Something we all do from time to time is to fill up our life with activities so as not to feel our feelings. For example, when you are lonely and depressed, you may find yourself responding to this feeling by suppressing it. The suppression takes the form of diversions, such as activities that keep you from being really present with your feeling.
In seeking to avoid being depressed, you are actually rejecting the feeling, and in doing so, rejecting a part of yourself. In this way, you get rid of the loneliness temporarily, but may find yourself locked into a cycle of depression and diversion.
I believe that “the only way out is through” and this implies that the only way to work with and release the depression is by moving into it. In other words, you would allow yourself the opportunity to feel it, give it space, and thereby integrate it. While you may feel that experiencing the feeling of the depression would be overwhelming, you would survive the feeling and actually lessen the intensity of it as you stayed with it.
Another favorite saying is “What you resist persists.” We could apply that principle here since when you do not allow the feeling of depression to be felt, the depression persists.