Restorative Yoga for Beginners

Because we live in a fast-paced world where we are running all the time, we suffer from insomnia and do not get adequate rest are often completely exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically and spiritually. Restorative yoga gives us time to restore our energy. In restorative yoga we are practicing supported, passive yoga poses. With the use of yoga props such as bolsters, blocks, blankets and walls your body is supported into a state of recovery. This is yoga for anxiety and stress relief.

The supportive, passive poses of restorative yoga allow your body to access your parasympathetic nervous system or your rest and digest. In every restorative yoga class your spine will be moved in forward bends, sidebends, backbends and twists so that if you experience back pain you can rest assured knowing that your back will be cared for as well.

The support of the props allow you to let go into the poses. Restorative yoga is a time to completely take care of yourself and surrender into the yoga poses. When you come into supported yoga poses in a restorative yoga class you can let go into a level of healing for your body, mind, spirit, emotions, and energy that is available only when you are completely supported.

Let go of all effort in restorative yoga poses. In fact, the reason why we use the props is to bring the pose to you. Fill any space between you and the ground with added cushions or blankets.

If you benefited from today’s class we have over 30 beginner yoga classes that I will link to in our show notes:

We also have over 10 original, exclusive restorative yoga classes in our membership community for anxiety, digestion, spring, menstruation, adrenal glands and exhaustion, winter, illness, exhaustion, and back pain ranging from 18 minutes to 2 hours. We would love to welcome you into our membership community where we keep our best value added content for our members and will support you in your restorative yoga practice.

Props Needed: Wall, yoga bolster, yoga blocks

Yoga Poses/Asanas: Legs up the wall or viparita karini, reclined bound angle pose or supta baddha konasana, child’s pose or balasana, prone twist with bolster, savasana or corpse pose

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Link for Members: click here

Sign up here for 7 days to better sleep with yoga and I will send you 1 video a day for 7 days with the best of yoga, ayurveda, self massage and pranayama (or breath practices) to help you get the best night’s sleep.

Weekly Yoga with Melissa 401 Photos of Yoga Poses

 

Connection

While we think that earning more money is going to make us happier, science of neurobiology is showing again and again, that is our social connections that matter the most. In this intermediate hatha yoga class we will explore how connection is crucial to our emotional balance. We will begin this hatha yoga class by connecting with our body from the inside out.

We have mirror neurons in our brain that fire in response to another person’s neurons. There is a social part of our brain that will actually atrophy in isolation. Scientists Eisenberg and Lieberman have shown that when we are excluded in social situations center of the brain that lights up when we experience this social pain is the exact same center that lights up when we experience physical pain. We need connection to grow as human beings and isolation literally damages our neurobiology.

We think that more money is going to make us happy and so we work more and spend less time in real social interaction. Our social interactions are invaluable. Economists suggest that volunteering once a week is like taking a yearly income of $20K and raising it to $75K. If you have a friend that you see most days it is as if you earn $100K more a year. Seeing your neighbours on a regular basis is like earning $60K more a year. And yet, when our most important social ties are lost, for example if we experience a divorce, it is like losing 90K a year. If you think earning more money is what you need, think again.

What we need is what we have experienced here over the last 400 episodes of Yoga with Dr. Melissa West. The connections we have made with all of you we could not have survived without. Without connecting with all of you we could not have made filming and sharing these videos around the world something viable. It takes cooperation and collaboration. And it is so much more fun experience our lives together, to be able to create these classes for you and to learn and grow together.

Props: Bolster

Resources:

Being Lonely is Equivalent to Smoking 15 Cigarettes a Day: link

Stats on Social Connections and Your Health: link

link #2

 

At the beginning I told you I would let you know how to receive a 7 day yoga series to release anxiety. If you go to the show notes for this class at www.melissawest.com/400 and scroll to the bottom there will be a big opt-in box. Just put your email address in there and we will send you the 7 day yoga series to release anxiety.

We have an in depth 4 week Yoga for Anxiety Program, in our community along with 16 yoga classes ranging from 7 mins - 1 hour will offer you daily support in caring for anxiety as it arises in your life in our online forum and weekly live classes.

Become a Member Today:

https://www.melissawest.com/membership/membership-sign-up/

Link for Members:

Monday Live Meditation Classes (Links to Live Classes and Recordings)

4 Week Series for Anxiety and 16 Yoga for Anxiety Classes - Link

Monday Live Meditation Classes (Links to Live Classes and Recordings)

 

Connection

While we think that earning more money is going to make us happier, science of neurobiology is showing again and again, that is our social connections that matter the most. In this intermediate hatha yoga class we will explore how connection is crucial to our emotional balance. We will begin this hatha yoga class by connecting with our body from the inside out.

We have mirror neurons in our brain that fire in response to another person’s neurons. There is a social part of our brain that will actually atrophy in isolation. Scientists Eisenberg and Lieberman have shown that when we are excluded in social situations center of the brain that lights up when we experience this social pain is the exact same center that lights up when we experience physical pain. We need connection to grow as human beings and isolation literally damages our neurobiology.

We think that more money is going to make us happy and so we work more and spend less time in real social interaction. Our social interactions are invaluable. Economists suggest that volunteering once a week is like taking a yearly income of $20K and raising it to $75K. If you have a friend that you see most days it is as if you earn $100K more a year. Seeing your neighbours on a regular basis is like earning $60K more a year. And yet, when our most important social ties are lost, for example if we experience a divorce, it is like losing 90K a year. If you think earning more money is what you need, think again.

What we need is what we have experienced here over the last 400 episodes of Yoga with Dr. Melissa West. The connections we have made with all of you we could not have survived without. Without connecting with all of you we could not have made filming and sharing these videos around the world something viable. It takes cooperation and collaboration. And it is so much more fun experience our lives together, to be able to create these classes for you and to learn and grow together.

Props: Bolster

Resources:

Being Lonely is Equivalent to Smoking 15 Cigarettes a Day: link

Stats on Social Connections and Your Health: link

link #2

 

At the beginning I told you I would let you know how to receive a 7 day yoga series to release anxiety. If you go to the show notes for this class at www.melissawest.com/400 and scroll to the bottom there will be a big opt-in box. Just put your email address in there and we will send you the 7 day yoga series to release anxiety.

We have an in depth 4 week Yoga for Anxiety Program, in our community along with 16 yoga classes ranging from 7 mins – 1 hour will offer you daily support in caring for anxiety as it arises in your life in our online forum and weekly live classes.

Become a Member Today:

http://www.melissawest.com/membership/membership-sign-up/

Link for Members:

Monday Live Meditation Classes (Links to Live Classes and Recordings)

4 Week Series for Anxiety and 16 Yoga for Anxiety Classes – Link

Monday Live Meditation Classes (Links to Live Classes and Recordings)

 

Connection

While we think that earning more money is going to make us happier, science of neurobiology is showing again and again, that is our social connections that matter the most. In this intermediate hatha yoga class we will explore how connection is crucial to our emotional balance. We will begin this hatha yoga class by connecting with our body from the inside out.

We have mirror neurons in our brain that fire in response to another person’s neurons. There is a social part of our brain that will actually atrophy in isolation. Scientists Eisenberg and Lieberman have shown that when we are excluded in social situations center of the brain that lights up when we experience this social pain is the exact same center that lights up when we experience physical pain. We need connection to grow as human beings and isolation literally damages our neurobiology.

We think that more money is going to make us happy and so we work more and spend less time in real social interaction. Our social interactions are invaluable. Economists suggest that volunteering once a week is like taking a yearly income of $20K and raising it to $75K. If you have a friend that you see most days it is as if you earn $100K more a year. Seeing your neighbours on a regular basis is like earning $60K more a year. And yet, when our most important social ties are lost, for example if we experience a divorce, it is like losing 90K a year. If you think earning more money is what you need, think again.

What we need is what we have experienced here over the last 400 episodes of Yoga with Dr. Melissa West. The connections we have made with all of you we could not have survived without. Without connecting with all of you we could not have made filming and sharing these videos around the world something viable. It takes cooperation and collaboration. And it is so much more fun experience our lives together, to be able to create these classes for you and to learn and grow together.

Props: Bolster

Resources:

Being Lonely is Equivalent to Smoking 15 Cigarettes a Day: link

Stats on Social Connections and Your Health: link

link #2

 

At the beginning I told you I would let you know how to receive a 7 day yoga series to release anxiety. If you go to the show notes for this class at www.melissawest.com/400 and scroll to the bottom there will be a big opt-in box. Just put your email address in there and we will send you the 7 day yoga series to release anxiety.

We have an in depth 4 week Yoga for Anxiety Program, in our community along with 16 yoga classes ranging from 7 mins – 1 hour will offer you daily support in caring for anxiety as it arises in your life in our online forum and weekly live classes.

Become a Member Today:

http://www.melissawest.com/membership/membership-sign-up/

Link for Members:

Monday Live Meditation Classes (Links to Live Classes and Recordings)

4 Week Series for Anxiety and 16 Yoga for Anxiety Classes – Link

Monday Live Meditation Classes (Links to Live Classes and Recordings)

 

Jealousy

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Jealousy, envy and comparison, like any other emotional experience is not a problem. They are simply an expression of awakened energy.

With jealous, envy and comparison it can be incredibly difficult to turn towards the energy of those emotions because they often leave us feeling insecure, inferior, angry, frightened and ashamed. With envy we may feel unable to accept the accomplishments of our friends or wish we were celebrating similar successes. Maybe we are lusting after another’s possessions, career or relationships or wishing they were deprived of them. We might think of ourselves as losers or victims and the others as the only winners. It could kick us into a kind of competitive aggressiveness.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises.

With gentleness, kindness and without judgment, when you notice jealousy, envy and comparison, turn your focus from outwards to inwards. Notice what physical and energetic sensations are alive in your body. Keep coming back to your body and the felt-sense of the emotional experience. Jealousy is a normal and natural emotional that every human experiences, it has even been observed in non-human species as well.

The effect of jealousy, envy and comparison on your physical body is that it activates your body’s sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight and stress response. Your body begins to releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradenaline, your heart rate and your blood pressure elevates

Envy, jealousy and comparison are a form of attachment in that we are comparing some part of our life with another who has accomplished more than us and we exaggerate its positive aspects. When we come out of the felt-sense of the emotion we begin to create a story where this becomes one of the most important aspects of life and our entire sense of self-worth gets wrapped up in it. It is based on a sense of self who we think will gain something from this preoccupation.

For example more money, a better job, better looks, a better relationship, more peace. It is super easy to go to envy, jealousy and comparison in the age of social media when we are all posting the A-roll of our lives and the b-roll is getting left behind. I know myself I struggle with comparison as somebody who is been a Yoga teacher on YouTube for the past 8 years when there are yoga teachers who have shown up in the last couple of years who have far surpassed me in subscribers, students and followers. The preoccupation is with our own sense of lacking self and a perceived sense of the other person having an advantage.

The result of envy and comparison can be an aggressive competitiveness to push ourselves towards that which we covet. Alternatively we can become so disheartened that we give up completely.

“Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.” ~Unknown.

We each have been given one precious human life. I was not going to give advice in this series, but here is some of the best advice I have been given recently, “Compare yourself to your own potential, not to other people.

Jealousy

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Jealousy, envy and comparison, like any other emotional experience is not a problem. They are simply an expression of awakened energy.

With jealous, envy and comparison it can be incredibly difficult to turn towards the energy of those emotions because they often leave us feeling insecure, inferior, angry, frightened and ashamed. With envy we may feel unable to accept the accomplishments of our friends or wish we were celebrating similar successes. Maybe we are lusting after another’s possessions, career or relationships or wishing they were deprived of them. We might think of ourselves as losers or victims and the others as the only winners. It could kick us into a kind of competitive aggressiveness.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises.

With gentleness, kindness and without judgment, when you notice jealousy, envy and comparison, turn your focus from outwards to inwards. Notice what physical and energetic sensations are alive in your body. Keep coming back to your body and the felt-sense of the emotional experience. Jealousy is a normal and natural emotional that every human experiences, it has even been observed in non-human species as well.

The effect of jealousy, envy and comparison on your physical body is that it activates your body’s sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight and stress response. Your body begins to releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradenaline, your heart rate and your blood pressure elevates

Envy, jealousy and comparison are a form of attachment in that we are comparing some part of our life with another who has accomplished more than us and we exaggerate its positive aspects. When we come out of the felt-sense of the emotion we begin to create a story where this becomes one of the most important aspects of life and our entire sense of self-worth gets wrapped up in it. It is based on a sense of self who we think will gain something from this preoccupation.

For example more money, a better job, better looks, a better relationship, more peace. It is super easy to go to envy, jealousy and comparison in the age of social media when we are all posting the A-roll of our lives and the b-roll is getting left behind. I know myself I struggle with comparison as somebody who is been a Yoga teacher on YouTube for the past 8 years when there are yoga teachers who have shown up in the last couple of years who have far surpassed me in subscribers, students and followers. The preoccupation is with our own sense of lacking self and a perceived sense of the other person having an advantage.

The result of envy and comparison can be an aggressive competitiveness to push ourselves towards that which we covet. Alternatively we can become so disheartened that we give up completely.

“Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.” ~Unknown.

We each have been given one precious human life. I was not going to give advice in this series,

Jealousy

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Jealousy, envy and comparison, like any other emotional experience is not a problem. They are simply an expression of awakened energy.

With jealous, envy and comparison it can be incredibly difficult to turn towards the energy of those emotions because they often leave us feeling insecure, inferior, angry, frightened and ashamed. With envy we may feel unable to accept the accomplishments of our friends or wish we were celebrating similar successes. Maybe we are lusting after another’s possessions, career or relationships or wishing they were deprived of them. We might think of ourselves as losers or victims and the others as the only winners. It could kick us into a kind of competitive aggressiveness.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises.

With gentleness, kindness and without judgment, when you notice jealousy, envy and comparison, turn your focus from outwards to inwards. Notice what physical and energetic sensations are alive in your body. Keep coming back to your body and the felt-sense of the emotional experience. Jealousy is a normal and natural emotional that every human experiences, it has even been observed in non-human species as well.

The effect of jealousy, envy and comparison on your physical body is that it activates your body’s sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight and stress response. Your body begins to releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradenaline, your heart rate and your blood pressure elevates

Envy, jealousy and comparison are a form of attachment in that we are comparing some part of our life with another who has accomplished more than us and we exaggerate its positive aspects. When we come out of the felt-sense of the emotion we begin to create a story where this becomes one of the most important aspects of life and our entire sense of self-worth gets wrapped up in it. It is based on a sense of self who we think will gain something from this preoccupation.

For example more money, a better job, better looks, a better relationship, more peace. It is super easy to go to envy, jealousy and comparison in the age of social media when we are all posting the A-roll of our lives and the b-roll is getting left behind. I know myself I struggle with comparison as somebody who is been a Yoga teacher on YouTube for the past 8 years when there are yoga teachers who have shown up in the last couple of years who have far surpassed me in subscribers, students and followers. The preoccupation is with our own sense of lacking self and a perceived sense of the other person having an advantage.

The result of envy and comparison can be an aggressive competitiveness to push ourselves towards that which we covet. Alternatively we can become so disheartened that we give up completely.

“Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.” ~Unknown.

We each have been given one precious human life. I was not going to give advice in this series,

Yoga for Depression

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Depression, like any other emotion is not a problem. Depression is simply an expression of awakened energy.

With depression it is often difficult to turn towards the energy of the emotion because we are so wrapped up in the story and the judgments around the experience. Our entire being may hurt. We feel heavy, empty, stuck, weighted down, unable to move forward, like we are wrapped in darkness and shadow. We may feel a lack of interest and motivation and freeze under stress.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises. Reggie Ray says, “When we let go of thoughts and judgments about depression, we can take the energy of depression as object as an object of mindfulness and it can liberate us from the reference points that cause us to suffer.” Reggie Ray

When we tune into the energy of depression it may appear to be an absence of energy. However, it is an incredibly powerful and potent energy. Depression is very dark, low, and empty. When we take the time to explore its energetic qualities we will find a lot of subtleties in our experience of it.

Usually, as my teacher Reggie Ray says, we cannot handle the intensity of the experience of the emotion of depression and so we check out of the embodied, energetic experience and we start thinking about it. We start judging it and telling ourselves stories about it. We tell ourselves stories of, “Poor me, what am I going to do about this, my life is empty, my life is meaningless, I am worthless, everybody else is happier than me, everybody else has their life more together than mine, everybody else is living a more meaningful life than me, I can’t do this.” All of the thinking and storytelling that goes on with depression is self-referential and feeds back to solidify an egoic sense of self that is empty, negative, dark and hopeless.

What my teacher Reggie Ray instructs us to do is to leave that storyline and thinking behind. Instead we drop into our bodies and the felt sensation of the emotional experience. It takes a great deal of courage to leave that sense of known self and storyline behind. Invite in the feeling of depression (not the storyline) just raw texture of depression, the feeling component of depression, the quality of energy, arising from your body. It takes courage. Feel the depression in your body, feel the weight of it in your body, roam around in your body and feel deeper into your body.

My teacher Reggie Ray says that when we get to know the energy and the embodied feeling of depression, there is an innate intelligence to it that leads us towards our unfolding journey. His teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, “Depression is the closest suffering state to enlightenment” What does that mean? Reggie explains that with the innate intelligence of depression we are seeing through the rainbows and unicorns overlay that normally glosses over our life keeping us distracted. We are seeing that there is something more to be discovered on our human journey.

Resrouce: Reggie Ray Depression is a Gateway

Yoga for Depression

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Depression, like any other emotion is not a problem. Depression is simply an expression of awakened energy.

With depression it is often difficult to turn towards the energy of the emotion because we are so wrapped up in the story and the judgments around the experience. Our entire being may hurt. We feel heavy, empty, stuck, weighted down, unable to move forward, like we are wrapped in darkness and shadow. We may feel a lack of interest and motivation and freeze under stress.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises. Reggie Ray says, “When we let go of thoughts and judgments about depression, we can take the energy of depression as object as an object of mindfulness and it can liberate us from the reference points that cause us to suffer.” Reggie Ray

When we tune into the energy of depression it may appear to be an absence of energy. However, it is an incredibly powerful and potent energy. Depression is very dark, low, and empty. When we take the time to explore its energetic qualities we will find a lot of subtleties in our experience of it.

Usually, as my teacher Reggie Ray says, we cannot handle the intensity of the experience of the emotion of depression and so we check out of the embodied, energetic experience and we start thinking about it. We start judging it and telling ourselves stories about it. We tell ourselves stories of, “Poor me, what am I going to do about this, my life is empty, my life is meaningless, I am worthless, everybody else is happier than me, everybody else has their life more together than mine, everybody else is living a more meaningful life than me, I can’t do this.” All of the thinking and storytelling that goes on with depression is self-referential and feeds back to solidify an egoic sense of self that is empty, negative, dark and hopeless.

What my teacher Reggie Ray instructs us to do is to leave that storyline and thinking behind. Instead we drop into our bodies and the felt sensation of the emotional experience. It takes a great deal of courage to leave that sense of known self and storyline behind. Invite in the feeling of depression (not the storyline) just raw texture of depression, the feeling component of depression, the quality of energy, arising from your body. It takes courage. Feel the depression in your body, feel the weight of it in your body, roam around in your body and feel deeper into your body.

My teacher Reggie Ray says that when we get to know the energy and the embodied feeling of depression, there is an innate intelligence to it that leads us towards our unfolding journey. His teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, “Depression is the closest suffering state to enlightenment” What does that mean? Reggie explains that with the innate intelligence of depression we are seeing through the rainbows and unicorns overlay that normally glosses over our life keeping us distracted. We are seeing that there is something more to be discovered on our human journey.

Yoga for Depression

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Depression, like any other emotion is not a problem. Depression is simply an expression of awakened energy.

With depression it is often difficult to turn towards the energy of the emotion because we are so wrapped up in the story and the judgments around the experience. Our entire being may hurt. We feel heavy, empty, stuck, weighted down, unable to move forward, like we are wrapped in darkness and shadow. We may feel a lack of interest and motivation and freeze under stress.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises. Reggie Ray says, “When we let go of thoughts and judgments about depression, we can take the energy of depression as object as an object of mindfulness and it can liberate us from the reference points that cause us to suffer.” Reggie Ray

When we tune into the energy of depression it may appear to be an absence of energy. However, it is an incredibly powerful and potent energy. Depression is very dark, low, and empty. When we take the time to explore its energetic qualities we will find a lot of subtleties in our experience of it.

Usually, as my teacher Reggie Ray says, we cannot handle the intensity of the experience of the emotion of depression and so we check out of the embodied, energetic experience and we start thinking about it. We start judging it and telling ourselves stories about it. We tell ourselves stories of, “Poor me, what am I going to do about this, my life is empty, my life is meaningless, I am worthless, everybody else is happier than me, everybody else has their life more together than mine, everybody else is living a more meaningful life than me, I can’t do this.” All of the thinking and storytelling that goes on with depression is self-referential and feeds back to solidify an egoic sense of self that is empty, negative, dark and hopeless.

What my teacher Reggie Ray instructs us to do is to leave that storyline and thinking behind. Instead we drop into our bodies and the felt sensation of the emotional experience. It takes a great deal of courage to leave that sense of known self and storyline behind. Invite in the feeling of depression (not the storyline) just raw texture of depression, the feeling component of depression, the quality of energy, arising from your body. It takes courage. Feel the depression in your body, feel the weight of it in your body, roam around in your body and feel deeper into your body.

My teacher Reggie Ray says that when we get to know the energy and the embodied feeling of depression, there is an innate intelligence to it that leads us towards our unfolding journey. His teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, “Depression is the closest suffering state to enlightenment” What does that mean? Reggie explains that with the innate intelligence of depression we are seeing through the rainbows and unicorns overlay that normally glosses over our life keeping us distracted. We are seeing that there is something more to be discovered on our human journey.