Depression tip 34: Creating Space

One of the biggest things I've learned in therapy is that it's possible to create space around your emotions, around your thoughts, and around your beliefs. So often, if we're in something like depression, if we're struggling with our mental health, then what we're thinking, we can identify strongly with, and there's kind of an energy with it.💙

It's a condensed energy, a constricting kind of energy, that everything is intense, it's all black and white, and it has to be immediately acted upon. And that can apply to our feelings, to our thoughts, and to our self -beliefs.💙

And the thing that therapy has done is show me that it's possible to open up and be expansive around those feelings, thoughts, and beliefs. So what do I mean by creating space? Well, I mean trying to slow down in the moment.💙

Nothing has, almost nothing has to be acted on immediately. So you can take a few seconds to explore what's going on. What is exactly that you're feeling? What's come up for you and why? Is it actually what the person said that's making you feel that way?💙

Or is it a belief you've got about yourself? And can you put a name to the feeling, to the emotion? Can you try to understand what's going on for you? And then the same for your thoughts. What is your, what are you thinking in any given moment?💙

And how is that affecting your feelings? And where did the thought come from? Did it come from a core belief that's old, an old part of you that may be struggling with what it heard and is reactive to what it heard?💙

And that's kicking off in the different feelings that are coming up for you. So having that ability to take some time and investigate what's going on and feel into it is really important. It allows more spaciousness around what's going on, more open -mindedness, more shades of gray, and less black and white.💙

So instead of being constricted, it's expansive.💙