The modern day plague

Depression and Anxiety and how the further we are away from our soul and our purpose, the more we suffer.

I’ve worked in the human services & welfare sector going on 10 years now and in that time have seen some true hardships and also some great successes, it really is a bitter sweet environment to spend time in. Issues however that have been there all along and are seemingly on the rise amongst all walks of life in today’s society are depression and anxiety and I liken it to being the modern day plague of we humans.

Depression and anxiety comes in many shapes and forms and affects a large number of individuals during the course of their lifetime in varying ways. I’m not a doctor nor a mental health professional by any stretch and nor do I claim to be and simply write this based on my own experience with the illnesses and my observations with working with and experiencing it myself.

We’re almost conditioned these days into becoming drones, we’re consumers of products we don’t need nor will ever use, we’re bombarded with advertising in many modalities that creep into our sub conscious and manifest into reality and before we know it we’re over worked, over tired and feeling under appreciated and like the walls are caving in. This is not a new concept, this has been going on for many years but humans by nature, I believe, truly must hit the red button every time in order to realise that certain behaviours are not conducive to living a happy and healthy life.

We take out huge loans for houses we are never in, for cars we hardly drive and for holidays that we don’t enjoy for we are too busy uploading our “lives” to Social Media and thinking about all that we must do and pay for when we return to “life” and we seemingly never question this. For this is said to be the “normal” way of living and everyone else seems to be doing it.

Then one day, we start to slow down a bit, it takes us a little bit longer to do what were yesterday, simple tasks. Then maybe we don’t want to go to an event, or catch up with friends we’ve not seen for a long time and perhaps the thought of doing so gives us a bit of a tightness in the chest, or a dry and scratchy throat. So we withdraw. Then our livelihoods are thrown into the balance, we might be missing a few days at work here and there, losing or gaining a bit of weight, not doing the things we used to enjoy anymore because we just don’t have the energy or mental capacity to do so. We know that we don’t feel ok but we ignore it for as long as we can and then one day, it all comes to a head.

We’ve seemingly hit rock bottom. What has happened? Well, I believe that we need to look at these two illnesses that are rising at rapid rates from a simplistic & spiritual point of view. We all have a calling, we all have a path, we have a beginning and an end and of these two events we are very aware. Whilst we may not be entirely sure of what we are supposed to do in between entering and leaving this planet, we should be aware that when we start to feel as if the walls are caving in, that is it time to stop living this superficial existence we are led into believing is necessary and take some time out to reflect on where we are at on the inside.

Imagine for a moment, we have a core, an inner processor if you will and then imagine that our physical body starts out being fully attached to that core. Now imagine that at any point, our physical body becomes detached from this core. Both need each other to exist in harmony but one is drifting and being pulled away from the other. What do you think is going to happen? There is going to be a feeling of disconnection from oneself and that feeling is going to manifest into feelings of sadness and uncertainty, or as we term them, depression and anxiety.

If we are able to have a monitor plugged in to our bodies which showed at any given time where our physical bodies were located in relation to our souls and who we are at the core, how you think that would influence your decisions you make in life? Would your happiness be first and foremost? Would your definition of your happiness change? If you shifted from making decisions from within that made you happy as opposed to looking for external triggers to make you happy, what would that look like for you? Could you do it?

I believe that this gap between the core of human beings, the soul and the physical body to be the modern day plague. Sure, perhaps we cannot quantify, see or measure it but let’s be honest here, we all know it’s there and we all know that we need to do something about it. Depression and anxiety affects people in different ways, so with this there are of course going to be different ways to treat and manage it. The first steps however in addressing any issues are the same;

Recognise something doesn’t feel right
Tell someone
Work on a plan to return to where you feel good again

In feeling and knowing what it feels like to slump into a lull and not be able to quite function as we once did comes a knowing of when others are also showing signs of this. Ensure that you listen to your intuition in these instances and ask others if they are ok. Sure, we have “are you ok?” day and that’s great, but in my opinion, everyday should be an are you ok day. Prevention, as we know is always a better option than cure. We’re not always going to get it right, once again as we know but as long as we keep practicing new ways of being and doing things, we’re going to always be doing our best which is all we can do. I hope this has shed some light on this issue and offers you some peace in knowing that it is going to be ok and that we truly are all in this together.

Thanks for reading

Jamie