see one. The mind joins in making the whole situation extremely traumatic. The feeling of utter terror takes over, you feel as if you’re not really present.

You start telling yourself that you are going to have a heart attack, choke; you are making a fool out of yourself and worse you’re going to die.

Seven years ago this was my life, in fact this was a second episode in my life, the first time I experienced anxiety I was 18 years of age.

Through these two bouts of depression and anxiety I looked for answers and wanted to understand why and to find out how to over-come such an experience?

Stress, anxiety, anger and depression can hit at anytime; no one is exempt from experiencing this new world illness.

It can occur when you experience a traumatic experience, negative childhood incidents, high-levels of stress, poor diet and illness can all lead towards toxicity of the mind and body.

A build-up normally creates a physical or mental condition; it takes time to adjust to a new condition, compounding toxicity that affects the mind, body and heart creates the new physical or mental condition.

The mind being your thoughts, body being you’re physiology and the heart being your emotions.

So an example could be a reasonably healthy person may experience a cold or flu, this is a purge of toxins in the body. This is the body trying to normalise and bring back balance.

A great example and very common illnesses among the first world is, Tonsillitis this is an example of the lymphatic system being used to clear toxins from the physical body.

The accompanying fever is an attempt by the physical body to burn off the excess toxicity to restore harmony.

Back in 2009 I experienced tonsillitis eight times throughout the year and constantly took antibiotics; this was compounding the toxicity in my body and leading to a new condition.

In most cases the person will not identify with the illness, they just want it to go away.

The body’s intelligence is presented to us as a cause and effect process but rarely do people take stock of why this is happening. Society has created a constitutional environment that doesn’t aim to support self-care and healing.

We look for a quick fix, a band-aid and avoid the core of the existence of such a condition. It seems to be all too hard in such a fast past sociological environment.

This compounds to create degenerative sickness, which may start to be seen as anxiety, depression.

Once arrogance of the condition occurs additional compounding leads to much more serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes which all leads to an over acidic blood stream.

Repeated physical abuse to a person’s constitution, lack of emotional support and deprivation of their passion and purpose may lead to physical illness or an emotional breakdown.

Once this point has been reached a whole entourage of expertise is needed to create an environment necessary to support a person’s journey back to good health in the mind, body and heart.

Our condition is a result of our day-to-day living and by the rule of nature this is always changing. So it’s our own reasonability to make sure we nurture our ever-changing environment.

If this is not managed effectively, our constitution changes slowly and arrogance to our ever-changing environment may develop a negative composition. How do we nurture our ever-changing environment and harmonise the mind, body and heart?

Relaxation is a key to success, granted at certain times of our lives it’s hard but sometimes even the smallest relaxation techniques such as a breathing exercise will invigorate our nervous system and keep balance.

People relax in many different ways; the simplest way to find your way is to seek what lights you up makes you feel light and brings a sense of nourishment in your environment. This could be walking, reading, painting or singing?

Breathing is so important but today many of us, my-self included lose the connection to our breath. Our breath is our unconscious life force that illuminates our whole being.

Master the mind and become aware of your thoughts, what you are saying to yourself? 9 times out of 10 you will find your thoughts are unhelpful, so replace these with realistic and positive thoughts.

Your mind and imagination are so powerful for innovation and creation. Our thoughts create our reality so practice makes perfect, at first it can seem impossible but ask and look for support.

Finally behavior is vital to creating a well-balanced heart, mind and body. Challenging what you do is probably the most helpful way to overcome and reverse a negative cycle but is not easily accomplished, that is were asking for help from a trained professional is OK.

There are many ways to overcome anxiety and depression.

Everyone is different but seeking out what works for you by starting to educate yourself on how amazing and incredible you are.

You are the biggest asset in your life so it’s important to take good care of that asset; it’s your investment into the future and your vehicle to experience the extraordinary.

It is said in yogic tradition that depression begins with a shallow breath. Breath is your foundational life force.

Additionally, as your primary source of energy, you can only last a couple of minutes without your breath. The importance of breath is profound.

Most of us don’t realize, however, that we are breathing ‘backwards’ or too shallow and we aren’t taking in enough life force.

By not breathing properly, we are not able to live to capacity. By not having full capacity, we have a hard time handling challenging situations. If we can’t handle the situations that come up in our life, it can lead to insecurity, fear, worry, and anxiety.

This is the beginning stages of depression.

While none of these alone may cause depression, you may find yourself feeling insecure, afraid, worrisome, or anxious. When these feelings and/or situations aren’t handled and they become bigger, depression can result.

Nearly every single person has dealt with some level of depression at one time or another.

You may have experienced short term depression in response to the sudden death of a loved one (for example) or long term clinical depression as a result of on-going challenging situations.

If you’re experiencing depression, you might feel a sense of sadness, lack of motivation, and even possibly questioning your worth or value. During this time, it is often difficult to find reasons to keep moving forward.

Instead, to one who is depressed, it can seem easier to allow yourself to stay stuck. The reality is that help might be just one breath away.

As a Teacher of Kundalini Yoga (as taught by Yogi Bhajan), I support students in breathing properly, knowing life begins with breath.

When we deepen the breath, we increase lung capacity and that supports reprogramming the nervous and glandular systems. This allows you to have more ability to handle the challenges that you are facing.

By building more life force within, through your breath, you have more control over your feelings and actions.

To begin to assess where you are in relation to depression, you can ask yourself the following questions (from KRI Training Manual):

Do I fearlessly embrace life?

Do I have enough energy to fulfill my goals?

Do I Fearlessly Embrace Life?

When you ask this question, what comes up for you? Are you finding yourself willing to step boldly or are you continuously backing down? When we fearlessly embrace life, we are open to possibility and chance.

We look to life for inspiration and guidance and feel connection to a deeper purpose. When living this way, with our full capacity, life flows.

A telltale sign for me that I haven’t been consistent with my yoga and meditation practice is when I allow fear to creep in: fear of my worth; fear of speaking my truth; fear of what others might think of me.

I find myself taking longer breaks during the day, on the couch numbing myself with social media, and making excuses for not moving forward.

Yet, when I’m on point with my yoga and meditation, life is easier to handle. The challenges and stress will still arise, but I have more capacity with which to handle it.

I realize now that having a daily spiritual practice (of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation) is wonderful for the really good days of my life, but it is necessary for the hard days.

This practice always reconnects me to my basic foundation, which is my breath. When I’m connected to my breath, I am less likely to get caught up in the negativity of unpleasant situations.

Do I Have Enough Energy To Fulfill My Goals?

When you ask this question, what comes up for you? Are you moving through life with zest and vibrancy or are you allowing yourself to stay small? If you are depressed or feeling a sense of depression, you might even find yourself wondering what the point of having a goal is.

When we are depressed, we aren’t seeing fully or clearly and our goals can become fuzzy and too far to reach. We may even get to the stage where we don’t have goals anymore because we question whether or not we’ll be around to see them through.

“Through your breath, your Pranic Body continuously brings the life force and energy into your system.

This allows you to feel fearless, fully alive, and at one with all creation. When your Pranic Body is strong, and your breathing is deep and relaxed, nothing can bother you. You are self-motivated, and you have enough energy to achieve your goals.

All disease starts with an imbalance in the Pranic Body. If your Eighth Body (Pranic Body) is weak, you may have constant low-level anxiety and chronic fatigue. You may try to get energy from food or stimulants. You may be fearful and defensive.” – KRI Teaching Manual

For years I lived a completely unfulfilling life and although never clinically diagnosed, I was depressed much of the time.

Since embracing the skills of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, I now have the technology to move beyond feeling insecure, afraid, worrisome, and anxious.

I can see when my personal pattern begins to shift, and that is when I come back to my practice and my breath.

When we embrace the technology associated with our breath, we move from finite to infinite.

Following is a meditation that can be used to support shifting depression, moving you from finite to infinite. As always, before practicing any Kundalini Yoga Kriya and/or Meditation (as taught by Yogi Bhajan), we begin with the Adi Mantra.

The Adi Mantra is ‘Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo’ and translates to ‘I honor the guru within.

I honor the guru in all things.’ or ‘I honor the love (light, God) within. I honor the love (light, God) in all things.’

Sitting in easy pose (legs crossed comfortably and with a tall spine), close your eyes, bring your hands in prayer pose at the heart center and chant the mantra three times.

This mantra tunes us into the Golden Chain, connecting us to all of the teachers that have gone before us.

Now you are ready to begin the meditation. You can start with practising this meditation for 3 minutes each day and work up to 11 minutes each day for 40 days in a row.

I remember looking at the part of my medical form that stated my diagnosis and reading “Depression”. It was October 2003 and I had just buried my husband of almost 17 years the week prior.

I looked right at my doctor and said “Depression huh? Really! My husband had just died. Yep I am depressed!” I also remember him recommending that I take the Xanax he had prescribed and that I also see someone.

I knew I had a long road to recovery ahead of me but something about that “Depression” diagnosis just didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t make sense. I wasn’t clinically depressed. I was situationally depressed. My husband had just died.

My life as I knew it was over. The sadness and grief I was experiencing were normal human emotions. My grief was deep and if you look at depression symptoms, I could see how that could be my diagnosis.

All of the above were a part of my experience. Yep, a big fat checkmark next to each one, but, the caveat for me was that on an intuitive level, I knew that eventually, my sadness would lift and I would laugh again and even love again.

Those who are clinically depressed cannot see that light at the end of the tunnel. Clinical Depression is a much more serious form of the depression that I was feeling over the loss of my husband.

While I knew that people have their bouts with depression over the course of a lifetime, what I am coming to learn is just how prevalent the more serious form of depression is within our society.

Depression also damages your self-esteem, confidence, and your ability to accomplish daily tasks. It’s as if a dark and gloomy cloud affects how you see the world, yourself, and your future.

The good news is there are some very effective treatments that can help – both traditional and those that are holistic.

So, where does The Law of Attraction fit into all of this? Depression can leave you feeling like a victim. When you are in the muck and cannot see the sun for the clouds no matter how hard you try, it really can feel as though your circumstances are out of your control.

However, when you understand and deliberately use the Law of Attraction, you reclaim your power and that can assist all other treatments immensely.

The Law of Attraction states “That which like unto itself is drawn” or more simply, “like attracts like”. It is a Universal Law that is working in your life whether you believe in it or not.

The law responds to the vibration you emit and the vibration you emit is triggered by the thoughts you think and the feelings associated with those thoughts.

Now, I know you’re probably saying to yourself, “Great! So I’m depressed and I feel like crap and my thoughts are all negative so I am getting more of the same.”

And you are correct but here’s the good news: YOU HAVE THE POWER WITHIN YOU TO CHANGE THAT STARTING RIGHT NOW!

Just to be clear, I am not saying that you can think joyful thoughts and your depression will be cured overnight.

While that may be the case for some, most of us, myself included, tend to work through things a little more slowly.

However, I am saying that you CAN see improvement if you choose to do the work and stick with it! With that being said, the first step in this process is to DECIDE to CHANGE!

You always, always have the power of choice and the decision to get well is your choice.

Once you decide to change your next step is to make the commitment to change. Be willing to do what needs to be done to effect the change you wish to create in your life – to lift the depression that is keeping you stuck.

Craft your commitment statement in a way that motivates and excites you. Post it in several spots throughout your home, car, office so that you see it many times throughout the course of your day.

When you have made your decision and committed to do what needs to be done, you want to begin to shift your focus from what is wrong to what is right in your experience as of this very moment.

Now, I understand that when you are stuck in the muck finding something to appreciate may seem like a monumental task, but trust me when I say there is always something to appreciate! Nothing shifts your vibration faster than developing an attitude of gratitude.

These are just a few examples of the gifts in my experience and there are gifts in yours too! You may have to dig deep to find them but they are there!

Call To Action

My request to you is to put the below steps into action.

If you are feeling depressed – clinically or otherwise – take these 3 steps to begin the process of shifting your vibration:

Make The Decision – Choose To Change

Nothing happens without your decision to make a change. If the way you are feeling right now is not acceptable to you then it’s up to you to take back your power. You and only you are responsible for your perceptions. Choose to change how you are going to perceive your situation.

Make The Commitment

Craft a commitment statement that feels good to you. State your willingness to do what needs to be done to begin the process of healing. For example, you could create a statement, “I commit to doing what needs to be done to begin this process of healing my depression.

I am willing to explore all possibilities, to get the support I need, to see the gifts in my experience and to love myself and give myself some slack as 1 go through this process.”

Create A Gratitude Practice

Every morning, write down 3 things that you are grateful for. You can begin simply with something like being grateful for the air you breathe, or the sun shining, or the roof over your head. Then before you go to sleep, write down 3 more things that you appreciate from the day.

Again, they can be very simple, such as being grateful for having a job to go to, appreciating the phone call from a friend, being able to treat yourself to a movie, you get the idea. When you appreciate Spirit, (Source, God, Universe or whatever language speaks to you) responds with more for you to appreciate.

Remember, the Law of Attraction is at work in your life whether you believe in it or not. Why not choose to be a deliberate creator, take back your power, and leverage the power that creates worlds?

You are an expression of divinity, an awesome creator. You are NOT a victim and you are NOT powerless. Choose to claim your power. Take back your life! Do what needs to be done to heal your depression and live the life you came here to live. The time is NOW! And if you need support, find the perfect support partner for YOU!

The knock on the door echoed and there she was bouncing into my life with a bubble and exuberance for life that was unmistakable and yet simultaneously a cover for a deep deep, sadness.

I felt it in my chest and in my stomach and tucked the realization away; silently thanking the empath within me that had nurtured and moulded my capacity to use my own body as a kind of compass, a barometer for emotions.

In the first few seconds my inner awareness had shown me the inner spilt, the core wound, the laughter, the joy, the larger than life personality was a cover for a deep inner sadness and loss, a maladaptive behavior to survive.

It was a pattern I recognized far too well from a time long past, for it had also been mine in the twenty years following my gramps passing when I was 14.

In an intense mirroring I was witnessing my own reflection of my own soul hole, through different circumstances at the same age.

It has always amazed me how people know instantly when they feel safe and comfortable.

There’s an odd scent of an awareness that their Soul has been waiting for an opportunity for someone they don’t know, to hold Sacred Space so they can just allow their story ~all of it’s contents ~ to just tumble right on out. That’s how it was, the day I met Lucy anyway.

Lucy didn’t have a car of her own, she was in her mid 20’s. Her mum drove her to where we had chosen to work together energetically.

As I opened the door, there was a giggle in her voice, a hesitation as she stepped over the threshold and waved her mum off and her eyes met mine fleetingly before looking away and down.

She was kinaesthetic, a deep feeler, emotional, open with few boundaries, an empath and she chatted non-stop; she was nervous, not knowing quite what to expect and having seen many people previously in the past who dissected her story apart and neatly categorized her.

There was a mammoth duality, she radiated the most incredible love, intensely overwhelming and unconditional in its essence but she wasn’t comfortable in her own skin.

She apologized profusely for aspects of her being, within minutes of meeting me and her body signaled messages to my NLP aware brain and I listened, acutely aware in that instant that she had a story to share and a powerful one at that.

She talked lots and I could feel that she was extremely anxious. So, I shifted my breath deliberately, slowing it right down, making it cool and calm and honed my energy, setting an intention of love and openness and a willingness to receive.

She responded almost instantly as her breath began to match mine and her talk slowed, to a far less excitable pace.

Lucy didn’t want a cup of tea or coffee, so I kept the energy calm as I slowly made myself one and then came to sit by her side.

I knew from our previous conversation at introduction that she was interested in new age paraphernalia and was desperate for a tarot reading but I also knew immediately, that was not where her answers lay.

As she reeled off the countless people she’d seen and how they’d impacted upon her life, energy and capacity to trust, I knew instantly that my role was to assist Lucy to trust to go within herself for answers, to learn to listen to her body’s communications.

It was not about me giving her answers or neatly diagnosing; Lucy was here to experience for herself who she really was, to connect with herself and begin to unravel the ball of experiences that stopped her listening to her own inner truths.

Tarot was not on the agenda for now, she needing grounding, to learn to feel safe within her body. To connect to the earth plane to begin to know who she was, not who others had told her she was.

I asked her why she had answered the call to work with me because I wanted to gauge some idea of her ego strength. She looked me straight in the eye and told me I was a ‘good egg’.

I had not been expecting that but I laughed and laughed and laughed, it came in waves and I could not stop it; it shifted the energy instantly and I knew that she needed to learn to trust in relationships for, as she’d already told me, she had been betrayed far too many times…and so we began.

Lucy had had a long and abusive relationship with drugs and alcohol from an early age.

She’d met countless people who’d manipulated her, countless people who’d taken advantage of her sweetness, countless people who’d messed with her self perception, countless people who’d analysed and categorized her but very few who’d actually help her begin to see who she really was.

She had not felt ‘at home’ within her body from an early age and had dabbled chemically and increasingly from about the age of 11 to try to escape the pain of feeling so intensely within this world; a reality we empaths understand so succinctly.

She had very limited personal boundaries and looked outside of herself to feel the deep soul hole which she felt so intensely.

Lucy had a boyfriend who adored her, parents who supported her, a dog who read her emotionally like a book but she was looking outside of herself in an endeavor to stay filled up. She’d experienced bullying at school and beyond into her working years.

The dopamine spikes of 10 years of chemical experimentation and endeavor to quelch the pain of feeling so intensely as an empath had patterned her into looking externally for instant gratification.

She spoke easily and openly about her life but the more she talked the more obvious it was that her story was almost rehearsed. She’d learnt not to feel it.

Sure it explained parts of who she was but she’d told it so many times to so many people that it just kind of rolled off her tongue.

I watched her test me, the story building as she checked to see if I’ pull away in shock. Of course, I stayed firm; a constant energy holding sacred space.

That was my role, to create a temenos where the magic of spirit could take over and do the work, bring some pearl of wisdom to the edge of her awareness. Occasionally, it would overwhelm her and she’d look down, caught in the emotions of the moment.

I want to share my journey with Lucy as a case study on depression for you.

In our first meeting we must have talked, listened and clarified for 45 – 60 minutes. It was a double session because I know that connection and creating that space of sacred unconditional trust and positive regard takes time.

She’d shared a plethora of incredibly personal information, some really challenging stuff and it was evident that she’d been betrayed and manipulated in many friendships and relationships; boundaries, this was our first port of call.

She talked extensively about her connection to spirit and how drugs had very quickly opened her capacity to channel the divine and how it simultaneously terrified and fascinated her; Lucy needed to experience her body and the messages it held for her in a very safe way. Her sacral and base chakras, in particular, needed to feel safe to heal.

So, I suggested we begin a healing session and see what came up; knowing that she needed to begin to feel within the body.

We began with a chakra diagnosis and she took herself to the base chakra where she saw a snake curled up at the base of the spine.

Lucy was really surprised by her capacity to see and feel an image within her body, she dreamt with ease but had not expected her own body to talk to her symbolically during everyday walking reality.

As she lay on the healing mat, and witnessed this snake just above the coccyx, she noticed that it was a bright shimmering green.

It watched her everywhere she went and though she was reluctant to go near it she was amazed by how beautiful it was, how it glistened and just witnessed her.

In the timeless state that walks hand in hand with inner work, she spent a long time connecting with her snake, witnessing, watching, allowing bodily sensations, focusing on the image and shifts in it’s movement and her feelings.

She told me, “I know its safe. I can feel its here to protect me but I still don’t want to go near it.”

Following our healing time within the body, Lucy and I spoke about the relevance of the snake. She had no real awareness as to why a snake would have come, so I offered to share my observations.

She was surprised to know that the snake is often connected to being grounded, that its body feels the vibration of the earth ~just as her body felt other people’s vibrational energy as an empath.

Its connection with the earth is an intuitive one, it reads vibration and that was how it communicates and keeps itself safe.

We talked at length about the significance of snake as representing kundalini life force and the flow of energy from base to crown; which is often unleashed unwittingly during the taking of drugs.

We shared the significance of the colour green as a healing colour and that her own life force energy was waiting to shimmer and sparkle.

That one session created massive shifts within Lucy! I’ve been working energetically with Lucy for about 5 months now and the changes in her are phenomenal. She is beginning to see just how amazing she really is.

She has learnt to clear and protect her own energy to keep herself safe, her relationships with others are becoming stronger, her relationship with herself has improved substantially, she asks questions constantly and enthusiastically, she’s learning to embrace life from within and most importantly I have not heard her apologise for her own beingness in ages.

Lucy’s natural love of life and people is contagious and she recently celebrated almost 7 months of being drug free!

It has been the greatest privilege to watch her begin to step into her power and allow herself to unravel the magic of who she really is and begin to develop a strong, real and deeper self-love connection.

The first time I came across Forensic Healing was on 2nd April 2014, my mother-in-law’s birthday to be exact (I’ve always been good with remembering dates and where I was at certain times).

I was perusing the internet, reading various news items, when something caught my eye to the side of the screen, (you know the info that is always advertised for us to catch) just the words “Energy Healing” and a picture of the woman that created this Forensic Healing system, jumped out at me.

I went to the site, saw the introduction page and decided to view a 3 minute video.

What is this Forensic Healing System they were talking about? I was getting goosebumps listening to the women that had experienced amazing, hard to grasp, breathless, transformations.

They were shown attending a course and seeing live results, then sharing their own testimonials. WOW! Within 30 seconds I knew this was for me.

The intense energy vibrations that went through my body, and the jet stream of tears that poured from my eyes, made it clear this was something that struck a chord with me! How, why? I didn’t know yet but by my reactions I knew, I needed to know more.

I signed up for an introduction course, found the Forensic Healing Facebook group, connected to the amazing women in the group, and started my journey that has been life changing for me…

We all know how important change is to one’s physical, spiritual, and emotional soul can be. It’s liberating, it’s unshackling the chains or baggage, its breath and renewing of you that no one else can imagine.

I know, and have always known, that we reach crossroads, for whatever reason that may be for each individual in their life, that helps you make a profound change in your directions or see a clearer picture.

I had been unwell for a few years, I thought I had been doing all the right things, but undoubtedly this was my spiritual side (I know my guides) telling me I wasn’t!

So What Exactly Is Forensic Healing?

Well in simple terms, Forensic Healing is “the investigation and establishment of facts and evidence about a person’s condition with a new holistic healing system to restore purity, integrity, health and wholeness”.

Forensic Healing is regarded as the deepest, simplest and most effective healing experience to release pain, trauma and stress fast.

Forensic Healers help answer long standing questions regarding life struggles for those suffering from chronic physical, emotional, spiritual conditions, behavioural and relationship problems.

Forensic Healing Can Find The Real Cause To Bring Lasting Change

Forensic Healing is known for just how deep and fast an issue can be released. With over 90 healing pathways you can be assured, as we dig deep to help solve even the most challenging physical, emotional, and spiritual conditions.

This healing system gets to the core using logic and intuition to help balance relationships, financial blocks, health conditions, or anything that causes stress or pain in your life.

Physical, Emotional, Spiritual Aspects Forensic Healing May Help With

We cover karma, negative energies, past-life issues, contracts, curses, aura damage, possessions, attachments, lost souls, kundalini activation, power source, tree of life activation, healing words of power, awakening of gifts and many others.

Forensic Healing was designed using a structured approach to find the who, what, where, when and why of a person’s condition. When doing a healing, it’s exciting when we figure out the cause of a condition.

As in the exact detail, the who, what, where, when and why, would bring about immediate healing.

In a session we begin profiling patterns, collecting evidence about a condition, analysing the evidence and reconstructing the whole story to determine the cause, beliefs, thought and behaviour that has damaged the intelligence of the DNA – the blueprint of life in every cell.

We have found that the core problem in all conditions is damaged DNA. Identifying the cause of damaged DNA allows specific healing vibrations to be targeted for reconnecting and realigning the DNA.

Balance relationship stress, financial blocks, health conditions or anything that causes stress or pain in your life.

A Focus On Women

Although Forensic Healing techniques are changing the lives of women, men, children and animals, we focus on teaching women. We see the key to progressing our world is through freeing women first – the influence upon children, future generations and men will follow.

Our vision is to heal the deep wounds of women, break-through the suppression and negative archetypes that have kept women bound so we can heal the world.

Why Choose Me For Your Healing Experience?

“I Know, Like I Know, Like I Know” (a great statement that Iyanla Vanzant has used and it totally resonates with me).

Though I may only have been recognised as an Intuitive Energy Healer for a relatively short time I don’t profess to have done a variety of courses or modalities, life is my learning, I am so passionate about the faith that I have in this healing system, and that ultimately gives me a unique heightened awareness of this new found ability.

I’ve always felt something deeper, a longing, ever since I was a young girl. I’ve had many spiritual experiences over the years, though I didn’t respect the calling of this deep trust.

Forensic Healing has given me this amazing ability to use what I’ve always felt I had a handle on, our intuition, but at a much deeper level, and now the healing aspect, I’m totally amazed.

A sense of wisdom playing a greater role and a longing to accept what I’ve been told is inevitable as part of my souls journey.

I know my soul is aligning with my personal physical being, like a fork in the road, two paths running parallel coming to that tree in the middle of the road, and now stepping through that tree to continue straight ahead on this spiritual healing road.

In the olden days it was called melancholia, today it is called depression and it is one of the major psychological problems of the developed world.

It could be described as a sense of despair or helplessness, a lack of self-esteem with no enthusiasm or interest in the surrounding.

Sometimes there are also physical symptoms such as sleeplessness, lack of appetite and a general loss of energy and enthusiasm for life.

Feelings of moroseness, uselessness, lack of energy, inability to sleep, and a poor attitude toward life in general seem to be common amongst many people.

Depression causes a pessimistic view of things and most of the time the thoughts that accompany the feelings are completely unnecessary but how do we stop those thoughts.

The reasons for depression are most likely different in each person, often it’s a result of circumstances. I remember being told by a counsellor many years ago that the depression I suffered was due to the external circumstances in my life.

In other words when everything was going well and I was engaged in life I seemed happy. This made me look at my life and observe what was happening in the times that I felt depressed.

By observe I mean to look at all the aspects, the thoughts the actions or non-actions, the circumstances that surround the diagnosis or the label if you like.

The most beautiful discovery was that everything changes, and that this so called thing that seemed to cripple me at times and indeed stopped me enjoying life was actually manageable and better than that, transformable!

In spite of what a person who is suffering depression may think, it is actually very easy to overcome depression from a spiritual point of view. It is not at all as difficult as some of us imagine.

It is actually a matter of perspective or point of view, which is based on the mental disposition.

This attitude and perspective is what must be changed. Mind has the mysterious power of magnifying a problem and making it appear formidable and bigger than it is. Do not listen to the promptings of the mind. Reject them ruthlessly and throw them out.

Although spirituality may not be able to cure all forms of depression completely, it will certainly help.

In many cases, developing oneself spiritually can lay the groundwork so that if you are depressed, you may change your view which may allow you to rise above a depressed state of mind.

In other cases, it can lift you right out of any depression or despair that you may feel.

If we really start by observing our thoughts we discover that the mind is quite negative at times. In fact I like to explain it from the perspective of states of consciousness. We are either operating from the lower consciousness or the higher consciousness.

The lower consciousness is always repetitive, compulsive and destructive and the higher consciousness is always creative, expansive and auspicious.

When we start to observe our thinking we will notice the parrot on our shoulder that tells us things are bad, nothing is going to work out, how bad we are and how bad we feel and guess what happens then, we spiral into the feelings and experiences that are created by those thoughts.

Now you may say but how do I get rid of the thoughts?

Well I don’t think you can but I do know that once I become aware of them, I immediately have a choice as to whether I engage and entertain that particular movie of my mind or whether I re focus and move to something more enjoyable.

Ultimately the journey needs to be from the head to the heart. Our heart is over 5,000 times more powerful than our brain, our heart is trustworthy as is life if we just meet it through our heart with the curiosity of a child and the wisdom of an adult.

Each moment in life is an invitation to fully live and appreciate all the flavours that are offered to us in this journey of being human.

The problem is very simple, when experiences that we want and like are presented to us we say yes to them and we experience joy and happiness, but when life presents us with something that we interpret as negative we run away from the experience.

We do this by labelling what’s going on by interpreting it, by telling a story about it, by justifying, by blaming, by judging etc, when all that is actually needed is to directly experience what is happening in the moment. We need to do this through the sensory body.

So instead of avoiding we allow and say yes to the experience and the wonderful thing is that all feelings and situations directly experienced turn back to the peace and joy we are searching for.

We need to be engaged in life we need to enjoy our physical bodies by inhabiting them and to do this we need to move and we need to have a purpose. The purpose does not have to be huge or difficult, we can start with small things.

One thing that can be very helpful is to have a look at things that make you happy. Small things that are achievable, that you can do each day that will help to put a different perspective on your life.

Being willing to feel deeper than our stories, deeper than our emotions into the source of our own precious heart is the key to transformation and I have found the key to being able to overcome depression.

I mentioned earlier the art of observation, this is an important step as it helps us to discover the triggers and once we are aware we can catch ourselves at any point and make a decision to move in a different direction.

In the beginning it’s a bit like training the brain, the mind and deliberately choosing to not engage in the thoughts. You see if you really track it, you will discover that there is first of all a thought although it may seem that only the feeling is there.

This is why we must really be honest and look deeply inside which may require the help of a practitioner at first.

There is a saying I like to share “To see is to be free” we are all on some level looking for love, freedom and peace and often the journey through depression is the very gateway we need to find this.

Being depressed is okay, indulging in the depression, landing in the layer of self-pity and resisting the deeper feelings is the suffering.

Remember your heart is so trustworthy more that your interpretations will ever be so please allow yourself to sink into the longing into the love that is always here and you will be very surprised at the beauty and life-force that is awaiting you…

I think the deepest cure we can find for our depression is first to accept it rather than be depressed about being depressed and then we can access the love in our hearts. Once we have activated love, we can activate gratitude and from her we can just simply fall in love with love.