Episode 31: Paling The Blues - Tips For Depression

Sadness and loss of drive and direction are normal and even healthy in a balanced life; so long as they arise only now and then, and briefly, then passing on as joys spring up anew. Sometimes such pain may stay longer, due to some great loss; a friend, a lover, a dream. But when the blues is outstaying it's welcome, settling itself in the house of our hearts for weeks, months and years on end . . . it is not healthy and we call it depression. As someone who has endured and overcome depression in my life, I am offering here some practical tips for how to deal with it. We will look at various mental and physical 'hacks' which can be used to get oneself out of the darkness right here and now, as well as lifestyle changes which can reduce the regularity, intensity and duration of bouts of existential gloom, and finally also look at the root of depression, as I see it: psychologically, the traumas we need to learn from in order to release negative emotional baggage; and deeper still, spiritually, to understand the involvement of the 'ego' or false self in the perpetuation of suffering, which is also the doorway into permanent peace – once we learn to live by nature's laws.