Thursday, May 4, 2023

here's a thought you won't often hear

I know something about this subject.. 
Anxiety and depression are your friends
Yes, they are.

Anxiety and depression are merely the emotional equivalent of an muscle strain or ankle sprain, they are an indication that something is wrong or has been injured. Maybe you pushed too hard while working/playing or working out, or on a training exercise.  
Maybe you've found yourself in a socially toxic environment that punishes you for your virtues, or maybe you've offended someone and are being rebuked because of it. 
Like physical discomfort, your emotional pain is a warning system to tell you, something is wrong. Either you're doing something the wrong way, or in a place/battle that is past saving and you need to (conceptually/ physically/ emotionally) extract yourself, regroup, recalibrate and figure out a new direction.. or new mission parameters.

And that warning system is a GOOD thing, because in its absence, what would happen? You'd stay in that same toxic relationship or situation or workplace forever. 
What is the alternative? 
Socrates said, "those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods" and it is a state of mind I have aspired to most of my life. I can find contentment in a moment of peace and enlightened pondering. But that is not motivating, it is aspirationally paralyzing. 

You NEED to characterize the problems AS PROBLEMS before you can conceptualize the need for an alternative plan,  because in the absence of a plan, nothing ever changes for the better. 
Lastly the only truly problematic issue of anxiety and depression is that they are states that draw our attention to them (as all problems should) but what has been lost is the recognition that it is simply a sign, a marker of a problem that requires a solution, and we fixated on the problem instead of finding the solution. 

Do not bury or rationalize or medicate away your emotions, they are trying to guide you to a better life! Process what needs to be processed, flush the rest, and seek a path forward.
Seek and you shall find!