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Mindfulness
I Questioned My Depression and Stumbled Into Self-Awareness
Using mindfulness to release the hold of intense emotions.
The mind is a factory. Day and night it churns out strings of thought. Some of these are uplifting and inspiring, while others aren’t so much.
Either way, thoughts are powerful. They shape our perspectives and worldviews, which dictate the life experiences we accept or deny.
Self-awareness starts whenever we stop long enough to look and see what our views really are and who put them there. Am I managing my thought factory, or is it managing me?
Separating from my depression
Building self-awareness means realizing what you are and what you aren’t. For me, I realized that I’m not my thoughts.
This epiphany struck me while I was emotionally limping around in one of my depressive episodes a handful of years ago. I was in my room, down, exhausted, staring at the wall, and drowning in the familiar numbness of feeling nothing at all.
In these times, my depression would last for months. During the tail end of one of these runs, I found enough energy to get frustrated and say to myself, “I wish I didn’t have to feel this way!”.
