Maria Gaian, holistic healer.

In this post, I talk about how depression is about more than your mind. We have to treat depression holistically if we are to feel healthy, happy and whole. 

“There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”

 — Rumer Godden, A House with Four Rooms

Too often when we’re suffering from depression, we’re encouraged to focus on our mind and how we feel.

Therapists encourage us to talk about it, to mentally process what we’re going through.

We dredge up painful moments from our past and sometimes it feels like we’re forced to keep going over and over them.

We’re prescribed medications that affect our brain, often suppressing our painful thoughts and feelings.

It’s a strange paradox.

And I don’t think that either really help us to ditch the black dog of depression once and for all. 

Depression is about more than your mind.

We have to treat depression holistically if we are to feel healthy, happy and whole.

Depression is not just about your mind. It’s multidimensional and we experience it through our: –

🧍 physical body;

💭 thoughts;

😰 feelings, emotions and moods;

🍽️ behaviour;

🛌🏽 and subconscious mind.

Depression also manifests in the the way we percieve our relationships, situations and our past history.

I’ll go deeper into this in future posts, but as you can see, depression is a lot more complex than you might think.

The best way to manage depression is to address it holistically, rather than just on our thoughts and feelings.

I strongly believe that our physical, emotional and spiritual wellness are inextricably intertwined with our mental wellness and should all be focused on equally if we’re to feel healthy, happy, and whole.

If we don’t pay equal attention to our mind, body, heart and Soul, we become out of balance and things start to go haywire!

Think about it.

If our body is unwell, or our home is cluttered or dirty, our minds suffer.

Or if someone breaks our heart, we feel sad and depressed – we don’t just feel that pain in our emotional heart, but in our physical heart, and in our minds, too.

So it makes sense that if any one part of us – heart, body, mind or Soul – is in pain, everything else will be affected, as well.

We need to nourish and care for every part of ourselves if we are to fully heal.

It’s a holistic process and the reason why many people fail to recover from depression.

Don’t feel overwhelmed by this! I know it might seem like more stuff to do..
BUT

I prefer to look at it this way…

It gives us more opportunity to make small changes and do tiny tasks that can make a BIG difference.

Working on your hydration is a relatively small thing, but drinking more water will help you feel better physically and help your brain function better.

Decluttering your environment clears your mind as much as it clears your space.

Choosing to ditch highly processed food in favour of healthy meals will make a massive difference to your physical and mental health.

Every baby step you take, is another step closer to feeling healthy, happy and whole!

So if you were to choose one thing to work on in each area every day, imagine the changes in just a few days!

I find that visiting the sea makes me feel good in mind, body, heart and Soul. 

What do you love to do that makes you feel good?

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