Why Do We Get Depressed?
Depression that on many occasions drives the sufferer to the point of feeling suicidal, in my view represents ‘the dark night of the soul’. Having worked my way successfully through this particular part of my personal healing journey of a thousand miles, I am ready to share that which my life has taught me with you here, in the hope that it may be of benefit to some of the readers of my jottings.
It seems to me that depression is the most mysterious and serious condition of all, whose full understanding has evaded our race thus far. It is likely to have plagued some of us ever since our spirits and souls were required to descend deeper and deeper into the experiences of life in physicality. Depression must have been the cause of much of the suffering and pain that to this day appears to be such an inevitable part of Earth life. Although it presently rages in our world and in spite of all efforts and research, conventional medicine and psychiatry continue to fail finding effective treatments that instead of temporary relief bring genuine and lasting healing to the sufferer.
Why should this be so? In my view, we shall get no further in this quest unless we are willing to search into the background of depression and suicide. That takes us into a different direction and onto another wavelength, namely the spiritual aspects of life and the realm of the human psyche. I do not mean this in the sense psychiatry uses this word, but am starting from the premise that first and foremost we are spiritual beings and the most vital and beautiful part of our being is by no means our physical body but our spirit and soul.
Realising that only from time to time they are encased in matter, though not only during one single lifetime but a great many, opens some of the inner doors of understanding that have long been closed to human souls. There then dawns in us the realisation that tucked away in the deepest innermost recesses of every soul must rest the memories of our true home and our – only seemingly – lost oneness with God. As a result, we begin to grasp why for every soul occasionally some of its most ancient hidden soul memories should start to bang every more forcefully against the consciousness of its earthly self.
It is doing so in the hope that its other part is by now ready to look at, deal with and release them, once and for all. Such memories do not come to create even more miseries for us. They are intended to remind us that Earth life is not all there is to our existence; that we also have a soul and that this soul is suffering because we, its earthly counterpart, have lost our inner connection with our Highest or God Self, which they have come to help us re-establish.
The deeper our spirit once moved into the experiences of Earth life and the more our earthly self developed its individuality, the weaker our link with the Source of our being grew. Although the recollection of this state gradually faded into the background of our conscious awareness, it was never lost altogether. The more intensely the small self suffers on the Earth plane, the stronger it feels its soul’s longing and yearning to return to its original state of Heavenly bliss, into the union with the One.
As the Greek philosopher Plato, ca. 428-347 BC once put it: ‘The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body.’ And to ease our way home, the sadness and the suffering of our world need to be alleviated by an ever growing inner awareness that they are an essential part of every soul’s individual growth process. To enable us to move on to new experiences, we have to learn to let go of people, places, situations and their memories. The doors of the past need to be closed before we can fully enter the ones that are waiting to open for us today, but take heart because no experience ever comes our way for nothing. All of them together contribute to the way we handle the events that are before us now.
Every new day that dawns on the earthly plane of our existence the Universe offers all of us countless opportunities for learning and growing in wisdom and understanding. This continues until eventually we have rediscovered our true nature and come home into the full awareness of our oneness with God and all life. Yet, our learning does not stop there. It will forever continue. Each one of us through their own experiences slowly but surely progresses on the pathway of their individual evolution, which is part of the collective consciousness of our whole world. All of us have our own road to walk that is unlike any other. The wisdom we gather from our experiences are ours alone and that’s the only thing we can take with us into Eternity. There is no need to envy anyone what they have gained because for everybody life forever will keep on unfolding. And the Universe sees to it that at any given moment our true needs are met.
Sometimes pain is necessary to help us forward and there is no point in begrudging it, as it may well be that today’s suffering wishes to bring us the progress and pleasure of tomorrow. With joyful hearts let us therefore accept the unfolding of God’s great and perfect plan in our own lives, and rest safely in the knowledge that the ultimate goal of every human soul’s inner being is this return into our true nature and our loving re-union with our Creator, Father/Mother of all life. For this purpose all remnants of the shadows of the past have to be left behind, so that with each passing day the tasks before us can take us one more step closer to this our final destination.
It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,
So don’t be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit, it’s so easy to quit.
It’s the keeping-your chin-up that’s hard.
It’s easy to cry that you’re beaten – and die;
It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight –
Why that’s the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
All broken and battered and scarred,
Just have one more try – it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.
From: ‘The Quitter’ by Robert W. Service
‘Rhymes of a Rolling Stone’
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The above is a chapter from ‘The Spiritual Aspects Of Depression And Suicide’
.If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘The Spiritual Aspects Of Depression And Suicide’
