Isha Knill - Monday, September 07, 2009
Following on from last weeks blog, the topic I would like to spend a bit of time on today is depression. Depression is something I find to be very interesting and to be honest is a condition I believe to be created totally by 'The Mind'.
Having worked with people with depression, one of the most profound things a client said to me once is that I taught her not to believe her thoughts....she did not realise she had a choice over which thoughts to believe.
Yes.....this is the simple truth about life, we are choosing our thoughts all the time and more importantly choosing which thoughts to believe.
And this is part of mind's insanity that I referred to last week....who in their right mind would consciously, and I use this word very deliberately.....consciously choose thoughts like....
I'm no good, everybody hates me, I hate myself, I'm useless, I can't get anything right, nothing I do works, they are better than me because they have a smart house/car/clothes, I'll be happy when I have a job, I'll be happy when I have more money, I'll be happy when I'm doing what I want to do, I need to succeed to be accepted, people don't like me because I'm different, if you where normal like me you would be okay, if you weren't white, black, yellow, purple, green, blue, gay you would be okay.....I don't have to carry on, you get the picture.
Surely these 'thoughts' can't honestly be conscious?
Has anyone stopped to question these thoughts?
Can you see from the above 'thoughts' that the mind is slightly insane?
Who says I am better than you? Who says you need to be wealthy to be happy? Who says you need 'stuff' in order for your life to better? Who says you are useless? Why hate yourself???
The sad thing about thoughts like these is that they start us on the road to depression and it becomes harder to shake ourselves out of our sadness. Which is why it becomes so important to question our thoughts because when you question your thoughts you stop the mind in it's tracks and 'it' has to become conscious about whatever 'it' is thinking about.
It is the nature of mind to focus on whatever we feed it.....yes.....we have a conscious choice to feed our mind and whenever we use this choice consciously we can start to free ourselves but we need to become conscious of the thoughts we are choosing to believe.
Byron Katie (founder of The Work) who suffered from chronic depression for over a decade has this to say about depression: "I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always"
Life is really very simple, it is the Mind that makes it complicated, combating depression starts in questioning your thoughts.
