Are cycles of depression on the spiritual path natural?

[WonderSeeker]

Are cycles of depression novice meditation side-effects that are to be expected? I've been doing daily meditation since February, and right now is the second time in which I've felt this depression feeling in my chest that has shook my emotions. Thank you!

[VeganAwake]

Everything that's happening is natural.... could it be otherwise

[mandyjw]

Yes. Depression is a call to go deeper. We tend to avoid depression so it bubbles up and overtakes us. This movement of trying to avoid negative feelings can actually strengthen at the start of consciousness work, and another possibility is that once you start to sit and feel, what you've been avoiding your entire life is now becoming available to be cleared out . If you take a time out and really feel into it when depression first starts to come up, sometimes certain realizations come in, new desires are uncovered, energy is released. The better we are at paying attention to how we feel the quicker we catch it before it gets too dramatic. Not that dramatic is bad. 

Not wanting negative emotional states is a movement of avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. We really do better to drop the labels of "negative" or "depression" in our own relationship with them (it's fine to use those labels in discussion or to yourself as long as it doesn't have a charge of unwanted behind it, it's the charge and meaning not the label itself) and welcome them. 

[Johnny5]

Note that "welcoming them" doesn't have to mean liking them or trying to feel differently. It simply means feel unreservedly however you truly feel (energetically).

[nistake]

Yeah, a sort of roller coaster effect can be expected, especially if you're new to this. It's important that you just observe these up-and-downs dispassionately. It shall pass.

[Thought Art]

I think so. I've read in some books like The Mystic Path To Cosmic Power by Vernon Howard that each dip precedes a rise to a new level. 

 

also this 

 

[Nahm]

15 hours ago, WonderSeeker said:

Are cycles of depression novice meditation side-effects that are to be expected? I've been doing daily meditation since February, and right now is the second time in which I've felt this depression feeling in my chest that has shook my emotions. Thank you!

No, which is why you’re feeling the resistance to your heart, and why you would not consciously expect it. 

[Thought Art]

@WonderSeeker The more you meditate the more the become aware of what is there beneath the surface. There is indeed a dark side of the mind when it comes to meditation 

 

[Johnny5]

23 minutes ago, Meta-Man said:

The spiritual path will tear you a new asshole. 

 

[Red-White-Light]

@WonderSeeker Life has cyclical patterns to it. Depression is, poetically, like the seasons. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Red-White-Light