This article sums up why it's so important to have healthy life-affirming ways of dealing with moods such as depression, and the thoughts that can feed it. Personally, I've tried various tools used by teachers and authors who advocate a positive-only approach, and have found them moderately helpful but incomplete. Grief, sorrow disappointment and loss are part of life. In my job I help people deal with these every day.
While I'd love to believe in the message advocated by books like The Secret, I just don't, and I've stopped lying to myself about it. For myself, I've found that life works better if I complement positive-thinking tactics with soulful ways of acknowledging and dealing with "negative" emotions. Several of Thomas Moore's books, including Dark Night of the Soul, have been very helpful with this. So has an old favorite of mine, Women Who Run With the Wolves and a few of life coach Martha Beck's and artist Julia Cameron's books. All of them suggest ways to create psychological containers, safe places, for working through heavy emotions.
On Jun 18, 2015 Geri wrote :
This article sums up why it's so important to have healthy life-affirming ways of dealing with moods such as depression, and the thoughts that can feed it. Personally, I've tried various tools used by teachers and authors who advocate a positive-only approach, and have found them moderately helpful but incomplete. Grief, sorrow disappointment and loss are part of life. In my job I help people deal with these every day.
While I'd love to believe in the message advocated by books like The Secret, I just don't, and I've stopped lying to myself about it. For myself, I've found that life works better if I complement positive-thinking tactics with soulful ways of acknowledging and dealing with "negative" emotions. Several of Thomas Moore's books, including Dark Night of the Soul, have been very helpful with this. So has an old favorite of mine, Women Who Run With the Wolves and a few of life coach Martha Beck's and artist Julia Cameron's books. All of them suggest ways to create psychological containers, safe places, for working through heavy emotions.