Hi Chris
You're such a good person, leading others to greater levels of awareness/consciousness. So key when it comes to managing depression, finding guides like yourself who are good leaders. You're one of those who holds the light for others, making things appear more clear.
While in depression, there can be so many learning experiences. Definitely a tough way to learn about yourself and others. To learn 'I am a good person who has the ability to feel the impact of depressing people' can be such an emotional lesson and can take months or even years to finally learn. 'I can feel what you're doing to me' is an important mantra when we're someone who has the ability to feel so deeply and easily. The amount of people who can say to us 'You're too soft. You're so delicate' is plenty. A good response to this can be 'I'm not 'soft' as you like to call it, I simply have the ability to feel the impact of your nature. If you can't feel the impact you have on other people, that's your fault/flaw not mine and it's something you need to work on'.
I'm glad you had a good break with your mum. Sharing happy, positive and relaxed emotions with another is so important for our mental, physical and soulful sense of well being.
Would have to say, one of the toughest skills to develop is feeling an emotional switch someone flicks in us while managing the dimmer part to that switch (turning down the volume of that emotion/impact). Kind of like 'While I can feel what you just said or did, I'm not going to become emotionally involved in what you just said or did. I'll simply go on to question why you said or did it'. While this can be a massive challenge to master, it can reform us into a keen observer of human nature. Becoming so observant can take us from 'What's wrong with me?' to the realisation 'Most of the 'normal' people around me are actually rather insane'.
