March 2007 Newsletter- The One Thing You Need If You Are Suffering From Depression

If there really is just one thing you need if you are feeling depressed, it must be pretty big and obvious. After all, I’m the one who is always writing about the individuality of each person’s disease.

But if it’s pretty big and obvious, why write a whole article about it?

Well…first things first. The one thing every depressed person needs is more JOY.

Now, what I want to talk to you about is understanding joy and all of the reasons that it deserts us. Joy is not just a Christmas carol; it is a living, breathing, powerful force within each one of us. We could all use more of it.

At the end you will find a special offer I’m making to any of your friends or family members who would like to break free of their depression and move on with their lives.

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It Doesn’t Work to Just BE Happy
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It is probably obvious to you that if someone started getting out and doing things that they enJOY more, she might feel less depressed. More walks in the park, talks with friends, or salsa dancing can all give a temporary sense of enjoyment.

Why temporary? Emotions do not exist in a vacuum. Simply adding an emotion from the outside, like some kind of pill, will rarely change the emotional environment on the inside. Perhaps you have had that experience: you were feeling blue, so you decided to get off your butt and go out with some friends. However, the next day, when you were alone again, the blue feeling crept back. It was a temporary high that didn’t do much to change you.

Rather than meaningless states of being, emotions have real jobs in the human body, and paying attention to them can give you deep insight into your health.

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Joy and the Heart
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Joy is best understood by knowing the organ with which it is most closely associated: the heart. What does the heart do? On every level, it nourishes and harmonizes. It helps all the parts of your body, mind, and spirit work more effectively and efficiently. This is obvious when your love for your spouse inspires you to be a better person emotionally and spiritually. It is also true in the body.

Your heart helps you realize your potential. So does joy. Carrying out all of these tasks of the heart is the responsibility of joy.

On a physical level, the heart brings nourishment to the far-flung spaces in the body. Science has confirmed that the blood coursing through your arteries will travel farther and faster in an environment of joy than in an environment of frustration. Your fingers are more likely to get cold if you are frustrated than if you are feeling joyful. This is because the joy will help your blood bring heat to your fingers as well as food.

So, if you are living in joy, then you are nourished and warm. You are living at peak performance. You are clicking on all cylinders.

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Joy Creeps Out, Sadness Creeps In
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When I think of joy, I think of kids playing on an elementary school playground.

Now, who do you know who couldn’t, in a million years, get out and have as much fun as those kids? What happened? The joy has been replaced by its opposite: sadness.

Without joy, sadness predominates and all the efficient workings of the body, mind, and spirit grindingly slow down. There is an increase of apathy, a decreased desire to interact with others, a need for increased sleep, etc. When a person’s daily life is impacted by this sadness to a sufficient degree, she might be diagnosed with depression.

So, my obvious conclusion that more joy is the perfect antidote for depression makes sense, but the real questions are “why” and “how?”

Why is there less joy, and how do we get it back?

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Every Depression is Individual
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Remember, joy is sent by the heart to all the corners of the mind and body. But joy does not force its way in. There must be a space for it to enter- joy must be invited.

If any of the other emotions are at unhealthy levels, the space for joy will be diminished. Chronic fear and anger can lead to a sense of overwhelm that will quite literally overwhelm the capacity for joy. Chronic, unresolved grief will do the same thing.

Chronic physical problems can also lead to an overwhelm that will block joy’s access. A huge problem for many depressed people is food allergies. Many naturopathic physicians have cured debilitating depression by taking patients off of wheat or dairy.

The immune system spends so much time attacking the wheat or dairy that it gets overwhelmed. As we all know, it is very difficult to experience joy and overwhelm at the same time.

There are thousands of other reasons that joy is not allowed to do its job. In every case, though, the lack of joy, or sadness, becomes the status quo. Increased sadness leads to some level of depression.

The key to treatment is to uncover and eliminate the blocks so that the sadness is again filled with joy; so that you feel like the the five-year-old on the playground again.

In other words, to treat depression, all of the knots in the body need to be untied and untangled, so that the body can relax and be present in every moment. Because it is only in this relaxed state that joy is allowed to flow in.

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