The National Institute of Mental Health defines depression as "An emotional state of dejection and sadness, ranging from mild discomfort and down-heartedness to feelings of hopelessness and despair." Many people struggle for years with a low level of chronic depression that permits functioning but severely restricts personal growth and fulfillment. How much better it would be if people would allow themselves to experience an hour or even a whole day of the blues occasionally, then productively work through those feelings before they gain a foothold in the psyche and become deep and incapacitating. And when people consciously or subconsciously avoid confronting their pain, they become externally focused and other-directed. They become codependent in their relationships and focus almost exclusively on the wants, feelings, needs, and ideas of others. Or, they may become dependent upon others and compulsively seek approval, acceptance, or caretaking from them. At the deepest level, depression may involve grieving the loss of self. This book provides techniques to help people return "home" to themselves through an honest but gentle self-examination-not for the purpose of furthering guilt and self-punishment but to activate the healing powers within through self-acceptance, self-compassion, and new self-assurance, and to catalyze the love and vitality which at the deepest level is the self. The more aware you are of how you get depressed and perhaps unknowingly maintain that depression, the more adept you will become at recognizing depression, dealing with it, and moving through it with your hope and health intact.