If you have ever known a depressed person, you know that they live in a very small world.
Depression contracts the personality like no other human condition. The fact that so many of your sisters are depressed is indication of how oppressive socialization remains.
Socialization hinders the human spirit by stripping away the components of life: energy, power, joy, vision, clarity, peace and the ability to see beyond the darkness.
You may be functioning, but not happy with your life.
You were not born to endure life, but to transform all the events of your life into opportunities of grace, wisdom and maturity. Struggles are not a sign of your victimization, but human experiences inviting you to become more open, more alive, more appreciative, more grateful, more flexible and more spiritual.
So when pain comes, brace yourself, don't block yourself.
Reason 278 - Page 296
Commentary:
The term depression is derived from the Latin verb ‘deprimo’ which means ‘to press down’ or to ‘press under’. In the broadest sense depression can be thought of as the ‘unbecoming of your life’. This writer invites you to use your depression as an invitation to personal expansion. Like no other experience ‘depression’ forces you to pay attention to yourself. Whether from great loss, serious illness or childhood heartaches, depression holds the seed of your maturity. Anyone who has healed from depression discovers ‘new life’. Whether ‘depression’ is intergenerational or situational, every person’s depression is their personal story. Giving it a psychiatric name does not distract from its sacred meaning.
Internalized gender causes depression because gender messages surround us telling us about how we should look, behave and relate to others. Gender is used as a source of normality. Little girls grow up fearing their bodies, sexuality, dreams, and ambitions. Little boys fear gentleness, vulnerabilities, dependence and connection. Gay men and women live in fear of disclosing their true identity. Aging, that is inevitable, is so depressing that a whole industry of Anti-Aging has emerged promising unrealistic results. Being wise enough to resist gender ideals may protect you from depressive consequences.
Depression can be the firm belief that something is wrong with you… I want you to remember that what is most right with you is carried your tears.
I have known good and evil,
sin and virtue, right and wrong;
I have judged and been judged;
I have passed through birth and death,
joy and sorrow, heaven and hell;
and in the end I realized that I am in everything
and everything is in me.
(Hazrat Inayat Khan)
From:
Kiss Your Life
by Ann Mody Lewis, Ph.D
