Extracting oneself from a negative spiral…

Everyone, I believe, at some point in life, has found themselves in some sort of negative spiral of thinking. As humans, I believe it is inevitable to go through ups and downs in our existence. How far down we spiral becomes a platform for our practice and an opportunity for growth.

I have another longer offering this week for you as this theme has been bubbling and in honoring my service to humanity through my writing, it felt important to dive deeply into these waters….

I hesitate to use the word choice because any of you who have suffered from depression and/or a negative imprint of thinking and feeling, knows that in those moments, it does not feel like a choice.

It feels all-consuming …almost like a limb.

I relate to this having spent many years in my early 20s dealing with depression. It became my mission to learn how to work with this negative, downward spiral from a holistic and embodied perspective and approach. I have nothing adverse to say about medication, and truly do believe there’s a time and place for anything. I went through about a year of having to take medication myself in my 20s. This was a deep surrender for me being in the natural health and wellness world, yet I felt desperate and knew I needed to take fierce action.

There is no shame if that is where you find yourself.

Yes, acknowledging this negative spiral is certainly an important step, but then what do we do about this? How do we work with ourselves when we feel consumed by negativity? Consumed by sadness or grief or anger or self-deprecation or fear?? (Which, during these last many years, there’s a lot of validation in sinking into these darker places…)

There are so many different channels, avenues, practices, and ways in which to support ourselves to shift out of this darkness into spaciousness, into possibility. To change the neuropathways of our own brains and the neuropathways in our lives, in our relationships, in our ways of moving through the world.

How do we move through those denser moments when our minds are taking us down a rabbit hole that is causing us harm?

Building upon last week’s blog post/newsletter, meditation is the number one way of shifting the neuropathways in our brains. We train our minds in our sits, which, over time, with consistency and diligence of practice begins to translate into our lives. We can interrupt the cycle of darkness, of negativity, of self-harm, as we learn to find our breath and locate our bodies in the present moment. In those moments, we have the opportunity to remember the power of choice.

It is also important to work with ourselves on an internal level. When we approach our healing from a holistic and embodied perspective, we must come into dialogue with ourselves on every level.

Here are some suggestions for working with our systems from the inside out:

·      Flower Essences: Flower essences work on a cellular level and support our systems emotionally, physically, and spiritually. They can be tremendously powerful to heal deeply ingrained patterns of thinking and feeling. They are subtle, yet potent ways of approaching whatever we have swirling in us. They are safe for everyone (I give to my son all the time and have since he was very small!) and are an affordable and simple way of working with ourselves. I include flower essence therapy in my 1:1 work and am always happy to connect about this if you are interested!

·      Herbal Medicine: I’ve mentioned many times, drinking high quality herbal teas is extremely helpful both for our body and also for our nervous system. I want to highlight here the power of herbal tinctures and taking these herbs directly into our mouths. Tinctures impact the bloodstream more rapidly and are more effective for acute moments of challenge. You can take them directly in your mouth or, if you do not love the taste, can put a couple of droppers into a small amount of water and take it down as a little shot. I LOVE the local company Wish Garden and have a link on my website to order from them. My top go-to’s are: Emotional Ally, Liquid Bliss, and Deep Stress.

·      Mindful Consumption: These are the moments to be mindful about what you are putting into your body on the whole. I am not of the belief that we must restrict our eating, after recovering from an eating disorder. What I do believe in is tuning so deeply into our bodies and our intuition that we start to be able to track what feels nourishing to us, what we actually need rather than what is just a craving, what will help to serve us as fuel and what, perhaps is numbing us or distracting us from feeling the present moment. It is a dance of inquiry with oneself. This includes caffeine and sugar intake as well. Both of which spike our blood sugar and have deep effects on our moods. Bringing consciousness, awareness, presence, and mindfulness to our consumption on every level during these times of feeling compromised, can have profound impact.

When we are going through harder times of life, we may “forget” to breathe. It’s the literal expression of holding one’s breath when we feel challenged, when we are struggling….not allowing ourselves to breathe throughout our entire body.

Try this simple, powerful breathing practice: Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes. Put one hand on your heart, one hand on your belly. Tune into your breath. Now encourage your breath to fill all the way down into your pelvic floor and low belly. Encourage it to now fill into your lower belly button region, rib cage and heart space. Hold the breath in for a moment, tuck your chin under to retain the breath. Then release slowly out the mouth keeping your awareness on your full body breathing capacity. Repeat 3-5 times and then just allow your breath to move naturally. Do this at least once a day during denser times of life.

A few other options and suggestions:

·      Acupuncture/Energy Medicine: Everything is energy and when looking at our human experiences, approaching them from an energetic perspective can provide incredible support. I have received regular acupuncture for over 25 years and also receive regular energy clearing sessions. Absolutely crucial in working with darker times with a holistic approach.

·      Do something/anything that you love, that brings you joy, that shifts your perspective, that gets you out of your head and into your body: And, do them often!!

·      Move your body: Even if you don’t feel like it…we know that exercise is key for mental health yet the irony is that when we are struggling, we often don’t feel like exercising. These are the moments to dig deep and do something, anything that gets your energy moving, your heart rate up, and connects you to your beautiful body.

 The final piece that I really want to hone in on here is this notion around: what we resist, persists….

What I mean here is if we are resisting or pushing away or berating ourselves for feeling down or struggling, the most powerful action you can take on your own behalf is to lean into it rather than punish yourself for already feeling low. Quite often, there is the tendency to beat oneself up for not feeling amazing, for thinking self-deprecating thoughts, etc….but doing so is counterproductive and causes even more harm.

Why not, instead, hold yourself close in these moments…melt into yourself, get curious with yourself, take incredible care of yourself? Have a good cry. Crawl into bed early. Get on the couch and wrap yourself in a cozy blanket like you would swaddle a crying baby. Write about it, draw about it, sing about it, dance about it… But don’t beat yourself up for feeling down!

Don’t punish yourself for your humanness.

 
When we can melt into our experiences, we have the opportunity to shift on a profoundly embodied path of all levels.

Sending the deepest, most authentic love to each of you on your path. I am here in service and support and am always open to connecting if you are in need of help along the way.

Curious about working together? Let’s have a zoom chat and see if it feels aligned.