The Map of Emotional Recovery Heals Depression
Your Natural Flow of Feelings Can Lift Your Spirits Immediately
Dec 22, 2008
Depression, whether mild or severe, causes a feeling of powerlessness that can lead to a mood of resignation, of giving up on ever feeling better. The Map of Emotions, as it is also known, teaches the difference between emotions (feelings) and moods, and shows the way out of despair. The Map isn't a literal map, but a sheet containing 3 rows of evocative words with which the client works.
Emotions (Process) and Moods (Thoughts)
The Map's Emotions, in row 2, are generally viewed as painful states, and they have motion - they're "e-motion"; they naturally move and shift, unless we get in their way. Emotions - anger, sorrow, despair and fear - are felt in particular places in the body, such as feeling fear in the pit of one's stomach, or sorrow in the heart.
Moods, in row 3, are created when we don't stay in the flow of our emotions. We "run away" internally and numb out in an attempt to deal with grief, for instance, and become stuck in a "non-psychodegradable" mood like self-pity that's maintained by circular negative thoughts. We're tucked uncomfortably but safely, we think, in our heads, and not experiencing our bodies where our emotions live, flow and are felt. Moods cannot be located anywhere in the body, but act like a backwater eddy of swampy psychological sludge.
Depression, in this conceptualization, is viewed as a form of "thinking about feelings", rather than "feeling feelings", that spirals down into a nasty combination of several stuck moods, such as guilt, suffering, worry and desperation. Moods require discharge, but how can one cut through the sludge?
Open Spaces (Spiritual Domain)
The Spaces on the map, up in row 1, are the places where everyone would like to be, and are sometimes sought through various forms of addiction. "Spaces" are spiritual feelings like love, joy and peace, as well as textures and contexts like "dispassion" or "curiosity". They are neutral or positive, felt comfortably everywhere in the body, and can be accessed only through the Emotions on row 2, never through the Moods down in row 3. And that's a major key that unlocks the Map's benefits.
The Process
A therapist trained in the Map will guide and support a client into accessing and following his/her real Emotions (row 2) by asking simple questions which have only 5 possible answers. As the client follows emotions through body locations, various intensities, and changes into other emotions, she will at some point spontaneously "pop up" into a Space, which the therapist will recognize even if the client does not. Sometimes the Spaces feel "spacey", and the client might need some help to identify where she is on the Map. The client is encouraged to rest in the Space, and in her body, enjoying the feeling and sensing when there is movement to another Space (or back down to Emotion, or out of the body down to a Mood, where the process would begin again). When a Space is accessed, a person typically stays on that level for some period of time.
The Map usually works within one counseling session, and the client goes home with the Map in hand and a new understanding of emotions that can be used again and again for support and health maintenance. It is to be expected that one will return to a Mood at some point, as our habituated, protective thoughts are strong reflexes. Working with the Map can help one to "pop up" into a Space again, strengthening those healthy "muscles" until staying in and returning quickly to Spaces is second nature, like riding a bicycle.
 |
