Life seems bleak
Here we are looking at the last of the three responses to stress: depression. Instead of worrying or getting angry, you retreat in your own shell and want to forget that the world ever existed. All you want to do is go to bed and pull the cover over your face and forget about everything. You might be tearful and struggle with both sleep and eating patterns. Your sex drive is also suffering from it and you might even have very dark thoughts. The world seems a very dark place to live in.
Wanting to get better is the first step
Treating depression with hypnotherapy does not have to take years nor medication. What you need is just the will to get out of it. How do you do that? By taking small steps and sticking to the Now. Forget about the past, forget about the future, live in the now.
Whatever brought the depression onto you might no longer be relevant to your current situation but your mind keeps it alive: someone upset you as a child, you didn't get the promotion that you dreamed of, etc. Your mind, in order to exist and rule your life, needs to anchor you both in the past and the future. For this reason, it drags you away into those areas and stops you living in the Now.
When you are depressed your endorphin levels are almost non existant and even if you have reasons to be happy about your life, you cannot see them. You are blind to things that could make you happy. Your serotonin levels are so low that you can't lift your spirits. When you get so low, anti-depressants can help but only if you are producing a minimum of serotonin and for that you need good sleep - and sleeping pills do not give you that. If you are at ground zero it's like flocking a dead horse. You need to retrain your mind to see things differently.
Getting the serotonin and the dopamine flowing
It's hard to know how to do this but as I said earlier: small steps are the best. First, read my section about how the mind works and get to grasps with the vicious circle that your emotional mind has created for you. I find that this understanding alone can help my clients move on and free themselves from their depression.
Possibly after you have done that, get a reiki treatment to clear your energy field. Depression, especially if it has been lingering for long, will have created an energetic imprint that will make it difficult for you to snap out of it. Make an appointment with me at
If you're not local to me or if you don't know a reiki practitioner in your area, why not buy my relaxation and reiki CD in the Shop.
Then get the juices flowing in your body. Get a massage, go to a yoga class, start going for a walk ten minutes a day. Get plenty of fresh air, even if it rains. Rejoice in the beauty of a flower, a snow flake, enjoy the company of a pet. I know this may sound like too much at the moment but trust me, you need to make that first step. The second one will be easier, and the third easier until you will learn to walk again and you will even wonder how you found this all so difficult to think about.
Start a gratitude journal
It might be difficult at first but I want you to write down three things each day that you are grateful for. It can be really small things like "I really enjoyed my shower today. Knowing that not everyone enjoys such a privilege as a house and hot water, I feel really blessed to feel the cleansing and warm water to start off my day". Three things. And when you get a moment in the day when you start feeling down again, revise your gratitude journal. Why not buy one of the magical diaries in my shop to start your journal?
It could be someone you know who makes you feel really good. Be grateful. Concentrate on those little nuggets. It will attract more of this into your life.
Stop watching the news
I am always appalled at the light (or should i say the lack of it) that the news thrown on life and the world. We are so used to the doom and gloom that we get bombarded with, that we don't even sit back and put it in perspective. The media is on a chase for the most sensational piece of horrible news: murders, theft, abuse, hurricanes, wars, atrocities, financial disasters, exploitation, you name it: they have it for you. But to be true, these are not representative of the real world. Of course they exist but why put the emphasis on it so much? They feed on your fear. It is their business. But if you let them get under your skin by letting it all in without a filter (your own intellectual mind) then you are feeding your emotional mind and flooding your body with adrenaline and fear. Now that you have read my section on how the mind works, you know it doesn't help you feel happy. When you start feeling better, you can resume watching the news, but for now, give it a miss.
Shift from your emotional negative mind to your creative intellectual mind
This is the only way you will beat depression.
I also want you to understand that you are not your depression. I hear people say that depression runs in the family, or that once depressed it creates a weakness that you need to combat all your life or even that they have a gene of depression. Nonsense. You wouldn't introduce yourself to someone and say "Hi, I broke my leg. I know I am doomed and probably this means that I will have a broken leg all my life." So stop mentioning that you are depressed or that you have mental health issues. You are not your illness. You can wake up and snap out of it.
The mind is our biggest enemy if we don't learn how to use it. This is your lesson at this point. Step out of it. Teach your mind who is the boss. Maybe it's time you tried hypnotherapy? To make an appointment, call 07914606729.