What is Depression?

[Luna Arjuna]

What is Depression?

Depression can be experienced in many ways, including as emotional numbness, lack of focus, lethargy, grief, despair, loss of soul, a feeling of heaviness, spiritual emptiness, post-natal sadness, or a ‘dark night of the soul’.

As literally 'a lowering', depression occurs when energy which is normally available to consciousness and for day-to-day living, becomes depleted, blocked, pulled down, or trapped in the depths of the unconscious.

Depression can arise through endless combinations of psychospiritual and physical causes, but in many cases, its primary source is an unresolved, repressed, or forgotten grief, trauma, crisis, conflict, or loss. In addition, depression is often an emotional, relational and/or spiritual response to a sense of meaninglessness, lack of harmony with Nature, or lack of truthfulness with oneself and others (i.e. ‘living a lie’).

Poor diet, chronic pain, social isolation, seasonal changes, lack of sunshine and lack of exercise can contribute to depression, as can soulless environments, lack of imagination, unsettling world events, damaging relationships, dull routine, empty forms of work and apparent lack of life purpose.

~ Maureen B. Roberts
Photo: Sarah Treanor