Here is a wonderful article that describes the usefulness (necessity, really) of sitting with negative, difficult emotions instead of labeling them ‘bad’ and avoiding them at all costs. The Hakomi Method (mindfulness-based psychotherapy) allows the client to do just that in the session. Check out this article if you’re feeling grief, despair or fear.
There is also a link to the left with more information about the Hakomi Method.

How the Light Gets In

(CBS) What causes depression? Scientists have identified all sorts of things, from emotional stress and substance abuse to having the wrong genes. And now a provocative new study suggests a cause of depression that few may have suspected:

Taking antidepressant medication.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology, showed that depressed people who use antidepressants are far more likely to suffer a relapse of major depression than those who avoid antidepressants.

For the study, McMaster University evolutionary psychologist Dr. Paul Andrews and his colleagues analyzed dozens of previously published studies to compare outcomes for patients who used antidepressants to those for patients who used placebos.They found that antidepressant users have a roughly 42 percent chance of a relapse, as compared with a 25 percent chance for those who shun antidepressant pills.

In other words, the pill poppers are almost twice as susceptible to future bouts of depression – a problem that an estimated 40 percent of all people experience at some point in their lives.

Why would drugs doctors prescribe to alleviate depression cause it to recur? Dr. Andrews told CBS News that antidepressants of all types interfere with the brain’s regulation of two neurotransmitters, serotonin and norepinephrine. And once an individual stops taking antidepressants, the brain “overcorrects,” triggering new depression.

“These drugs do reduce symptoms, probably to some degree, in the short-term,” he said in awritten statement. “The trick is what happens in the long term. Our results suggest that when you try to go off the drugs, depression will bounce back. This can leave people stuck in a cycle where they need to keep taking antidepressants to prevent a return of symptoms.”

What’s the take-away message of the study for people experiencing depression?

“I am not a clinician,” he said. “But if it were me, I would certainly avoid antidepressant medication if at all possible. Talking therapies work just as well if not better than antidepressants, and they don’t have this increased risk for relapse.”

Here is a wonderful TED talk from Karen Armstrong.

“The impulse to heal is real and powerful and lies within the client. Our job as therapist is to evoke this healing power, meet its tests and support it in its expression and development. We are not the healers. We are the context in which the healing is inspired.” Ron Kurtz (Hakomi author and trainer) Hakomi is an approach that uses the body’s experiences as a source of information.

“To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life.  All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical.  I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.  Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.  But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”  Conan O’Brien

If you dismiss things immediately if they sound like a cliche, you might be missing some good stuff. Cliches are simply “unoriginal ideas” — and that’s fine. There are some good ideas that have been floating around for a while. Try this one on: “Be grateful for what you have.” Yawn, eye-roll, dismiss. Try it. Write down 5 to 7 things you’re glad about every night before you go to sleep for one week. Read all the entries each night. See what happens. (Hint: If you can’t think of things you’re grateful for, try thinking about the things you don’t want that you don’t have.) It’s best to do right before you turn out the light to go to sleep. Consider what you usually think about as you fall asleep? An assortment of worries or concerns, slights from difficult co-workers, things you need to remember… Negativity and chaos, really. If you purposefully inject the positive into your brain (think the movie The Matrix without the big machine and the pain) then the negative worries and concerns get bumped out. The positive isn’t fluff. It’s real things in your life that you’re actually grateful for, you just tend not to notice. We tend to have a pretty tight focus on what’s wrong with our lives, and ourselves for that matter. With that tight a focus, you’re really missing the big picture. Sometimes our minds need a manual focus adjustment to see the real picture. Try it out and let me know what you notice.

Laurence Gonzales has written two books, Deep Survival and Everyday Survival. This article, based on the book of the same title, is a wonderful example of how changing your thinking can change your experiences dramatically. While you may not be in danger of starving to death or you may not be lost in the wilderness, his research into survival applies as directly to starving for happiness or being lost in your challenges without a way out.

Everyday Survival
by Laurence Gonzales

Most survival guides fail to consider some very useful tools: an individual’s character, wits, and worldview. The tips assembled here will change the way you approach each and every day—and help you survive a particularly bad one.
Read more »

Our Deepest Fear
by Marianne Williamson
from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? … Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory … that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.