Service your Depression

I feel like this past winter I saw and encountered a lot of people who were struggling with depression. It's a challenging beast, and I notice that in the Northwest many people are affected by lack of sun and a lot of rain. Now that we are moving into summer I would like to plant this seed for next winter, and even for now if it is needed. I would like to offer a small yet powerful antidote to your depression, whether it is seasonal affected disorder, situation related, bio-chemical, or something else all together. Get outside of yourself. Take care of someone else who is struggling, volunteer at an organization that helps those in need, listen to your friend, walk a neighbors dog, make a meal for a stranger, save a bug, take care of a plant, surprise someone with an act of service. I realize that depression comes in many different levels, and forms, and I do not claim to know or understand all the answers, and I recognize that for certain levels of depression professional help is needed and necessary... however - I also know that regardless of the severity - making the world a better place through helping others always makes us feel good no matter what the level of depression. And, don't think that you can't include yourself in this circle. Often many of us spend a lot of time lost in and/or thinking about our selves, but how often to we actually nurture and take good honest care of ourselves. Serve our own soul. This is very different. Depression can be self focused and extremely isolating, and not nurturing to the self in the slightest, and not that this is the cause of the pain or depression, but it certainly does not help to breaking the cycle. Get out side of yourself, I promise you will feel better even when it's hard. At times working with kids in prison they would get very depressed, and I would have them make cards for kids who were sick or terminally ill in the hospital. It was amazing to see these cards and how incredibly good it made them feel about themselves and how invested they would become in these other children - true empowerment through compassion. It will service others, it will service your depression, it will service the world. I wish you peace, I wish you happiness. Serve depression with service!

Photo by Navid Baraty from "Ode" a stage song