A little light on depression

A number of people have been emerging in my coaching life just lately who are going through what we might call depression. I choose that word carefully because, like words like 'divorce', 'cancer' and 'Voldemort' ('he who shall not be named,' in the Harry Potter books) they generate a kind of aura around them that can stop people looking them straight in the eye, feeling any authentic feelings that arise and being open to seeing what's truly going on.I sometimes find myself smiling inside when someone mentions to me that they have depression - not because I'm any kind of sadist, because - like any sensitive person who has found it challenging adjusting to living in a society that doesn't always seem to make much sense - I have experienced it for myself in the past and it can be hugely challenging. I smile because, to me, depression is a healthy thing - a sign that the soul is rising up... calling for change. And when that happens within any person, I feel deeply happy.In fact, to me, depression is not so much an illness as a spiritual crisis - the soul is throwing up everything in us  - everything 'low vibration'  that is - that is stopping us from moving forward on our path of spiritual evolution - and challenging us to look at it.And the challenge here is, rather than to fill ourselves full of drugs and suppress our authentic emotion (though of course drugs have their place in some conditions - and only the individual can choose whether they are the right path for them to take), to look searchingly at what our depression is attempting to mirror back to us - develop a relationship with it - and see what we can learn.And then when we've listened - and more to the point  allowed ourselves to really feel what's going on - then we need to get on and live. In every moment. We need to do more of the things 'that make us go 'mmmmm.....' - the things that spark our souls. Whether that's crazy dancing in our rooms to some of our favourite songs, joining a singing group and singing our hearts out with others, or attuning to nature. Because it is the very energy that is making us feel like not moving - that is encouraging us to stay still in a darkened room, that is criticising and finding fault with the self - that needs to be challenged. We need to take it lovingly by the hand as you would a beloved - and lead it out into the meadows, where all the things that will help us open our hearts again are waiting.  We need to start to connect with the things that we love, that make our souls sing... the things that make us go 'mmmm...'  And though we may not be in contact with the voice of our soul right now, the more we connect with these things, the stronger it'll become.And if, once you go outside, you feel pain because you see the blossoms and the magnolia bursting into flower and you know how it feels to respond to them, but at this moment you just can't - there's a kind of shield between you and everything outside of you - don't beat yourself up about it. Things may feel bleak, but they're bleak for a reason. The feeling will come back but it won't be through denying what is. Be infinitely gentle with yourself. Take it by the hand and lead it into the fields and the gardens.  And as you allow yourself to feel the 'mmmmmmm....' guess what, it'll grow.... and you'll start to see the signs - just a few little signs to begin with -  that you're starting to get your groove back.And before I close this post, I'm going to drop in some words from the wonderful mister Jung, which I rather synchronistically rediscovered this morning while writing on the Little White Feather Facebook page: 'There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.'If you're struggling with depression and would like to start examining the issues through one-to-one coaching (this can be done just as effectively on skype, if you're a way away), then please get in touch.