How to Deal With Depression: Part Two - What to do About Waking Up with Worry, Stress and Dread

Waking up stressed and how to deal with depression: continued

Suzie: Do you believe people are doomed to worry and stress or can they create new habits? If so, what stops most people from doing something different? What can you say about how to deal with depression if you think you have it?

Laura: "Feeling doomed is a signal that you’ve lost your connection to something crucial and that healing is needed. There are two things that "stop us from doing something different":

1. Fear of change and of the unknown. This is “hardwired”, it is your brain’s way of keeping you safe. No matter how bad the “known” is, at least you are still alive. Your brain figures anything is better than to risk the unknown. Never underestimate the power of safety!

2. We don’t know HOW to change. It’s not that we are “sick” so much as we are learning how to heal and grow. Think about it…the generations before us did not have opportunities for healing. They couldn’t model it for us. We are like pioneers, blazing the trail in personal healing. The healing process is an unknown, it is uncomfortable, and it triggers our safety issues.

The best tip I have on how to deal with depression is to dive in deep. You are not sick, you are a growing, unique, and powerful human being.

Suzie: What actions and mindsets do you most recommend to help people find and feel less worry, stress and dread and find more wake up eager days? (Wake up eager means: Starting and living each day with genuine energy and focused direction.)

Laura: "We ascribe meanings in life and we can’t NOT do so--because we are meaning-making machines! Being careful about what we make meaningful is a huge piece for learning how to deal with depression.

Also, questioning the meanings we make go a long way in changing our experience of life. Byron Katie, a brilliant teacher, advises us to look at our thoughts and to ask, “Is that true?”

Or I can ask, “Since I am a meaning-making machine, what meaning can I make that serves me, that enlivens and empowers me?” Then I can say about my pain, fear, loss, or hardship that my soul intended and destined this experience for my personal growth and evolution.

I know that on the other side of my suffering lies a wiser, stronger, and more compassionate self. I ask “What might I be learning by having this experience?” And…I assure myself that I AM learning and therefore I won’t have to go through THIS again!

If you want to know how to deal with depression, rewrite the meanings you are giving to your life.

Make a list of people that you hold in awe. Who is amazing? Look at all that your fellow human beings accomplish. Aren’t skyscrapers amazing? Cathedrals? Cell phones? Novelists? Artists? Spiritual leaders? Agents of social change? Your big-hearted Aunt?

Hold these amazing people in your heart and mind. YOU are part of that club, YOU are an aspect of the awesome intelligence that flows through all life. This is a most excellent way to raise your energy field. Honestly, life doesn’t stress you in the same way once you “join the club” and feel part of life’s incredible heart, its possibility and intelligence." : Tell us how people can use the tools and resources on your site to manage worry, stress and dread, whether depressed or not. And how to deal with depression.

Laura: "Most cases of worry, dread, and stress arise from deep, learned patterns. They are usually unconscious and impossible to uncover on your own.

Some pages on my site provide ways to trigger your hidden feelings and patterns and bring them into awareness for questioning and reflecting. Worry, stress, dread, learning how to deal with depression, abandonment issues, grief, you name it…are an inside job.

I have a saying, “Knowing better doesn’t make me better.” Problem-solving and thinking (like books and cognitive therapy) generally don’t do the job. Many people are dissatisfied with medication.

I gently provide a counter-message that we have a natural inner light and power to heal. Tap into your inner light, release the unresolved needs and emotions and relationships from the past. Identify and shift unhealthy beliefs. When you change from the inside out, life circumstances follow suit--like day follows night.

There are many techniques we can practice to raise our “vibration” (which is always good). However, without identifying and shifting the underlying issues, we just end up with yet more “to do”. Boy, do I ever know THAT pitfall...and it is not how to deal with depression! My site activates those who understand the power of inner change to do sessions with me. Sessions are the best tool I know of."

Suzie: What do you think are the things that stop most people from waking up eager more often?

Laura: "Once you shift from life as a problem to be solved (or endured) to an exciting challenge for growth, waking up eager flows naturally. The “key to life” as well as how to deal with depression is knowing that you can handle (and grow from) any experience that life gives you. Once you truly own that place inside you, you are good to go."

Suzie: What things do you personally do to stay energized, focused and interested in your work and in writing about how to deal with depression?

Laura: "I see snags and slumps as opportunity for my own growth. I know I can help myself so I do a session with myself and shift to a higher level.

I ask for help! I put it out to the universe that I could really use some help and guidance with something (prayer). Then I wait for help to arrive…in the form of inner realizations or in the form of a class or a coach or whatever.

Also, I have learned that I MUST balance, balance, balance. Head with body, sitting with movement, solitude with companionship, learning with being, indoors with outdoors. I love my work. I love translating what I learn into advice on how to deal with depression. My challenge is to make room for “other stuff”!"

Suzie: Tell us about "How to Deal with Depression" and your coaching program.

Laura: "There isn’t much to tell. Folks look for help on the internet and find me. We do a few sessions and they feel better. That’s the program in a nutshell. I do sessions for people who want them (and that is the secret ingredient…they WANT them). So I don’t have a “program”.

People feel better faster than they expect to. They pretty much always have deep shifts with three sessions. Many choose to do on-going maintenance (like once a month) and others just come back for more when they hit a new snag (when they are ready for another level of growth). I am so fortunate to attract highly aware and intelligent people. I had some concerns about who I would attract via the net, but it has worked out beyond my wildest dreams."

END

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