Tis the Season

It has been reported that many people fall into depression around this time of year. Some think its because of the holidays, some because of the short, cold days of winter but it really doesn’t matter what they say the cause is-depression is not a good thing.

Did you notice that I used the terminology ‘fall into depression’? That is because depression is like a hole in the ground, if you stand too close to the edge of the hole, the ground can give way and you can fall into that hole. What do I mean? Well, depression starts with dark thoughts; thoughts of bad things, bad times, bad whatever. Everyone has a bad day every once in a while, but if you can’t shake that off and look forward instead of at what happened--looking into the past, then you will soon find is that all you think about are the things that are less than pleasing to you. Do that for long enough and you will become depressed. And yeah, I know that people sometimes have really bad things happen but I also know that everyone has something good that they can keep their attention on instead of focusing on problems.

Oh you say that depression is biological and the medical community does not define a cause? The mind and body link has been clearly documented in medical studies, over and over again.

So what am I saying? No matter what your circumstances are there is much for you to be grateful for, much for you to be happy about and if you think about these good things and never allow yourself to dwell on any negative things, you will never ‘fall’ into depression and who knows, great things might just begin to happen for you. If this is a challenge remember the best way to get past a rough patch is to find something that is bigger than your problem, find someone that needs your help, find a project that you love to do, find something that makes you look outside instead of inside for things to think about.