Pondering Why When Life’s Not Doing so Well

DEPRESSION and anxiety are not states of being that follow everyone around; for a season or life. Sometimes we are gripped by anxiety for a day or a portion of a day – it breaks through the wall of our consciousness in a hurry and we are overwhelmed and must steady ourselves. Other times it’s the sadness of realisation – we are not as close to our goals as we thought we were, or perhaps it’s a relationship issue.

Some days are just sad days. Other days are fearful days. Others, again, we face stark discouragement. Occasionally we feel numb; nothing; blah.

Enduring such days seems easy at times, but sometimes we really begin to fear life has made a significant turn for the worse. We begin to identify ourselves as the fear, as the discouragement, as the sadness.

A big part of our problem is the lack of perspective. A lack of perspective has gotten us into this, presumably, along with circumstances that are wrought beyond our control.

So, as we find ourselves betwixt and between – neither at home within ourselves nor at home anywhere else – our perspective wanes. It was a waning perspective that got us here, and it is a waning of perspective that keeps us in such a compromised state of being.

But it is just a state of being.

We can move states at any time of our choosing. And proof of this is how we wake up the next day feeling refreshed – or maybe it’s as the next day commences and continues in a more positive vein.

The importance of seeing ourselves as able to transcend the mental, emotional and spiritual problems that hold us is pivotal. Nothing solidifies our identities if we resist such a thing. We are not ‘anxiety’ and nor are we ‘depression’ – these states of mind and heart do not become us.

As we ponder ‘why’ when life’s not doing so well, we can gain a spiritual levity to rise above the sadness, the fear, the discouragement. But if such levity is denial – e.g. humour for escape sake – it only delays progress, prolonging the sense of lack, which also weakens us. So levity must be accompanied by humble honesty – there is no sense in denying what is found to be true.

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Perspective is a gift of acceptance to know the present sadness, fear and discouragement will pass. We are not the sadness. We are not the fear. Nor are we discouragement. These do not become part of our beings unless we allow them to be. Accepting a bad day for what it is – that’s perspective.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.