HOW-TO

Bring your awareness to your heart space. As you respond to the questions, let your responses rise up from your heart space. If you notice your attention is in your head, breathe "through your heart". Get still and receptive. DO NOT PROBLEM-SOLVE.

It is good to take notes and make a list, rather than have one answer. Often, it is at the bottom of a list that the "AHA~!" happens.
So stay with it...

Forget about whether you are being "negative" or blaming or any other evaluations.

1. When you were a child...

a) What needs of yours went unmet? (make a list)

b) What needs did your parents or family have, that went unmet? (make a list) (you might have to speculate...and that is okay).

c) As you remember your early childhood, what do you remember feeling? (make a list)

    "Depression is a prison whose foundation stone is the  
     unquestioned belief that you are intrinsically un-
     acceptable to yourself and others, and that you have 
     to spend your life trying to be good in the way that 
     you define "good". Setting yourself impossibly high 
     standards, you become an expert in feeling guilty." 
                   Dr. Dorothy Rowe, clinical psychologist


      "Make peace with your past so it won't screw up 
       the present".  Regina Brett, Columnist

Is everything about the past? ...Only if you don't deal with it!

The questions in Depression Self Help 3 may trigger feelings lying beneath the surface. If you become "triggered"...(emotional, spaced out, upset, angry, etc.), please go to Emotional Release. These emotions have been blocking your energy for a long time. This process releases pain and gets positive energy flowing again. Emotional release is key to depression self help...

Accepting and supporting your needs is crucial to your depression self help!

If you feel weird, guilty or undeserving about your needs...it shows how neglected your needs are.

 
     "When our basic life needs are not met we stop 
     resonating with what is positive and life-enhancing. 
     Our confident self-image gives way to 'there’s 
     something wrong with me'.” Chloe Faith 
     Wordsworth, Founder of Resonance Repatterning tm 

d) Which of the mental-emotional states listed below did you adopt? Make a note of all that fit.

e) Can you narrow down to the few that eventually became a part of you? How are they still a part of you?

f) As you re-connect with your childhood feelings, imagine yourself in a body position that matches those feelings. Are you crouched, curled in a ball, collapsed? rigid?

This body position can be seen as a visual representation of your "stance in life".

     Remember, this is the way you learned to cope 
     because you did not know a better way. These 
     feelings are not "you".       

     Recognizing ancient, unconscious patterns 
     is a critical step in depression self help. 
     Can you see that your depression is related 
     to patterns from the past? This awareness 
     helps with seeing yourself with compassion 
     and frees you from the past. Laura Frisbie, M.Ed., CRRP