This is a follow-up article to the first part of a depression article I wrote not long ago. In the last content piece I talked about how, in my experience, a particular posture is characteristic of everyone who has suffered with depression. The posture that I am referring to is one in which there’s an increase in the curve involving the portion of the spine in the area behind the heart and the area in front of the heart is pinched off.

The main reason body posture is so significant is because there exists a direct relationship between our posture and the variety and depth of emotional expression that is possible. In the case of depression, what happens is energetic information wants to flow up through our spinal column but it’s being kept, by the shape of our spine, from flowing through the heart center. As soon as the energetic information gets to the heart, it is being pushed back down by the body posture. When energy is being redirected down like that, it’s as if we are being pushed down into the dirt, so to speak. The possibilities for emotion become restricted to a lot of despondency, dejection, feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness. These emotions have a serious amount of momentum that is challenging to counteract. A feedback loop is generated in which the shape of our spine and the depression are supporting each other.

Our body and life is always wanting to illuminate the solution through symptoms. It’s always an option to go toward the pain, or the depression, in this instance. If one goes toward the depression, it’s possible to have a complete experience of the sensations, thoughts and emotions that go along with the depression. However, that might not be so realistic if we have a family or a job, and so on, but it is one solution. If we had a complete experience of the sensations, thoughts and emotions that go along with depression, sooner or later all of the energetic information that was being held in that depressive sense of self would be liberated. The energy that was bound in the depressive sense of self would become buoyant and start rising up the spine.

At the point where the energy that was involed with the depressive sense of self starts to move up the spine, however, that energy would start to wash into that energetic information which has been stored in the area behind the heart. At that point we’d be invited to metabolize the layers of stuck energy in the area of the heart. Shame, guilt, rage and grief are generally the flavors of undigested energetic information being sequestered around the heart center. When we are dealing with depression and its symptoms, we are really stuck between a rock and a hard place. Our choices are despondency, dejection, feelings of inadequacy and hoplessness, or guilt, shame, grief and rage.

It’s obvious to me why prescription medication is pretty popular, because what prescription medication does is it takes the edge off of all of those strong feelings. This can be a good thing, short-term, because it gives people a respite from the oppressive emotions so they can create some movement in their bodies and lives. It’s not a very good permanent strategy for a few reasons. First of all, our nervous system builds a tolerance to those anti-depression medications and eventually we’d need more medication to have the same effect. Furthermore, emotions exist on a continuum and they are all connected together. When we dampen or restrict the range of the emotions that we can feel on the negative end of the spectrum, it also restricts the range of the emotions that we are capable of feeling on the positive end of the spectrum. So if we limit our ability to feel shame or grief, it necessarily decreases our ability to really feel joy or satisfaction, or love, for that matter. Finally, emotion is the spice of life. Our Soul utilizes emotion to direct us in life. It is vital that we are aware of what excites us since that tells us which direction to go in life. If that emotion is not present we can feel lost and without direction. Our lives can be less fulfilling if emotion isn’t present.

The truth is that in order to heal depression we’re going to have to feel through the sensations, thoughts and emotions associated with depression. This requires inviting the nervous system out of survival mode and inviting life force energy into the heart so that we can make contact with the energetic information there. It is possible to do this in a manner that isn’t too destructive to one’s life. If we can draw your nervous system out of defense, we can start to invite life force energy up through the heart in such a manner that you can integrate the previously sequestered energy into one’s life. As that energetic information from the area around the heart center is integrated and you start to give yourself permission to feel the emotions that are around the heart, the body posture changes, as well. The shifts that occur subsequently, represent a sustainable, permanent transformation in a person’s body and life.