How can individuals counteract depression?

Originally posted in German on 28^th February 2023

Von Heinz Grill

A brief, practical overview of the causes of depression

In older medical diagnoses, a distinction was made between endogenous and reactive depression. The former form is strongly rooted in a genetic disposition and encompasses long periods of life, while the latter is usually triggered by disruptive environmental influences or by burdens of fate. Today, on the other hand, medicine often only discerns the severity of the depression and its accompanying complications.

In general, those who find themselves in depression experience their lives as weighed down, enveloped in oppressive shadows, joyless, powerless and without prospects. As a rule, external influences, such as insults to which the individual is exposed, cause a real shadow to take the upper hand, resulting in discouragement in relation to life goals. Losses of loved ones, the negative impacts of constant, unwanted stresses, court case defeats, relationship separations, and also a reduction in physical vitality or potential, not uncommonly trigger periods of depression. Our materialistically oriented times, which hinder any outlook with the development of good life ideals, can cause mental disorders and depressive moods of all kinds. Very many young people therefore are already suffering from a fear of life and no longer feel able to withstand the burdens of the future.¹⁾ A study examining how the first lockdown in the spring of 2020 influenced the development of depressive symptoms in young people came to the following conclusions. Before the lockdown, in 2018/2019, 10.4% of young people had clinically relevant depressive symptoms. In the spring of 2020, this proportion rose to 25.3%, meaning that one in four young people between the ages of 16 and 19 showed clinically relevant symptoms of depression.(Naumann, von den Driesch, Schumann, Thönnissen: Increase of depressive symptoms among adolescents during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany Bundesgesundheitsbl. 2021, 64:1533-1540).

There are principally two kinds of action involved in depression: On the one hand there must be actual stresses from society, the environment, from specific events, and on the other hand, there must be an affinity that leads the individual to a certain depressive, “melancholic” state. The mind can only react with depression if something is denied to the individual, which is important for the objectives of their soul.²⁾ Very diverse and individual things can be denied to people. They extend, for example, to intact relationships, a natural empathy, a sense of justice and truth or to recognition in scientific discourse. But precisely when these things are expected or demanded too much by others or by the world in general, disappointments and the resulting depressive elements seem inevitable. For this reason, people who, for example, are very indifferent to the conditions of the time and even benefit from some events, such as earthquakes and fateful crises in humanity, do not develop depression, while other people share worries more easily and experience the lack of prospects of many people in their own inner feeling.

Sixteen points for consciously counteracting moods of depression

1. As a general rule, people should make sure that they actually complete the tasks they want to accomplish and bring them to a reasonable end. Every activity that is interrupted or even discontinued and does not lead to a planned goal weakens the inner self-confidence and soon no longer allows the psyche to attain its healthy uprightness. Phases of tiredness and exhaustion usually follow.

If activities that are necessary are fully omitted due to a lack of self-confidence or a lack of strength, the life forces continue to weaken and individuals unconsciously attach to their bodies. One could say that they fall into the lethargy of the liver and feel imprisoned in the heaviness of their own bodies and of life. The liver, which should have a joyful longing for life, leads them with quiet sentiments to further lethargy.³⁾ The connection between the liver and depression is described by spiritual-scientific researchers such as Rudolf Steiner (GA 312, Spiritual Science and Medicine, Lecture XX, 9^th April, 1920). The therapeutic approach recommended by Heinz Grill is to stimulate constructive and concentrated thinking, which with its formative force can enable people to shape life in a concrete way.

Therefore in spite of lacking self-confidence, people should always make a resolve for activities and lead these goals to a reasonable conclusion.

2. It is helpful if each day is planned with conscious intentions, so that decisions are never guided by a passive waiting to see what the day will bring, or what advantages or disadvantages are to be expected. Independent resolutions that are kept give the psyche something to hold onto and do not let it sink so easily into the depths of the lurking shadows of the body, which is usually exhausted anyway.

It is a good idea to make a conscious daily plan with a few written words. The early morning, mid-morning, afternoon and evening, as well as holidays and not just work days, are planned with resolutions and content to be accomplished or realised.

3. If this task of making a daily plan cannot be managed alone, it helps to seek the support of a therapist, who can provide constant suggestions and guidance for this future-oriented work.

4. Those prone to depression should consciously realise that they are not clinging to the past but are planning the future despite difficulties and feelings of hopelessness. Often the shadow in the soul is so dominant that any idea of a tolerable future seems unthinkable. Nevertheless, individuals should rise towards goals every day and work on these repeatedly. If this preparatory work is not done, no new life forces can develop and goals, that are not initially conceived, have no real possibility of being implemented.

5. Every development starts with a real, pictured content. Individuals do not have to put this pictured content into practice immediately. But they must think it and through repetition bring it into a plausible existence. After a few days or after a reasonable period of time, the force of the will is thus prepared, so that the goal can gradually be implemented through action.

6. What is real pictured content? Everyone should ask themselves this question, regardless of whether they are suffering from depression or not. When someone says they want a partner, but all relationships are terrible and so they have given up looking for a partner, they are expressing a shadowy state of their soul that exists and corresponds to a depressed mood. They are speaking out of wounds and not out of real, pictured ideas. By now attempting to visualise a relationship, thinking it, and doing this without sinking back into their own depression, they create a first potential reality. Finally, the individual needs to think the picture of the relationship frequently and perhaps even observe other people who are successful in having relationships. Through this activity of visualising, individuals actually create a basis of will, so that they finally learn to rise above their wounds and courageously embrace a new beginning.

7. In principle, the human consciousness should deal with specific goals over a longer period of time. If setbacks occur that give rise to depression, the individual must not immediately give space to passive, fateful thinking. The aim is a rational analysis, without feelings of guilt projected onto oneself or onto others. In the case of depression, healing can progress well when the rational forces become greater than the onerous, guilt-laden, wearing and often moralising feelings. Through a negative feeling, depression tries to paralyse the thinking in its perspective.

8. Feelings of guilt must be dealt with in a very disciplined way. Others should not be judged in a moralising way and neither should one’s own behaviour. The plane of guilt is always unproductive. It weighs heavily on every mind. A first step towards a disciplined form of consciousness can be cultivated if those caught up in these emotional attachments neither malign themselves nor speak badly of others. Complaining and moaning must not hold one’s language captive for too long.

9. For example, someone may say to their companions: “I feel weak and I think I have harmed others through my neglect. I feel bad and miserable. But now I don’t want to start from these thoughts and place these feelings in the middle, rather I want to talk about the possibilities that await in the future.” Individuals should teach themselves to rise out of emotionally heavy feelings without delay.

10. Depression is like a kind of fear of life and it binds individuals back to their subjective moods, which rise up like shadows from their bodies. People should not simply imagine a positive picture of life, a kind of affirmation, for example, that they are now happy. Although auto-suggestion and positive images can certainly invigorate the soul, it is nevertheless preferable if individuals plan a small goal and work towards it.⁴⁾ Such a goal can be, for example, to prepare a beautifully designed meal. Food should not be eaten in a way that hastily satisfies needs, and without preparation, but starting with conscious ideas for creative elements in the food preparation. Eventually they can direct their senses outwards more easily and find a slight yet effective distance from themselves and their shadowed feelings about life.

11. Depression has the tendency to bind the consciousness to one’s own body and to lead into a kind of negative self-destruction. Sometimes these self-destroying feelings offer a kind of compensation for the real tasks and impending demands of life. They can sometimes give a kind of unconscious pseudo-pleasure. So, for each day people should plan to seek out a few contacts with whom they consciously enter into conversation. Developing a perceptive and sensitive relationship to other people requires a regular resolve.

12. Every day people should consciously direct their attention away from the habit of the mind towards a certain natural phenomenon or object. The senses require regular and intact contact with the objects of the world. For this reason, every day people should plan to really look at a short passage of text or a phenomenon in the world and even describe it in a few clear words. The contact of the senses with the outside, with time leads a light to work back into the interior of the mind.

13. The eyes can roam through the world out of habit, or they can consciously perceive phenomena for a few minutes and touch the detail of these more closely. For example, someone looks at an olive tree and builds a clear visual picture of it, then creates this picture of its structure and appearance again after some time in a mental picture. Consciously educating the senses to really be able to contact and perceive is an activity that brings light-filled impulses in a simple way and counteracts the rising, depressive shadows that cling to the body.

14. When people engage in religious practices, prayers, meditations, and exercises of an esoteric nature, they should make absolutely sure that they do not expect anything from these practices. The usual form of “prayer” cannot pass people’s lips without expectation. But what are these expectations? The expectations are nothing more than a belief that a spiritual or higher world, an assumed deity, can help people. What an illusion lies in these expectations! They are not infrequently sought out by those people who have brought with them a depressive disposition. The approach towards a reality of a religious or spiritual kind should never therefore be expectant, but rather, quite particularly for people with a depressive disposition, it should tend to become more philosophical, more thought-based.

15. People should not close their eyes too early when meditating. A true burden on people’s health can result when they turn away from the world too early and sink into their inner life on their religious quest. A certain avoidance of the reality of life is very common in religious groups and this predestines individuals to increasing depressive states. Exploration of religion, meditative exercises, yoga and general esoteric techniques should be done with clear research, with growing philosophical breadth and with a healthy sensory awareness both of earthly reality and of interpretations of religious concepts. For example, to speak of the concept of “self” can only make individuals feel depressed if they make the mistake of closing their eyes and sinking back into themselves with their consciousness. Paths of self-realisation must be accompanied by a very precise and careful consideration of the concept of “self”, and only when research into the differences between a spiritual reality and an earthly phenomenon has achieved sufficient results can individuals avoid the deceptive traps of a premature self-immersion with false emotional moods that are in reality of a depressive nature. It is therefore recommended that adequate exploration of spiritual study content takes place in a real way before people devote themselves too early to esoteric techniques, so-called quick energy-work in yoga, and prayer of all kinds. It is not uncommon for people on the esoteric path to experience some kind of emotional or even enlightened unity with their supposed self, not realising that they have only united with their inner, lurking depression.

16. When young people suffer from hopelessness, despondency and depression, it can benefit the young person to visit an adult, who is not connected with the parents, but comes from a more neutral environment, and to establish a good and trusting relationship with this person. Young people need a few people who are independent from their parents’ home, whom they can experience as rational, understandable and likeable role models. They can then more easily rise towards goals in life.

17 simple exercises and measures to counteract depression

2. One should eat neither too much nor too little. If people suffer from a loss of appetite, they should nevertheless educate themselves to eat consciously and above all encourage the sense of taste. Chewing and tasting well promotes the action of the enzymes throughout the digestive tract and over time sufferers can also process psychological problems more easily. Their resilience increases.

3. The common phenomenon in depression that food is eaten by way of compensation can also be improved by approaching all meal times with consciousness. Eating should be done neither in haste nor in unrest. A conscious and beautiful preparation of the table, and preferably eating together with others, helps individuals to raise the quality of their eating behaviour.

4. The food should always be very varied. Fresh and cooked food in alternation, different kinds of taste and alternating vegetable and grain dishes stimulate the digestive system. If alcohol is taken, moderation absolutely must be practised so that it is only consumed in the smallest amounts.

5. Drinks should also be consumed consciously and slowly. Tasting always plays a key role. Even the quality of clear water should consciously and sensitively stimulate the taste buds.

6. A further way of stimulating important potential forces lies in the use of cold water. As a rule, one of the many causes that accompanies depression is an overly needy attachment to what is pleasurable and nice, coupled with a strong intolerance to what is uncomfortable and unpleasant. The use of cold water, for example a dip in a cold bath early in the morning, presents people with a challenge that is not insignificant. The resolution to immerse oneself in cold water can usually not be undertaken with pleasure.

7. In whatever form cold water is applied, from a therapeutic perspective it is done with a conscious perception of the cold. When clients climb into the cold water, for those few seconds they should feel the periphery in the sense of the pain of the cold. By consciously experiencing the cold against them, and by perceiving it intensely and alertly, without struggling and without resisting the moment of the element of the prickle, the consciousness straightens up towards the body. Afterwards clients feels far more joyful and notice a growing counter-reaction of warmth.

8. In depression there is almost always difficulty standing up straight. There are also often symptoms of congestion in certain parts of the body and in the lymph flow. The tendency towards lacking uprightness and the congestion in the tissues can be counteracted very well with exercises of a simple kind.

9. For example, in a kneeling position, one can raise the arms above the head and look up at the hands. The effort to do this pose for two to three minutes without a break, with time improves the dynamic strength throughout the core. If the practitioner can now leave the skin and the periphery relaxed – this is an additional activity of consciousness – and guide the back to straighten up in a more focused and concentrated manner, this exercise causes a first quiet feeling of being freed from feelings of heaviness.

10. One region that is almost always constricted in depression is around the collarbones, shoulders, and neck. Exercises that free this region, such as a wide movement of the arms to the side with a light tendency to straighten up and raise the breastbone, give practitioners a feeling of opening up to the world around them. The area around the neck and upper chest usually becomes lighter.

11. The best thing for those afflicted with depression is to practise various exercises which straighten up the spine and lift up the chest. Breathing well, easily and deeply for a few breaths, counteracts congestion that appears in the organism through the depressive feelings. Both seated and standing exercises can be performed with these feelings of lifting up.

12. While gently performing the exercises, it is good to pay attention to a sub-division within the body. The head should be raised and the neck and shoulders should remain relaxed. The middle of the spine should be centred and straightened up. To stand or sit, however, the practitioner needs a calm base. By perceiving these three different aspects, a better openness and willingness to make contact with the outside world develops. The eyes should always be kept open because they play a part in shaping the exercise, but should not wander around without orientation.

13. In depression, the bodies of those affected are constricted and they constantly feel a reluctance to enter into a natural contact with the environment or with others. By now paying attention to the breathing, and even expanding it with light arm movements, so that the sides of the body are also involved in the deep breathing again, a relationship outwards happens more easily and self-confidence can increase. Furthermore, breathing that is open, and consciously unforced and expansive, harmonises the blood pressure and strengthens many of the decaying life forces.

14. One of the most excellent exercises for depression is the headstand. However for many people this is very difficult. But when those suffering from depression learn an exercise properly and lead it to a first reasonable result, then through this activity itself they have a forming effect on their body. By guiding the body more to a form, some of the attacks of depression, which seem as if any form melts away, recede. Basically, the healing of depression requires the experience of form.

15. It is very helpful for the depressive mind if the consciousness is educated in concrete sensory perception of a form. Depressive feelings bind people too much to their bodies and make it easier for them to fall into dreamy, very dissipating sensory processes. By practising at focusing their eyes on an object and concretely capturing its form, individuals stabilise their psyche and in a simple way, strengthen their entire attitude. People should therefore pay attention to whether they are keeping their eyes imprisoned in the body or whether they are actually moving their eyes over to the objects of the world and also perceiving these objects in a concrete way.⁶⁾ For example, practitioners can look at a mountain range, real or in a picture, and use their senses to capture the contours and the way the peaks, ridges, flanks and pillars extend into three-dimensional space. In doing so, they develop an eye and a sense for forms, which they can reinforce by reproducing the sensory impression in a small drawing.