Life is 10 % what you experience and 90% how you respond to it.
Dorothy Neddermeyer
I am presently coaching (that word sounds so strange here) someone I care about, who is dealing with major depression, to go from a state of very unhealthy inactivity to a state of a healthy activity. We are working on getting one walk and one 20-60 minute yoga session in a day. It is challenging considering that somedays getting from the bed to the shower is a challenge for her. Seems like such a small task for most of us but for those with a mind that is constantly saying "Down! Too tired! Too dark! Too heavy!! Too scary out there! Not worth the effort! Just stay here!" It isn't easy.
Most of us listen to our minds, don't we? We believe everything they tell us. They say "sit"...and we sit. They say "jump"...and we ask, "How high?" They tell us to respond to the world based on what they and their cousin "heart" are saying...and we do. Sigh! How well is that working for us?
We erroneously rely on the mind and heart to guide us, using thoughts and feelings as a metre to point us in the right direction. But do they? In the case of depression, that obviously doesn't work?
The mind is an amazing tool that sincerely wants to help protect this sense of me we built up over the years but how reliable is it when it becomes overidentified with that which is unfolding in front of us or through us. We are not that "me" we built up, are we? We are not the experiences we are having, are we? We are simply the Observer of it all. If this me is identified with depression, assuming it is depressed, then the mind will protect the depression, won't it? The consciousness behind the mind, that which does the observing, will be so focused on the mind's experience of depression, the mind's over identifying with it, it will not see the possibility of healing with movement. We will start saying things like "I am depressed.", rather than "I have depression" or "I am experiencing depression."
One of the things I keep reminding her to do is, "Ignore the mind, or at least don't believe everything it has to say. Sometimes it is going to do its best to convince you that you do not have the ability to get up out of bed. Don't believe it. But when you do believe it, following its advice, it is going to tell you how much of a loser you are for not getting up...Don't believe it then either. The mind may mean well, but it isn't a reliable friend." It is very mixed up.
I also tell my loved one that she is not depression. She is simply watching her sense of "me" deal with depression. Depression is not something we are, it is simply something we have or are experiencing at certain time. The mind tries to convince us otherwise. We know though that it isn't a reliable friend. We do not need to believe it or follow its demands.
Recognizing this truth...that we are not that which the mind tells us we are is a crucial first step in moving ourselves from stuck positions. The second, is detaching bit from the story we are being told. We are not depressed...we are simply observing the mind dealing with a period of depression. The mind, in depression, often resists that which could alleviate some of that pain because it takes effort it is convinced we don't have. The next step then, is to push past tis position. I tell this person, "When you feel the urge to resist a walk, or a yoga session, or some activity that will ease the mind...don't. Don't resist. Push past this resistance temptation and do exactly that which the mind is telling you, you can't do because you are too depressed:
Move the body!
Well it has only been 8 days...but she has put in eight practices and eight walks...and she even had a smile on her face through some of them. I think that is amazing!
All is well
Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( January 8, 2024) Keeping Your Bearings on a Spiritual Path.https://tou.org/talks/
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