Finding Joy— The Antidote To Anxiety & Depression

By Eleanor Lew

What's your passion? What gives you joy?" I ask my clients. A frequent answer is "I don't know." My questions are important. Our passion and joy define who we are.

Ever since I trained in sensorimotor psychotherapy I have observed that any trauma, i.e., anything that stops the body from completing a process, engenders self-limiting thoughts like "I'm not good enough" or "I'm unlovable." When we experience something negative, no matter how minor, like a criticism or someone's uncomplimentary judgment of us, our body contracts and we cannot experience enjoyment.

The popular book The Secret says the secret is the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction says that we attract what we think and what we feel. When I read the book, I thought to myself: "whoa, this is scary." Most of our thoughts are unconscious, especially self-limiting thoughts like "I'm not good enough."

So if we don't know what we think, we will continually attract negative experiences. The Secret says it's better to feel good. Well, of course! But how do we feel good? Seemingly, we're not a nation that knows how to feel good. Statistics show that the number of people suffering from depression and anxiety increases yearly, and alarmingly the rate of teenage suicides is going up.

The natural antidote to depression is joy and passion. I use sensorimotor psychotherapy (SP), a body and spirit-center modality, to help my clients reconnect with their inner core, unlocking their joy, passion and creativity. The goal of the technique is to find "a body movement that's waiting to happen." To do this, the work involves engaging emotions, feelings, cognitions, sensations and body movements that got frozen at the time of the trauma.

I teach clients to self study, to passively witness inner experiences of bodily sensations and movements. I also guide them to connect with their body's resilience and wisdom. No interpretation on my part is needed. I can remain non-judgmentally accepting, minimizing the possibility of triggering shame in the client.

Joy was the result when I guided a musician to unblock. She came to see me about chronic anxiety. In working with her, she heard a thought "there's something wrong with me" spontaneously arise.

Staying with a sadness she felt in her chest, the client noticed a sensation of a large "black hole" like the earth opening up. At the same time, the client became aware of a spot in her chest that felt "comfortable." I asked the client to stay in that place of comfort. Slight vibrations in her hands led her to closing them into fists.

When asked if there was movement wanting to happen, she discovered that she wanted to raise both arms straight out and up so that her arms formed the shape of a "V" for victory. She laughed with joy.

A week later, she told me that her blockage had disappeared and she was again performing. She was joyful again because playing her music is who she is.