The Gift of Depression

Depression is natures’ way of pushing you out of your comfort zone.

Every time you are faced with a fear, realize that this is the choice you are making:

• Act small because of fear – you are moving toward depression.
• Act big in spite of fear you are moving into a new stratosphere. You are separating yourself from the herd. Think of all the people who are stopped by fear, you have separated yourself from them. You are a new creature, a different creature, a better creature, a more highly skilled creature, a more resilient creature.

If you take small risks you are like the pioneers, forging new ground expanding the world as it is currently known.

If you take large risks or consistently take small risks you are like an astronaut, going where few have ever gone before, where almost every aspect of your experience, you will be discovering for the first time.

If you want to heal your depression begin taking a few small risks. A small risk is one where really there is nothing to lose. You might feel rejected, or be embarrassed by taking a small risk but nothing essential is at stake. That’s a good place to start.

And when you do heal from depression, it won’t a healing into the land of the lotus eaters, where you feel comfortable, sated and satisfied. Depression is a call to breakthrough into a new life. You will heal from depression into a feeling of being uncomfortable. You will heal from demanding perfection to being unworried about the messiness of your life. Depression will heal you from a job or career and propel you into a mission. Depression will heal you from restrained conciliatory-ness in your relationships into a broader palette of angry, vulnerable and fearful expressions of your authentic and imperfect self.

The happy shiny self is not the cure of depression - it is the cause of depression.

When you take the courage to reject this sanitized, white bread image of mental health, you will be on your way to healing from depression.

For more tips and tools about depression visit http://www.visionarysoul.com. Sign up for Dr. Lara Honos-Webb’s free newsletter at http://www.visionarysoul.com/newsletter.html. Learn how to translate your pain into your purpose with individual sessions http://www.visionarysoul.com/sessions.html Dr. Lara Honos-Webb is a clinical psychologist and author of The Gift of ADHD and Listening to Depression: How Understanding Your Pain Can Heal Your Life.

Comments

[Jackal]

'Depression is natures’ way of pushing you out of your comfort zone.'

I have never thought of it that way. Interesting.