Depression is Repression

Depression - It's Trapped in Our Memory

Is it possible that you are the messenger of the memories of your family line ?

Imagine if your sense of depression was really all the memories of your family line trapped in your genetic code.

For many of us we are not able to re-tell the family history past a couple of generations.  Some families are able to re-count the stories of their grandparents and more seldom the great grandparents.  Not only have we become disconnected from the history of our ancestors but we have also lost the art of story-telling.

Ancient tribes carried word-of-mouth messages and stories through thousands of years.  All hopes and dreams, pains and victories were remembered and honored.  The history and the triggering emotions were re-enacted and shared with each generation through dance and song.  Families down the generations KNEW and UNDERSTOOD the pain and suffering of their forefathers.  They celebrated the HIGH and LOW moments of the PASSAGE OF LIFE of their lineage. 

This might seem like an insignificant act, however, if we are reminded about the struggles and the victories of our family line, we might be more aware of the family patterns - those that are productive and those that are not helpful.  

In honoring the PAST our ancient forefathers expressed the emotions that were experienced by their clan.  Dramatic re-enactment provided a cathartic release from the reactions of the body.  Through the dance, song and re-telling, the tribe found a way to bring the emotions to the group and have each piece of the drama unfold in a supportive and communal way.   

In every performance of recall, the tribe was uniting in their common humanity and the shared experiences of their reality.   Here in the group were opportunities to comfort and console, celebrate and rejoice.  Whatever was experienced was brought into the present and shared. 

And then we became "SOPHISTICATED" !

No more “barbaric” leaping about re-telling of the history of our humanity.  No more opportunities for cathartic release and understanding.  No more movement of the body to help release the trapped memories and associated stress hormones and chemicals.  No more being REAL and HONEST. 

All that replaced with the notion that we need to repress and deny any extreme emotion.  

I am sure you have a list of EMOTIONAL CUT-OFFS familiar to your family.

 

Stiff upper lip.

Cowboys don’t cry.

If you want to cry, I will give you something to cry about.

You should be grateful.

Stop being so sorry for yourself!

You think YOU have it hard!!!

Snap out of it!

Suffer to be beautiful.

And so we have learnt to bury our pain, hide our feelings, mistrust our intuitive responses, deny our emotions and hold our hurt deep within. 

How many generations in your family have been doing this?  Just imagine all the unspoken, unresolved pain that has had nowhere to go except deep within.  And you wonder why you are in SO MUCH PAIN. 

How can you NOT be in pain?

Our modern bodies are toxic dump sites for all the repressed miseries of all times.

IT IS THIS REPRESSION that IS DEPRESSION.

What will Help ?