Depression and Melancholy

[Depression can] ... at least momentarily ... [wipe] out our happiness, and ... [send] us off into fundamental appraisals of our knowledge, our assumptions, and the very purposes of our existence.
(Thomas Moore, Care Of The Soul, p. 143)

Melancholy gives the soul an opportunity to express a side of its nature that is as valid as any other, but is hidden out of our distaste for its darkness and bitterness.
(Thomas Moore, Care Of The Soul, p. 138)
24 July 2015

Difficult People

Difficult people are those who impede action. Their motivations may differ, and our opinions of them may vary, but they stand between us and our ability to make something happen...
(Sandra A. Crowe, Since Strangling Isn't An Option, p. 48)

In dealing with difficult people, I try to remember that everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
(Mayor of Atlanta Bill Cunningham in Since Strangling Isn't An Option, by Sandra A. Crowe, p. 238)

In those for whom alienation from everything and everyone has become a way of life, you will note suffering from depression, anxiety, and even physical deterioration, which often results in institualization or death.
(Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 288)
27 March 2015

On Aging

Southern Comfort Quilters

If age is denied, soul becomes lost in an inappropriate clinging to youth.

It's difficult to let go of youth, because that release requires an acknowledgment of death. I suspect that those of us who opt for eternal youth are setting ourselves up for heavy bouts of depression.

As we age, our ideas formerly light, rambling, and unrelated to each other, become more densely gathered into values and a philosophy giving our lives substance and firmness.
(Thomas Moore, Care Of The Soul, p. 139 & 141)
18 November 2014

It's News To Me

Literally and metaphorically turn off any medium that broadcasts a litany of reasons to be depressed and frightened.
(Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Excuses Begone!, p. 247)

I gave up reading the newspapers a long time ago. Any piece of news I am meant to know, someone will tell me.
(Louise L. Hay, Meditations To Heal Your Life, p. 157)
2 June 2014

Take Two Pills And Call Me In The Morning

There's nothing natural about living a life filled with stress and anxiety, having feelings of despair and depression, and needing pills to tranquilize yourself.
(Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Power Of Intention, p. 188)
(17 November 2013)

Do You Have A Program?

The bottom line is that authoritarians have no room in their internal circuitry for middle positions, for operating in the gray areas where almost all human activity occurs. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 66)

"Rigidity of thought" has many meanings, but for authoritarians it generally implies an unwillingness to entertain any thoughts that conflict with their own preconceived ideas. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 67)

Dissolving your ideas, your habits, and your images is a way to cleanse and purify. All the many assumptions that keep your life fixed break apart as you take time to reflect and have serious talks with friends and maybe a therapist. (Thomas Moore, Dark Nights Of The Soul, p. 62)

One of the reasons for so much contemporary depression and ennui is the inability to see ourselves connected to something greater and more important than our own puny egos. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Power Of Intention, p. 123)

The particular means one uses does not matter, but to have a method, a plan, a specific spiritual program is very helpful. Simply begin with your heart, look deeply into it, and trust what you feel. Practice knowing and you will know. (Hugh Prather, in For The Love Of God, by Shield and Carlson, p. 176)

... smart men make an effort to simplify their lives, streamline logistics, and most especially, to weed out of their datebooks, as much as possible, people who are pains in the neck. (Gail Sheehy, Understanding Men's Passages, p. 163)

You have the right to say, "no" to time-robbing people and situations. (Doreen Virtue, Ph.D., I'd Change My Life If I Had More Time, p. 127)

Refuse to accept negative ideas about what you can't accomplish or what's impossible. Don't even talk to negative people while your dreams are still in the fragile incubation stage! (Doreen Virtue, Ph.D., I'd Change My Life If I Had More Time, p. 28)

I'll follow a daily program of reading which will help me to understand my problems and improve my outlook on life. (after One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 23 January)

3 April 2013

Emotional Problems

Busy people seldom have time for inhibiting emotional problems. ... the essential message here is that being alive in the present is the most powerful antidote to emotional turmoil or depression ever invented, and the ability to live in the present is essentially an attitudinal skill, which has to be cultivated during the course of your everyday life. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 55) 22 March 2013

World Economy

(Melva with her latest quilt)

Currently the economy is bad in many countries, which forces people to work extra hours to make ends meet.  Why does it surprise us to realize that stress, depression, heart problems, and burnout now characterize people in our world? (The Upper Room Disciplines - 2003, 20 July) 5 April 2012

Lessons Learned

Photo: Mr. Dickie - Blackwater Falls, WV

The Great Depression ... taught the country ... the need for thorough financial regulation to curb fraud and excessive leveraging of risk.  Yet the Reagan administration unleashed a process of dismantling that regulation.  (Jeffrey D. Sachs, The Price of Civilization, p. 61)

******

Ask yourself these questions.  

• Did you see it coming?  
• If not, why not?

Mr. Dickie

18 January 2012

Trouble

The real source of his trouble was himself.  (Selwyn Hughes, Every Day Light, Day 234)

When the course of world history depresses you, look at events from heaven's point of view.  (Warren W. Wiersbe, Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary, p. 565)
27 September 2011

The Ripple Effect

Changing your life can affect the lives of people around you and can create a ripple effect that spreads its influence farther and farther. (Harold Kushner, To Life!, p. 297-98)

I cannot do anything about things that haven't happened; I will not let past experiences make me dread the unknown future. (One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 11 July)

When we're depressed, it is often best to simply do something ordinary. (Steve Case, Everything Counts, 17 February)

10 August 2011