Emotions Responsible for Depression & How Can We Handle Them?

We all experience ‘Negative & Positive Emotions’ in our life, but do you know, our ‘Emotions’ can adversely affect our bodies? A lot of research & studies have proved that if we do not manage our Negative Emotions properly, they can create a chronic stress condition in our body, which can cause;

• Hormonal Imbalance
• Alter our Brain Chemicals
• Effect on our Immune System

Importance of Emotional Health

There is a deep connection between Physical & Emotional Health. Forex;  Physical Health is a ‘Car’ and Emotional Health is the ‘Driver’ of that car, so no matter how good your ‘Car’ is, the quality of drive will always depend on the skills of the ‘Driver’. Human Emotions are of two types; Positive & Negative. They are basically the drivers of our reality. They hold a huge capacity that could either build or burn our cells.  If you look at the human body, it is nothing but a cluster of 80 trillion such cells. So if we constantly keep ourselves in Negative Emotions, in terms of; fear, anger, and irritation, our cells start to deteriorate and our body starts taking a Negative Direction. On the other hand, if we constantly keep ourselves in Happy emotions, like; love, gratitude, kindness, happiness, and joy, we realize that our body is going in a positive direction.  Thus, it is very very important to experience ‘Holistic Wellness’, by addressing our Emotional as well as Physical state of being. If we put this in a ratio, then it is 70:30;

• 70% of our Emotional Well-being which also takes care of our mental well-being.
• 30% is our Physical Well-being.

Context of The Human Brain

To keep our Emotions aligned with our mind, it is very important to understand the Context of the Human Brain.

• What are these Emotions?
• Are we having a factory inside us, that is manufacturing Negative Emotions like Anger, every moment?
• What is this mechanism in our body?

If we understand the human body, we have a ‘Brain’, and each and every Emotion is nothing but a ‘Biochemical Reaction’.

• Bio – Biology(Body)
• Chemical – Chemicals that come out of our Brain

Our ‘Brain’ has the capacity to give out at least 1300 such chemicals, and their basic work is to manage our body, for ex; Our Digestion, Heart Beat, Blood Circulation, etc. A lot of our automatic functions are being managed by these chemicals. Likewise, our Emotions are also managed by these chemicals, for ex; 

• ‘Anger’ is nothing but a chemical called Cortisol.
• ‘Fear’ is nothing but a chemical called Adrenal Cortisol.

These Emotions were given to us for the reason that whenever in life we need self-defense, we could use them. 24 hours our brain is going into a fear mechanism, which means that 24 hours we are feeding ‘Cortisol’ to our body ‘Cortisol’ is such a Negative Chemical that if used continuously, it’s like fire, it starts to eat up our cells.  Research has stated that 1 minute of Anger, gives enough ‘Cortisol’ to our bloodstream, that it takes 3 days for our body to repair it.  ‘1 minute of Anger, eats up our blood cells to an extent that it takes 3 days for our body to repair it!’ If in a regular routine, we do exercise, go to the gym, do cardio, and all, then this excess ‘Cortisol’ is being consumed.

Causes of Depression

Over the span of living life, people have misinterpreted the context of living life; 

• The whole competition of wanting to prove yourself creates a lot of mental stress and because we are not being able to perform to match up to the materialistic things in life, somewhere we feel deprived and take ourselves to a low state of ‘ I am not good enough’ or ‘I can’t survive in this whole competitive world’.
• Social Media Pressure or Looking Good Pressure; If you look at a human emotional state, in a natural flow, it stays up and down. In earlier times also people used to be sad, but there was no such meaning attached to it, because the word, ‘Depression’ has become more of a fashion statement.

So ‘Depression’, as widely used, is nothing but a low state of mind. The other type of ‘Depression’ is ‘Clinical Depression’ where literally, our brain chemicals go into an imbalance. Truly, ‘Depression‘ is a very ‘Clinical’ term where our brain is giving more ‘Cortisol’ instead of Positive Chemicals, so it is an imbalance in the brain. If I tell this in a layman’s language then,  ‘Depression is nothing but our brain deprived of Oxygen’ If you see’ Nature’, it has been designed so beautifully. Trees need ‘Carbon dioxide’ to survive and Human beings need ‘Oxygen’ to survive Trees give out ‘Oxygen’ and Human Beings give out ‘Carbon dioxide’. Therefore, the more you go into nature, the more you can receive from it.  That’s why in olden times people used to say the more you are synchronized with nature, coexist with nature, you can deal with things like ‘Depression’.

 Tips to Handle Depression

• A 360* approach(Synchronising of Emotional Health and Physical Health). 

To manage Physical health, ‘Nutrition’ is very important, most notably for ’Depression’, we should include a few things in our food habits that are the must-haves.

• All food high in ‘Serotonin’, for example; Banana. Min 2 bananas are every day for a depressed client.
• Pineapple is very very high in ‘Serotonin’.
• 3-4 Walnuts on empty stomach, very healthy for the brain.
• Flax Seeds, 2 teaspoons on empty stomach with a glass of water.
• Khus has a high Melatonin( A sleep chemical), a natural stimulant for sleeping, before sleeping, have Khus Khus and Almond Milk.

These are the thumb rule principles of taking care of healthy nutrition and obviously a lot of intake of fresh vegetables and fruits. Now talking about Emotional Balance;

• It’s very important to expose ourselves to ‘Sunlight’, especially when it touches directly on our ‘Pineal Gland’ or the ‘Third eye, it stimulates and creates a lot of ‘Serotonin’ levels. Thus, sunlight is very important for ‘Depression’ Patients.  
• ‘Breathing’ techniques are very important and if you can hire a Yoga coach, they can guide you towards the right breathing techniques, especially the Pranayaam; ‘Brahmari’, where the brain neurons are stimulated with the help of a humming sound. When we create that humming in the brain, it gets a massage and when the neurons get stimulated, they excite the chemicals and elevate our mood.
• These days a lot of endorsement has been given to ‘Meditation’. Meditation is basically when we consciously go into an internal state, a very calm state, and at that time our brain gives out Positive Chemicals like ‘Serotonin’, ‘Oxytocin’, ‘Dopamine’ & ‘Endorphins’. These chemicals help build up our cells. In fact, research has also proved that with 3 min of ‘Meditation’, our brain gives out 1200 Positive Chemicals that keep our body in a state of positive momentum for 6 hours. ( Research from Hartman Institute of Florida, which do a lot of research on Meditation)

So my suggestion to my readers is;

• Physical exercise is very important. If you can’t do anything, just a 30 min walk, 4 times a week is enough. This will maintain your Physical state.
• To balance your Emotional state, do deep breathing, yoga, and meditation, as an everyday routine. In fact, I tell my clients to do deep breathing just like they drink water, for 2 mins, 5-6 times a day.
• Staying in happy company and keeping yourself away from any kind of negativity are very few quick-fix remedies for a very holistic approach to creating Mental, Emotional & Physical well-being.

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