Healing Depression, Finding Empowerment!

Depression is not a pleasant state of being to exist in! I know, I have been there. I was stuck in depression for long periods throughout my teens and twenties and didn’t think I would ever be free of it! 

Now, entering my forties, I have not been stuck in depression for years. I have felt depressed at times and had fear of my depression returning but once I knew the path out of depression, I couldn’t be stuck there again. 

In this blog, I will unpack with you what depression is, how I began to move away from it and the key understanding that has stopped me from ever being stuck there again… personal empowerment!

Looking back on my depression I can see that I was depressed for a good reason! I had become so disconnected from life, my heart, what lit me up, what I felt was right, good and true in the world, I felt completely hopeless. Life had no meaning, it felt like there was no point in anything any more because I was suffering so much. I was mentally exhausted, physically burnt out, emotionally dead and drained. 

I also felt completely powerless to change my circumstances. 

I didn’t know how to be any other way. Looking back I can see I didn’t even know myself! Who I was, what I liked, needed, and enjoyed. What I valued, or cared about or when I did know I felt like those things couldn’t be a part of my life. 

So what changed?

I reached my lowest point, I attempted suicide and made the most empowering choice of my life at that time. I gave up and decided that I would not live in that state any more. I prayed for the first time in probably a decade and told God, if this was life, I didn’t want it any more! If I survive then I want something better. 

I didn’t die. When I came around my reality was the same, I was still in awful circumstances, and I still had all this pain and suffering. Surviving suicide was a dark, gloomy and glum period of my life, filled with drugs, junk food, junk TV, and strained work, plus I was surrounded by people who supported me to do those things. They were also depressed or enabled my depression as part of life. I was scraping through trying to cope and so were they. 

I want to be clear, I do not encourage anyone to attempt suicide! I share my story to prevent it. All I needed to do was give up and admit I was not happy, my life was not how I wanted it to be, and I was struggling. I wanted something better and when I chose to allow that to happen, when I admitted and followed what unfolded. 

I was still depressed but I also had this realisation that something better must be possible. 

I also found a glimmer of faith. That prayer changed my life forever, and the spark it created guided me through my healing journey. This spark would remind me any time I felt depressed, powerless, or hopeless that I am alive and all I need to do to feel a tiny bit better is choose to do something, anything different, helpful or useful and I would feel better. Even if only for a short while. 

So that's what I would do. I would choose. I would make any choice and do it and this spark of empowerment grew and the things I chose helped. The more I did them the more I chose the bigger the spark became, the easier it was to choose, and the less time I felt depressed until I didn’t feel stuck any more. Down sometimes, yes, but never stuck. 

Making these choices helped me learn that there are simple things that we can do that even one step at a time help us out of depression. For me, they were:

• Taking Vitamin D and getting some good nutrition in my body.

• Walking in nature.

• Journalling or writing out how I was feeling or my thoughts.

• Prayer & energy healing. 

• Doing creative or productive activities. 

Since then I have had a long journey to healing and recovery. It has led me to understand energy, mental health and the mind, our body and its needs, and develop a respect for nature and our authentic human nature.

All of this learning means I won’t ever get stuck in depression again. It has helped because knowledge is a form of building empowerment, it gives us choice and experience and builds our strength and resilience so we don’t have to feel powerless or hopeless. Depression can’t exist in those conditions. 

Moving from depression, healing and recovery do take time. But it starts with a choice to take small steps and make new decisions as often as possible towards the idea we have power and can choose how to use it. The more we commit to this idea and feed it through our actions, the more we will leave depression behind and build a life we want, enjoy and feel empowered within.

At Love School your healing and empowerment are important to us and our courses and resources are designed to share the wisdom and knowledge we gained while being a trustworthy guide for your healing journey. 

We think you might find the following courses helpful:

Our Natural, Holistic Recovery course guides you through a life design process and shares steps that support my recovery journey.

Building Your Energetic Power is a course dedicated to a spiritual journey connected with natural wisdom to support a personal empowerment journey. Join the waitlist now to be notified when this course is ready!

If you are struggling with your emotional intelligence, feeling stuck but are drawn to creativity our Emotional ER course will be perfect for you! We explore non-violent communication, emotions and creative expression to help you connect with your authenticity and emotional experience.