EPISODE 5 PART 1: THE EMPOWERED SURRENDER
Added 2022-10-27 23:09:21 +0000 UTCIn this episode*, we approach the first step of the Katabasis. Beginning with a quick clarification about the connection between imagination and depression, we introduce a major concept I'll be referring to as "reference points." Then, we move into a discussion of the three options between which someone caught in the land of depression has to choose: suspension, suicide**, and surrender. Finally, we explore the nature of the empowered surrender, and I give a couple of examples from my personal life.
*Although I will typically be shooting for only one episode a month, I'm going to try to get part 2 of this episode up as soon as possible! Part 2 is not meant to replace Episode 6, which will still be coming out at the end of next month. Think of it as a bonus episode (although the content we'll be covering there is just as important as part 1)!
**As you might have guessed, this episode covers suicide. Although I use the word "option" here, I am doing so only in the most literal sense of actions people can (and sometimes do) take, and do not wish to suggest that suicide is something anyone should seriously consider. If you'd like to know more before listening, please feel free to message me on patreon. The following is not intended as a replacement for medical or therapeutic oversight.
The Empowered Surrender (text from the original guide):
"Healing begins with sacrifice. Faced with burnout and despair, the dreamer or depressed individual may either attempt to indefinitely hold onto the Dream, or (hopefully) finally discard some long cherished part of identity. From the outside, this may look like regression or running away—quitting a job, taking a leave of absence, giving up on a “dream” in the aspirational sense, returning home, finding sobriety, or letting go of a person or relationship. A true surrender of this kind will carry a large emotional weight. Individuals around the dreamer will likely feel judgment or discomfort. This is good—despite what the word “surrender” suggests, this action is actually one of reclaiming personal power. This stage is often not reached until the dreamer sees no other option."
Comments
Oops! Yes that is what I meant! 1500 over 600 pages would be kind of hilarious as a metric though, thank you for catching that!
Sarah Mergen
2023-11-02 05:41:52 +0000 UTCat 49:30, you say you wrote fifteen hundred words or equivalently six hundred pages over the course of three years. did you mean fifteen hundred thousand?
Stuart Cremer
2023-11-02 05:11:07 +0000 UTCwhen I say on a whim I think my experience was very much intuition. I did it because I knew I had to
hannah Ross-Smith
2023-03-16 15:33:54 +0000 UTCSuch an incredible episode, thank you so much. I recently experienced the "lift" you mentioned, from suspension state to some kind of surrender I think I was unaware of when it happened. I'm very accustomed to the experience of depression, suspension and lift, sequentially so it was validating to hear it named. The thing that's fascinating me about my experience right now is that I've decided, completely on a whim, to release my grasp on intense daily exercise. It's a habit I've been in since I was a teenager and one that I've held onto tightly because I'd always assumed it was the one thing to save me from depressed and anxious moods. What I feel about it now is that it was the one thing that kept me from complete loss of control. It's the thing that kept me from surrender. I'm finding it a little hard to trust that the state I'm in now—finally happy!—will last simply because I've cycled through depression, suspension and lift so many times in my life... but I am hopeful that I've become aware of an empowered surrender this time, what it feels like, and I'm excited.
hannah Ross-Smith
2023-03-16 15:32:41 +0000 UTC
