How to Handle Depression

Depression is an inescapable aspect of the human condition that everyone experiences at some time in their life. Whether you yourself are experiencing depression or someone close to you is, it is helpful to understand the basic nature of three types of depression:

Chemically-related depression. Some forms of depression are chemical in nature (such as an imbalance of hormone chemistry or neurotransmitter activity in the brain). If you or someone you know suffers from ongoing debilitating depression, it may be chemical and medical assistance should be sought to determine if this is the case.

Depression from loss or trauma. Some forms of depression are due to sudden loss or trauma. Depression of this nature is natural and healthy, for awhile. If you suffer this type of stress-related depression, it is very important to allow yourself to feel the loss and pain, but not to dwell in it. Feel the loss or sadness as deeply as you can while also maintaining a connection to source.

Meditation is a wonderful practice for doing this. In your meditation, center your awareness on your physical body, while also watching your thoughts. Allow the thoughts to pass as though they are clouds moving across the sky. If a thought begins to dominate your awareness, take a deep breath into that part of your body where you feel the emotional pain. Allow compassion to fill your heart as you intensely focus your awareness on the sensations in your body. The experience of pain, when felt fully, is also the experience of aliveness. When we fully feel our pain, our thoughts subside and we are able to be present with ourselves.

Do not try to push away the emotional pain or cover it up or distract it with activities. When you are going through a time of loss and grief, you deserve to give yourself extra attention. Inward attention.

Depression due to loss of source. Most forms of depression, mild or severe, arise from ego identification. In every person, there is a dimension that we would call the eternal or the sacred. This is our source, it is the presence of our being. If we constantly distract ourselves from presence, if we are so identified with our ego and its content, we are cut off from presence. This too is a type of loss, and for those who truly desire to awaken, it can be the most painful loss they ever experience.

Our ego is an unhappy self. It can experience superficial happiness from time to time, but this happiness is always short and fleeting and soon you are unhappy again. True and lasting happiness can only come from connection to your source.

More is said about this and how to be with other people's depression in this video segment:

Eckhart Tolle's Life and Teachings

Eckhart Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.

The Spiritual Teacher and author was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, Eckhart began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 Eckhart has lived in Vancouver, Canada.

Eckhart's profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that Eckhart sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.

Eckhart is a sought-after public speaker and teaches and travels extensively throughout the world. Many of his talks, intensives and retreats are published on CD and DVD. Most of the teachings are given in English, but occasionally Eckhart also gives talks in German and Spanish. In addition to The Power of Now and A New Earth, Eckhart has written a book designed for meditative reading entitled Stillness Speaks. A book consisting of selections from The Power of Now is also available, entitled Practicing the Power of Now .

Teachings of Eckhart Tolle

Tolle's non-fiction bestseller The Power of Now emphasizes the importance of being aware of the present moment as a way of not being caught up in thoughts of the past and future. Eckhart's later book A New Earth further explores the structure of the human ego and how this acts to distract people from their present experience of the world. It is the feeding of the human ego that is thought to be the source of inner and outer conflict. Only in examining one's ego may people begin to see beyond it and obtain a sense of spiritual enlightening or a new outlook on reality.

In Eckhart's view, the present is the gateway to a heightened sense of peace. Eckhart states that "being in the now" brings about an awareness that is beyond the mind, an awareness which helps in transcending the ego. The ego means here the false identification with forms and labels: body, mind, thoughts, memories, social roles, life-story, opinions, emotions, material possessions, name, nationality, religion, likes and dislikes, desires, fears, etc. If one is present, one recognizes oneself as the space of consciousness in which the thought or impulse arises. One doesn't lose the self in thought, nor does one become the impulse. Being present is being the space, rather than what happens. Eckhart says that the mind is to be used as a tool, but not let the mind use the person.

The "pain-body" is the emotional component of ego; it is created by the cumulation of suppressed emotions, the suffering of non-acceptance of what is. The size of "the pain-body" differs from person to person; it originates in the person's past conditioning, usually the early childhood.

Eckhart says that our true "identity" is the underlying sense of I Am, which is consciousness itself. Awareness of Being is self-realization and true happiness. Eckhart states that we people are very important, because we are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.

Eckhart believes that all wanting implies that the future is more desirable than the present. As long as you want something, you are seeking to reach some point in the future that promises fulfillment. Thereby you are making the present moment as well as the other persons into a means to an end. You don't need future or future lives to find yourself, and you need to add nothing to you to find yourself.

Eckhart teaches that the New Testament contains deep spiritual truth as well as distortions, which are due to a misunderstanding of Jesus' teaching. Eckhart teaches that when you are present, you access your inner knowing and you will sense what is true and what was added on or distorted.

In Eckhart's view, love comes into existence when you know who you are in your essence and then recognize the "other" as yourself. It is the end of the delusion of separation, which is created by excessive reliance on thinking. This shift in consciousness for most people is not a single event but a process, a gradual disidentification from thoughts and emotions through the arising of awareness.

Eckhart's Core Teachings

1. You are not your thoughts. You are the awareness behind the thoughts. Thoughts are often negative and painful, yearning for or fearing something in the future, complaining about something in the present or fearing a matter from the past. However, the thoughts are not you; they are a construct of the ego. Awareness of your thoughts without being caught up in them is the first step to freedom.

2. Only the present moment exists. That is where life is (indeed it is the only place life can truly be found). Becoming aware of the "now" has the added benefit that it will draw your attention away from your (negative) thoughts. Use mindfulness techniques to fully appreciate your surroundings and everything you are experiencing. Look and listen intently. Give full attention to the smallest details.

3. Accept the present moment. It is resistance to the present moment that creates most of the difficulties in your life. However, acceptance does not mean that you cannot take action to rectify the situation you are in. What is important is to drop resistance so that you let the moment be, and that any action arises from deeper awareness rather than from resistance. The vast majority of pain in a person's life comes from resistance to what is.

4. Observe the pain-body. Years of conditioned thought patterns, individually and collectively, have resulted in habitual emotional reactions with an apparent personality of their own. During "pain-body attacks", we become completely identified with this "pain identity" and respond from its agenda -- which is to create more pain for ourselves and others. Observing the pain-body is awareness itself arising, as it allows humans to separate from this unconscious identification with pain.