Techniques for positive thinking are for Pilgrims in the Dark Forest.  If you are stuck in a Deep Pit, you need boots with straps.  Along with medication (which gives you a fighting chance) and therapy (which gives you an educated outside perspective), I’m going to offer some additional tools for bootstrapping yourself out of your depression.

Awhile back, I was stuck in a Dark Pit of Fury.  We’re talking complete immobilization due to rage and resentment.  Did you know that could even happen?  People were behaving horribly and I wasn’t able to put a stop to any of it.  The systems in place to defend Justice were corrupted and the Villains were getting away with their Treachery.  I felt violated and oppressed and impotent and the frustration was more than I could endure.  Anger consumed my thoughts and bitterness shrivelled my energy until I could not get out of bed.

That’s when Hale Dwoskin put the first 6 lessons of The Sedona Method online for a temporary free trial.  I had heard of it before and written it off because of an experience where I thought I was going to a yoga studio and instead found myself watching a video for a retreat in Sedona, Arizona that promised to make me young again.  But it occurred to me that perhaps not everything coming out of Sedona was blatant fraud and it was free and I was in a deep pit I didn’t know how to get out of.

I almost quit listening after the first lesson.  It sounded metaphysically hokey and Hale’s laughter is a bit disconcerting.  But I pressed play on the second lesson, maybe because I was desperate for something to help, maybe because his voice (when not laughing) began to soothe me, maybe because I’m quite good at sorting the baby from the bath water.  By the end of the 6th lesson I was hooked.  I bought his book and listened to all 36 of his recordings.

The Sedona Method teaches you how to release strong emotions.  Any overwhelming emotion:  rage, depression, anxiety, even apathy.  With the gentleness of a true empath, he leads you through various exercises that all accomplish the same feat — leading you through the emotion to the release on the other side.

The only way out of the emotion is through.  If you deny or suppress emotions they build up.  I spent three intense weeks immersed in releasing my resentment in order to become a functional human being again.  I went through the lessons, accumulating and adapting the techniques that worked best for me into my own brand of releasing practice. Now I have these tools to turn to when I find myself suddenly sideswiped and overwhelmed by difficult emotions.

I didn’t condon the bad behavior of others, but I forgave them for being imperfect humans like myself.  I gave up trying to change what mortified me.  I didn’t resign to being subjected to behavior I considered unethical, I made a resolve to remove myself from it.  I didn’t give up on making the world a better place, I changed my tactics.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
~Socrates

Once I was able to climb out of my Deep Pit of Rage and Resentment, I was able to return to dreaming and scheming about ways to change the world for the better by building what I love rather than focusing on what I hate.

Dreaming, scheming, changing, building, and loving are things you can’t do from a Deep Pit. I encourage you to strap The Sedona Method boots on your feet and give the straps a good pull! The world needs you out of that pit, dreaming and scheming and changing and building and loving.

---

The book is a great guide, but the audios hold the real power.  The first 6 audios were made freely available on a limited basis only.  If that happens again, I’ll be sure to post about it.  Check out his YouTube channel.

---

I endorse the Method, not his involvement in “The Secret” or his claim that a scientific study can “prove” effectiveness rather than merely demonstrate effectiveness.  Don’t let mold keep you from the cheese!  😉

---

Please like, share, follow, and comment (here, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Google+) to help me increase my reach!  Thank you!  =)