Depression and Anxiety

Unfortunately, both depression and anxiety are very poorly understood and managed in our current society. We have chosen to label these ‘sensations’ as conditions which simply strengthens the beliefs and the intensity of the ‘sensations’.

I am not downplaying the intensity of either depression or anxiety but I am saying we have over-complicated them and now people either think they have it for life, that it’s a disease, that they need to be medicated, that simply by talking about it will help, that they are powerless, that they aren’t responsible, or that it’s just something that happens to them.

Yes, don’t get me wrong something like depression can literally be a physical condition that is due to the chemistry within the human body, most likely an imbalanced gut or an underactive parathyroid can cause symptoms of depression but this is still totally reversible.

And then what really confuses me is that a normal course of action if we have either depression or anxiety is to change things externally to ourselves. Change our environment, take medication, change our relationships, talk about it. This simply causes more confusion within. The cause of depression or anxiety is always from within. Something outside of ourselves may be a stimulus but it’s our thoughts about that stimulus, the sensations that are wrapped up with those thoughts, and patterns within that keep us in a state of anxiety or depression.

We are like icebergs. We can only see the tip of the iceberg but mostly what is going on is below the surface (within ourselves). If we’re looking at what really makes the difference in our happiness, our joy, our success, 90% of what matters is within us (below the surface), namely our thoughts and sensations/emotions. The other 10% is our actions and our external world. Yet most people spend 100% of their effect on the outside world. Trying to manipulate situations, relationships, and events in hope that it will make them feel better. This is what we were taught. This is part-reason why so many have depression and anxiety. We are just going about it the wrong way. We don’t have the capacity to deal with our internal environment, simply because we’ve never learnt.

If we want to make a profound shift in life and want to take charge of our internal reality then we need to learn how. By shifting and transforming our internal reality, absolutely we can move from anxiety or depression to peace or enthusiasm as the baseline. It is available to all when we choose to take back our responsibility, our own power.

When I was sick, it wasn’t until I said “enough is enough, I’m going to change me, I’m going to do it for myself, whatever it takes”, and I did. It wasn’t until that moment that everything changed.