Depression and anxiety can be debilitating, taking us away from our natural sense of peace, happiness and enjoyment of daily life. These conditions are widely prevalent in our world today. Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to The World Health Organisation (WHO). Globally 1 in 13 people suffers from anxiety (futurity.org). Depression and anxiety are the results of imbalances in our emotional and energetic body.

Depression is when we keep our feelings trapped in our body, and they are unable to flow freely through our energetic system. If you notice small children, they are capable of feeling happy, then angry that someone stole their toy, then sad because they didn't get their way and back to happy again; all in the space of ten minutes. This is because they do not hold onto, repress or dwell on their emotions. If we hold onto our emotions, t can lead to mental unrest and if done over long periods it can even lead to disease (which means lack of ease in the body).

Sometimes children are taught (or conditioned) not to feel, by adults, as they learn that certain feelings are unacceptable. Ideally, we learn that all our feelings are acceptable and how to express them in healthy ways, that are not damaging to others.

As an adult, with depression, it is often helpful to learn to tap into our true or authentic feelings and let them flow freely through our body. When suffering from depression we can feel heavy and tired due to the effort, it takes to keep our feelings inside. This can likened to the effort it takes to hold a beach ball under water. When we learn to observe and validate our feelings without judgment they flow through our energetic system. Our feelings will then unable to control of us; we are instead in control of our feelings. We are the master of our feelings rather than a slave to them.

When we learn to observe and validate our feelings, without judgment they flow through our energetic system. This results in us being in control of our feelings. We become the master of rather than a slave to them.

It is essential, particularly at the beginning of your journey, if you find your feelings overwhelming (often due to a past experiences or traumas) that you get the support of a professional therapist to support you. A therapist is a specialist in emotions. They can help you normalize your feelings and support you in releasing them until you can do so yourself.

Meditation is also a wonderful tool to learn how to let your feelings flow through your energetic system. The wiki article: How to Develop a Peaceful Mind can help with this process.

Anxiety is when we repeatedly think over and over again (obsessing) worrying thoughts about the future. These are fear-based (FEAR = false expectation appearing real) thoughts about an event that has not yet occurred. Relieving anxiety is about learning to master our thoughts rather than having them master us. Again meditation can be a wonderful tool in teaching us to master our thoughts.

With anxiety, we need to retrain our mind to be creative rather than fearful. A powerful way to do this is to send out to the universe our positive intentions about the life we would like to create, rather that one based on our often, unconscious fears. Then, let go and have faith and trust, that The Universe is going to respond often in ways we could not have imagined.

Work out what your intentions are, out by writing a list of the way you would like your life to be. Look at the areas of health, relationships, career, finances and spirituality (or whatever categories are important to you). At the beginning of every day, AS soon as you wake up, when your mind is open and receptive, sit in a comfortable place to meditate. Spend the first 10 to 15 minutes calming your mind through focusing on your breath, a mantra or your preferred way. When your mind is calm, send out your intentions to the universe in the areas of health, relationships, career, finances and spirituality for example. Relax, let go, and your life unfold as you co-create with The Universe. See this as a loose plan to allow space for the magic of the Universe to work.

Depression and anxiety are often triggered by reactions to external circumstances. See Understanding and Resolving Emotional Reactions to learn more about working through reactions. A reaction disproportionate to the event, can indicate unresolved issues from our past. For example when someone says some little thing and you explode. As a result, a reaction can be the trigger anxiety or depression. For example, our boyfriend leaves us. Instead of feeling normal emotions like anger, sadness and then processing the situation with our reasoning centers, we fall into a deep depression.

In an emotionally healthy state we use our frontal brain to reassure us that we will be OK, we are great regardless of a relationship or that we will find another boyfriend at the right time. However, if our boyfriend leaving us triggers a deep depression or anxious thoughts, this may be because our father may have abandoned us when we were young, for example. We may not have not truly made peace with this deep hurt. When our boyfriend leaves us, the old unresolved emotions from our father leaving us, come to the surface for healing.

Instead of thinking of the depression or anxiety as a disability, we can see it as a wonderful opportunity for growth to create more wonderful and harmonious ways of being. We can use depression and anxiety as the catalysts to understand and create peace in our inner and outer world.

Depression and anxiety is one of life's greatest challenges that can often catch us off guard from time to time. Ways I try to cope with on and off depression is by either picking up a hobby or just finding something to distract myself with. 

Some examples of mine are: 

- Watch a TV show or movie (preferably something with comedy to make me laugh)

- Listen to music

- Go for a walk 

- Talk to friends

- Play video games

- Cooking

I've also noticed throughout the years that if I constantly surround myself with people who are full of positive energy, that energy will eventually start to rub off on me and uplift my mood. 

There are many different triggers and severities to anxiety, however in my case, anxiety often occurs when I am confronted by something intimidating. Such as an interview or presentation of some sort. It's always scary having to do something out of your comfort zone, but the more you keep trying to get out of that zone, you'll eventually become comfortable with what you're doing.

In terms of dealing with anxiety, the main way to cope with it is trying to change your mindset because anxiety originates from overthinking. For me, I'm always overthinking that the interviewer or the people I'm presenting to are going to be judging me with negative connotations or that they think I have no idea what I'm talking about. Therefore before I have an interview or presentation, I try to calm my mind by listening to music and just mentally preparing myself, telling myself that once it's over, it's out of the way and I won't have to worry about it again. It sometimes also helps when I vent out my anxiety to friends who support and motivate me. 

If you ever need anyone to talk Kaye, I'm always more than welcome to help.