OH! Magazine - Australian Version July 2015 | Page 11

HEIDI
DI SANTO

HOW TO STOP FEELING

www.heidi.com.au

( Emotional Fitness )

SAD OR DEPRESSED
Heidi Di Santo shares her tips to stop feeling down and out.
n this article, you’ll find three tips
to help you to stop feeling sad,
down or depressed. I know they can work
because I’ve been there, and I learned the
hard way what works and what doesn’t
when it comes to emotional health. I’ve
also worked as a therapist for many years
and have helped lots of people to move
out of their dark hole and into the light. So
here are three small tips that can make a
big difference to your emotional wellbeing:

I

1. Stop judging your emotions and start
accepting them
When it comes to emotions, there is a
tendency to judge them as ‘bad’ or
‘wrong’. You might say ‘I shouldn’t be
feeling like this’ but this non-acceptance
of ‘what is’ will create stress and unease
within. When you do this, you’re forced to
wear a mask and pretend that everything’s
okay when in fact, deep down inside, it’s
not.
There’s nothing wrong with sadness; it’s
just sadness. And when you allow it to be
there without judging it, it can actually
lose its power over you.
2. Start feeling your emotions
Your true nature is peace, love and joy.
Most people, however, are unable to
access these emotional states because all
their unfelt emotions get trapped within
their body – which doesn’t feel good, by
the way! The irony is that you need to feel
your emotions in order to get rid of them.
There’s an epidemic of ‘not feeling’ in

today’s society. Think of the way children
are educated about emotions. When a
child feels sad, the adults around say
‘cheer up’. If a child feels angry, the adults
say ‘calm down’, or if a child is too excited,
they say ‘settle down’. Children learn to
not trust their internal world and shut off
from their emotions. Because of this,
most people have lost touch with their
internal emotional GPS system!
Most people aren’t even aware that they
don’t feel properly because it has become
such an ingrained pattern. But, if you find
it hard to relax, are addicted to anything,
feel depressed or anxious, or if you have
major ups and downs, you can virtually be
guaranteed that you are in a pattern of
non-feeling.

reclaiming the parts that have been
traumatised. By the way, trauma doesn’t
have to be a real H